Cycle Shorts #1, the first prototype of a pair of pedal pushers in wool lycra with a padded seat. Here are a few images of the work in progress. I guess I'm a tailor too. Not just leather saddles and bikes but pants as well.
I've been contemplating some trousers such as these for some time now, but the final inspiration was this:
Just before Christmas Ged and I joined a small group of riders for a 70km ride from South Morang to King Lake and back. There was a serious climb and a serious descent and plenty of km's in between. When we arrived at the designated place TC asked "you guys have free wheels on those bikes don't you? I should have advised that it was a long rod ride." So we managed to finish the ride but with a pretty sore butt.
Pants will be finished today (I keep telling myself).
The Mixte project make slow progress. Most difficult and painful was the re-spacing of the rear dropouts. With the extra set of seat/chain stays it becomes extremely difficult to manipulate the frame. In the end I managed to get the exact spacing for the coaster brake hub, 110mm, but in the process managed to seriously buckle the middle stays. Never mind, everything else lines up nicely.
These Sugino VP cranks have polished up nicely with a bit of extra elbow grease and emery paper to cut back a lot of pitting. Feride says "they look like cranks", Ged, Simon and Thuy all say "the cranks look really nice"..... The cranks presented another problem, the first set I fitted with a shorter BB spindle had a completely stripped thread on the right and the chain line wasn't straight. So I spent most of the day trying to fabricate an alternative crank removal tool, but in the end the angle grinder and the rubbish bin were the only answer.
51t Chain ring and 22t cog from Abbotsford Cycles, Wheels built by Shifter Bikes, forks still at the electro platers. The tyres will be white, along with white leather saddle and bar wrap with red stitch detail. Incidentally, I found a nice set of rusty bars on a bike at the Phillip Island Tip that will be used on this bike.
Here's the latest series of saddle recoveries. Tan, kind of classic, kind of not. We've got skulls, hearts, Japanese family crests and an abstract cathedral like dot pattern. The dark brown one is off to London tomorrow while the the tan trilogy is destined for the S!X store opening up at Von Haus, Melbourne around mid March.
The old Shogun Mixte is finally done. It's been about a week now, has just been waiting on the final touch of the white leather saddle. The saddle is a softer friendlier white version of an earlier one I did for Thuy, with detailing that reflects the lug work on the head tube. The frame, forks, headset, bottom bracket and seat post are original from the side of the road in South Melbourne. The saddle came from the back shed of Fyxomatosis, rims were reclaimed from another old road bike and polished up, wheels built by Shifter Bikes, cranks from the free Repco Superlight from Carlton (fixed.org), bars from the tip at Phillip Island, pedals from another old bike sourced from Phillip Island. New chainring, cog, 1/8 chain and tyres. Why did it take so long? Because I had the forks chrome plated by a factory with a lot of work on which also closed down for a month over Christmas. Anyway it's done, it's fun and cruisy to ride and I'm happy with the outcome. This one is for Feride, I feel inclined to do a similar one for myself now.
The brown and orange bike is finally finished. I managed to pick up a set of Miche 36h track hubs at a very reasonable price. The set up on the fixie conversion includes the following:
Cycle Shorts #1, the first prototype of a pair of pedal pushers in wool lycra with a padded seat. Here are a few images of the work in progress. I guess I'm a tailor too. Not just leather saddles and bikes but pants as well.
The Mixte project make slow progress. Most difficult and painful was the re-spacing of the rear dropouts. With the extra set of seat/chain stays it becomes extremely difficult to manipulate the frame. In the end I managed to get the exact spacing for the coaster brake hub, 110mm, but in the process managed to seriously buckle the middle stays. Never mind, everything else lines up nicely.
Here's what I got up to on the weekend. Recovering / restoring a battered old Rolls with a little of the busyman signature stitch. I estimated a week for this job but once I get started I can't stop til it's complete. I even had to wait for a break in the relentless rain to ride over to the Maiike Studio for some extra long rivet shanks to re-attach the golden trim. As usual an exciting job that caused anxiety at every stage. I'm happy with the end result, even though the gold wasn't real and pretty much polished off when I cleaned it.
It's the Jaffa-Mocha-Latte sitting on the bookshelf now. Still waiting for the appropriate 36 hole back hub to arrive. The solution for the yellow bike isn't going to work for this one because the 36 hole rims have been powder coated especially for the build, pedals are matching too. So here it sits now waiting patiently for things to start moving again.
