Chris travels a LOT for his work, and has been challenged with the ability to ride when stranded in foriegn areas.
Never one to enjoy road biking, the goal of this build is to create a custom coupled bike that will bring a smile to his face and stimulate a desire to hit the road when "on the road".
This build will be a steel SS coupler bike that will pack away into an easily transported case for travel. A no non-sense performance ride, agile and fun to throw around, but still offer a comfortable enough position to ride the occasional 100 miler if the mood hits. The design will be semi-compact for ease of packing, to give ample standover height and a nice stiff responsive feel when you hit the pedals.
So here we go...laying out the fixture;
One of the first items I work on is to face the head tube and bottom bracket to insure they are dead on straight. Below is the head tube...it gets faced, deburred, and filed on the outer edge. The next step is to relieve the interior wall thickness to match the King headset perfectly. King goes to great pains to make a very precise product...nothing dissapoints me more than pressing that jewel into a poorly prepared head tube. I allow about 12 thousandths interferance fit to insure it presses in straight but is still a snug fit.
The finished relief cut on the interior;
Next up, the tubes all take a roll on the alignment table to find any irregularities or bows and then are marked for the top and the butts...
Before I can start rocking out the miters, I have to install the couplers. I install the couplers in the short butt section to allow for tube growth when installed, leaving the long butt section to trim for the finished miters.
Cutting the tubing for the coupler in the cold saw...
Once the tubing is cut, I go back to the lathe and face the tubing where it will insert into the coupler to insure I have a perfect fit. I want as much surface contact as possible on the interior to allow the system to have the greatest strength.
The finished ends, all ready to be mock fit..
The couplers slid over the tubing for a mock fit. You can see how the teeth inter-twine to create a torsionally stable joint. Once fully brazed and assembled, the joint will be stronger than the plain tube was when it began...
The retaining rings and installation nut are installed...this is the configuration that will be used during fabrication, being replaced with the sexy stainless nut when completed.
A quick shot of the two tubes, top and down tube, mock fit up. Ready to clean and silver braze :)
In other news, the July Luv Handle list is full, any new orders will be slotted for August.
Here's who I have for personal bars...shop's not included. Please let me know if there are any errors:
Paul Black
Benjamin 28" black
Nick Black
Bryan No rise black
Jake Silver
Jerome Black
Nuno Black
Sam Raw, no finish
Edward Jollypop Green
Bruce Black
Chris Black
Marc Black
Randy White
Mark Silver
Neil no rise, Black
Gonna try to catch up on email tomorrow on my day off from the shop...
cheers,
rody
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