Roody's planning a tour up the East Coastand he needs a reliable bike: to pull his trailer with, and that fits him comfortably enough to ride over a thousand miles in a month. So, we're building it.
The kit I'm using is essentially a spare kit that a friend had boxed up the basement for a couple years and never got around to building. It's a lugged, straight gauge road kit for a 6 foot tall male. Perfect for Roody, who is a little shorter, but feels more comfortable on a taller frame. It'll be a little heavy, but tuff enough to weather the long trip, and a few more.
Since I had to design a bike that worked with the kit, I laid out a rough drawing of the bike we were aiming for. Easy enough, we had previously taken his measurements and discussed what he was looking for in this new bike.Once I had a general idea of the sizing, I proceeded in cleaning the front triangle tubes and lugs thoroughly with sandpaper and a wire brush, and rough fit them together. Then scribed the tubes and mitered them with hole saws on the drill press. Easy does it.
I didn't have the specs for the seat & head tube angles so there was a lot of guessing, trial, and error involved. After a few extra cuts and a little filing, it all came together. After cutting the breather holes and aligning on the bench, its ready to be brazed together!
No comments:
Post a Comment