Dragging it out to the finish line....

Two late nights in a row........ and two bleary mornings stumbling around getting the little man of to school (and getting  grumpy about it). The frame is almost built but the list of things still to do seems to stretch to the horizon. The rear triangle is in place and looks fabulous but it turns out that we installed the seat stays upside down (doh!). Although this has no bearing on looks or performance it does mean that our carefully pre-drilled hole for the seat tube is now pointing in totally the wrong direction. While the solution is clear (plug & glue the hole and re-drill) it has put a speed bump in our schedule. On a more positive note the pulleys for the internal cable steering installed cleanly and lined up with the relief holes just as if we had designed it that way which we had but it's always gratifying when it does. We ran some steel cable through the system to test it and it works. We did manage to glue up the underside of the deck and pull the internal fillets plus a bunch of cleaning and sanding. Still to do is the gluing and clamping of the final front panel, correcting and installing the seat tube, gluing in the bottom bracket shell and applying four ounce glass cloth to the outside surfaces of the cargo area and the deck hatches. At that point the frame will be complete but we still have to make the steering cams and install the head sets & steerer tubes. We have to figure out the chain guard and the kick stand and, of course, build the front wheel and hang the components. Other than that we are almost done............ 

All nighter........

So, yes, we are still here and we are still fighting the deadline. But last night (like all of last night) we made mighty progress. The bike frame is eighty percent constructed. Just the rear stays, drop outs, top caps and the the underside cover remain. 14 hours straight of cutting, sanding, fitting, gluing & pinning and, yes, pulling fillets. Eventually crawled home at 4.00am. Many thanks to B who agreed to cut our drop outs (the aluminum parts) on his totally awesome water jet cutter. When the aluminum and pocketed bamboo parts came together the join was almost seamless. A few passes through Jeff's monster sander and you could hardly feel where one material ended and the other began. Also thanks to N for hooking us up with a seat post tube. The components are slowly coming together too although finding a matching tread/brand tire in 20" and 26" (and in stock) is proving a challenge. I might have to settle for a pair of Kenda Kwest tires (easily available but hardly top drawer). I figure if we can complete the frame by Sunday we are in good shape. That still gives us two to three days for filling, cleaning & sanding and hanging the components with a day free for testing and tweaking. It's tight but I think we can do it.

Also I will not be posting any images until after the event in part because I don't have time but also to keep some of the mystery.

Time for a nap........