latest bike:zephyr 2!

Have finalized my new design in auto cad, and got it modelled in inventor. A different take on the previous design, as it will have a gear box carried below the TT and in front of the main pivot.

It was fun making all the other bits like the drop outs and the plates from scratch.
Hopefully I can run a stress analysis on these bits through the programme and make sure they are up to the task and export the files and have them machined in a cnc workshop some where.

Anyways here is a jpeg of it......



Catch you soon...

Its been a while eh?!

Well I was just looking at the date on my last post and it was Feb the 8 of this year! Classic! Time flies when your having fun.
Been a lot going on in my world, I have spent the last 8 months studying at CPIT doing a CAD certificate which is fun, learning heaps of cool programme's that will cross over to this stuff in particular. Haven't been doing a lot of riding, last winter was pretty nasty for illness and bugs so have stayed off my bike all winter and have been a lot better for it but its spring now and will be dusting off the bikes soon.
Have been pretty quiet in frame building land as living on a John Key student allowance with 4 people is just hard enough let alone trying to buy new tube sets for the mad ideas that are flowing from my head!
But have just about completed another little project which was one of my practice donor bikes.
It was a 1993 Kona xplosive frame that had been crashed and buckled in two ( i'll post some pics of the original down tube soon). So I was down in the work shop one night having a clean up (that rarely happens) and was wondering what I was going to do with the left over rear tri's, I was holding the HT in one hand and the rear tri in the other and thought why not put it back together, but with newer geometry so it could run a 120-140mm fork and braze on a disc tab?!
I made a call the next day to aircraft logistics and ordered some tubing and set it all out.
This is the result, a new skool kona xplosive with proper geometry for trail riding.
I'll do another post some time soon as there is another project in the wings that is being designed at school as my end of year tech project, more on that and the geometry of this frame later. Ponder this for a bit and see what you think. Rossco.



Looks fairly standard from here


This is where things get a bit wierd


Shot of the head tube junctions


Catch you soon............

Been giving it some testing

Well its been a little while since the last post. I have been out giving the new bike some stick around Chch and the Canterbury foot hills. Its past all the goals I set out to achieve so I'm pretty stoked.



It works really well on square hits, like the rocks and roots we commonly ride on here and I have been cleaning some of the bits that I have not been able to on previous bikes.


It pedals/climbs really well and when you flick the propedal lever open on the shock and head down it hauls. It has a really good "point and shoot" character about it, being a single pivot the brake jack is reasonably evident so if you line things up and let the brakes go it just sucks everything up on the way through.
The first big day out started with a shuttle up to Scotts saddle on the Mt Hutt rd and a techy ride back down the ridge to the doc reserve at the bottom. Then 2 more shuttles riding on the DH tracks that have been built just off the access road inc a 10ft step down in the middle of the top section that we hit up. Was kinda peaky rolling into that on a bike that I have joined together my self! but it passed that small test-sweet. Had a great day out with the boys.

On Waitangi day Daryl, Chris, Bob and myself headed up to Mt Oxford for the day. This is a great day trip.



Daryl, Chris and Bob overtaking some trampers on the way up.


Bob heading up the steepest part of the hike-a-bike section.


Looking out from about half way up - southerly direction.

It has a reasonably brutal 2hr hike-a-bike to the summit 1000m above, and my lack of pyhsical activity was showing and was feeling worked when I reached the top plus it was blowing about 80km/h from the NW so we didn't hang out long.
The Dh on this ride is sick has some nice tech moves scattered through it and a sustained section that has your arms pumped, brakes on the fade and almost reaching for two fingers on the lever! It was super slick in the dry so there was some nice leaf litter drifting going on into some of the off camber corners! Then bamm you hit the wharfdale and on down to coopers creek where the car is parked. Coopers creek is a great little track to finish the ride on - a bit up, a bit down and nice flowing sections.
So i'm pretty happy with the ride so far and it hasn't snapped in two yet which is quite good for the confidence!
Next one, Hmmm dunno may a sweet light weight roadie or bamboo 29'er ??!! Pretty keen to build a jump HT even though I don't really ride trails I'm sure some one will ride it. I'll keep you posted, Rossco.