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.
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.
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
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.
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!
