WOW, that thing is HUGE!!!

Well, what can I say? I own a big bike!! In this photo the seat isn't attached and the bottom bracket is just sitting inside the frame unbonded. Let me tell you, it felt great to put my full weight on the bike and hear no creaks or anything that sounds like a failure. I do need to add some air to the rear shock, it seems like there is very little pressure right now. Once I get it tuned properly there should be more of a downward angle to the swing arm. The rear shock has a lockout option which will allow me to lock it out with a lever on the handlebar. This is for climbing hills and times when you don't need the suspension and is supposed to help with losing power from you pedal stroke going into compressing the shock.

The long piece sticking out from the steering stem will be cut off once I know the correct length. I am going to try to make that piece of 1" aluminum into my handlebar. I have access to some pretty handy electricians at work and I am going to try to get them to bend the tube with a conduit bender. They made a great ergonomic kayak trainer paddle me earlier in the year, so I am hoping they can make me a custom curved handlebar. Once again, I can't do that until I am sitting properly on the bike with the mast adjusted right. I will most likely start with a straight bar and modify it once I have a few miles under my belt.

I bought two bike chains yesterday, my measurements show that I am going to be close to getting by with two, but I have a feeling I am going to need a few inches from a third bike......more parts for the next project!!!

Seat Update

Things continue to go well and now that the house is sold I can put most of my spare time towards the bike. The seat is coming along very well. As I mentioned earlier, I couldn't come up with a good way to mould the lumbar and horn. I decided to make things straightish and then add support once the seat is useable.

This weekend I got the seat base and the back ribs bonded and I layed the carbon on tonight, but I won't be putting on the epoxy on until tomorrow night as I ran out of brushes. A stop into the dollar store on the way home from work tomorrow will stock up my brush supply for the final few lay ups.

Busy Two Weeks

Progress has slowed down a bit, as we have put the house up for sale. To get it ready I had to spend a bit more time doing house stuff, instead of bike stuff. It all paid off, as we had an offer on the fifth day. As long as I get my posting message, the house is sold!! Now back to the bike.

The seat has taken shape really well, I thought I had some photos but I don't. Photos will come tomorrow as it is in the curing stage again tonight. The back frames got epoxied on this evening. The seat is a bit rough, but I think I got a pretty decent shape considering the rudimentary process I followed to make the thing.

If you can recall back to the small bottle cap filled with epoxy to hold the nut that will be the attachment point for the idler, this photo shows the piece CF'ed into the frame. I used some regular epoxy and some thickened with filler. The position is good and it feels very sturdy.

I have the new seat mounts built and installed. They are pretty good and very sturdy. I needed to use some scrap pieces of oak hardwood flooring. It added some chunkiness and alot of weight. but I didn't feel the pieces that I had were strong enough for the shock and the seat. The beefed up ones are definitely strong enough.

The rear shock mount at the swing arm is really ugly, in fact the entire swing arm is ugly. It looks to be functional, but I think I may be in for some cutting as it is starting to look like the shock housing is going to hit the arm when I hit a good size bump. I am going to give it a try for now. The most important part I want to happen in the next week is to ride it on the streets. From there I will fine tune to suspension issues.

The adventure continues......