Trans copper coats and 31.8 bars tomorrow.

Ran out of clear so the 22" is week out still.

 Those exposed holes on my bars are the source of the mystery whistling that I misdiagnosed as a rubbing brake rotor.

Quick jump in a creek at lunch time and this big Delhi (1200-3300 BP) was right there waiting for me. Creek walking is an effective stress reliever.

DH/AM bike Weight

BikeRadar did an interesting test on how front triangle weight affects how a long travel bike's suspension performs. The gist was that a heavier front triangle reduces rider fatigue in DH applications.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myFJTO8mdtw

650

We went with two coats of normal clear. The dropouts seemed to be toleranced for one thin coat or no coats of powder (Paragon also makes these in Ti and Stainless). It seems like the ferrous steel ones should have been designed with a little more wiggle room for coatings. The driveside needed some work to get the hanger/nut to fit and the hole needed to be reamed out completely and painted. I think I'd recommend the stainless next time as it would solve these issues.

Waiting on some 40% clear

That is a little stainless port for the internally cable routed dropper.

Vic's 26

Bill's 24ork went out today

 Harbor Freight FTW. I've been resharpening drill bits and using worn out grinding discs for too long

A few guides left until its time for graphics and a melted plastic coating.

Forward Geometry?

65 Head angle. 64* with a 160mm fork... still not as slack as others have made apparently. Ryan has made this easy and specified this thing down to the millimeter.

 The ThermlX tubing is more expensive, has slightly less impressive tensile strength numbers than Supertherm but does weld much better than Supertherm: About 4-5 years ago, the Supertherm tubes became more difficult to weld (inexplicably). I've had to do a technique of pushing the filler at the coped tube to prevent overheating and prevent a little notch that wants to develop. The ThermlX that I used here is thinner than the Supertherm but it welded just like 4130, with a big puddle (no funky heat control techniques required)

 It'll need thin seat stays to hit the sub 6 lbs mark. It is currently 4.8 lbs and would still need the stays, a brake tab, gusset(s?) housing mounts, an ISCG mount, ketchup dispenser and the cigarette holder. I'll probably drill out and whittle down the stock ISCG mount

Vic's frame and Bill's fork are ready for a calm day to powdercoat. 

 Bill's fork needs dropouts. They're oldschool dropouts so I'll be turning cutting discs into a fine breathable powder tomorrow.

Vic's frame should be close to done tomorrow night

 The 22" forks are good to go

Thomas's bike feels perfect other than the brake cable that needs to find it's stretched point. I bought Renthal grips for the bike but, for the second time, they were much thinner and shorter than they appeared. So it has some of my old lock-ons. I would have gone for the Fly Ruben grips but they are less ubiquitous than they used to be.

My 26BMX thing has turned out to be a winner. Being further up over the frame makes it want to whip around. The lower BB height (20mm drop) and slack 72 head angle makes it as stable as a normal DJ 26" MTB. The only downside is the lack of security that suspension would provide (while overshooting or casing a jump).