New Bike: The Rear Frame

Measuring up the frame - this is getting the size for the front part.

Marking the frame centreline for drilling the headtube holes

Cutting the front part square

 

Drilling the head tube bearing holes

And filing them.......

 

and done - well one side at least.

Rounding the front part of the frame. I did it manually for the most part but used an angle grinder at the end.

3D printed frame separators and M8 Tee Nuts

Transferring positions from the back part of the frame to the front for drilling small holes.

The cool tool! The front bolt keeping the frames together is a low-profile M8 allen bolt because clothing gets caught in it if it is a higher bolt. I put the tool to undo it into the other bolt which is underneath the bike.

Rear bottom bracket assenbly consists of YST bottom bracket, 2 custom castings, 2 spacer bars and 2 spacer bar retaining studs.

 

Ta Da.....

The.......

Finished Frame

 As mentioned in my last post, I have been building a bike for a few days now. I'm trying to document it in some detail but I do have bits and pieces of old bike around which lets me skip forward a few steps. For this 2-part rear frame, I had most of the back part built and only needed to saw an end off, drill a few small holes and fit parts. But I made the front part from scratch, and this involved marking positions for, hole sawing and filing holes for the head tube bearings.

This work was fun and not too hard, about 10 hours work in getting this made. 

Contraptions: Introduction to a new bike.

 

Crocodile / Bicyclette from the Wieber Bijker book "Of Bicycles, Bakelites and Bulbs"

 

Rover Cycle from Bijker

 

 

"You be the contraption,

And I'll be no-one, 

I think I owe one

Too-oo-oo-oo You-ou-ou-ou"

With apologies to Kasey Chambers (Misquoted from "The Captain")

 

I think that everything that ever been made starts off as a contraption. Even the bicycle which we hardly glance at today was once a contraption. By bicycle we usually mean the rear wheel drive safety bicycle, and one of the first of these was the Bicyclette or Crocodile from 1879. The bike had all sorts of hangovers from its penny farthing predecessors. It also had remote steering which seems completely unnecessary. But I am talking with hindsight here. The inventors of the day hadn't quite worked it out but they were getting there, and within five years the Rover safety had been made, Dunlop's pneumatic tyres were in widespread use and the bike as we know it today was born. 

Branestawm illustration by George Adamson: "Penny in the slot poetry"

Branestawm by W. Heath Robinson

Branestawm by W. Heath Robinson

Branestawm by W. Heath Robinson

Branestawm by W. Heath Robinson

We actually don't see many contraptions today but I was bought up on them through Norman Hunter's Professor Branestawm books illustrated buy W Heath Robinson and others. There is my name scrawled by a young me inside a Professor Branestawm book from 1964! 

3 views of a moving bottom bracket tilting trike by Myshkin

Some of my bikes have been contraptions and I'm proud to own that, but eventually if something is to work properly it has to end up a bit more refined than a contraption. One of the latest and greatest contraptions I've seen is by Myshkin whose tilting trike is shown in a video here . The main criteria for this trike seem to be that it is rideable, that it is small enough to get out of an upper story flat and that it is fun to build, which seems to me to be justification enough to make anything. 

Some modern things are contraptions when they shouldn't be!  An example is electricity bills. Different companies can supply my house with electricity, and they charge different amounts. When my solar panels generate electricity they pay me different amounts. It's confusing and contraptiony which I don't like.

Getting back to bikes, I would like to show a few examples of modern contraptions. Yes, I'm calling them out!

 

The laden bicycle: traditional load carrying on bikes is an aerodynamic nightmare. Yes, you can carry stuff, but it almost always sticks out in the wind. Bikepacking was a reaction to this. 

   

 The rear wheel drive recumbent bike:  Not all of these bikes are the same, but I have recently been fixing and tuning an Optima Stinger to give away as an OzHPV prize. There's a lot of complexity there. The chain needs to be lengthened or shortened depending on the rider height, the chain is long and tries to twist the frame whenever power is applied, the chain is managed by 2 pulleys and 2 tubes which sap energy, the back wheel and chain are likely to get mud from the front wheel and most load carrying will not be aerodynamic. You can't just run and jump on it, the steering gets in the way. Phew! 

