Hand Made Bicycle Building

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 23:21:00 +0000

Starting a winter bike, or should we call it an "All Roads?" Winter bike sounds better to me - less pretentious.

The BB only has sockets for the chainstays, sort of a mongrel design, but nice because its insensitive to angles between DT, ST and chainstays.

Filing malleable metals is sort of fun. Everything doesn't come off as chips.

This may look like a 3D picture where you're seeing the outside of the near wall and the inside of the far wall, but mostly you're just seeing the near wall.

Filing has pushed the edge back, leaving a thin layer of metal still connected to the tube.

Here the deburring tool has started to carve that edge off.

Carving the down tube has a similar ledge.

A lugged BB is used to scribe a like for the cope. Because this represents the inside of the shell, its actually too tight of a curve.

You can see the gap here. A sanding drum helps make the adjustment quickly.

Soon it looks like this - tight and tidy.

The seat tube, BTW, is old Columbus SLX. SLX used spiral reinforceing ribs at the butts to add strength with minimal weight. This is commonly called rifling.

I don't recall having ever seen a clear pictures of this. The Internet now has at least one clear picture now of SLX rifling. Note, as the seat tube, this only has the rifling at the bottom.

Water bottle and front derailleur mounts are installed prior to installing the tube.

A hole for the alignment pin on the front derailleur mount.

Note the pin.

Fluxed

Brazed

Ready to go

Filet braze between ST and BB

After filing and a little clean-up sanding with a small drum on a Dremal tool.

The lugs are supposed to be from the old Match factory. They're nice, and come in differing angles. This is the first time I'm using them, unfortunately, I only have 3 sets.

Finally, I'm slowly customizing my jig. Here is a wing nut replacing an Allen style cap screw. No longer do I have to find the Allen wrench prior to adjusting. This is on the backside of the ST support arm. It's so much quicker to mount/remove the ST now. A couple more wing nuts will be substituted at other locations.

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 01:52:00 +0000

Here are a couple of pix of brazes on the chain stays:

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 01:45:00 +0000

More cleanup prior to assembling the rear triangle.

The lugs are mostly filed,the remaining dreck is gone from tubes.

The front triangle was placed back in the jig, and fell right into place - it looks like everything went together evenly.

The head tube and seat tube are cut to length and rough filed (not faced).

Started to fit chain stays.

It's beginning to look like a bike.

For the curious, at this point, the front triangle is 1.25 KG.

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 03:11:00 +0000

Pictures from 2 sessions. Brazing and Filing, as follows.

Front end pinned and starting to flux it up.

Camera in one hand, torch in the other.

Despite bending the BB to tighten the ST/DT angle, when I started to reassemble the frame, the seat tube wanted to pull back.

A little heat on the front pulls it a bit forward and eliminates the tension.

Here's the seat lug pinned and fluxed.

The seat cluster was only pinned on one side, so I gave it a tack. And spilled some filler.

The jigs centering cones get in the way of pinning the bottom lug edge, so a tack there as well.

Here the seat lug has been brazed, soaked, wire brushed, and is beginning to be filed. Al little excess filler was drawn through both ports. In general, however, the shore lines are nice and crisp - shouldn't be hard to clean up.

And here's the upper head lug at a similar point in the process.

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 23:46:00 +0000

Back at it on a Sunday afternoon. No quite as many pictures this time, as you'll see.

Got the BB mounted to the ST, and put the pulley mount on the ST.

In this pic, you can see that I pulled a bit too much brass through the drive side. But, that's better than not getting complete fill.

Then it was on to the fork. Start by sanding surfaces clean before brazing:

Here is the steerer after prep

And the crown is now brazed to the steerer. The crown has a ledge on the bottom that the steerer butts up to. I cut a pair of openings in the ledge to make it easier to feed the filler wire.

This is my first fork with separate reinforcing tangs.
There is a pocket in the crown that allows the reinforcer to slide in next to the fork blade.

You can see the pockets here.

Here the reinforcers are in place.

Apart from more fiddly fitting, there's the question of how best to approach brazing.

There are three (or more) different weights of metal in play. The reinforcers are quite thin. The fork blades are medium weight, and the crown is quite thick. Moreover, the crown has some delicate curlicues, the points of which are sharp and sensitive to heat.

This picture better shows how a vise holds the jig while brazing.

It's just waiting for the torch and filler.

Here its been soaked, and I've begun cleaning it up.

I'm reasonably satisfied with how it came out. The next one will be better.

That was it for metal work today. However, it was time to make a repair on my alignment table. The handles of the nut (giant), that holds the BB in place, are made of what appears to be Bakelite, or something similar. On two occasions, this has got away from me just as it reached the end of the threads, and fell on the floor. The whole piece weighs several pounds, enough to break a handle when it falls. Of course, each time, it landed on a different handle.

After each incident, I've epoxied the pieces back together, and they've seemed to hold. However, I wanted a stronger solution. Today I sleeved the handles with knit CF tubes, I'll probably put another layer on in the future. Right now, the epoxy is curing under a wrap of electrical tape (sticky side out). Holes in the tape allow excess epoxy to squeeze out as you see above.

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 03:20:00 +0000

Got a few things done before work today, so you get some pictures.

After taking the front triangle out of the jig, I checked the alignment as pinned.

