Welcome to the Black Ship Cycles Blog

In the spirit of staying organized and making things more straight forward for customers, I split up the BSC blog into a Craft blog and a Cycles blog. In the next couple of weeks, I'll be moving cycle building and repair posts over from the Crafts blog to the Cycles blog, and posting new updates on work going on in the Black Ship Shops as we get ready for the 'gift giving' season. stay tuned!!

blackshipcrafts.blogspot.com

Finished: Custom Speaker Racks for Tipsy

Did you see these new racks on Tipsy Bike at the Bill Murray Mobile Dance Party?

Mpls, MN - Even if you did, you probably didn't actually see them - they were holding 25lb speakers to the front of the bike all night, like a pair of fkn champs.


 
The back story:
  We were working down the wire, and I mean it, to have them ready for the ride. I worked into the night, woke up early, had some coffee, then proceeded to cut and weld all day.

   As the paint was drying, I affixed all the hardware and waited for Tipsy. Due to technically difficulties, they didn't have time stop by and attach them, so after working all day and night for 3 days, I dreaded the call saying "I don't think we have time to attach them, meet up at the Nomad"

   I was still reeling from the feeling of dissatisfaction with not having them on from the beginning of the ride. That would mean 50lbs less of bumpin power. I couldn't fit them on my bike and get there in time to affix them and ride...

   Nat got home after work and agreed, the party was to be big, the job too big to fail; it had to be done. She offered to help load up her car and let me drive them, and my bike, to the park to set the up before the ride left. So she pulled around to the shop and we loaded everything up asap and I made it there just after Tipsy and with help, and lots o' sweat & elbow grease, got'em hooked up, tested, and bumped that fkn ride!

Thanks Tipsy for an awesome ride and stay tuned for lots more pics! (i took about 30-50 alone)

Interested in your own set or other custom bike gear?

frames | racks | mods | wtf

hit us up:  blackshipcrafts [at] gmail [dot] com

Black Ship Shop & new Custom Rack Project

 Here's a sneak peak of the new shop in Minneapolis and the first big fabrication project here; speaker rack mounts for Tipsy Bike.

The Black Ship Shop:
   is coming along. I finally have a TIG welder set up and working! A shop partner and I got it from an acquaintance that had intentions to use it but never did. We have access to a brazing setup and a small MIG as soon as i get time to set them up.

   Black Ship is ready to start brazing frames and welding custom frames, trailers, bikes, and whatever else we feel like (or you want!) We are still looking for bike building & tubing jigs, a pro bender, a drill press, bench grinder, cutoff saw, and some other stuff. Let us know if you've got something for sale/trade/loan.


Wanna see older projects by Black Ship (and that we're super-proud of??) just flip back through the blog for pics of bikes, trailers, etc we've crafted & built! Oh, and subscribe for future rad projects & info!

Speaker Mount Racks
   T.K. has two 25lb speakers (in the backround of photo) that he needs to mount to his already crankin multimedia bike: Tipsy Bike

We want the prototypes ready for the great Bill Murray Mobile Dance Party Ride of 2012 

After many long meetings and much deliberation, the prototype design was finalized and the rack started. The initial prep work and first tacking is done. We'll be working everyday to see how far we can get by Tuesday's ride..

Video Demo of homemade steel tube bender!

MIA Bike Night!

 I wasn't formally invited as a frame builder, but I did stop in (and sneak the Maiden Voyage in) to see what the local builders have been up to. here's a little gallery from A-Train, Wyganowski, Speedhound, Peacock Groove:

We also had a little HUB tent to to quick safety checks and small adjustments./repairs, and Tick brought Tipsy Bike out to blast some jams. Good conversations and lots of hot bikes, we took to the streets as Tipsy blasted jams down Franklin Ave to our destination for wooden nickel night and jams on the sidewalk!

This year was fun, but next year I hope for an Alley Cat beforehand and movies again (last year's movies were awesome) See ya next time!

Roody and Anna's NE tour

I will soon be publishing a post about Roody, Anna, and Brody's epic NE tour with the bike and trailer we built! As a fair warning, the few pictures I've seen so far are enough to make me jealous...

Adjusting a 27" frame for 700c wheels

Will wanted his touring bike to fit 700c wheels. 

