Hack bike

[Dr Dremel]

-snip- When it’s wet they accelerate when the brakes are applied. -snip-

This made me chuckle. Funny, but true!

 

[Woz]

Yeah. I started to shudder already looking at the join in the rim.

 

[Nabeaquam]

Yeah. I started to shudder already looking at the join in the rim.

Yeah, it got so much better when they figured out that machining a brake surface was the way to go.

 

[Nabeaquam]

Im almost finished with half of the seat sandwich. The sandwich let’s you mount a double rail seat like my B72 Brooks onto a semi modern single bolt seat post. From now on there will be quite a bit of careful filing and fitting. It’s +4C out so I can finally work barehanded. It’s made from an old bed frame that my neighbor tossed out.


The other half that I’ve yet to build goes on top and upside down on the existing half sandwich. I’ll have to weld in spacers as the distance between the double seat rails is 1/2 inch. Last time I made one of these I used a piece of thick steel so I could make both sides on the same piece of steel. I don’t have anymore thick scrap. I also have to weld in the inner rail guides once fitting is done. A lot of fiddling around to save $50. I’ll need to source a much longer bolt.

 

[Nabeaquam]

The second brace.

 

[Nabeaquam]

I hacked out the rear facing ends out of a 20 inch big box kids bike. This will be how it goes but it will be a long time until that’s fitted. Cardboard templates, grinding and filing. I also have to make a jig. It‘s too cold to get out my homemade sand blaster. I have to blast all my welded areas. The homemade blaster only works on small tight areas. I usually just torch the rest of the paint off after all the welding is finished.

 

[Nabeaquam]

I used my arc welder and flux covered brazing rods made for arc welding to attempt a filet joint. It’s pretty bad as the brazing doesn’t flow because the tubes aren’t that hot. The arc formed a brass puddle, which has to be filed smooth. This is as far as I got today.

 

[Nabeaquam]

I plan to work on the frame again once the so far five day blizzard is over. It could be over sometime tomorrow. We’ve been having bands of lake effect snow coming off Lake Superior. Snow, no snow, freezing rain, rain, snow. As long as it stays below freezing at night and the winds come over the Lake out of the north this will continue. We could have 6 more weeks of §#/++¥ weather as the wind is mostly from the north year round. I want to finish the brazing before I do a test beat assembly. Then it comes apart for blasting and finish. It’s hard to work on the frame without access to my work benches, which are outside and snow bound. I’ve been backing my truck into the shop and using the tailgate for a work station. That’s not great as I can’t clamp anything to it so stuff keeps crashing off it or has to be fished out from the space between the bumper and the tailgate.

 

[DrGooGoo]

Looking forward!
Great thread!

 

[Nabeaquam]

I got the homemade seat sandwich installed. It’s not that easy to make them, if it’s off a little and the rails don’t fit evenly the seat will have one side higher than the other. If the grooves for the top and bottom rail guides in the sandwich aren’t fabricated parallel to the rails the seat post nose won’t be in line with the bicycle frame when the seat is aligned to the frame. It takes a lot of removing and filing and re doing that to get it right. I can only do hand machining as I have no real machine tools. It’s a good thing I’m retired and that the weather is too horrible to do anything else but indoor hobbies. It got nice this evening but there is another winter storm warning for tomorrow.