Everything was within a mm or less. Next the top tube came off:

The tubes need to be marked where fittings will be added. In this case, not to many bits. A pair of triple cable stops on the top tube, and a derailleur hanger, pulley mount, and cable stop on the seat tube. The plan is for the top tube to look like the below.

And here it is after a quick soak:

The filler is Fred Parr's Fillet Pro from Cycle Design, and the flux was Stainless Light. This gives good flow underneath and a nice little fillet around the edge.

The front derailleur hanger is from Richard Sachs. His have a nice touch, an alignment nub which locates the hanger during brazing without any clamps or other holders. You can see the nub below:

After drilling a hole in the proper location, the hanger will happily sit on the seat tube all by itself.

After some filler and a soak:

The following pix are out of sequence, the front triangle is still pinned together. They show places where the lugs aren't fully conforming to the tubing, and need to be brought into line.

See the gap?

And below?

And that's it, what I did this morning before going to work.

More soon.

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 00:44:00 +0000

I recently made the move to an iPhone based on a 1/2 price sale. The biggest driver was the camera, and now I have a convenient way to document building activities. Hopefully posts will now be more frequent.

I'm working on a cross bike at the moment. The lugs are Newvex, meaning that they're probably silly ornate for cross bike. Still, it'll look nice.

All the curlicues require clean brazing. They can't be cleaned up later.

From there, its on to fitting the DT to the BB. Start by fitting on jig, and setting up pins. Then I can take it off the jig, and registering the tube to the BB with the pins, scribe lines off the BB.

That's blue layout dye on the tube, but sometimes a black marker works just as well for a scribing medium.

Originally, I planned to use Reynolds 631 but the tube was too short. That surprised me as the frame isn't that big at 57cm, but I grabbed a True Temper Versus tube and problem solved.

You can see the scribed line below. Look closely and you'll see one of the holes for the pins.

For this joint, I trimmed with a hacksaw before breaking out the files.

Sometimes trimming first is faster. Depending on shapes, the hacksaw might be replaced by a rotary tool with a cutoff disk.

OccasionallyI'll use a sanding drum on a bench-top drill press, although generally this is only something I do with carbon tubes.

Here's the trimmed tube:

Now comes my favorite tool: a Grobet USA 14" bastard cut half-round file.

This is a file that fears no tube (although some take longer to due to being hardened).

For today, its short work, followed by a little finishing with a 12" 2nd cut and an 8" bastard cut.

Here is a tube, coped to the scribed line. That, however, isn't quite what we need. Scribing often involves positions and angles that don't allow the scribe to get right into where we want it.

Now it's time for a test fit, and to determine what needs to be cut back.

The first image was too dark, even using the fancy phone.

Here's a try using an LED bike headlight. It's better, but probably doesn't show you what I saw, so lets try another angle.

Below you can see that the bottom side of the tube is a bit long.

Small matter, just a few more strokes of the file before its done. Note in the picture, the BB is again pinned to the tube to ensure proper registration.

So at this point, it was time to trial the seat tube. The angle between it and the DT, as cast into the BB, was a bit off. I could force things together, but don't like to build that kind of stress into a frame.

It's time to adjust the BB. The BB is a pretty heft casting, it's not really going to adjust very much. Primarily, the ends of the sockets will move, and the inner socket will then allow some movement by the tubes, so all will be well.

Doing this requires some big heavy bars (I think mine came from Omar at Oasis Cycles).

This pic should offer a sense of the scale of the bars. They're solid, with copes built-into the ends so that they can fit together inside the BB or a lug.

Prop one against the floor, and find a 200 pound weight to hang off the other, and shortly the adjustment is complete.

Often, though, adjustments are necessary to maintain a tight fit of the the socket around the tube. Spare the hammer and spoil the BB. It's what I say.

Mounting things into the jig now shows that everything fits together without springing any of the tubes.

And after removing from the jig, we can look at how the seat tube and down tube come together in the BB.

Mind, the seat tube hasn't been fitted for anything but its angle (which is steep on this frame).

The cope on the bottom will come next, but for now, the square end makes is easier to see how well the tubes fit together. And they look fine.

The next pic is fun because its hard to see what's going on. Well, that's what I think.

All of the lugs suffer from oval openings. In part, this has been corrected by squeezing the longer diameter to make the holes rounder.

This doesn't always work. For example, the seat cluster is a fairly rigid casting, with the TT socket and seat bolt ears providing a bit of triangulation around the seat tube socket.

These accouterments also make it impossible to find purchase in the vise for the required squeeze.

At these times one just has to file away metal to achieve the necessary round bore. Although it occurs to me now that an adjustable reamer might be worth a try in the future.

To file the backside of the ST bore, the lug was laid on its back, on top of the vise jaws, with the seat bolt ears firmly clamped in place.

But, I'm no good at filing up side down, making it difficult to file the front side of the bore.

Luckily, those rigid seat bolt ears can also be used to secure the lug under the vise jaws. And yes, I could put my weight behind the file while opening up the front of the bore.

Apart from opening bores on all the lugs, I drilled the vent holes in the head tube. For those not familiar, a hole is placed behind the lug that provides an open path from the head tube into the down and top tubes.

This helps the flux removal soak be more effective, and ensures air circulation for the life of the frame, that limits condensation and thus limit internal rust.

The holes are drilled using progressively larger drills until the required diameter is reached.

In this case the required diameter is 1/2", because that's my largest bit.

Below is a finished hole.

Some of you may recognize the tubing clamp as being from a Park stand. I use a table mount Park bike stand as a quick clamp for tubing.

