Hell (Revisited)

It's been a fun and productive Memorial Day weekend... it's amazing how one extra day can make all the difference.  I bet I could actually keep on top of work, have time for family, work on bike projects, and ride more regularly if every weekend was a three-day weekend!

After missing a couple weeks, I got out for the Friday Night Ride...

It was a nice, cool night with good company and good beer (I had my first can of Surly Hell for the year; it just hit stores earlier this week... mmmmm).  I ended up with about 25 miles for the night.

Saturday was a lazy, rainy day; a good day for family time.  Sunday was sweltering with 90 degree heat ending with strong storms; a good day to catch up on work.  I was able to sneak in a little time to build a rack jig though...

The jig holds the legs of the rack in place while I braze them to the rack.  It also provides a flat surface to clamp the actual rack while I'm attaching the legs.  I can set it up to hold the upper legs too.  The jig is fairly adjustable and should be useful in building future racks.

I finished my weekend work on Monday morning and got out for a couple rides... a short ride around the lake with my wife, and then I grabbed the dirt Fargo and headed for the MN River Valley.

We've been getting a lot of rain and storms lately, and the river was running the highest I've seen it all year.  In fact, it is flooded out between 77 and 494.  There are also a lot of branches down across the trail, one of which got caught in my rear wheel and tried to pull the rear derailleur off.  I'm convinced if I had been riding a Gen 2 Fargo it would have broken the replaceable hanger off and I would have been rigging up a singlespeed drivetrain to get home.  Instead it bent the hanger, which I simply bent back.  A little derailleur cable adjustment and it shifted the same as it did prior to the encounter with the stick.  I'm not sure which is better on a steel bike, one-piece dropouts or those with replaceable hangers, but today I'm glad I had one-peice steel dropouts (coincidentally, that is what will be on the custom fat bike).

On my way to (and from) the river I stopped by Minnehaha Falls Park for Surly Brewing's Hell Release Party.  Hell is one of my favorite beers, and it was a nice bonus to start and end my ride with a cold one...

Pre-Ride Hell

Post-Ride Hell

One quick update about the custom fat bike...  I now have the tubeset and the dropouts.  I need to get a few little things like rack braze-ons, and possibly a second top tube, but for the most part I have all the major pieces for the frame build.  I still have a couple more busy weeks at work so I probably won't get around to completing the life-size drawing until next month sometime.  Once that is done, I can start cutting and mitering tubes!

Custom Rack #1 - Layout

Another busy week and not much to show for it with regards to bikes.  The only thing I accomplished was laying out a new design for the 1x1's custom rack.  I realized the "legs" of the rack were too short to support the rear end of the rack so I mitered some new ones...

I also added a loop at the tail end and new connectors to the seatstays.  Depending on how things look once it's all brazed, I may add an additional brace between the legs and the front of the rack.  I don't plan on carrying heavy loads, so I'm guessing the current design will be sufficiently sturdy.

I've changed my original plans to braze the rack directly to the 1x1 frame.  I'm now planning to add braze-ons to the frame so the the rack will be removable.  If the rack turns out nice, the fact that it is removable might allow me to also use it on the fat bike frame.

That's all for now... a few more busy work weeks and I should have more time to braze.

Puzzle Pieces

I got a few more pieces of the puzzle this week...

The board is MDF (medium density fiberboard) and will provide a flat surface for checking the alignment of the frame.  Ideally I'd have a nice flat slab of granite, but that isn't going to happen.  The MDF is cheap, relatively flat, and most importantly I can pick it up and store it out of the way.  I simply don't have the space, or budget, for a granite table.  Attached to the board is the post for the bottom bracket shell.  This will hold the frame in a plane (relatively) parallel to the MDF and will allow me to see if the frame is close to straight.

I also received a couple cones in the mail this week.  The jig is now complete!  I only need one cone for the seat tube, but they'll be doing double duty by also holding the head tube (which will use two cones).  Due to the design of the jig there is no need to hold the seat tube and head tube on center at the same time.  The tapered washers on the right are used to hold the bottom bracket shell.  The cones and washers are all attached to 80/20 brackets for mounting to the jig.

And finally, I skipped out on the Friday Night Ride because I got caught up in a rack project.  I spent the evening cutting, bending, and mitering the tubes of a custom rack for the 1x1.  I had a good time working on it, and the rack pieces turned out awesome, but I have to ride more often... I'm getting really out of shape.

The rear rack is roughly 5"x 11" and will be brazed directly to the 1x1's frame.  The two small pieces in the bottom of the photo will connect the rack to the brake bridge, and the longer curved pieces will attach the rack to the seatstays.  I'm excited to see how this turns out... this is my first real bike project, albeit a small one compared to building an actual frame.  Unfortunately this is a busy time of year (both at work and at home), so I'm not sure when I'll actually be able to fire up the torch.  Although I am considering taking a personal day soon to get some projects done around the house, and this just might be one of them...

DIY Fat Bike - Initial Design

I spent some time this morning sketching up an initial design of my DIY fat bike...

I'll probably end up adding another 1/2" or so to the effective top tube and chainstay lengths (and therefore roughly an inch to the wheelbase).  I expect a long 25.5" top tube will give me some more stem options (I don't want to limit myself to a 135mm stem).  I also think it's a good idea to add some extra space behind the bottom bracket.  Fitting the chainstays between the crank arms, chainrings and tire might be a bit interesting.

I am also considering a dual top tube, since that is one big front triangle!  Something like this or this.

The geometry is essentially a longer version of the first generation Fargo, with a couple tweaks.  I'm guessing the final design won't be too far off from this sketch, although I anticipate making a few minor adjustments.  The big question is... can I can miter and braze the tubes accurately enough?  We'll find out!  Whatever happens, I'm confident the bike will be rideable even if a few angles and lengths aren't spot on.

On a related note, I had a 20% off coupon for a local bike shop so I picked up a tire for the fat bike...

I've considered saving up for another Big Fat Larry, but I have the feeling there will be more "big fat" options in the future.  My hope is that with the increased popularity of fat bikes, Surly (and others) will be introducing more fat tire options at Interbike in September.  For the record, the BFL I got came in at 1522 grams, which is almost 200 grams lighter than the 27tpi Nate I got last fall... I'm not much of a weight weenie, but I really should have spent the extra money to get the 120tpi Nate.