Saturday, March 29, 2014

nice day out

A neon orange color accomplished with the tennis ball yellow plus a trans orange top coat:
 I refer to Alain's 24" MTB a lot so here it is again:
 Swaffords Anthills frame
Alain's parky 24:
 I didn't mention it in the post, but that broken Californian frame got a Stout downtube (bigger 1.5" diameter and a properly welded gusset) Better then new, with a pearl gray coat:



 Andrews light 20"




Saturday, March 22, 2014

big 24" wheeler







I ground out some 10mm dropouts to 14mm and actually had just enough room for a peg. The caps are too close when slammed but this could be resolved with a washer (between the peg and dropout).







Wednesday, March 12, 2014

These 22mm Supertherm chainstays are much stiffer than the 19mm ones. The drawbacks are they leave a few mm. less room for cranks and they're a little too short to be used for 26" wheels.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Fastest, most energy efficient bike I've ridden at the park. The 73* HA was perfect for 24" wheels. I suspect it has to do with fork offset and trail but all I can say for sure is that I much prefer it over 74.5*. It feels similar to a 74* HA on the 22" wheels. I don't recommend these Alienation rims for heavy dudes, as they are a bit flexy. I'll probably switch to a Hazard rear rim soon.
 I couldn't wait so I whipped a fork together from some thick tubes I had laying around: 2.15mm thick steerer with a welded on race, 1.125" dia .058" legs butt welded with gussets, and a nut welded in the left side dropout/tube for the peg.
 The peg on the left attached to a separate 14mm hollow axle
 Quick little steel seat post made from old parts

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Still gearing up for Ti frames. Ti requires backpurging throughout the welding process, a huge gas lens and a strict sterilizing procedure. 

Those who make high end Ti frames use an Ultrasonic cleaner to do a thorough sterilizing job, so I'm making space for one of these:

http://www.isonicinc.com/P4890-closed-6x3.jpg

In other news, I'm slowly building a few more bikes for myself. A fat/sandbike and this 24" parkbike:

73 HA, 72 SA
22.3" Top tube
14.25 CS
13.15" BB height with the big 2.4" tires
True Temper Butted top and DT
I chose a pretty slack head angle as the others I'v built/ridden were 74-75 and felt too steep. 



I might put this one up for sale on Pinkbike if the fork parts don't get here soon enough. There was a hiccup getting fork legs bent, so I might be on the look out for a local source. I am also looking into investing in a nice hydraulic tubing bender.