ZEPHYR CYCLES

2011-08-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

We've been busy, hence the long time between posts..............been moving, earthquaking, skiing etc etc.

So we have moved to Lake Hawea in the southern lakes region of the South Island.

Its a move back home for us and is nice to be back.

Have been shooting some pics though and enjoying the new camera I bought.
Check it out here.

Its a great start into shooting manual and long exposure images.

I've got a flickr site going to view the images in full size, here.

Thanks for comin.......

Weekend wine

2010-09-30T23:18:00.000-07:00

Well here we are again, the weeks are flying by aren't they?! This week the drop is from Euro again, Tillieres, France to be exact. Another purchase from the local Mondo Vino, off their European shelf. Domaine du Colombier, Cabernet Sauvignon, promising nose, interesting start, rather like a flowery french perfume, but then comes the acid and becomes quite unbalanced on the back of the tongue. Finishes pretty quick and flat, with not an unpleasant after taste, also dryness to boot. Not too bad but a fair distance off the Torres that was sampled two weeks ago for the same price.

Weekend wine

2010-09-16T23:45:00.000-07:00

Well here is a stella find, out of Catalonia, Spain. Sangre de Toro, 2007. Beautiful wine, deep plum with some old world mustiness on the nose, has some teeth/bite on the tongue, but lacks the usual acid hit from some of the NZ reds, finishes smooth as you like and leaves you waiting for more. Was nice company to the pasta that went along with it, sun dried tomato, spinach and choritzo. I walked into the local shop Mondo Vino, walked around the specials table and picked this up, $16.99, go find one now. Check torres wines here.
Also of mention is the Rippon, “Emma’s Block”, Mature Vine Pinot Noir, 2008 there was a commentary on the national programme today. I haven't tried it personally but if it is like any of the historical pinots to come out of Rippon it'll be one for the cellar. As described this arternoon- "musty, old dusty potpourri, earthy like an old damp log", Hmmm sounds good. Check it out and order it here.

final design

2010-09-12T02:24:00.000-07:00

Here is the final version, I have the gearbox mounts done and the plates that drive the shock have changed. They use of some 3d machined plates from my balfa (the last ones I have!) that work and have a bigger step down to the shock eyelet than I had originally. I have sanded the foam mold and have some carbon tube and cloth ordered.

version 2

2010-05-13T03:05:00.000-07:00

After talking with Rich today have done some changing around and smoothing around the head tube/tt area, also added a swingarm.

Looks a bit more complete eh? Rossco.

Heres the 3d starter version of the frame below

2010-05-12T03:13:00.000-07:00

Well got motivated last night and got this done. Am pretty stoked, 3d is so good to check clearances etc. And I don't think it looks to bad either.

Let me know what you think, Rossco.

Look what I just bought............

2010-05-10T00:17:00.000-07:00

Well I saw a very sweet deal going on trademe and I just couldn't pass with out hitting the reserve..........$600!! so here it is, i've been talking/wanting one of these for awhile now (much discussion with Miek and Rick on this one!)

It came "as is" so it doesn't have all the desirable bits and pieces that they usually come with like steadys, vertical mill att, 4 jaw etc. And on the bummer front it didn't come with the change gears for thread cutting or even the chuck key?!! But it is in excellent cond no play anywhere and is a good base for a very handy machine. Its gonna be great to use for those jobs that are frustratingly simple if only you had a LATHE!

And the next project......HA I haven't even started the one below yet! But this different, Rich has pretty much convinced me to try carbon, and so I got playing with autocad and came up with this

Its fun making the curves and being free to do what you want and put stuff where you want. It has freed up the repositioning of the gearbox mount from the steel tube version below.

Still got a ways to go on it though.

New Stuff and the completion of the model below

2010-04-21T23:08:00.000-07:00

Well again its been a while since I have posted another message on here, and I've been busy doin stuff, like work dad duties etc. Have had some inspiration of late though, here it is and I'll write some more when I feel like it......... A 5in slack low whipable fs

And the finish of the project from the second half of last year.....Gear box bike with high pivot

latest bike:zephyr 2!