A lot of drilling, sawing and filing occurs here. It's much quicker than tubing blocks, albeit not quite as secure.

When brute strength is employed, I generally revert to tubing blocks and a heavy bench vise.

By the end of the day the front triangle is test fit together with all joints coped and lugs in place.

The top tube lugs still need more pin holes set, and the vent hole in the ST is yet to be drilled. However it feels like a productive five hours.

With this done, I'll focus on cable stops and the front derailleur hanger.

At that point, I can start brazing up the front triangle.

Meanwhile, you can see that work has started on fitting the chain stays.

Stay tuned.

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Sat, 26 Oct 2013 03:51:00 +0000

Yesterday we covered the Light and Motion vis 180 rear (red) light. To summarize, I like it but don't take it out in the rain.

Today, we'll cover the Cygolite Hot Shot. Its described as a 2 watt LED tail light. That doesn't really mean anything to most riders, because there isn't a standard rating for the brightness of bike lights. And, wattage can be an especially fickle predictor, because of the question of the efficiency with which a bulb converts watts to light. But, lets not hold this against the Hot Shot.

Independent tests have claimed the Hot Shot is the brightest tail light outside of a De Notte (which are known for their effectiveness in bright Los Angeles sunshine). So that's a plus. These same reviewers suggest that the vis 180 has a broader spread of light, and perhaps offering better visibility/safety as a result.

Naturally, which light is better depends on what one is trying to accomplish. Cruising Ventura Blvd at noon, the side view of the vis 180 isn't going to be of much use. But the rear view of the Hot Shot may be.

The Hot Shot is inexpensive, running half or less the cost of the vis 180. Given my foregoing comments, why isn't it my favorite tail light? Well, how should I say this.... It's cheap.

While the vis 180 case is well sealed, the Cygolite appears sealed. What's the difference? Seams that look like they could be easily damaged and caused to leak. A large, loosely fit plug cover, that crosses joints in the case. No inner seal, or protection, behind the plug cover, and so forth.

It should be noted that the circuit board looks well made. And there are clever aspects to the design. But overall, it doesn't have a particularly solid feeling. It just feels cheap. And while it may work better than it feels, I haven't really been able to determine that yet.

To me, a common warning sign of a crummy product, is missing or minimal instructions. None came with the Cygolite, and virtually none exist on their website. The website shows how to change the battery, which is how I know how to open the light, and why I know what the circuit board looks like. This also suggests to me that their battery may not be very dependable. However, that's just speculation at this point.

On the other hand, operations of the switch, and mounting options for the light, are subjects where Cygolite prefers to keep its customers in the dark. I find this curious. The packaging has plenty of space, and plenty of printing, so its not a matter of saving money. It could all be high-lighted on the package for no additional cost.

And, yes, I can experiment and figure out the switch - which is what I did. But with all the various options on modern lights, consumers deserve a quick description of the options and their operation.

For example, I plugged the light in to charge, and it lit up. I couldn't find a switch setting to turn it off. There was a setting with low power, but it was unclear if that was a lighting mode, or an indicator of charging. And, speaking of charging, how long does it take? And, can the light be safely left on the charger once its full powered? Nothing in the package or on their website explains any of this.

FYI, the low power setting is the indication that the Hot Shot is plugged into a USB charger or port. The other questions remain just that: questions.

And then there are the mounts. Several reviewers have complimented Cygolight for offering both seat post/tube mounts and chain/seat stay mounts. At least one also gave it a top rating, in part, because of this flexibility. Frankly, I wonder if these reviewers ever used the light on a bike, rather than just in a test apparatus. Or maybe I didn't understand what they meant by flexibility.

I wanted to use the stay mounting. That way I can combine it with my vis 180 (on the seat tube), for maximum visibility. I've mounted many many things to my bikes over the last 50 years. Often without referring to instructions. But this simple mount nearly stumped me. At first there seemed to be no way to mount it on a stay, and expose the light backwards. It would face down, or sideways, or even sort of forward, but not back. Hmmm.....

Then I discovered that there was an additional knuckle hidden in the mount, immediately behind the slot into which the light is clipped. This allows the light to point in the right direction. Its a bit hard to see, unless you methodically go about looking for just such a solution, but OK. It just seems to me, that this is an example where instructions are warranted.

At first I wasn't sure this knuckle was really intended to rotate enough to work. Its just a friction fit, and it wasn't clear if it was meant to turn, or just poorly constructed. After all, it has a pretty tight fit at the beginning. But a little twisting of the joint causes it to loosen up considerably. And, mind you, there is no mechanism to adjust the fit. The next question in my mind was: will this fall apart in use? But a little tugging convinced me to give it a try. I should also note that it felt tighter at 0, 90, 180, and 270 degrees, than the intermediate positions.

So, I wrapped the stay with a rubber strip, put the clamp around it and tightened same down to hold the light in place, while supporting the mount vertically. With the knuckle twisted the light faces backwards, and it lights up. It's bright!!!! yea.

Note to self: the screw holding the clamp to the stay is over long (another sign of cheapness - parts picked for price not fit). On a stay thick enough to require a screw of this length, the ends of the clamp would be too far apart for screw to align with the nut and therefore the excess length is useless.

But what concerns me is close to an inch of threaded rod pointed towards the wheel. This feels like a loaded trap, waiting to spring during a wheel change. I'd hate to catch a spoke on it, or even scrape a finger or hand against it during a change. But, the light didn't cost much, and its bright. So let's get over this.

