Oops

Stopped at the bike shop yesterday to pick up a new back wheel. (mine had snapped a spoke and I wanted to get a nwe wheel and then fix the old one up as a spare.) I asked all the questions I could think of and found the new wheel I wanted.

I took the wheel home and decided to swap the cogs over this morning. This went without a hitch and I was feeling really good about the whole thing. when I got the Cog off I saw why the spoke broke. Im guessing something really bad happened when I wrecked since half the spokes (outward facing ones - the same ones that I broke) were all chewed up. So I felt really good that I was replacing the wheel and would replace all those spokes before I used the wheel again.

My good feeling didn't last, when I went to put the tube back on I noticed that the hole for the valve looked a little narrow, and sure enough it was Presta instead of schrader.

Not only do I not have any Presta Tubes but I dont think My floor pump is presta either, also my front tire is Schrader so I either have to carry two different types of tube or figure something out to use a presta tube on my front wheel as well.

Some Days it just doesn't Pay to be motivated.

Art You Can Ride

Found on MakeTV

Art Bike - Mock up

So I took a few min today to throw most of the parts back on the frame to get an impression of what the bike will look like when it is finished. The batteries in my camera were dead so you will have to get by with  a pic snapped from the Iphone. Still it should give a good idea of what the finished product will be.

Art Bike - Forks

Got the Map laminated onto the forks today, but I need to get another waterproof map to finish the bike. hopefully I can find a place that has some. Still so far so good. The bottom of the fork will have a black band around them between the map and the red of the fork

Art Bike Progress

Got the head badge and seat tube, Got the tape on the tube, holding the map tight until the glue hardens.

New Project

Been thinking about this project for quite awhile. I guess I finally got around to stripping down the Ventura so I could pretty much begin again. I cant remember where I got the Idea from but I think it is a smashing Idea. I took the frame of the ventura (this is a 70's - 80's steel Lugged frame) and I currently laminating the BikePGH Bike map onto the from from lug to lug. I am currently working on the top tube. then the seat tube, and finally the down tube. Not sure what I am going to do with forks or the back part of the bike.

I plan to seal the whole thing with several coats of clear coat when I'm done. Then put the whole thing together. Minus the front break, it keeps hitting the frame taking chunks out of it.  Not sure what I am going to do with the bike when I am done, I'm to big and heavy to actually ride it.

Ant Bike

Ant Bike Mike Makes an Antbike from zak lee on Vimeo.

And some people wonder why I love bikes so much.

DIY Truing Stand - Bike Hacks

Photo Credit: Reader Rob from Melbourne, Australia

Found this DIY truing stand over at Bike Hacks read on for complete article. I am going to have to give this one a try. I will try to document my progress.

Full Article

Did someone say Tall Bike

Found on Make Magazine

Check out the link for a full article.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/10/full-suspension_bicycle.html

Vintage Bike PrOn

Photo Credit: Make Magazine

Found over on MAKE this 1896 book on design and construction of all types of pedal powered loveliness is a fully (and legally) downloadable file over at google books. hit up the links below for more info.

Article over at MAKE
Book Download

Happy Birthday To Me

Sunday is my Birthday and Celebrate I did a couple things. First I took today off to try and enjoy myself. I also stopped at Thick Bikes and picked up the last couple of parts I needed to finish the Project. Last night I finished the Bike and today I took it out for its First Test Ride.

I wasn't Looking Forward to this.

As you all may know this project, while fun and very educational, was a huge PAIN IN THE... well you know. So as I took the first ride on the bike I was totally prepared for the bike to fall into pieces as soon as I got up to speed. Things went way better than I thought. I found a few loose bolts and I needed to adjust the brakes. I also learned something else.

My legs are nowhere as strong as I thought they were. I had to change from the big chain-ring to the smaller chain-ring. Effectively  switching from 9th gear to 3rd gear.

I also Picked up the tool kit you see below. I had two of the tools you see below in my hand (BB tool and Pedal Wrench) when I realized that for 10 bucks more I could get this whole kit.

So what I am saying is.

Happy Birthday to Me

Bing Bang Boom

Photo Credit: Me

So you can see I am making some progress. I found out that this progress comes at a price. I picked up two new tubes and two new tires.

I know what your thinking. Where is the other tire.

Yeah about that, it seems that when I was pumping the tire up and watching the pressure gauge for it to get up to the 80-90 PSI range. I looked down just in time to watch the tire go BOOM. yeah it was kind of scary. So back to square one on that one. Still it is good to see some progress.

Ventura - Progress

Photo Credit: Me

Well it seems as if I am finally beginning to make some progress in putting the Ventura back together. as you can see I have forks and brakes back on. I need to get a new Bottom Bracket (including cranks chainring and pedals), Stem, brake levers (maybe) and cables. You know only most of the bike.

My plan is for it to be a single speed so I wont be putting the derailleurs back on and will keep an eye peeled for a good deal on a single speed 27" wheel. For now im gonna use the one that came with it and just shorten the chain.

After all the false starts with painting I am happy to be actually putting parts on the bike. I only wonder what adventures putting it back together is going to hold for me.

A running Joke

Photo Credit: www.desktopedia.com

Well it seems I have found the problem in the ongoing saga of Bike Frame Painting. After several attempts, some more successful than others but all failures in the end I have learned an important lesson.