2009-09-23T17:33:00.000-07:00

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?!

2009-08-29T02:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-08T00:42:00.000-08:00

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.

Finally got colour

2008-12-25T01:06:00.000-08:00

Well have finally got my act together and got the final brazing jobs done. I had Rich turn up some rings for the head tube, and I brazed some of the vent holes over that were there from the main pivot tube etc.

It looks pretty crisp and sharp in "refrigerator" white also courtesy of Rich and the boys at Skope, thank you again, it would have been a longer process without his help!
It rides very well and I am quite stoked and surprised, it does what I originally set out to achieve which is sweet, just have to take it to the beech forest for a true kiwi test!
Here it is, i'll get some better pics up soon but thought I would post these now as I have them.

I built it!!!!and rode it!!!!

2008-10-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

Well the time came, my Trek fuel has cracked, and in the weekend I brazed on the guides and stops.Richie came round also and I ran the reamer down the St till the post fitted. So I was standing in the work shop as it ticked over in my head, then in a 2hr strip and build frenzy it was pretty much ready to ride!

The plan for the E type front derailleur didn't work, there was more sticking out the back of the derailleur (the parallelogram parts) than I worked out, so there wasn't enough room for it.
Damn! On to the single ring programme!Which made life pretty easy on the build up as I just bolted up my spare Balfa pulley wheel and put a Black spire tensioner under the BB cup.

Pressed my FSA pig pro that I bought especially for the job, when I thought that I brazed in the HT to high!Damn! So I needed something that had a reasonable amount of stack at the bottom. It also will support the HT being a Dh headset.

It all went together really well with no major alignment/interference isses.
Then I pushed it out the door, got on and rolled down the street. It passed the curb test and the out of the seat climb test, so all is good.
The next day I bought a 28.6mm QR collar for the post, and the next morning I rode it to and from work.
The ride is really good being a high pivot it rides real nice through the rocks here, and maintains alot of momentum through the rough.It climbed really well up Rapaki which is cool.
Only thing is it had the 190mm shock from my fuel in there and I built around the 200mm/2.25" shock so it was very low and slack! I mashed quite a few rocks with my cranks! But it railled round the turns. The rear suspension is very efficient it was "pushing" the bike forward as the fork was pushing backwards strange feeling?! I think theres a little to much air in the fork and I need to valve the shock properly.
So I'm stoked to ride it, I'll give it a few weeks make sure its all good (no more naked flames required!) and then get some color on it.Will keep you posted.Rossco.

Other bits I forgot.......

2008-10-21T01:07:00.000-07:00

Hmmm I am getting ahead of myself here! Before heading to Wanaka I also put some face plates on the tube that connects the BB to the DT, and the end of the TT.
I had to put a little relief on the end of the TT as the swing arm is very close and actually hit at full travel, so now it has a little cut away there for that purpose, here's the bits......
It was funny sealing up that tube as the gases built up and was blowing molten brass back at me!The OSH man would have been stoked to see that in action! I had to drill a little hole in the middle to vent it then fill that over after.

Small lathe job

2008-10-21T00:58:00.001-07:00

We had a small holiday down in Wanaka last week, that gave me a change to catch up with Al and Rick and to use the lathe at Als place, so I made the tube that spaces the linkage plates apart. Turned it down to 12.40mm and then shaped the end at 45 degrees, faced it off to 100.50mm then drilled and tapped it to M8.This was number 2 as I screwed the first one up by tapping it M9 DOH!!was trying to get it done to quick!!Any ways here it is, don't get to excited!!
Its the little alloy part in the middle, pretty exciting!
While I was down I also dropped in on Doug and used his HT facer and reamer to finish the HT up so I could put the PIG Pro in.
It also soaked in a bath for 36hrs to dissolve the residual flux inside the tubing before it does any permanent damage.

Rear tri and finishing stuff.

2008-09-26T19:17:00.000-07:00

I have been busy the last little while, and have been quite excited so I haven't taken many photos, whoops!
So since the last post I have tacked and brazed the rear tri, cut the seat stays to length and brazed them to the drop outs, also fitted the tube between the linkage plate tubes.