My first ride with the light was 20 miles. Usually, when I'm well lit, cars show me some respect, but I wasn't feeling it with the Cygolite. Must be a bad day. Then I get off the bike, and the light is pointing down at the ground. Both the friction knuckle and the clamp knuckle have slipped. One I understand, but I thought that the clamp was well secured.

Next ride, I tighten clamp firmly onto the stay, and consequently secure its knuckle. Then I wrap the friction knuckle with electrical tape, in an effort to keep it from spinning. This time I ride 25 miles. When I get off the bike, I see that the light is once again facing towards the ground. My tape worked (but requires removal and reapplication when I want to charge the light). However, that long screw holding the clamp has a loose fit in its nut and works loose during the ride. This allows the lower knuckle to flop and gravity does the rest.

Can I make the Cygolite work? Yes. Is it bright? Yes. Should it come with instructions? Yes. Are the mounts worth a damn? No!

I don't feel cheated out of my $37 delivered. Just disappointed because I've had other cheaper lights that were better designed and presented. Being of a prior generation, they weren't as bright. And I'd rather have bright and kludge a mount, than a great mount and have to kludge brightness. But, for the price, I think they could have included instructions and made a better mount. Giving Cygolite a passing score for this light would only encourage them to continue with sub-standard efforts. The technology seems fine, lets bring the packaging up to the same standard, shall we?

To summarize the Cygolite Hot Shot: It's bright, but buyers must be willing to tinker and experiment in order for it work effectively.

I've been riding some Chinese carbon fiber wheels (wait, aren't all carbon fiber wheels from China?). And that may well be my next subject for review. Under $700 and 1150 grams, how does that work?

BTW, Light and Motion is sending me the correct replacement part for my vis 180, now I just have to convince them to provide me with the necessary instructions for install it. Once replaced, I hope to try some modification to the old piece, which should make it work better in the rain. I'll keep you posted.

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 01:38:00 +0000

Time for a couple of product updates.

I've been doing twilight to night rides over the summer. With the shorter days of fall, more rides have been in low light conditions, And too often, even on bright sunny days, drivers do stupid things.

For example, I was standing in a median, with my bike, as part of crossing a road. A late model Suburban, with a high-strung driver, decided she wanted to use the median as a left turn lane, and came barrelling at me. There wasn't anywhere for me to go, so I stared her in the eyes, and held up my arm to wave. My hand literally pushed her side mirror closed as she passed, with two wheels in the median. She had to hear the impact, but she didn't stop to see what happened. All in bright daylight. I could hardly believe what I saw.

All of the above has made bike-lighting more important to me. I now have a Niterider Lumina 650 and a 700 (I'm not sure that there's really any difference between these models), and they've been good at lighting up the road (1 at a time). I use these at the second (1/2?) power setting, both to avoid blinding drivers and to make sure the battery lasts the full ride. And so far, they've been great. Plenty of light and coverage for my needs.

A couple of lights (beyond the typical blinker) have been tried on the back. Somehow, this end of the bike seems to be more difficult for lighting manufacturers, so we'll give them a little more depth examination.

My favorite tail light is a Light and Motion vis 180. It's bright and visible. On overcast days, its bright enough to be seen during the day. Its rechargable via USB port - convenient and green. I like the mount which is fixed with a larger rubber band. Some reviewers and commentators have expressed concern about this band. Frankly, I don't think its more subject to wear and breakage than any of the other methods used to attach a rear light to a bike.

The mount only works on a seat post or seat tube, which is too bad. But it adapts to any profile or size you can imagine. So, if you have a traditional shaped frame (level top tube, with high-mounted seat stays), and a seat bag, you may not be able to fit the vis 180 on your bike. But for the rest of us, its an effective solution. It appears that an (optional?) seat stay mount could easily be developed, but so far Light and Motion has chosen not to do so. More's the pity.

L and M claim an IP67 rating for limiting water and dust intrusion. I believe it, because I can't figure out how I'd open up the case, if I wanted to. Everything about the light, and its mount, is clearly designed, for this light, and its use on a seat post/tube. Its a tight, high-quality design.

So, we have a very bright and high quality light. Add to that, it seems to spread the light out nicely (think of the 180 in its name). In fact, at night, the light makes the backs of my legs glow red - its that bright - which should make me that much more visible on the road.

Its important to note that the light needs to be positioned vertically to direct its light where drivers can see it. In order to provide for different seat tube angles, there is a hinged frame on the outside of the light, whose position is manged by a sort of ratchet. This provides a range of positioning, while securely holding the light in the chosen position.

To remove the light from its mount (while leaving the mount on the bike), its necessary to completely collapse the ratcheted frame towards the light. When its open, the light is locked to the mount so that it can't fall off. All of this seems like the advanced design, that one pays for, with Light and Motion products. And most of the time it is.

But, there's a fly in the ointment if you ride in the rain. At least there was for me. Some road grime got into the ratchet mechanism, and then the release button wouldn't work. Without releasing the ratchet, the frame can't be closed. And without closing the frame, one can't remove the light from its mount. Oh oh.

The short term solution is to remove light and mount as one piece. But, continued working of the rubber band, in this manner, does cause me concern regarding the band's life-span.

Further, I can't adjust the angle of mounting for use on different frames.

