Goyo's fantastic Monday...

Evening folks,

This morning I started the day finishing up the final details on the phone with Goyo for his Groovy 650b single speed.

Goyo is a prolific cyclist and retail shop owner in the Philippines and is ready to try out the new wheel size in a frame that will serve primarily as a single speed but also have geared capabilities if the mood strikes. So, to accomplish the short laundry list of desires, we're building up the frame with Paragon sliders that can easily accommodate differing dropout plates and chain tensioning duties, and we will be using internal cable routing to keep the visual lines as clean as possible when not hanging gears and cables all over it :)

Goyo's terrain is a bit more open and fast running than what we have here in the mid-east, so I'm changing up the geometry a bit to create a fast flowing ride for him; a bit slacker head angle, lower bottom bracket, and a tiny bit tighter rear end for the standing climbing that is such an integral part of single speeding.

With the build ironed out, it's off to the shelves to select the tubing...


and then to set up the fixture.


For the second day in a row, I've fallen prey to the metal monster, this time slicing a vertical incision in my thumb. Here's a shot of the gore and the top tube being cut, all in one fell swoop.


Ahhh yep, that's blood on them thar tubes...I'll decontaminate it before painting, I promise ;)

and just like that, the front triangle is all mitered up. The front end on this bike will be using a Fox 100fx fork that is typically used on 26" wheeled frames. Fortunately for us, it will carry a 650b quite nicely and allow for more travel with less front end height when contrasted to a fork such as the White Brothers Magic 100 for 650b's...an attribute that is important for building big wheeled bikes for smaller proportioned folks.


With the front mitered up, it was on to the backside of the frame. Here I've measured out the layout for the chainstays, with the tire location, dropout intersect and the 10mm insert length all marked out.

Even with all the fun power tools in the shop, there are still some things better done by hand...


Once the stays are cut to length, I use a double slitting saw with a custom center shim to create a slot with just the right width in the end of the stay...

into the fixture it goes for welding...

Once mitered and back into the frame fixture, it's starting to look like a bike :)

Next up to the plate are the seat stays...laying it out loosely on the set up table...

One mitered for the dropout, one ready to go to the mill...

in the fixture for cutting the seat tube miter...

The mill table's perspective of the cutter doing it's job...

and finally, fit into place. I worked steadily today to get all the pieces mitered and fit with perfection. As the internal guides were a last minute decision, as fate would have it, I'm one piece of brass tubing short, so I'll have to wait a few days for more supplies before welding it all up :(

With a couple of hours of shop time left, I prepped up some more grip sections for the moly Luv Handles...always trying to fit in as much productivity as I can.

I'm beat, so that's it for tonight. I'm at the FD tomorrow and then back in the shop on Wednesday, when I hope to be laying down some paint on three frames.

Hope to see you stopping by then,

rody

PS...I've really enjoyed the "Follow this blog" registrants, it's really cool to see who is tuning in and what a diverse group of folks there are sharing this time together. If you are a regular reader, please take time to register and follow along so we can all enjoy meeting you too.