 

 

Now on to my own leaning trikes. This one isn't all that contraptiony although some will never get over the 2 back wheels! Due to the fixed bottom bracket design, it's impossible to steer hard and pedal at the same time and it has outrageous tiller steer. Its quite big with the front wheel waaaaaaay out the front. But the load carrying is good, the tailbox doesn't get in the way of the back wheel, it is aerodynamic and carries a decent amount of luggage. The front wheel drive means seat adjustment is independent of chain length, there's hardly any chain management, and the chain is up the front and high, away from muck. You can run and jump on it which is great, and it has 2 YST bottom brackets which are the same, and 2 V- brakes which are the same, which keeps things simple.

 

 

It's only in the last six months that I've refined and got riding on my own design moving bottom bracket bike. Up to now front wheel drive bikes have been fixed bottom bracket but I spent a year or two with the Cruzbike Quest as my favorite bike, however the steering caused me shoulder pain. I'm enjoying my new bike a lot and don't want to change it much, however I have two different styles of tail box. One (corflute and plywood) is light and aerodynamic for touring, training and racing, and one is heavier for load carrying. 

To swap tail box styles I currently have to swap tail boxes which takes a bit of time. So I'm building a new bike so that I can put the fast tail box on it, and keep the older bike for load carrying. The new moving bottom bracket bikes could be called a bit more contraptiony than the old fixed bottom bracket style. But I don't care that much. The new bikes are much more fun and involving to ride and also shorter by about 30 centimeters. 

They have 2 types of bottom brackets and two types of brakes. The brakes make construction a bit more fiddly as there are two systems (V- and disk) to deal with. It has been great to start afresh on a new bike of this type months and several hundred kilometres after building the first one. It's possible to see details that can be made less complex and therefore lighter and simpler and it is great putting those details in to the new build. In my next post I will report about building the new bike with some photos. A new, more aerodynamic tailbox is planned but I'll leave details of that for another post. 

 

Regards Steve Nurse 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reccce Trip 3, Day 4

A sting in the tail! Mernda line trains were replaced by buses and I was forced to ride home from Southern Cross in the dark and rain. 

Penshurst

Penshurst - note truck reflection cantre

Penshurst: Been a while since a Nash car was serviced here!

Penshurst

Wecumbent bike and wainbow near the Wannon, not far out of Coleraine. 

 This was day 4 of my third Recce trip to Coleraine, and I was up early again and on the road by about 7:20 for the long climb up the Glenelg Highway hill out of Coleraine toward Hamilton and home. This time I took a more direct route through Penshurst to Warrnambool station. 

Recently I'd Patsy Adam Smith's book "When we rode the rails" about her young life in a family of railway workers. That book features Penshurst at the end, and describes her life in a bustling town just before World War Two. It was a bit less than bustling when I was there, but a caf, general store and hardware store were open, A truck driver who had seen me on the road had a bit of a chat in the caf and outside the shop. He offered to give me and my bike I lift in to Warrnambool but I politely declined. 

After Penshurst the going got quite fast and a lot of fun with combinations of sunshine, strong tailwinds and flat roads or downhills leading to high speeds. But near Koroit my route turned 90 degrees and the northerly tailwind became a strong gusty cross wind and the traffic increased. It was hard to contend with the wind along the Failors Flat Koroit road. 

Turning in to Carrumut Road the wind was behind me again but I had to deal with heavy traffic including trucks and absolutely no shoulder on the road. At one stage I got completely off the road and into the grass to let trucks go past. I arrived at Warrnambool station about 20 minutes late for the 3:10 train but 2 hours early for the 5:30 train. I think that given the same circumstances again, I would come in to Warrnambool via the rail trial. There would have been plenty of time to take this route to avoid traffic or wind problems, and I might even have met other cyclists! 

On the train, I could rest and eat some cookies I'd bought, and it was a nice trip. However at Southern Cross (Melbourne City) Station I found my local trains had been cancelled due to maintenance issues and I needed to ride home through the city in the dark and wet. This wasn't too bad as I had been on a trip and had good lights and rain gear and got home not too late (about 10pm) after a long day traveling. 

Overall the Recce trip had been good it was nice to meet William, Chris, Claire and Rodney, and if I follow up on my notes from the day three meeting should be able to organise a good grant application for OzHpv. It's currently very economical for anyone to travel by public transport in Victoria, and its highly recommended! As a Senior's card holder, my total spend on fares for this trip was only $2.85. 

Recce trip 3, Day 3

Chris ahead of me on the Douglas Road Hill. I walked it and he has a ebike.

