Looking down #2: Baby on wheels
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My taxi in Kigali earlier today
via Pixelpipe
The Tyre Marker. V1.1
While following on from the Tyre Marker V1.0 using the olympic logo on a roller, I will now take this to the actual wheel. My mission this week was to find something to sit inside the groove of a bicycle rim so I can adhere the cut out images to that surface. I visited Pentoville Rubbers, which has an unbelieveable amount of rubber styles, textures and thicknesses, they also stock foam too. After many a trip there to grab samples, I ended up with 2.5 metres of rubber that sat snugly within the rim of the bicyle wheel. Once this was done I attempted to make a small section with a pattern and do a test print.
The Tyre Marker. V1.0
Recently I have been seeing sections of road that have had buckets of paint spilt upon them, this caused by it falling of a truck. The consequence is the following cars driving through this paint and streaks of colour created by there forward journey. Funnily enough the paint is always white! This made me think if this could become a new bi-product some what. I believed that you could do this for bicycles, but make or add some form of paint applicator so you make decisive marks on your journey with a beautiful colour or message to brighten up Londons road.
The example above is using the olympic ring colours, this device would be great if these were used in the olympic park or ridden from a station to the park, thus making a trail for people to follow.
Front end is disassembled
Tonight I hit an interesting milestone: the front end of the bike is completely disassembled. I removed it from the frame last week and tonight I got the wheel and tire removed from the front axle, front shocks pulled from the forks, and the brake housings torn down. I should have pressure washed the bike before I started this, but I was worried about damaging it more. So the progress has been filthy.
I think I can save the wheel hubs; they're actually in pretty good shape. I have had no luck finding any replacement wheels, but a these ones are definitely shot. I was really hoping to avoid lacing my own wheels for a few reasons: First, I've never done it before and wheels are a critical component on any vehicle. Second, the outfit that sells the kits is a Taiwanese operation that ships rim and spoke kits as "AWESOME! EXCELLENT!" I just don't know if I want anyone riding around on wheels assembled from those kids. We'll see.
With tonight's progress, I have two more body parts ready to go out for sandblasting, powder-coating, and paint: the front forks and the fender (once I buy a replacement fender, since this one is beyond repair):
Another new part arrived in the mail today: a set of ignition points to replace the rusted-out points in the bike:
Here are tonight's documentation shots:
Front end removal
While the last post celebrated the first new part involved in this project, this post winces at the first injury resulting from stupidity. I brought the table lift into the garage and was excited to get the bike up in the air. It's still fairly heavy, and while I was loading it onto the table the kickstand folded under and the bike rolled forward, crushing my left index finger between the bike frame and the table. It hurt but will be fine.
Stepping back to do this right, I decided to remove the front end. This cuts the weight by about 25%, and shifts the center of gravity to the rear so that the bike will stand upright with just one wheel and the kickstand. The forks are connected to the neck of the frame with an odd metric nut that requires a spanner wrench to remove. I have very few metric tools, and no spanner wrenches at all. Dad's metal fabrication abilities solved the problem. I sent him some conservative measurements (standard approximations as that was all I had), and he had his metal shop up in Kirkland machine me a part. The credit goes to Willow Bay Manufacturing, Dad's shop. The process of milling a tool out of steel is interesting, and I got this video from Dad today showing how the milling machine runs a small high-speed bit through the metal to carve out the teeth that will remove the nut:
With a large bolt welded to it, any normal crescent wrench can be used to remove this nut from the neck of the bike:
With the help of some penetrating lubricant, the nut came right off. This could have been a lot more expensive than it was (free)! Now that the front end is off, it was easy to get the bike onto the lift and safely strapped down so that it won't go anywhere.
I'm going to completely disassemble the front end next. The brake drum needs to come off and the rotten wheel and tire must be removed form the forks. After that, it's time to pull the engine! Here are the bread crumb photos from this phase...
Crazy mouse
Caught this little guy getting tossed around in the wheel cause he couldn't keep up.
Sent from my iPhone
