Thursday, May 20, 2010

What I've been doing all week/Tony's bike pt. 2

Remember part 1? Well, what with necessity being the mother of invention, while waiting for the head tube stock to finish Tony's frame, I designed and built Sarah's new FS rig - and some of the ideas I used on that bike seemed perfect for Tony's.

Problem was, I had already gotten past the point of no return with the build. Solution?

Start over from scratch. Ouch - probably 8-10 design and work hours down the tubes. C'est la vie - I want Tony to be psyched, not second-guessing the geometry. Plus he wanted lots of travel (5") and standover (this should be around 29"). Sometimes you gotta bite the bullet and toss some hard work in the scrap bin.

Anyway, here are a few build shots. More to come as things come together. Note the GIGANTIC supertherm 44mm downtube, 44mm/taper headtube, Joplin-friendly/kinked seat tube, and 83mm BB shell. I think the frame will actually be around 7.5#, too, which is fairly amazing given the incredible overbuilding I'm doing (Tony broke his last bike).

7 comments:

inthewoods said...

Sweetness!

It isn't just that I broke my last bike. It is that I've broken every aluminum full suspension bike I've ever owned; none have lasted 3 seasons.

1999 Diamondback XR4 -- Cracked HT/DT junction.
2002 Titus Switchblade -- Broken swing-links and broken rear triangle (separate incidents.)
2007 Ventana El Rey -- Broken seat-tube and cracked TT at the ST gusset.

Funny thing is that I don't huck off of stuff, I just like to go fast through rock gardens. I don't think anybody makes an aluminum 29er designed to last under the fatigue cycles imposed by a 235lb guy who rides 4 or 5 times a week at Hall, Heil, White Ranch, Mathews-Winters, Apex or Sourdough.

Eric Wever / Pisgah Productions said...

Schwing!

The Debt Diet said...

That is going to be a sweet bike!

mike said...

inthewoods comment makes me wonder what happens if the ventana portion of my WW fails? don't see it happening anytime soon, just curious from a warrantee standpoint.
BTW, SDL's new ride is sweet! hammerschmidt!

edwin bicycles said...

love that close up of the 'joint from hell' jeeez, glad I am not the only one working in that tight a space for the full boinger stuff!

Walt said...

Yo Edwin -

Yeah, that compound miter sucked. I do a lot of shorter head tubes than that, but they usually don't have 45m downtubes stuck to them...

mister jungle fever said...

Hey Walt,

Is there any benefit of having a tapered headtube paired with a rigid fork?

Thanks.