Firstly I cut both the seat and chainstay ends on my tube cutter with the angle set to 5 degrees, this took a bit of setting up on the clamp with the dropouts already brazed in, I just "eyeballed" them and they seemed to turn out really well, I had to do alot of cleaning and shaping with the file though.I figured that because they bolt up to the linkage plates, and long as I got the LH and RH sides parallel with each other that I'd be golden, and they were.
.

So for the set up on the chain stays I made up a dummy axle and put it in to the drop outs, checked all the angles were right on the drawing and that they were parallel, and just put the axle in the vice and brazed the tube on, easy.
It was a bit more of a fiddle to get the seat stays set up but once they were set up I just tacked them and then brazed away! I then slotted and finished them with the grinder the same as the first ones.
Had a lot more fun brazing the drop outs into the seat stays this time, amazing what some time and experiance does for your skills!

They cleaned up really well and look pretty sweet. I wasn't sure about them because they were cut for a hard tail mtb and as you can see my seat stays are on a pretty flat angle, but I worked out a nice way to have them attached and brazed them in then cut the tabs that were left sticking out the top off to finish them. It doesn't look to strange, and the finish on the disc side looks clean.

Then I proceeded to braze in the conecting tube between the to linkage plate tubes, I just ran a slip braze around here because I didn't think it needed a fillet.

I had some issues with the plugs that I silver brazed in they didn't really flow very well and I had to do all of them again (1 with brass), I may end up doing all of them in brass or welding, which ever is easier!
I'm going to start another post that will fill in the gaps between photos.

Its got wheels!

2008-09-14T14:26:00.002-07:00

I got really excited last week and brazed up my rear tri, I fiqured out that I didn't need to jig it up, and that if I was careful on the tacking and set up that it be sweet, but more on that later.I will do a post on it later, just wanted to get this up. I am pretty happy with it, what do you think?

(sorry Al, the shock will change to a fox soon!)

Its got wheels

2008-09-14T14:26:00.001-07:00

Viv's disc mount

2008-08-31T17:21:00.000-07:00

I installed a disc brake mount on Viv's Diamond back apex last week heres the results---->

Main pivot and lower shock mount

2008-08-31T15:59:00.000-07:00

Firstly thanks to Rich for turning up the parts for the main pivot/rear tri in his lathe at work, they worked a treat.

Here is the pivot tube that Rich turned down and put the bearing seats into.

These are the plugs that Rich turned down, drilled and threaded, I then silver brazed them in.

And this is where they go, the seat stays and chain stays will attach on to here.

With a little filing I got the hole to the correct size and fit, it was nice and square and came up really well.

Main pivot after filing, sitting square.

Then I mocked up the assembly with the shock and lower shock mount and it all looked sweet.The alinement was within 0.5mm, which is good enough for this first one, it was a little off because of the hole that was bored through the TT for the seat tube being slightly off to one side, but its pretty good with the ST.

Mocked up and looking good.

Looking straightish and squareish!?

I then sanded and cleaned all the areas where the filler was heading, fluxed it and brazed it in position, it was a nice easy join open and square.

These vent holes are going to be filled.

Daryl was hanging out so he took some pics, this one is especially good, the smoke floating around is from the burning bearing seals that I left in the pivot tube!

I love this photo, I played with it in photoshop, I think it looks better in B&W.

During......

I then checked the alinment again (not that I could do much if it was off !), and cleaned up the lower shock mount, fluxed it, and brazed it in to position too.

It was really hard to get the torch into this area and heat the correct parts but got it fiqured out and it came up really well, its also really hard to finish so it will be pretty much "as is" but it looks all good.

Sitting in position, looking sweet as!

On to the next part jigging the rear tri some how, I'm thinking of doing it in wood, I really just need to tack it then will braze it in the stand.I'll keep you posted.Rossco.

Main pivot hole

2008-08-24T22:39:00.000-07:00

Well the front tri is in Richards capable hands for the main pivot hole to be bored.
I needed a mill with a full size table and fixture to mount the triangle to and Rich had his fixture at home plus a machine at work to use.
He sent through some pics of it this arvo, and it looks really good.

