absentee excuses

Blah Blah Blah. Our move took a lot out of me and my time. It took a while to get everything ready, then move, then settle. I am there now and of course with nice weather, I have been playing a lot. I like living closer to the shop. I ride nearly every day. it is about 11 miles one way so I am getting about 100 miles in every week just from my commute.

I signed up again this year for the Vermont 50. It is the 50 mile mountain bike race that I did for the first time last year. It is in September. I have 4 months to get my butt into shape for this. I have a goal of completing the race. I guess it will take about 9 hours. I have my work cut out for me on this one.

On to frame work. I happened to get the top tube fit, brazed, and initially cleanup in the frame. I will do some more lug clean up on the seat lug and the upper head lug. Then I will face and ream the head tube and ream the seat tube. I will also do a final face and chase on the bb shell. That will leave me at the rear triangle. If you remember, it is a wishbone rear end with track drop outs. I will get some pictures posted of where I am now and then get back on track with the updates there after. See ya soon!

blog update

I am going to attempt to rekindle something that I once did. check it out here.

delays and changes

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I have to upgrade my torch setup and I have some tools that I am working on getting made that will help me with the rear triangle on #001. It is also necessary for a frame that I am designing to build coming up. I have some things that I need to work out with the carbon frame as well. And on top of all that, we are moving. Getting closer to civilization and the shop. Less travel time on the highway will make me happy. I will also be able to commute by bike a lot more and take the public bus when the weather is too bad. All good things ahead. A little patience is what I need to get situated. Thanks, Wil

Looking good

I took some time to clean up the re-braze of the seat tube and the new braze of the down tube into the BB shell. There is a lot that can be done here and the amount of time you spend on clean up is an individual decision. I am happy with this junction. I may use my Dremel to clean things up some more before is gets sent to powder. Catch up with the details over at Flickr.

After the soak

I am ready to clean up the joint I just brazed. After I sand and file it all nice, I will tap and face the shell. Then I will shoot some primer on it to see how it turned out.

I will then move on to fitting the top tube. I think that this is one of the trickiest parts of the front triangle. It requires plenty of precision and no less patience to make it right. stay tuned for those details.

Spring has Sprung!

The weather here in Northern Vermont has been unseasonable. Yet this time it was to a cyclist advantage. We had temps in the 80's on Saturday. We got out for some riding and it feels great to be in the warm. It is going to tone down here a little bit but it is still nice to have the shorts on and feel Spring coming.

I did manage to get the down tube brazed into the BB shell and I cold set it on the alignment table. I need to chase and face the shell and do some clean up. I will then move on to the top tube. This is the trickiest part of the front triangle. Slow and steady will get it done. I will update photos tonight of my progress so far.

Re-braze

The seat tube to BB shell joint was not adequate for my desires so I stripped the primer of it, cleaned it up, put some fresh flux on it and added more silver. Wow, how perfect it turned out. I am very pleased at the shorelines and how just the right amount of silver was pulled through the joint. Next up is the down tube.