The first time this happened, I brought the light into the shop and found a way to release the lock, so it could be separated from the mount. Heavily applied WD40 cleaned out enough grit, so that the ratchet mechanism partially released. With the partial release, it was possible to carefully adjust the angle of the light, but not close it. So it could be switched between bikes, but charging the light meant removing the whole mechanism via the rubber band.

Then next rainy ride, things got worse. The ratchet release seems to move, but it doesn't release. Period.

IMO there is a design flaw with the ratchet. It's probably not possible to waterproof it. So the design needs to provide a means to flush any contaminants out. Probably an opening or channel where debris can freely travel. But it doesn't have this feature.

Light and Motion customer support is working with me. They been good about recognizing my concerns, and willing to stand behind their product. They have been slow to understand the problem, as I've described it, so its unclear what solution they'll offer.

It should be noted that replacement frames (with ratchet release) are available fairly cheaply on eBay. It appears that a number of folks break these by trying to close the frame without pushing the ratchet release. Worst case, I could always buy one. But its not clear how to remove or replace this piece (as noted above, I can't find a place to begin opening up the light). And nothing in the instructions (available both in the package, and on line at L and M's website), speaks to this topic. When I look at trying to remove the frame, there is no obvious way, that doesn't present a clear risk of breakage.

Consequently, I'm waiting for L and M to get back to me.

I still like this light, but don't want to use it in the rain - which was part of the justification for buying such an expensive tail-light. Color me frustrated. Maybe I'll try some grease around the ratchet to keep it clean.

Next up, the Cygolight. Bright and floppy.

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 03:22:00 +0000

Having started cleaning up and filing lugs, it seemed likely that some of you would find some pix interesting. With no further adieu, here they are:

Lugz

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 03:23:00 +0000

I haven't brazed a lugged frame for a while, but I did today.

Since I last posted brazing photos, I've replaced my torch. I was doing a second pass to build up some filets when the old torch started to go crazy. I replaced the valves, but it still wouldn't hold a position for either gas or 02, causing the flame to keep changing. Random flame size and gas/02 mix make it hard to braze. And the second pass came out very lumpy. Naturally, I caught plenty of grief for it.

But that issue is long past. I use a Smiths torch, which offers a life-time warranty, so I'll have to send the old one in for service one of these days, which will give me a spare. That's one of the benefits to using high-quality American products.

Anyhow, today I was doing a double oversize frame with Dazza's Slant Six (actually they have a new name now, but its less memorable to me, in my old age). .

Sunday I installed the brake cable tunnel in the top tube, and mitered and fit up the main triangle. Finally, I brazed the chain stays to the BB. I like to do this first and insure my alignment between them and a foundation of a frame. I use brass filler here, and then use silver later when installing the seat and down tubes.

Today I started by installing H20 mounts, and a chain catcher and cable stop on the drive side chain stay.

From there, I cleaned up the lug edges, sanded the insides to a clean fresh surface, cleaned the tube ends, inside and out, and fluxed the mating surfaces on the lugs and tubes.

Then its time to put it all together in the jig, and set the pins that will hold everything together. I don't know about anyone else, but I find this to be a messy job, with flux slipping out of the joints, while I try to hold the everything together as I fit the jig back to the frame (or is it the other way around?).

Also, there are always one or two pins that want to come loose as I set other pins. It's important that the pins hold well, because we move from here to the alignment table and I don't want things shifting between work stations.

First I double check the chain stays - they're centered to within less then a mm. BTW, that's my antique Starette height gauge that I got for a song on theBay - it works great and much cheaper than anything new.

Now lest you think I'm cavalier abut the rear alignment, my experience is that heat in the frame will shift the stays - so there's no point in trying to move things around. We'll check again later.

Next I check the alignment of the main triangle. The down tube needed a little adjustment (about a mm), it required the remove of a pin, and its replacement in new location. Then all looked good, so I made sure the pins were tight, one more check and its time for flux.

The Slant Six upper head and (and especially the) seat tube lugs are long. So the filler needs to be pulled a bit farther than with some other lug sets. But I use Stainless Light Flux, which is effective at cleaning, and holds up well to time under heat.

That's a fluxed joint with pins sticking out. Which naturally leads to brazing.

There are a couple of spots with a little overfill, but not too bad overall. Since these pix, I soaked the flux off the joints, trimmed off the pins, filed the pins down on the inside of the head and seat tubes, and reamed and faced the head tube. I should have taken a picture of the faces, which have a perfect circle of fill between lug and and tube, maybe I can add those pix later.

After than, it was time for an hour and a half riding, then dinner, and off to write you a few blog posts. All in all a busy and productive day.

A stranger visits

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 02:09:00 +0000

Wow, its been a long time since I visited this place!

Where to start? Well, I recently got a new helmet: a Lazer 02. After trying to purchase at a local bike shop, I ended up going to the local Performance - everyone else was out of stock for anything from Lazer.

Let me back up. I've been wearing cycling helmets for a long time - starting with an MSR (that's Mountain Safety Research - and yes, it was a modified climbing helmet), with a bright yellow hard-shell, complete with a generous three round holes (the diameter of my index finger) front and rear for ventilation. That helmet was very much appreciated when a front tubular rolled off the rim, landing me on my back in the parkway (fortunately), still strapped into my pedals, with my hands still on the brake hoods. Can you tell that when I started riding, I had no role models for how to properly install a tubie?