At the meeting

 Hi

Day 3 of my recce trip was to be the only full day in Coleraine, and I took it easy in the morning chatting to Rodney over breakfast and visiting the history centre in the old courthouse before my 10 o'clock meeting (this was the Southern Grampians Shire Grants Roadshow meeting, encouraging and helping groups to apply for local council funding for events) For me this meeting was related to the Oz HPV challenge scheduled for October 31 and November 1. Chris and Claire from the pedal car event were there along with representatives from Southern Grampian Shire. Chris suggested a ride after the meeting starting at noon from outside the Stoke House Hotel where I was staying, and the meeting finished early giving me some time to visit the Op Shop for socks and the Book Shop for an old Ruth Park and D'Arcy Niland book.

While I was upstairs grabbing a bite before the ride, possibly the biggest event in Coleraine that week was playing out. A car had gone forward instead of reverse and ploughed into and smashed the bookshop window taking out the center veranda post in the process. I don't think there were any injuries fortunately. Soon Chris rocked up on his electric bike and we took off west past the police fire brigade and onlookers. We did a ride which was the reverse of what I'd written last time so not much exploring done, but it was good to get better acquainted with Chris. 

In the afternoon I ambled across to the Coleraine visitors' centre, bought a gift from my girlfriend and accessed their free wi-Fi then ambled back to the Hotel. I met Rodney on his way to the bus stop and we checked out the bookshop damage, then went early to bed to be ready for the next day's ride 

 

 

Recce Trip 3, day 2

 

Some mushrooms ......

emerging.

Dunkeld

Dunkeld

Coleraine Community Centre

Coleraine Community Centre looking good: This art installation had just been an abandoned bicycle the last 2 times I visited.

Melville Forest is between Cavendish and Coleraine, and had this abandoned primary school and a Country Fire Authority shed.

Cavendish Post Boxes

Day 2 of my trip blog is continued from here

I was up early the next day - it was still dark at 7am  - and rode out toward Coleraine in early morning drizzle. It's possible I'm a bit fitter now than I was when I did this ride last as I made it to Dunkeld (about 74k) without much of a break. I stopped there for a pie and a drink and observed a small bird skittering around some old shop fittings.

Then it was on to Cloeraine via Cavendish. This route avoids the Glenelg Highway which runs through Hamilton and is quite busy. It was good to stop at the Cavendish cafe for a cup of tea and a pizza slice, and I was there about 2 - it closes at 2:30 winter weekdays! 

From then on it was fairly easy going, and I thought it was mostly downhill. (Correct, Coleraine is 60m below Cavendish) This was great, I didn't have too much energy left. I was in Coleraine about 4:30 in plenty of time to check into the hotel. I'd met Rodney the last time I was in Coleraine, and he was at the Hotel again, and I saw him off and on during my stay. He was visiting his mum who is in aged care in Coleraine. He is a keen cyclist and was interested in the challenge I was there to organise. 

 

Recce trip 3, day 1

 

View toward the Grampians

Cake!

Pub common room

Pub Bar and Dining room

Quite the building!

Ararat picture theatre

Lighting does the trick

These flowers were in the lawn in front of a large discount store

William, Ararat Hotel

Skylight

The first day of my third recce trip to Coleraine didn't have much cycling in it! 

On my last trip to Coleraine, I'd left Ararat to go by bike to Coleraine after the first Ararat train arrived from Melbourne at about 11 am. This left me riding in the dark at the end of the day, and I wasn't too keen on that. So for this trip I had planned to leave Melbourne on the 13:10 train, stay overnight in Ararat and start the next morning. 

My son and grandson visited in the morning and by this time I had worked out how to change my almost complete bookshelves so that I didn't hit my head on them. As well my grandson had quality tested my latest 3D print designs: I'll need to change the designs so kids are less likely to break them! 

After they'd left I made sandwiches, finished packing and was on my way in the sunshine to Southern Cross Station. I caught my train no problems and whiled away my time with a book and the newspaper, managed to lose my pen, and all together it was a pleasant trip to Ararat. 

William from Oz HPV met me at the station platform, helped me reassemble my bike and we ambled through Ararat to the Ararat Hotel where I was booked to stay. It is a nice hotel, old style and not too much renovated. Most of the pictures here are from Ararat around dusk on a day just after the winter solstice. I ambled around, managed to find a 2 litre bottle of chocolate milk and bought some replacement pens. Dinner was in the pub dining room and for supper there was some of an extravagantly coloured cake sampler which had been left in the guest common room. My room was a bit spartan but I slept well and was warm which is all you can ask for!