for all you bottom bracket nerds out there!
to the window, to the wall, to the grease drip down my ball bearings
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Cicli Berlinetta
Seat Shaping
I am almost there in the seat shaping department. Today when the boss was out I had the small grinding wheel and sandpaper at work getting the required look.
This is the before photo
And the after photo.
Sorry for the shit photos, but you get the idea.
Born To Late
Dirt Tracker Back On Track’ish
It’s been some time since the last Dirt Tracker post and I have been pretty busy setting up the new shop. The weather in the AK has been on point the last couple weeks and after quite a few good days riding my other motorbike I am feeling the juice again on the tracker.
As you might rember the seat section was to big for the frame so I needed to slim it down.
You might remember Tom from this previous post “http://www.skullbikeclub.com/news/?p=2753” after a couple phone calls I was around in his shed watching the wizard at work.
Like any Dirt Tracker mod, a diagram is key
Tom getting into the action with the Jig saw. I was surprised at how well the fiberglass cut.
This is what my $180 seat looks like cut in half.
If your working on the bike you need some liquid to keep you sanity at bay. If not you might make some good decisions.
And this is the stitching back together stage, what you don’t see here is the smell. I drove home from Toms and felt pretty all right.
This is stage one of two for the seat, keep an eye out for the second part.
TO MUCH. AND THE MOVE DOES NOT EXIST.
NEW BIKE TO WORK
AND A FEATHER FOR SPEED. I HAVE 2 BIKES NEARLY IDENTICAL THIS ONE WAS LYING ROUND BASEMENT SO I BUILT IT UP FOR THE HOUSE. THE OTHER ONE ILL POST WHEN I HAVE IT COMPLETE. IT NEEDS SOME MUDGUARDS TO BE EXTREME. AND THIS ONE NEEDS A FRONT BRAKE WHICH I HAVE BUT I NEED TO DRILL HOLE IN FORK AS ITS NOT RECESSED NOW THIS WOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM IF I WAS AT HOME AND COULD USE THE SHOP. HOW I MISS THE SHOP.
RAD
Alley Cat!
One for the ladies: Colnago Super
Here are a few photos of Gabrielle’s new Colnago, which sports a selection of Shimano 600 and Campagnolo parts. Eventually this will have a full Campy group.
Berlin, bike shops and other stuff
One weird thing I’ve noticed travelling around Europe is that it seemed like the places with the most bikes seem to have the fewest bike shops: Amsterdam had the odd one or two; France, none; Italy, none; Budapest, none (at least none that I could see in my daily rambles through these cities). Not so Berlin. Berlin is the home of the hole-in-the-wall bike shop. It’s usually one guy with a bunch of raggedy commuter bikes, a pair of vice-grips and a tape measure. OK, that might be a little uncharitable, but that was the case at at least one shop I went to. And don’t get me wrong, I actually prefer that sort of shop to the plastic, straight out of the catalogue shops that pass for high-end retail outlets. It may seem strange, but it’s also true, that I’ve spent most of my time in Europe looking down dark alleyways for shops that have achieved the same blend of true-school awesomeness of a T Whites Bikes or Fort Lane era Adventure Cycles. Germany has a pretty good one — Keirin Berlin.
The pic below is of a Textima frame built for some German Olympic rider. Before the re-unification of Germany, these were built in secrecy in the basement of a textile factory (hence the name). They were all fillet-brazed for ease of customisation, which was expressive — no two frames I’ve seen are the same.
Textima also customised their own parts. These cranks started out as Campy pistas, but have been extensively machined to save weight.
According to shop owner Gary, this is one of the first monocoque carbon bikes ever made!
Cinelli tandem!
A bunch of keirin frames.
Also, unprompted by me, Gabrielle bought this:
Here’s a pic of the catacombs in Paris. More than 2km of stacked bones under the city! Nuts!
AMF abides
Going bowling soon but just thought I’d share this rad chopper that came by the shop. Made by AMF (American machine and foundry est 1900′s) at one point was the worlds largest manufacturer of leisure goods, they made bikes from 1950 till 1997 when they sold the division to Brunswick! the other manufacturer of bowling alleys! They also made other stuff like nuclear reactors and Harley Davidsons at one point but now just make lanes. Radness 
BOMBER UPDATE
Worked on my Raleigh Bomber recently, gone from this
To this
I used the 3 speed stermy drum brake hubs off my old winter bike and rebuilt them to some cheap downhill rims I found on ebay.
Used my cooks off the other bike too.
New long alloy seatpost so I can almost get full leg extension.
Stermy thumb shifter
old seat customer left behind
Yeti grips and diacompe levers off the softride
New Deeper basket from straton.
Chiller!
I dont often re-post but…
I thought this was really well laid out and illustrated…
Created by: Healthcare Management Degree
munto bene!
Hello there,
DIY has always been a kiwi thing. now combine that with a bit of balls out and shanty town-ness you end up with good ol’ tom making a frankenstein gt pulse.
And AFTER-AFTER pictures
we let you decide on the whole thing.
it’s super mega rad in flesh. don’t worry we re-dish that wheel and bleed the brake to function a little
Ace Vs Santa