I think there are times and places where a helmet is entirely optional, but, I don't allow my children that choice because I don't think that they are ready to make a thoughtful judgement. And to encourage their helmet usage, my wife and I always wear a helmet when on the bike. So, with all of us always wearing helmets, its that much more important that they fit and work well.

Normally I wouldn't bring up so mundane a topic, but I think that the 02 is a brilliant design. Fitting it is not dependent on the rider's head shape. Which is cool. And most riders can fit in a single size. Which is also cool.

First from a shop's perspective: many fewer sizes and models need to be stocked to address various sizes and shapes of riders heads. SKU counts in the industry are pretty crazy, and anything that can help a local bike shop limit its SKUs,without limiting service, has be good.

More importantly for the riders, its possible to select a color and size (most won't need to go to the extra large, but a simple measurement at home will tell the story). No worries about fit - just turn the dial until it fits, and you're done!

Let me caveat this, some reader(s) has no doubt tried the 02 and found it not to their liking. I can respect this. But, this fact doesn't undermine the idea that most people should be able to easily get a great fit with an 02.

OK, I can be a geek for design, but I think this one is neat. I just don't know why they don't apply it to the rest of their helmets.

The 02 has effective ventilation (copious sweating qualifies me as a tough tester), and the helmet quickly goes unnoticed by the rider, neither pinching, slip-sliding, wiggling, or in any other way calling attention to itself. So what's not to like? Actually, I'd like designers to come out with silent helmets. One of the beauties of helmet-less riding is the absence of wind noise. But I'm resigned that a quiet helmet is probably still a long way off.

On the other hand, there has been a recent trend towards lighter helmets. Spend your money if you want - the lightweights may cost 2 - 3 times what an 02 does. But, I don't see a helmet as a smart place to try to reduce weight. It has been pointed out to me that some lightweight helmets use special new expanded foams that do a better job of shock absorbing. That may be. And, to the degree this works, great. But, I don't find, even after a century ride, that I notice the weight of my helmet on my head. So what's the benefit to a lighter helmet; maybe bragging rights?

However, if you can feel the difference in helmet weights (generally we're talking about going from 300 to 200 grams, or about a 0.2lb weight loss), or if you just like some aspect of the design of a lightweight helmet, and its been certified, go for it. I'll still respect you in the morning. But I'm going to hold to the notion that a helmet is last place one should look to save weight.

So that's my 2 cents on the Lazer 02 and bike helmets in general.

Dissenters are welcome to leave comments.

Graffitti

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:39:00 +0000

I've been trying some painting using spray cans. Not for client bikes, just on a prototype for me. It'll be a long time, if ever, before I explore painting for customers. Painting properly takes a bit of equipment, space and practice. By a bit, I mean a lot.

But, even with limited goals, there's much to be learned by doing something oneself. And, it helps to walk in the shoes of a painter, in terms of understanding what I'm delivering to them.

Anyhow, I'm making some progress. Just using Rustoleum. I put a light primer coat of clear on the crabon frame. Then tried feathering in black over the joints. The edges aren't all that I'd like them to be, it probably would have gone more easily with an airbrush.

I also tried using some reflective paint for safety. It's supposed to blend in and then POP under headlights. It turns out that Black isn't a good color base to hide this stuff. So I covered most of it up with black paint. It's still there on the bare carbon sections, and hopefully adds a measure of safety on night rides.

Clear is tricky stuff. To get a good finish, it needs to go on wet, right on the edge of running. In fact, sometimes a minor run will flatten out before drying. But, when you get runs, it means sanding them back.

Spraying on shaped surfaces, its hard to maintain an equal distance from everything. Instead, the closest surface gets wet, and the further surfaces end up with a bumpy pattern which I attribute to partial setting up of the clear coat while airborne.

The following pictures go through a sequence of layers from rough to mirror like. Enjoy!

Slow Steady Progress

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:58:00 +0000

A few more pix:

Lower Head Tube Filet

I little bumpy on the the outside.

Filing away.

A little more sanding and we'll have a nicely radiused filet.

A few more pix

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:47:00 +0000

Here is a downtube cable stop. Polish needs a bit of touch up. can you see the heart-shaped cutouts?

Hard to see from this side, but the front derailer hanger is polished.

And the bottom bracket is almost done. Just a bit more sanding.

Shiny Bits

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:07:00 +0000

Working on some shiny bits for Nick's crit bike. Looks like there are still some gouges to sand out before completing the buff job.

Nick's Crit Bike

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 22:15:00 +0000

Charlies mountain bike is almost ready paint. Just a bit of sanding and painting. Meanwhile, Nick's Crit bike is coming along. After tube fit up, I've brazed the seat tube and down tube to the BB. A bit of filing and sanding left, then on to the head tube. BTW, the alignment is looking very good at this point. So on to pictures.

Seat tube tacked in.

Down tube fit up looks good even after tacking the seat tube.

Filet ready for filing and sanding.

And the head tube fit up still looks tight!

See ya next time.

Moving along

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 04:00:00 +0000

I've been riding again for about 6 weeks or so. They we (the family) went out west, where I managed to tear a hamstring. Humph! Anyway, now I don't have to feel guilty about shop time cutting into riding time.

I'm back to finishing up Charlie's small 26er. The main thing accomplished today was to bend the seatstays, cut them to length, and cap them using pieces of 1-1/8 inch tubing. A few pix follow:

This is my tiny shop after closing up for the night. Less than 1/2 of a stall in the garage.