I have found the Weak Link.

"Hello Weak link" I say to myself.

I suffer from the pitiful combonation of exacting vision and total lack of patience.  I not only know just how I want the bike to look but I also know (in my mind) just how to achieve this. I am somewhat hampered by the small matter that I have the attention span of red bull addicted 4 year old and the patience to match.

Still as G.I Joe says "Knowing is half the Battle"  So once again I found myself brushing scraping and sanding, only to head back out to the dustbowl of a work area to put the first coat of Red paint on the frame. Yeah Yeah I know the bike is going to be orange but the red paint is also a rust proofing so it is going to make up the first coat.

Now I just need someone to come over and take the frame away from me for a few days so I cant play with it until I can put the next coat of paint on.  I have to admit I am starting to feel pressured since I have to get the paint on the bike before the weather gets to bad to work outside. My plan is to get the paint done and over the winter get the rest of the bike put together for its unveiling in spring.

Is it wrong for the weight of the paint to be greater than the weight of the steel in the bike?

That's pretty much normal right?

Knife Sharpening Bike

Photo Credit: Make:Online

So I found this in my Google Reader today. Always amazes me at how little we think of own bodies as engines, when for thousands of years our bodies were the most common engine in use.

Read the whole story over at BikeHacks

No really Progress this time

Photo Credit: Me

Well After the last post (Somedays you win) I took some serious time to consider what I needed to do. The first thing I decided was that I needed to start fresh. So I will repeat this and consider a new part of the Bible (Fatguy's Painting Bible) from the book of Primer Chapter 3 Verse 4 (Primer 3:4) Primer covers a multitude of sins. So I put on 3 coats of Rust resistant Primer and (the red) and two coats of filler primer (the gray) after a good hour of wet sanding I headed back outside to put a couple coats of black on the top tube.

This is the other thing I decided - This bike is going to be the new FatguyOrangebike Bike. So I placed the vinyl letters on as you see them there.  I did this on both sides of the Top Tube and tomorrow I will add several coats of orange to the upper part of the bike.

Once the Orange is on I will place the rest of the letters and then add a over layer of white on the top tube and hopefully people will be astounded at just how cool the custom FatGuyOrangeBike will look. 

So until the next layer I'll leave you with these photos and let me know what you think.

Somedays you win

And others you lose. Today was such a day (as far as the bike goes) I picked up some pretty cool looking purple to use as an accent color. with the bike taped off I painted it.

Two Words

Massive Fail.

As you can tell from my lack of photo here (I dont even want to take a picture of what the frame looks like let alone post one here.) so starting next week it is back to the wire wheel as I work to take the paint off the bike and begin again.  Anyone know how much it would cost to have my bike bead blasted back down to bare metal?)

I will still go with the orange, I like the orange, I like it alot, it is just everything else about the bike that was all wrong. Gonna need to rethink this whole thing.

Fork U - and other things

Photo Credit:Me

Well, Its been a busy week so far. I did manage to get the forks for the Ventura primed and one coat of orange on them. Looks like I will be stopping by the Autoparts Store tomorrow and picking up another can of paint (or two) since The orange is pretty much empty. I have several coats of Orange left to put on the forks and Truth be told I still haven't decided if I want to use Black as the Accent Color. Im going to throw the question up on the Bike-PGH Forums and see what the fine folks there have to say.

I did mention a Busy Week Right? I thought so.  Over the Past two days I have been spending my evenings sitting at intersections counting Bikes (and everything else) as they rode past as part of some Bike transportation census.

It has been an educational couple of days.

I have learned that,
Almost no girls ride bikes (yes I know this is false but My data says it)
Less than half of you wear a helmet! (however almost all the girls did)
More of you ride on the Sidewalk in Pittsburgh than the Street.

And we wonder why cars think we don't belong on the street?

Tommorrow I will be counting Bikes at the 9th st Bridge so after that I will post my numbers for the three bridges.

Before

Finally this week I managed to strip the old nasty Fiber Tape off the handlebars of the Ventura. However I am struck with the rather awkward position on putting all the work into getting the crap off of them and then not being sure I want to put this style of Handlebars back on the Bike. I have several different sets of handlebars on hand (so to speak) and I did manage to get the stem un-stuck (all it took was every bit of my strength and almost every swear word I knew.) so I think I will try out several different styles before I decide on drops.

After

Ventura - Painting Continues

Photo Credit: Me

Painting continues. I spent my free time yesterday taping up the lugs on the bike and my free time today after counting cyclist downtown taking a razor to the tape and getting things ready for the next layer of paint. Granted I haven't decided what color to use as the next color. Part of me is thinking black but another part is leaning towards white. I think the black will make a stronger contrast but the white will make for a more visible bike.

I also noticed several spots that need another coat of orange paint or seven. Finally got the stem freed from the forks and put the first coat of primer on them. Several more coats of primer and I will be able to add color. The question is, Do I want the forks to be orange or the accent color.

Let me know what you think.

Ventura - Head Badge

Photo Credit: ME

Here is the head Badge, after I managed to get it off the head tube and spray it with black paint. Parts of this will be filled in with orange paint. Just not sure which parts yet. Here is a photo of the what it looked like before.

So you can judge what changes have been made.