Bike in a jig

This lumber jig proved useless as the lumber wasn't square enough

The angle iron jig worked great!

More learning over the past two days. I haven't been able to find a significant amount of info regarding the best way to set up a recumbent bike in a jig to ensure it remains square in all planes while you epoxy on the various components such as the headtube, bottom bracket and in my case the swing arm pivot point. I started by using lumber and was hoping this would be square and sturdy enough. I struggled for the better part of two days to get everything straight. By lunchtime today I decided I would need to use something stronger and squarer than lumber. I decided angle iron should do the trick, so I went to Lowes and got 2 - 6' lengths of the largest angle iron they sell and built a jig for the

rear wheel to go in. This immediately made a huge difference and I quickly had things squared up. I used some 5 minute epoxy to "tack" the pivot axle on and held it in place for 20 minutes until it was sturdy enough to move. I then took it to the basement and applied a significant amount of epoxy thickened with 404 thickener to make a good bond and hold the axle in place. Over the next few days I will give it a few layers of CF to give it the necessary strength. The headtube installation is the next squaring challenge, that will happen tomorrow morning.

modified stem with fibreglass tube inside and fibreglass wrap on outside

Today I also made the modification to my stem. In order to create a steering mast the goes from the fork up to my handlebar which is about 24" away I need to have a stem that has both clamps in the same plane. They all come with the handlebar clamp 90 deg from the fork clamp. I also want my stem to have an adjustable angle so I can have a good variety of hand positions available. I bought an adjustable stem from MEC and cut it in half. I then built a small fibreglass tube to go inside the cut off piece to give it some strength when I bonded it back together. I didn't get a photo of the glass tube, but so far the installation has gone well. Fingers are crossed that this experiment will work. If not it will be back to the drawing board for  my steering solution.

stem and frame with pivot bonded on rear-end

pivot axle bonded on rear of frame