Here are the bent stays. I like this radius much better than the sharp kink in so many commercial offerings.

A little final clean-up remaining - but pretty close to finished.

Charlies unfinished frame above. I checked the alignment using the table and via a true wheel. Both checked out nicely.

The end of the stay will nestle nicely in the curve of the filet for the top tube/seat tube joint.

Slowly Catching Up

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Thu, 26 May 2011 03:36:00 +0000

1) Check out House Industries at velocipedesalon.com - good stuff.
2) Also read about Suzy of Little Fish Bicycles - quite a multi-talented women who convinced any number of folks that they too could learn to build frames.

3) Step by step, things are getting better.

On the personal front, I've managed a couple of rides in a row now without disc problems. This is a win and a sign of improvement. that puts a smile on my face.

Currently I have a couple of steel frames under construction, hopefully I can get some pix soon. One is a small MTB for my youngest son. Fillet brazed with Cycle Design's LFB - interesting stuff with which to work, and I'm still getting the feel for it. One thing I'm experimenting with is using Metax (an early Columbus version of Stainless tubing) for the chainstays. Lots of careful timely cleaning is required before brazing this stuff to make sure of a good joint.

The other is a race bike for a rider who is strong in crits. He's fair sized, so it uses 2XL tubes. That's 31.7mm diameter for top and seat tubes and 25mm for the down tube. Should be plenty stiff. This one has a lugged BB w/ filet joints everywhere else.

I'm also getting a carbon frame ready for paint and should have finished pictures pretty soon. So lots going on.

Meanwhile, plenty of maintenance needs doing. The fuel line of Kevlar hoses sprung a leak, so after trying to repair it (hard to find small enough repair nipples), I went ahead an ordered new hoses and flash-back arrestors. At the same time, I ordered a repair kit for my torches valves. It's been dropped on the floor, and I think the O2 valve leaks when shut, costing me expensive O2. Unfortunately, this is on back order so I'll hve to refill my oxy tank tomorrow. Side note to this, my local welding supply is of little to no use regarding brazing supplies, or my torch (Smith aircraft torch) setup. Even when I offer them the opportunity to order what isn't in stock. I guess that I'm just too small a bit of business, but it also keeps me guilt-free when I order over the I-net.

I've also ordered some plumbing for a small air compressor (like for a brad nailer) I own. I'd like to start learning to paint frames via airbrush, and the first step is a clean reliable air supply. BTW, anything larger than an airbrush starts a slippery slope: 1) buy a good spray gun; 2) which requires a bigger compressor; 3) demanding 220V circuit in the garage; 4) which is dependent on a new panel and upgrading house to 200 amp service. I figure, by the time a I put together a basic spray booth with all the above, moving to spray guns would cost me at least $5K to start - which isn't in my current budget. So, I'll start with with airbrushes, and working out doors - probably with water based paints.

More soon.

A little progress

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 19:19:00 +0000

Well, it looks like at least another two weeks on the IV. While I'm chomping on the bit, it's going to be a little while yet before I can start ramping up the shop again.

With that in mind, let me share a little project completed during all this medical who-ha.

I've got a big, heavy, old Hozan truing stand. It works, but its clumsy. I've been thinking for some time about building its replacement. Then my son asked for a truing stand for Christmas.- which further accelerated the process.

To me, a truing stand should be stiff, stable and well dampened. It should be easy to adjust for a range of over lock-nut sizes and wheel diameters. And, it should be easy to center the hub in the stand, so that centering the rim is not a separate process from building the wheel. A nice to have is the ability to mount a dial indicator for fine readings of true and round.

That's not a huge list of requirements, but buying a stand that meets them tends to be expensive. For around $125, though, its possible to build such a stand using 80:20 extrusions as the foundation.

My son lives in CA, which added on further requirement: the stand has be able to be knocked down and shipped in a fixed-rate Priority Mail box. As a consequence, on the stand I made, the cross frame is limited in size, so I had to come up with a way to mount the uprights so they would fit the cross piece and come together for a 100mm front OLD.

Note, the adjustment hand screws in the picture have brass heads and were prior to trimming to length. These have been replaced with plastic headed hand screws, so they won't where out their threaded guide holes prematurely. Also, not seen in the pictures are: connector plate between the two base pieces; three rubber furniture feet on which this stand sits. These provide a tripod support (three points define a plane) which won't rock, and make sure that the stand doesn't slide around on the work surface.

Anyhow, I don't have any plans, per se, so I can't share them. But all you really need to know is in the following pictures. All parts not from 80:20 came from McMaster Carr, including the self-adhesive left and right hand metric scales used to align the uprights.

Been missing you guys.

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:48:00 +0000

Hey gang,

Sorry to be gone so long, but I've been busy with some medical issues. Nothing I can't get past, just stuff that interferes with life for a while.

It started in December with a herniated disk (symptom of age). When that was cleared up, I developed a staph infection (no one can tell me how). The staph was kinda ugly, but its now on the run. I'm still running a portable IV of penicillin, but I go to the Dr. on Wednesday and expect to hear how much longer that will last. Hopefully not to long cuz I can't really work in the shop with this thing.

Anyhow, as shop work gets up to speed, I'll be posting words/pix right here.

Cheers,

RG

A crucial time

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 21:05:00 +0000

Today I stand with the teachers, nurses, and all public employees of Wisconsin who are fighting for their rights. If you do too, change this to your status for the rest of the day.