Apparently the whole thing is pretty straight, with in 1mm! Sweet.

Also hes facing off the 2 tubes that the chain stays and the seat stays braze onto at 114.20mm. And the main pivot tube itself to the right length (112mm) and boring the bearing seats out to 28mm. I don't have a lathe (yet ;-D ) so I have to get someone who has access to one to do the work for me.
Talking about those two tubes, Rich turned and threaded some little inserts at work for me and I silver brazed them in to the tubes last week they came up good to. Its funny working with silver and not brass, I guess that it got right the way through the joint, it flows pretty good so am pretty confident that it did work.
Now I just have to fiqure away to set the rear triangle up to get it tacked?!Will keep you posted, Rossco.

The rest of the front tri, short of the main pivot.

2008-08-02T17:18:00.000-07:00

I have been really busy this past week and a half.

I did the two cuts on the seat tube brace, and it took quite a bit of fiddling and filing to get the two mitres equal and tight, but got there, drilled the vent holes, sanded and cleaned the joint, fluxed it up and brazed it in place.
Still more filing this joint took a while to get right.

This photos not the best, but you get the idea.Check the next one down.

This was pretty interesting the tubes where pretty thin and I took a lot of care not to flame them up to hard, and the beads came up good (the photos don't do them justice). Although the seat tube itself took a bit of a battering from the heat of the torch and has gone a little banana shaped, will sort that out next time the torch gets lit, I have to straighten it before the reamer goes down, other wise the cutter will go through the tube wall.

Got some motivation going and took the plunge on the downtube, I cut the mitre on the head tube and it took a lot of filing to get it right, square, centered and tight. Then I cut the end of the down tube for the tube joint at the bottom, this took a little bit of work to get lined up, I had the "eyecrometer" out to get this sorted and it came out pretty good, although I cut it a little long so I had some room to move.
I brazed in the tube to the end and cleaned it up, and it came together pretty square.

Next for the gusset, I cut this the same as the first, out of an old tube that I had lying around. Shaped it and squashed it to fit, then fluxed it and tacked it on.
I did it differently this time round because I didn't feel like I had alot of control of the heat on the gusset last time. So I chose to tack the gusset on the tube, then tack and check the junction, then do the tinning pass and fillet and then come back to the thin gusset, with all the residual heat around it wouldn't take much extra heat to draw the brass into the gusset area.
So next I set the frame up flat on its centre lines and put the down tube in and checked it for alinement, sanded the junction, cleaned it, fluxed it, then put some heavy weight on the tubes, started sweating! and lit the torch!
I was worried that as soon as I started heating the joint, that it would pull and move all over the shop but I put two tacks down, top and bottom. I let it cool and checked it with machinists square and it checked out good! Sweet! So I then proceeded to the park stand and brazed the joint, did the top of the joint first, then onto the bottom, then sides and finally the gusset area. This worked better than the first time so was pretty happy.

Next it was time to make the junction for the bb>square>dt. Got it kinda lined up on the drawing and marked it out with an old bit of tube the same diameter as the bb, then broke the angle grinder out with the cut off wheel and "roughed it " to size.After this a lot of filing was done to get them matching nicely.

On to the brazing after spending a lot of time sanding and cleaning the parts, fluxing then brazing.
The square took a lot of heat to get to temp and I was worried about the bb being pulled by this, it fared ok but not the tube that joins the square and the downtube, its pretty oval now!but its all good and i'll live with it.

So now on to the clean up I got excitied with the torch so now there are a lot of joints to finish off, slowly but surely!
Also have figured out where the lower shock mount is and made the mount itself hand filed and cut, it looks good. It will be the last thing to go on when the whole bike is mostly assembled. It took a bit of working out, and I hope that the angle of the shock is not to steep should be nice and plush though!

Now all thats left on this is to bore the main pivot in and braze it square and straight!?
On the drawing and looking really good.

Catch you soon.

Cut the seat post to length.

2008-07-23T00:06:00.000-07:00

I cut my seat tube to length today, also slotted it for the clamp.Nice and tidy.

I cut it with the angle grinder and a 2mm cut off wheel.

