Wooden Bike Mk2 Part 7

Brackets and Marked up timber.....

Went in to making a new rear triangle

Held together in the middle by (you guessed it) bits of wood.

Hi

My last post detailed how after making most of the bike, part of it was a bit wobbly and needed to be rebuilt.  At least, it needed rebuilding if the bike was not to remain a novelty item!  So I bought some more (35 X 90mm? timber,  same as the main beam anyway) and have been sawing, drilling, filing, sanding away at it to make a new rear triangle.  There are brackets which will carry the weight of the bike which needed tapping, filling, brazing, grinding, predrilling and lastly attaching.  Sofar so good and I have broken the back of the work.  For the moment I plan to have the rear wheel removeable only by removing one of the side bits of timber first.  Not much more to do and cross fingers it works.  As always will report more later. 

Victoria Folding Bikes

Detail of Blue Bike

Red Bike with pump

Saddle Bag!

Blue Bike

Oh crap, I broke it, no, its just the way it folds, I mean separates.

Hi

If you are a regular visitor to this site you will realise I am a folding and small wheel bike fan, and I really like the older ones with cool technology.  I've had or have Viscount Spacemaster, Vairas, Panasonic, Bickerton, Malvern Star Folding bikes, to name a few.  I regularly scour ebay for nice examples.  A few models have been adapted as fashion items (Peugeot N Series, Moulton, Raleigh 20, Bickerton) and bring reasonable prices. Here is a local Melbourne Blog dedicated to small wheel bikes.

So the latest bikes to pass through the gates are a couple of 24", 2 speed (Sachs kickback gearchange with coaster hub built in),  German, "Victoria Brand" separable bikes, which were on ebay for about $40.00 each.  Both come from the Ringwood area, one was from  Mitcham and the other from Mooroolbark.  Maybe there was a gung-ho Victoria bike seller in Ringwood 40 years ago.  The bikes separate in the manner of some "Super Elliot" folders I've seen. 

The red bike has lights that work,  the better frame and a stand and racks complete with ocky straps but a torn seat, broken chain guard and no pump or saddle bag.  The blue bike has a pump, saddle intact,  saddle bag, better tyres, but no stand or front rack and the chain guard is intact but fragile.  So I should be able to make one very good 24" Victoria folder and one very fun hack bike. Red at the front and blue at the back, the essence of Modular bikes!

Will report on fixing the bikes and take some photos out and about with it later.  Meanwhile, here are a few links.

Another folding bike from Victoria 
Video of a 20" Victoria.
Victoria factory on Wikipedia
Victoria bikes official website.  No folders here but some nice low stepthrough city bikes

All for now.

Steve Nurse

Billy Minto's Bikes

Billy Minto's first recumbent

Hi, one of the pleasures of writing a blog is staying in contact with other bike builders, seeing their creations and generally yammering on about bicycles to people.  Billy Minto from Scotland has sent me a few emails and bought my book .  He keeps a blog here and has built neat bamboo bikes.  Billy's recent post about his "Flying Gate" bike and time trials modifications is very inspiring and great fun.
 
Here is Billy's description of his first recumbent: (Steve: Thats a big bike, can I use it in my blog?)
"Yes of course, happy for you to use the pic.  Yes it is pretty big,
nearly 2 metres wheelbase! - will be interesting to see how it handles. The rear stays, drivetrain and fork are from an aly road bike. Seat is 9mm ply with padding from a kiddies EVA play mat.  The main tube is bamboo, 55-60mm dia. I had hoped to get away with a single tube but it wasn't stiff enough - 65mm dia would probably have done it. I've stiffened by "truss-ifying". The tension members are carbon kite spars which I picked up pretty cheap.
Cheers, Billy






So Billy keep on rolling!


 Best Wishes

Steve Nurse
 

Wooden Bike Mk2 Part 6

Almost finished in the back yard

Material for new rear triangle

Graham Signiorini and his "new" Baron lowracer purchased through ozhpv , (one of my bikes is still there for sale.)

Back in the yard for a tuneup after a few blockies.

 Hi

 Over the last week or so I have been finishing my bike, installing the pedals, chain, disk brake, Schlumpf bottom baracket,  handlebars etc. and adapting some short cranks to fit on the Schlumpf.

A few days ago I went to try to ride it in the street but the seat was too far back and the rear wheel mount was wobbly.  So no progress riding it.

Today I had a bit more time and fixed up the seat, tightened a loose pedal and tightened up bolts and added a bit of wood to stiffen up the rear wheel mount.  The bike's rideable now, most of the gears work and the brake works but the rear wheel mount remains stubbornly wobbly.  The bikes fine for going round the block but longer rides are out.  I think buiding a new rear triangle will be necessary and will be doing that soon.

