Aug 27
August 27, 2005
First double century ever! 200 miles / 320 km, making a quick wire frame fairing from the mold and cutting out the final frame perimeter.
I’ve wanted to do this ride for years and since I am now in the long distance training mode and the weather was looking good for the weekend, [...]
Read More...Aug 23
August 23, 2005
Bonded-in bottom bracket shells, frame thickening and bonding on the rear wheel well.
I bonded the right half of the rear wheel enclosures onto the frame because it makes getting at that rear wheel for maintenance a lot easier if I don’t have to deal with two shells. Further, a good bond all [...]
Aug 22
August 22, 2005
I am becoming a bit stressed.
I had tentatively planned for a 24 hour record attempt at the end of October at the Alabama pavement test track, and it is now only 2 months away and I realize that I need to start making some plans for that attempt as well as some [...]
Aug 20
August 20, 2005
Rolling resistance test for new wheels, rear caliper brake, photos of the mold and a video
The last time I did a Crr test, I did it with the Rocket lean steer trike. My numbers were horrible (Crr .009) and seemed to agree with the Crr tests John Tetz was doing with his [...]
Read More...Aug 18
August 18, 2005
First ride!!!
Well, it took way longer than expected and was a ton of work, but I finally got the new carbon sandwich frame lowracer on the road. The outside perimeter is just a rough cut – I am waiting until I can get an actual fairing half shell so that I can [...]
Read More...July 18
July 18, 2005
Perimeter laminations
Ben came over yesterday and we added carbon laminations to the perimeter of the seat cut-out.
Details:
1. I use my router and rounded a 1/4″ radius around all of the edges. Not the outside edge – I’m still waiting for the fairing mold because I trace the fairing shape onto the carbon [...]
Read More...July 16
July 16, 2005
Carbon frame starting to go together!
Since I can’t cut out the outside fairing shape until I get the fairing mold, I figured there was no reason I couldn’t start building the ‘inside’ of the bike. That is, the cutouts for the seat, wheels and components. I could even add all of my [...]
Read More...July 15
July 15, 2005
A much better day!
I cut out the new chain stay dome, drilled the mounting holes and quick release drop out hole and bolted them onto the plywood prototype frame to see how strong and stiff they were.
First, I fastened them together with wood spacer blocks that were cut to my frame width [...]
Read More...July 14
July 14, 2005
The day from hell…
It happens – every thing is going peachy, then 13:00 sidereal time rolls around and everything goes to hell.
On Wednesday evening, I added some strengthening ribs to the one chain stay dome. I cut 1″ wide x .5″ high strips of Styrofoam and glued them to the top of [...]
July 13
July 13, 2005
Disc wheel covers
The rear wheel not only spins inside an envelope, but it spins without spokes to churn the air up. I am using a Zipp 404 700 wheel and used the blow molding method to make a PETG mold. Then I made two light carbon fiber wheel covers. The wheel is [...]
Read More...July 10
July 10, 2005
Carbon chain stay dome – almost finished
This dome is fastened to the frame where the rear wheel goes, and holds the rear wheel allowing it to spin inside a tight fitting envelope. I mounted the wheel with a quick release to check for clearances and all looks good. The chain stay dome [...]
Read More...July 8
July 8, 2005
Carbon chain stay dome
What is a carbon chain stay dome?
The chain stays are the names for the tubes at the back of your bike that hold the rear wheel on.
For the sandwich board frame, I have decided to build two domes that will cup over the wheel openings at both sides of [...]
July 7
July 7, 2005
Carbon sandwich board frame fabrication begins
Let me briefly explain again how this frame is going to be built. I am going to build a sandwich board using a 1.5″ thick slab of styrofoam covered with two layers of 5.8 oz twill weave carbon fiber fabric. After the carbon is dully cured, I [...]
July 6
July 6, 2005
Joining PETG
The fairing mold is slightly over 10 feet long, and I can only buy PETG plastic sheets in 8 foot lengths. This means that in order to vacuum form a 10 foot long fairing, I would need to either split the mold into two halves, vacuum form each half, then bond [...]
July 4
July 4, 2005
Finding my recumbent legs
Now that Ironman Coeur d’Alene 2005 is history I am focused on getting this new speed bike built AND starting my recumbent training. So today I hung up the road bike, dusted off the M5 lowracer, bolted on the SRM cranks, tuned it up and went out for a [...]
Read More...July 3
July 3, 2005
21 plastic booobs
It took a heck of a lot of trial and error and experimentation to learn the nuances of vacuum forming PETG plastic, but I think I have it. Check this baby out:
Here’s a better shot (better because this one does not include a view up my nostrils):
Yes, it’s Garrie Hill’s [...]
Read More...June 14
June 14, 2005
Wrapping up Rocket work, the new speedbike which still has no name, Ironman training and the summer schedule.
I really need to turn the page on the Rocket – No more work until this winter, as I have way too many things to do from now until the fall. So today I spent [...]
Read More...June 13
June 13, 2005
Pantour Suspension Hubs for the Rocket and new 155mm cranks from Mark Stonich
I installed my new Pantour suspension hubs the other day – what a SMOOTHÂ RIDE! Very soft and comfy – definately takes the edge off. I found the Pantour hubs improved the ride quality in two ways; first they greatly softened [...]
May 28
May 28, 2005
The world-renowned Bizarre Bicycle Fest, some Rocket video footage and a ride report
Quicktime video of the Rocket in action:
Quicktime video HIGH BANDWIDTH
Quicktime video LOW BANDWIDTH
Helens FIRST Rocket experience
The world famous “Calgary Bizarre Bicycle Fest”
It was generally a fun time with some pretty cool chopper style bikes, and a hand full of recumbents.
This [...]
Read More...May 27
May 27, 2005
Exciting news! The Rocket is back from body finishing!!
I am certain that you all have heard of it: “The Kensington Bizarre Bicycle Festival” is of course tomorrow morning (Saturday, May 28), so I had asked Shane at Innovative Wings if he and his crew wouldn’t mind finishing up the body work so [...]
Read More...
Pedal the Ocean expedition canceled
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