I also have some 25mmx25mm square that I cut 2 pieces from, then cut one face off the square on each piece if this makes sense?! ending up with 2 U shaped pieces that I then filed and welded together to form a rectangle.
Its for the extension from the bb shell to the down tube, it will also carry the lower shock mount.I will join it with a cut tube mitred to the end of the down tube and then to the rectangle extension.

Square before.

And after the 2 pieces joined together.

And cleand up rough with the grinder.

And this is where it sits on the bike (a little hand filing to do yet!).

I also cleaned up the mitre on the ht/dt joint, it was pretty rough and misalined so I just have to get the centre lines of the tubes sorted and will get this brazed on.I would like to get the bb/rectangle/tube/dt all working on the drawing first before the torch comes out!Quess I could do the st brace, have to buy 2 more hole saws (28mm- 44mm) before this happens.

TT/seat tube

2008-07-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

Punctured the TT yesterday, it took some time setting the notcher up centred and straight for the cut it was still off some but I cut it with a 25mm cutter and filed the rest to fit.

Cutting in the jig, was hard to set up.

From the top.

Another angle.

As I said it was off to one side when I had finished the cut, I can see now how a lathe or mill would be so much easier to do these cuts, having the x/y movement of the table to adjust things.

But it filed up ok, and I got the angle right! So last night proceeded with the braze which also went well it lined up good on the drawing, a little off at the bottom (1mm) but I really didn't want to file any more out, got a really good feel for the brazing, having 2 fillets back to back, found the heat control quite easy, torch on, torch off, leave the rod in the flame and near the puddle to keep it a consistant temp, also controling the puddle with the torch and making sure the fillet makes it to the root of the joint.

I cleaned up the junction with boiling water as it was a little hard to soak, which works a treat!
I will head down now and clean it up.

Over the drawing after the braze, looking good.

A little off here, though only 1mm or so.

Heres the frame sitting on my home made v blocks on the drawing.

This is my tube cutter it works well but I don't trust that it always cuts square and centered, so I check it regularly with an old bit of tube and a machinists square.For home stuff it seems good, its nicely made, but a lathe would be preferable.

Head tube/TT junction/Gusset

2008-07-20T00:17:00.000-07:00

Well have completed this junction today, but first things first, Squashed the tt from 44.5mm to 35mm with my high tech 4x2 tube press.

I have a new respect for steel now after doing this, I had to squash it to some where around 15-20mm (gap), before the tube came down to 35mm!
Then put it in my tube nocther and cut the mitre, filed and cleaned it up checked the joint for gaps.And basically it took a little time to get them matched nicely but in the end it came up well.

looking tight!

The braze went well, had a little fun with the heat control on the tt/gusset area.The gusset was pretty thin and heated pretty fast compared to the tube below.

First I cleaned everything spotless, then fluxed the joint, baked the flux on with the torch leaving the top of the tt clean for the gusset after, I then tacked the joint on either side of the tt, checked it over the drawing which was all good then I fluxed the gusset and tt tube where it is going to sit and tacked on the gusset, then heated the whole joint and proceeded to do the tinning pass, then on to the fillet.

just after brazing

Something is up with the torch or my regs as the flame changed during the braze and had to set it the flame twice.I think the regs aren't sensitive enough for the torch, will have to set the pressure on the regs again for the next joint.

Anyways just after I had finished I checked on the drawing again and it was bang on so was pretty happy about this, its now soaking will hopefully get to cleaning it up tomorrow, and post some pics.

Hmmm stoked to see it lining up!

BB/Seat tube joint.

2008-07-13T00:55:00.000-07:00

Today, got my bb/seat tube junction done.Was fun and kinda stressful, but cleaned up really well and am very happy with it.

Post braze and soak

Cleaned up and ready for next joint

Got my new hitachi hammer drill in the post a week ago, man its nice, and quick to get the mitres done now.
Had a super brazing session last week, blew through one of those cheap fuller holesaws in about 5 cuts!But have got the bacho ones now which seem better made and cut better also.
So I did about 4-5 joints in quick succession and really got a handle on the technique for building those nice big fillets.
Found a great tip on the frame forum the other day, grind the outside of the holesaw to get rid of the offset teeth that stick outside the diameter of the main body for a cleaner cut, it works really well.
Theres a heap of great info on that site if you need to know what the pro's are doing its all there for everyone to see, really is a great site for trolling info.Have spent alot of time there lately!