You too can choose Freedom over Greedom, post this pledge to your blog or facebook page.

Techy Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 02:48:00 +0000

"In order to find the best compromise between performance and cost, the round tube may be sized such that its bending stiffness is identical to that of a square tube with the same wall thickness. Using the first order findings of Eq. 2.12 and setting equal results in:

wrd = cuberoot(16/3*Pi) * wsq

Plugging the diameter wrd found in Eq. 2.18 into Eq 2.13, the torsional stiffness of a round tube can be found to be larger by a factor of 4/3 (33%) while being lighter by 7%."

I may never become a commercial success at frame-building (or perhaps any pursuit) because of my resolute tendency to cry BS at anything that tickles me as marketing tekno-babble rather than real engineering. And today, in any successful commercial endeavor, there there seems to be a lot of marketing tekno-babble. No where is this more true today, than in the bicycle industry; where so much that is discussed, advertised, and written regarding design and bicycle attributes is just so much nonsense.

Recently, I was perusing: Principles of Rapid Machine Design by Eberhard Bamberg, M.Sc., Advanced Manufacturing Systems Brunel University, 1993 Dipl.-Ing, Maschinenbau Universität Stuttgart, 1996 SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY at the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, June 2000 © 2000 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. This is the source of the opening quote.

Let's begin by acknowledging that my academic career stayed far away from the hard sciences and engineering, thus making my tastes in light reading that much more unusual. And no, the goal of this read was not to learn anything about designing or building bicycles. However, while I've known for quite some time that a round shape is the most efficient shape of tubing for resisting both bending and torsional forces; I haven't had a scholarly reference or mathematical formula to back up this understanding. So, running across this quote, in the midst of a larger discussion of analyzing the properties of tubes, seemed like a bit of an early holiday present.

All of the large bike brands make much of the shapes of their tubes, suggesting that that they have found miraculous new ways to: 1) improve stiffness; 2) reduce weight; 3) improve ride qualities. I'm calling BS right here, right now. Stiffness is increased by increasing the diameter of tubes and/or increasing the wall thickness. Weight is reduced by cutting down the amount of material in the tubes, either by using smaller diameter tubes, and/or decreased wall thickness. Ride comfort, however, is a different question - and it is difficult to argue that tubing diameter or wall thickness is directly related to ride comfort.

Among stock phrases appearing in bicycle reviews, "... greater lateral stiffness combined with improved vertical compliance..." is probably the one most often ridiculed by the cognoscenti of bicycle design and building. And this ridicule is truly well earned. The side-view of a bike frame is essentially based on a Warren Truss, which is a very efficient structure for resisting the weight carried by a bridge. In other words, it focuses on resisting vertical forces.

Viewed from the front, however, there is no structure to resist lateral forces except the form of the tubes themselves.

Both the shape of a tube, and the form of a Warren Truss service to harness the opposing forces of tension and compression. Both also gain stiffness by physically separating those opposing forces as far apart as possible (hence the greater stiffness of a larger diameter tube). But the distances within tubes and between tubes vary by greater than an order of magnitude. So while a round tube's inherent stiffness is equal in the vertical and horizontal planes, the Warren Turss does not offer this direction-independent equality of stiffness.

What does this mean? A bicycle frame is more apt to bend laterally than vertically, regardless of what magazine writers or marketing specialists say.

So maybe that's true, but how about a top tube that is flattened? Surely its shape allows more vertical compliance and lateral stiffness than a round tube, because most of the material is oriented horizontally, right? And this beneficially tunes ride characteristics? Wrong Kemosabi!

Think of an I-beam: there is a vertical web connecting two horizontal plates. Fundamentally, its the plates doing the hard work. Why is this? Well, the greater effective distance a portion of a beam is stretched or compressed, the more work that portion of the beam does in terms of preventing bending. Get a compass, and draw three concentric circles. The inner represents the bending of the lower plate of the I-beam, the middle circle represents the bending of the web, and the the outer circle represents the bending of the upper plate. Clearly, the lower plate is compressed relative to the web and upper plate. The upper plate is stretched relative to the web and lower plate. And the web is merely bent. Now this is a slight generalization of the forces are work, but it makes the point.

A tube is more like a box beam, where there are two webs, one on each side, and two plates. A beam is made more stiff by increasing the distance between the plates - thus increasing the differential between the compression and tension. That squashed top tube causes the sides of the tube to be further apart from each other, and the top/bottom to be closer together. So.... while it appears as if it should be stiffer laterally, and more flexible vertically, it is in fact the opposite.

It's hard to beat round tubes for a bicycle frame. Where there is a benefit to ovalizing them, it is generally to give a larger area with which to bond (using a weld/braze/glue/carbon wrap/or structural lug) to the adjoining tube - and not to tune the ride or stiffness. And, that's the way it is.

Having beaten this point to death, my hope is that a few more folks will now recognize that: a) shaped tubing is just a marketing gimmick; b) frames flex laterally (or in torsion) rather than vertically. And thereby they will be better informed consumers.

Cheers

Progetto Cycles

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:08:00 +0000

Progetto Cycles is now Smoked Out. Interesting story, check it out.

Extra Extra: Maxwell Cycles Smoked Out!

noreply@blogger.com (Rick Guggemos) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:54:00 +0000

Maxwell Cycles in now Smoked Out - so check it out!