Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Vacuum Pump Arrived

The UPS man made a delivery today. I got my vacuum pump kit from ACP Composites in California. Everything looks in order, I can't wait to get the carbon delivered. It is being shipped out of New Hampshire tomorrow. I am planning on getting the West System epoxy from West Marine in Kingston. I might take a run there this weekend to get that so I am ready to start a trial as soon as the carbon arrives.

Storm the Trent!!!! get building the bike!

If this bike builder, if I can call myself that with only a piece of carved foam to call a bike, doesn't get this project sorted out by spring then the entry fee that he just paid for the adventure race, Storm the Trent, will be wasted. 
STT-logo_STT-page.jpgYes, I am now registered in the trek elite race masters category for the 10th annual Storm the Trent race, http://www.stormevents.ca/stormthetrent.htm. It sounds like history could be made at the race as it will be the first time there will be two LWB recumbent mountain bikes in this event. For that matter, it is quite possible that this will be the first time in any AR that there will be two of these beasts entered.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Carbon Fiber

I have finalized my list for carbon fiber requirements, well at least what I think I need. Since there seems to be no method of estimating how strong a homemade CF structure will be, it isn't possible to effectively decide how many lay-ups of fiber you need. I am going to go with 5 layups to start and see how thing look. I am planning on using biaxial carbon fiber sleeves for most of the project along with West System epoxy. I wil be getting some sheets of CF for seat construction and additional reinforcement in a few of the critical areas on the frame. I believe the main stress points are the swing-arm attachment and shock area, the BB area and the head tube attachment. I will be ordering my CF from Soller Composites and the epoxy from Aircraft Spruce Canada. I already ordered a vacuum pump kit from ACP Composites so I can vacuum bag the layups. This method is supposed to create a much stronger component.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

foam lessons

I thought I would go with the easiest and route and use the only 3" wide foam that I could find locally. This turned out to be a mistake, as are most things that are easy!! The foam seemed to cut ok, but once I tried shaping it with drywall screen and sandpaper I had chunks falling off and it didn't shape how I would have liked. This leads me to explain how I got to cutting and carving the foam.

To make the pattern, I used the mock-up that I constructed earlier from lumber. I took those dimensions and  drew them with pencil onto a large roll of paper. I then cut the paper model out and taped it to a 1/4" piece of particleboard. I then made dots at each corner, joined the dots with a marker and used my jigsaw to cut out the template. I did this twice, so I would have two templates, one for each side of the foam. This made it nice and easy to use the hacksaw blade to cut the foam.



















































To do the shaping and rounding of the foam, I bought a 4" PVC pipe union and cut it in half. Inside there was a ridge that needed to be ground down so the sandpaper or drywall screen would sit nice and flat. I used the rotary tool and a grinding bit for that job. The plastic ridge disappeared very quickly.






















Today, I went and got some 1.5" pink rigid insulation and glued to pieces together to get the 3" thickness that I want to start with for the bike frame. I glued the pieces together with "No More Nails" construction glue.

I went through the same cutting process to get the foam frame. The pink insulation is MUCH nicer to work with. I then established where I needed to carve down the frame. I want to overbuild this frame to ensure it is strong enough, but I also need to ensure the bicycle components fit on. I will leave the rear end at 3" wide but will carve the front half down in width and round all the edges. The bottom bracket area will go down to about 2.5" and the headtube will go down to about 1.75".









Thursday, January 13, 2011

Original Best Design

This is the bike that I am using as a guide to construct mine. This custom built LWB has a proven track record in adventure races and single track riding. "Bent", the proud owner of this awesome machine has had much success in his various endeavors and is one of the few people I would consider an expert in off road recumbent riding. He has given me a huge amount of assistance and motivation to move my project along. You will notice my "lumber bike" looks very similar to his Best designed and built bike.

Wooden mock up

Here is the nearly final mock up of the bike. This is a bit rough as it is built with lumber and plywood, but it allowed a true measurement of BB to seat (x-seam) measurement. I also used this mock up to work out the length of the rear chain stays, I want to shorten the wheelbase as much as possible as this design is looong and ensuring the rear end is only as long as it really needs to be is the only way to shorten the WB. It is a little over 70" long right now.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Foam purchase

I just got the eps foam for my bike frame. I am using a 96 x 24 x 3 inch piece of green foam from plasti-fab.