Think I need to have more heat in the tinning pass but the fillet turned out really well, still had the internal micro fillet coming up the back side of the joint which was is good to see.
Think I even got it pretty square and straight!!

Hmmm okay gotta head off, but next comes the big tube squash, have to squash the TT from 44.5mm to 35.6 so I can mitre and braze it to the head tube, should be fun!

New frame...........

2008-06-30T03:37:00.000-07:00

I think i'll use this as a bit of a log for the frame building process, if there is any body out there that has been doing as much research as I have, they will come across it some how, its really good when there is some info on projects from beginners it makes the process seem a little less daunting, although this is probably some what of an ambitious project, I will pull it off some how?!

Have very tentatively broken out the files and torch in anger in the weekend, was pretty intimidating but slowly got in to the groove.

So I filed a half round into the backs of the stays, then slotted them with the angle grinder and a 1.0mm cut off wheel.

This had me sweating a little, as I decided to cut the slots at an angle rather than bend the tabs on the drop out themselves, but it went pretty well really. It all lines up on the drawing now, so must have done something right.

Brazed my chain stays up to the nicely machined drop outs supplied by Hank (Henry James). They came up pretty good, although the first one almost turned into a disaster, but pulled it off after much swearing and refluxing(as I heated the joint the dropout fell on the floor!).

I used a little to much brass and once again gravity wasn't on my side, had some sizey blobs on the stay itself. But with twice the experience I had with the first one I brazed the second one, and it went really well, it was much easier to clean up.
Was pretty interesting playing with the heat control, having the drop out 5.0mm thick and a tube of 1.0mm thick, but was good practice.

Second one here is still a little to much brass on there, but was sooo much better than the first one.

Heres the first one, partly cleaned up (still got the flux on, I got excited and trigger happy with the micro belt sander, really wanted to see what it looked like!), but it looks good.
The little sander I got takes quite a lot of material off when your not looking!
Have to remember to go easy when I get to the fillets!

Had them soaked o/night and came back tonight and finished cleaning them properly. They look real good, so am pretty stoked, always wonder how strong this thing will be when I'm boosting that road gap at the snow farm eh?! ;-) Later.......

Ridin the new commuter and stuff

2008-06-20T17:54:00.000-07:00

Well got the final bits in the mail from the states last week, did a quick micro brazing job on the XT v brake arm on the rear.

Some one had snapped off the little pin that the spring retains against in the brake boss, so I filed the face flat, drilled a 2mm hole where the pin used to be, heated it up with the new fangled henrob torch I bought (man its so handy having a welder around!) and dropped a blob of brass on the face and in the hole, finally got the 2mm drill bit that I drilled the hole with, heated up the shank and the brass blob together and dropped that sucker in there and damn it works a charm!

So with the brakes on and sorted, I installed the problem solvers in the cables, and it was all good to go.The brakes feel somewhat "wooden" but you can't expect to much from them, they are plenty strong enough for what I need them for.

Rode it to work that day, man it feels heavier than it is, this is due to the 29er' mtb wheels combined with the conti top contact tyres(470grm), but its nice ride, good to have the 34t mtn cassette on the back tho!The bar end shifters rule!
Feels bit like a truck compared to the Trek but it should the geometry is quite different.Overall I am pretty stoked with it.I said to Miek that this is the last bike that I will spend money on till the next project comes to fruition, how many bikes can you ride at once?!

Next project, Zephyr Mk1, took delivery of the tubing today, its really nice (in a bike nerdy kinda way!), brass rods, flux, drop outs, braze ons, bb shells, head tubes etc.
Am a little nervous brazing this stuff together, have a little more practice to do first, but will be good to use the rods and flux from the states tho, should make quite a difference to the ease of the brazing process.