I have a medium term goal of riding the bike 200k, and the Audax August Winter surf ride of 200k from Williamstown to Torquay seems like a good one to aim for.  Will keep you posted.   

Upside Down Bike as Phone Charger

"Donor Vehicle" for the pike project, a bike which had been damaged from a front-on crash

And the result, a Pike, Upside down bike used for exercise and charging USB devices such as mobile phones.

Hi

There have been generators on bikes for decades, but until recently the only purpose of the generators was to light the way at night.  In the last year or so, however, the output from bike dynamos has been used to charge Mobile phones and other gizmos such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS). 

This makes an application for a bike dynamo to be used on a stationary bike.  For me its not a necessary system but I'm sure there would be other "more necessary" applications of the technology, ie at 2-3 day music festivals or in developing countries where  mobile phones are used in areas that don't have reliable electricity. (Refer this article)  A more sophisticated version is the aim of a New York Kickstarter program.

An array of devices is coming on the market which provide a USB socket for charging and I decided to dip my toe in the water.

Initially my plan was to make a generator using a rotor from a permanent - magnet motor, and to make a device to "stage" and test the machine which was not a bike. (Imagine using a voltmeter to assess a generator while you're riding around) 

Somewhere along the way I shortcutted the whole process by buying a cheap and cheerful bike dynamo to USB charger device.  Here is the ebay address for Australia.  A day or so after the part arrived it was installed and working to charge my phone. So the Pike was born.  Here is the video

So why the Pike?  Well, if an ekib is a backwards bike, then a Pike is, obviously, an upside down bike.  (If you spell "upside down bike" in capitals you get the slightly useless name of BIKE.) This could also be a Pik, a slightly abbreviated upside down bike.

Making the Pike

Obtain donor vehicle
Strip all parts from donor vehicle
Clean Donor vehicle frame
Cut the top tube about 20cm from the seatpost tube.
Cut the down tube right near the bottom bracket
Clean, grease and reinstall the bottom bracket.
Fit oversize (28mm) steerer and handlebars to seatpost.
Fit Rubber cap to docked top tube.
Clean and refit transmission.  Mine is a fixed gear Pike.
Fit Generator of choice with usb output.
Charge phone or other gizmo.
Have a beer, you deserve it.

Using it.
Pedal this Pike using your hands or feet.  It might be possible to run a rod down from the cranks and drive the Pike with a treadle motion.  I am still working on this one.

Regards

Steve Nurse

President's Peddlers Oppy Team

Simon and his motor-vehicular counterpart in Echuca

Crossing into New South Wales near Echuca

Before the ride at Rochester Motel

Peter, Simon, Rick at the Motel

Crossing into New South Wales near Echuca

President Peter

Near Katemetite

Rick near Katemetite

The "Oppy" is an Audax Australia 24 hour ride named in honour of Hubert Opperman and run in every state and territory where there's an Audax long distance cycling club.  You can click on this link for details.  To complete an Oppy, a group of 3 to 5 riders must ride more than 360k to a particular destination and have their rides recorded on Brevet cards.  I was invited to attend and was really glad of it, the whole 24 hours was quite an experience.  Our team consisted of Simon Watt, Rick Harker, myself and Pete Mathews. Stephen Rowlands was in at the start but had work commitments.  Unfortunately, Pete did his back just before the ride and he couldn't take part actively, but supported us when he could.  My own back was crook a few weeks previously but I came out of the soreness in time.  That was lucky, we were down to the minimum number as it was.

So we all arrived in Rochester Motel ok on the Friday night, had a good sleep and headed out 8am Saturday at a good pace, 28kph or so without much wind through Echuca and then on to Nathalia for an early lunch or morning tea. Cyclists are always hungry, you just eat when you can and don't call it anything other than welcome.  Then on to Katamatite through a little bit of rain.

We were riding in a pace line on the quiet roads.  I don't know if this helps you aerodynamically but morally it certainly does, you can just lead and keep up a certain pace or follow and do the same.  Apart from lights, my sole piece of gizmo was a cheap speedo and the callibration was out on that (28 kph reading as 31 or somesuch),  but at least it helped me stay at steady speed and not hare off in a wild fit of enthusiasm.

We should have gone left to Yarrawonga at Katemetite but in a comedy of errors including missed phone calls (we had a Tracker on Simon's bike which let Pete observe our waywardness from afar) and hilly terrain which left us more than usually separated, we did not turn back for 30k or so!  Not terribly happy but we plugged on back to Katemetite, visited the General store and refuelled and then went on to Yarrawonga reaching a servo and convenience store on the outskirts around dusk.