Here's how we made it happen:

There were other options; different brake combinations, etc. But, Will had made up his mind; we would move the mounts to fit a 700c.

First I got the bike and cleaned off most of the paint around the cantilever bosses with a flap disc, and sanded out the rest.

Then I used the torch to heat up the old filler metal (aka de-braze) and pulled the old canti's off with pliers.

Next, we filed/mitered down the new bosses to better fit his frame and forks.

Shimano recommends spacing your mounts at 65-75mm, center to center. His old mounts were more like 45mm, hard to even get a big tire through. Since the mounts we had were cut for wider frames, and we were already better off than when we started, we went with a 60mm gap and saved some time and work.

I first set up a wooden jig, that i used to tack weld on Roody's bike before brazing. Since I don't have a welder in the shop yet, that didn't wotk (re: burning wood jig) so in a brainstorm I asked around at work the next day and Tom suggested using a rack mount to hold them in place.

Brilliant! Also, adjustable. I had to file out the slide to fit the M6 bolts that are required for mounting your brakes, but after a little elbow grease it all came together beautifully!.

The first couple of times I mounted them I used the filler metal that came with the mini shop Oxy-Mapp brazing kit I had just gotten. That stuff just peeled right off (I should have known better) so after asking around, I discovered Jesse found 54% silver filler wire at the Welna's Hardware store!

After re-cleaning and re-brazing with proper filler, They stuck like they should. Permanent-style.

And Will rode off into the sunset on the way to St. Louis, forever. Bye Will, hope you had a great trip!

Roody's Lugged Frame - Part 3: Finishing & Painting

Its finished! This lugged tour is going to get him, his dog, and his gear all the way up to New York and back (and hopefully more!) How did we finish it?

    Okay, where did we leave off? Right, braze-ons.

Brazing Frame Additions:
    The braze-ons I ordered from Nova (at a RIDICULOUS shipping rate, might I say) spent a few days meandering from California before reaching us in north Florida. Luckily, all of the pieces we needed were in the package.

   First, I check everything for fit, and scribe the miters on the rear brake cantilevers. Next, measure and mark the positions of all of the bottle cage mounts, cable stops, shifter lever bosses, canti brake mounts, rack mounts, fender mounts, chain hanger and cable guide.

   The cantis needed a little adjusting, so I opted to clinch them in a vice jig and file them with a half round, since there wasn't much metal to get through. Everything else was clean and ready to go.

   To hold the parts in place, I took a metal spring clamp and drilled and tapped one side to thread a bolt into. I also made a wood & metal jig to hold the cantis in place at an appropriate spacing (75-85mm) while I tacked them on.

    All I had available was a stick welder, so it was a bit splattered, but it worked.

We started with the bottle & rack bosses, since they did not require a clamp to stay in place. Next,  I used my modified spring clamp to secure and braze on the cable stops, chain hanger, and shift levers. I ran out of silver, and switched to some brass rods I had that were not ideal, but worked fine.

   We filled the gaps in the cantis and the fender mounts/braces. and touched up any spots in the lugs that needed it. Now that we felt like everything was sufficiently attached and all the gaps were filled, we started the cleaning and painting process.

Cleaning:
   Roody got on top of sanding and buffing the frame. He hit all the spots were filler metal had pooled and any splattersor other imperfections. Next, he wiped it down with alcohol to remove and oils or other contaminants in order to prep it for priming.

Painting:

   Went way better than the Maiden Voyage. We started with a self-etching metal primer. two thin coats. Then it dried and cured overnight. In the morning we lightly sanded that first layer, then added a second. Once that dried, we put on a few coats of satin black metal specific paint. We let it dry between coats to get some buildup. After those layers dried, we set in with a super hard flat clear coat, also made specifically made for metal. Everything sat really well, so we added a couple of decals and a few more coats of clear, then called it done and let it cure for a day before touching it. It looked great, and seemed like it had adhered better than the lacquer paints i tried on the first frame.

SUCCESS! It's finished. Check out the pics and feel free to comment or email if you have any questions/comments, including requests for custom frames and or trailers!

sorry this post took so long! i've had a bunch of problems with blogspot not loading photos AND not saving work several times and losing hours of typing and layout! hopefully i'll have better luck in the future!