Hmmm well i'm gonna retreat to the man cave and check this tubing out and draw the rest of my drawing now I have the drop outs and seat/chain stays, and do some bog work to the other project a 1965 VW beetle, more on that later, heres a pic of the "table" and stuff, later.

2008-06-15T02:58:00.000-07:00

Have the travel agents coming from the states, plus a broken xt v brake!?that I have to fix.

Built some wheels in the weekend, turns out they are LX mtn hubs, Wheelsmith straight gauge spokes, laced to WTB dual duty XC 700c rims (not light or welded, but built up pretty good)and the only ones I could get.

So I put the drive on and tuned it up, man those bar end shifters are sick!Nice and clunky on the shift, none of this fairy sti stuff!

Bought some hole saws for the tube notcher that came from the states via Blue shark (thanks Al), can't wait to spark it up, just need a drill to drive it now.

Also got some conti top contact 700x32 coming tomorrow, they sound good couldn't get the right combo in the schwalbe and have had nothing but good from the GP4000's on my Trek, so think i'm on the right track.

2008-06-10T02:36:00.000-07:00

Heres the pic of the drawing, kinda finalized, got a few things to change "on the day" but essentially it will say the same.

Hello WWW

2008-06-10T01:32:00.000-07:00

Yo, with some inspiration from Rick/Redwood Rev, i'm here, not sure how this going to start or end for that matter, but is kinda cool.
Also hope theres enough time in the schedule for this!
Hopefully get some nice pics that have been collecting in the computer for ages and post them on here for the peeps to see, and will be a little ol' log of the multitude of projects going on in the man cave(Nevadas affectionate name for my garage!).

Well hello WWW, kinda strange being out there for all to see eh?!Oh well I'll get over my shy kiwi nature and get to it.

Have kinda "acquired" a Surly cross check last week, and started putting it together with some bits I have had lying around here for some time waiting for a project similar this, I had hopes to build a 29er frame for myself but thats been shelfed for the moment while the new addition to the family keeps the disposable income down for a while, but will do at it some stage.

So the current spec of the x check will be-

+ 58cm x check frame and fork
+Bontrager Select bar/stem/carbon seat post combo-donated from my trek 1400
+Exage (very nearly New)brake levers-$30 trade me
+9spd ultegra (I think)bar end shifters-$30 trade me
+Cane creek sealed headset-from EX8(it got my well used Chris King)
+105 long cage derailleur
+Tiagra frt derailleur
+Wipperman 9spd chain
+Sram PG-990 cassette 11-34t(got steep hills and heavy wheels-go figure)
+Fsa gossamer 175mm cranks-bike shop "upgrade special"
+Xt V brakes with tavel agents-trade me/ebay $30
+LX 32H MTB hubs with center lock splines-these wheels will double as a 29 disc set also at some stage
+Rims Hmmm not, sure tried to get Salsa delgado x but Dave at cycle supplies only had one.So will keep you posted on this.
+tyres, thinking Conti top contact or schwalbe marathons of some description
Am thinking of running mud guards/fenders, but to be honest not sure how much rain riding i'll do its much nicer to sit on a bus in the pissing rain!
Can't wait to ride the thing, am quite excited to ride a nice(ish) steel frame, after doing so much research out there on cro-mo bikes it should be interesting, which brings me to my next topic.

I have officially started the Zephyr Mk 1 (hahaha to all those old bogans out there, you know who you are!), have been slowly but surely building up tools, benches, welders, etc to create my next monster, its kinda like a Balfa BB7 but build around the 6 inch trail bike platform that we all seem to be riding these days, so it will have a Fox 36R on the front with some where between 160 and 195mm rear wheel travel.
Just ordered the tubing today from Henry James (was pretty stoked bout this), He was a classic old dude!He even suggested I dissolve the flux with, quote "some of that mountain spring water you folks have up there or perhaps some sheep urine"!!
Was good to spend some time on the phone with him, he knows loads and is qualified too.
Got some other bits for Rich as well, a mention to him to, Rich was the original source of inspiration for this project, and is also a really good man to hang out with, so thanks buddy.
Will get some pics up soon, once I know how to!