Some tough riding into the wind back to Katemetite, we were only doing 19kph or so.  At Katemetite we stopped and chatted to a lady supporting another team.  At that stage "only 45k" to Shepparton and "only 62k" on from Shep to Rochester and sleep.

Dinner break at Shepparton McDonald's, they have all the food groups for the travelling cyclist, caffeine, fat, carbohydrate, sugar and a cocktail of salts!  We spoke to a policeman who was a cyclist himself and of course were immediate best mates.  Simon managed to sleep for a few minutes, I managed to shiver for a few minutes and then it was on to Rochester.

Fortunately Rick's GPS was in good order and we managed a direct route back from Shepparton to (at last) Rochester. Riding in the middle of the night was sublime, it wasn't freezing cold, we had good lights and a tailwind and could ride without danger in the middle of the wide roads.  We arrived in Rochester at 4am and were greeted by Peter.  I grabbed a cheese sandwich and some milk and headed to bed for 2 hours shut eye.  At 6 am the alarm went off and I've never been jolted from a deep sleep so violently.  Part of the Oppy rules say you need to do 25k in the last 2 hours and we managed that with a brisk run down to Elmore and back.  At the end of 24 hours we had done a lazy 410k, not bad for a few old hacks on recumbent bikes.

The whole thing was by no means easy, and it was only through careful fettling of bikes (in my case tyres, suspension, rear wheel disk) and body (2 100k rides in the week before the ride) that I could make it.  As well my completely unpadded hard shell seat gets a bit uncomfortable 140k or so into a ride and some padding is really necessary for these distances. Will work on that!

Rick at Echuca (Photo Simon)

Steve at Echuca (Photo Simon Watt)

Its done.  At the Oppy statue in Rochester. (Photo Peter Mathews)

Almost there, finishing the ride in Rochester (Photo Peter Mathews)

Here is my video: http://youtu.be/fftxzBzGwK8
And here is Simon's: http://youtu.be/e8mvUO3u_nM
Here is Simon's write up on the Geelong Touring Cyclists page (click on 3): http://home.vicnet.net.au/~gtcycle/

As mentioned, Simon carried Peter's spotter tracker and recorded our progress in real time on the interweb thingy,  here is the link.  The out and back track at lower right was our detour!

For all the hard work you get (several months later) this rather fancy-pants, French ratified certificate.

Wooden Bike Mk2 Part 5

Progress on the rear triangle, still a bit of work to do.  I want to drill and tap the 2 support posts in the middle to secure it all together.  Not the lightest thing, it is made with solid plywood with fibreglass reinforcement and has handmade steel inserts screwed and glued in for the dropouts and pivot points at the ends.

Frame Almost Done

Suspension blocks in place.  These are parts of old-school pedals.  They were ground back a bit to make slots for the velcro straps.  This making a black rubbery mess!

Almost a bike now.

This is the plan.

Quite a bit of progress on the bike today with most of the frame and rear triangle put together and only some more screwing together and painting needed to finish it. My welding gas (acetylene) ran out just as the brazing of the rear triangle cross piece bits was being finished.  

 While browsing on the internet I came across another wooden bike on the XNTRICK site .  I am aiming for good speed from my wooden bike, and the XNTRICK site describes a good race performance from this very similar bike.  (Incidentally, there are many other good and simple bikes on XNTRICK.  The video on this page shows the world Human Powered Furniture Championship and is hilarious.  I am interested in having a go at a Velocino and already have a good donor bike lined up.)

This week I've been struggling with a painful back bruise (surfing accident).  I have a long Audax ride coming up in a few weeks (all day Opperman Trial) so hopefully will be fit enough to ride in it.  My training needs to be a bit like what I did leading up to the 300 k ride I did last year and the bike will be the same one I used for that ride.  

Wooden Bike Mk2 Part 4

Fibreglassing the Chainstays

Front assembly.  The bottom bracket hole can be seen - it was drilled with an adjustable brace-and-bit tool (ancient fossil) which I had in my shed. Don't know where I got it but I think it came from my Dad or Dad's dad.  Front fork is fitted.

In a fit of confidence I painted the bottom bracket after brazing on the laser cut mounting plate.

My son Ewan's birthday was during the week.  Here is the small celebration we had, Ewan, Phoebe, Christine.

Ok, just a picture of progress on the bike and a few birthday wishes. Happy 22nd Birthday Ewan!  Happy Birthday Daisy, new daughter of Brad and Sharon!

Regards

Steve Nurse