good for trash, or...

When Christian of Plan B Motorcycles told me about an old frame, I didn't understand that was so ugly! But looking better we found a potential in it.
So let's start to create something different from a very unusual base, the gun project!

some changes to the "zero"

Recently I've changed saddle, seat post and clinchers to the zero.
The old clinchers was really bad, the new Vittoria zaffiro are cheap but with a good grip.
Saddle and seat post was for the belted bike, but they fit better to the Zero, even if the white Concor is a little hard to keep for an everyday bike.

The visit of my friend Pio and his '69 Charger was the occasion to take some pics.

                                      

 

waiting for the belt

while I was waiting for the belt and the front sprocket, I've mounted a  traditional chain. The frame is still raw, because I'm pretty sure I'll need to create the space for the front sprocket in the down stay.

show time

In this week-end I am in Genova to a music fair.
I show the bikes and Christian of Plan B Motorcycles shows his motorbikes. 
The fair location is an amazing place to take some good pics! 

lacing

Too many thing at once, but when I ordered the CDX belt I found the right spokes and nipples to lace the carbon wheels.
It is the first time that I lace, and I'm a bit scared to do any injuries to the high profile rims, but I've followed one of the several tutorial on the web and I'm satisfied about the result. I've underrated the numbers of the beers, but I'm pretty happy also to the roundness of the wheels.
Initially I would lace the rear in 3rd and the front one radial, but I hadn't found the right lenght for the front wheel, so I decided to keep the 3rd even to the front. I used sapim cx ray with 14mm's aluminium nipples, the polyax, all in black. I've decided to use the Tufo tape with Tufo tubular, that is cleaner than the glue, and quite fast to apply. 
The next step for the belted bike is to prepare the frame: I like the semi integrated seatpost, so I lathed a spacer, with OD of 31,8 and ID of 27,2mm to accomodate a short seatpost with a full carbon saddle. Now I want to grind the original welds, eliminate the reinforcement on the down tube (it's not connected to the head tube, so I hope it isn't a structural part...) and do something to the rear bridge, that's really ugly!  let's do it!

 

a pole bike

I've found an old steel frame, lugged, of a city bike. It has a "Falk" tubes but the geometry is really bad, the opposite of narrow tolerances!  Anyway I allready had some parts to convert it as a bike pole: a bike that you don't mind if you scratch  when it's tied to a pole in daily driving. 
Despite everything the frame has something fascinating to me, so I decided to make a custom wood knobs. It wasn't so easy because I'm not able to lathe the wood, and I started from a piece of walnut of my garden. 
A good coating will protect from sweat and sun!
But first of all I've checked the chain alignment both with laser and by measuring the distance of crown and cog to the center of the frame. I used a rear wheel with a Novatec hub. The alignment was good with the original crank, so I decided to keep the "olympia" marked crank. Then I cut and weld the rear dropouts in the reverse side.
I had a new wheelset for another project that  I've used, even if I don't like so much for that kind of frame...

shit happens!

the first check

It's not a track style dropouts that change the geometry of a frame...!