"The Bishop" - Done!

[justride]

Got a bit more done today. I decided to leave the fork arms chromed out, but I'm going to paint the crowns black. The aluminum was pretty smooth, so I scuffed it a bit and sprayed some primer on, but I'm not sure it's going to hold. May need to go after it a bit more with the sandpaper. We'll see tomorrow.



Once the crowns were primed, I got back to polishing. Getting up close and personal with the frame means that I am noticing every dent and ding. I'm sure they won't be a big deal once the bike is done, but still. The tank and head tube are pretty much done (getting the polishing compound (and occasional paint bits) out of the welds is a pain in the butt, which means I may be able to prime the non-polished parts this weekend.



I'm expecting some parts tomorrow - my 24's, saddle and, and hopefully the headset bits I need to get the fork mounted.

[elvis51]

the polished parts look amazing man! youve definitely put in some elbow grease thats for sure!

Easy E

[Peatbog]

Holy Moley!

That pretty much sums it up...

[kingfish254]

DANG, SON!!!!!

[justride]

You ever have one of those stress dreams? You know, where you are late to class, and there is just no way you will make it before the teacher closes the door and hands out the final exam? I had one of those last night. Now, I'm not in to win this build off thing, not by a long shot (I intend to steal as many ideas as I can, and end up with a cool bike that I can ride around town, nothing more), but when I when my wheels didn't arrive, and my stem(s) didn't, and my seat didn't, I started to get concerned that I would never finish this in time. Of course, the fact that I leave for Hawaii Monday morning for 5 days is not helping things...

So when I got up this morning, I had a purpose. I needed to get as much of the other work done as possible. That meant getting the final coat on the fork crowns, and hopefully getting the primer on the frame. I started off with the fork bits, but something got must have pissed off my flat black paint, because the first coat never dried. I have used this paint/primer combo a few times before, and I know what to expect in terms of timing, but something was off. I then remembered that this can of paint had sat out in the sun for a couple days last week, and that must have had something to do with the problem (I had a similar problem with a clear coat).

Anyway, I let it sit for about 6 hours, and the crowns were still tacky, so I stripped and painted them again, with a fresh can, and they are good now.

The frame was more time consuming. I needed to do some final sanding, some taping, and finally I got to business with the primer. It's amazing how much paint you burn through when you are painting tubes. I went through essentially one can per coat! Crazy. Anyway, here's what it looked like taped up and a coat of primer on.



I went through three coats of primer on this thing - painting and sanding, painting and sanding. At one point some idiot bumped the wet paint with his elbow, and I had to sand and touch that up, but eventually I was able to sit back and watch the paint dry - literally.



I did eventually get a coat of flat black on the frame, and it is now drying in the garage. Tomorrow it's a couple more coats of paint, maybe some clear on the fork crowns, and if I can swing it, a custom quill seatpost.

[socal_jack]

DAng, I think if you stopped at the mirror polish finish you probably won, but hey persue your vision.

[justride]

It's frustrating. I really want to mock this thing up, but with important parts in transit (wheels, tires, saddle, stems), there is just no point. Well, I hope it doesn't suck when I'm done with it.

Yesterday I laid down primer and a first coat of flat black on the lower parts of the frame. I am going for a cafe racer style, so the polished tank was important, the flat black should provide a good contrast once it is all together. Today I finished the paint, and sprayed on a coat of clear. The clear is a pain in the butt - it works fine on smaller parts, but when going big, it requires some extra polishing to get it right.



The tank is pretty dull at the moment - I hit it with some 1500 grit paper to take out a few more scratches. Fortunately, it polishes up pretty easily now, so it will look good when all is said and done. The area where the paint and polish come together is tricky - paint will not stick to polished aluminum, so I'll be slapping on some pinstripes at the borders to clean things up.

The triple trees are mostly done. Once I get the new headset installed and the wheels, I will cut it down to the final length and give the trees a final polish.



On a whim I stopped in to the bike shop I used to hang out at as a kid in the small town of Clayton, CA. There, hanging on the wall, were the bars I have been trying to find for weeks. $12.99 later, and they were mine. Nice thing about these bars is the rake - it's a good 3-4 inches where most are only an inch.

I sliced them in half, sanded them, then sprayed them with a couple coats of paint and a couple coats of clear, and now they are good to go. If my stems were not in a UPS warehouse somewhere, I could show you what they will look like when it's done, but you will have to wait. I am blatantly ripping off Bean with his dual stems on Bareknuckle Brawler - that was a sweet build.



Tomorrow my parts should arrive while I am 39,000 feet over the Pacific on my way to Hawaii, but by next Saturday night, I should finally be able to mock this thing up. In the mean time, I will enjoy watching the other builds progress - there is some serious talent on this site!

[bean]

I am blatantly ripping off Bean with his dual stems on Bareknuckle Brawler - that was a beep build.

No worries.............I ripped the idea off from a few European builds I'd seen .......In fact I like the concept so much, I'm using it again this year as well!!

Your bike is looking great!!

[kingfish254]

This is gonna look sweet.
Have fun in paradise!

[justride]

After a week off, I am finally back at the build. I was at the bike shop right after they opened, and while they were missing one of my stems, I was able to make a lot of progress today. The paint still needs a bit more polishing, and some touching up, so I worked on that for a while before turning toward to new parts. I needed to install the headset, so I whipped up a little tool using a threaded bar, some big washers, and a couple nuts. Worked like a charm. Once they were in, I installed the crown race on the triple trees, and installed the bottom bracket cups while I was at it.

Once those were in, I threw on the forks, the new banana seat, and the half of my handlebar setup, the new wheels, and the Thick Bricks. I'm finally starting to see this thing come together - cafe racer anyone?



I'll take more pics of the build tomorrow, but I wanted to get around to building up the rear wheel. I bought a super cheap rear wheel - it was actually cheaper to buy the complete wheel than it was to buy a rim, the spokes and the nipples. I have a Nexus 3-speed hub on my stock Felt rims that I wanted to use on the new wheelset, so I had to take that set apart. Taking things apart, as we all know, is remarkably easy, and quite a bit of fun!



It was so fun, I took apart the new wheel too.



The wheel that I stripped down had black spokes, but silver nipples. I really wanted the all black look, so I hit them with a quick coat of black.



Building the wheel is pretty easy - especially with a little help from Sheldon Brown. Took a few minutes to lace it up, another 20 or so to tension it up and true it. I started off trying to get it extremely true, but after a beer or so, I figured it was good enough.



So now the wheels are done (well, aside from some nuts that are unaccounted for at the moment), so tomorrow I will finish up some polishing and should be able to get the cranks on. I need to decide what I will do with the sissy bars - I was thinking conduit, but it may be a little too robust...

[justride]

A few more pics - with the trees cut.



I went back and forth on the Thick Brick v. Fatty-O's, but I like the look of the brick tread on this bike.



The new stems are looking pretty good - but not sure if these will stay above of below the top crown. Need to get the other stem to see... Great thing about the stem, it came in black with no logos and a polished aluminum face plate - perfect.

[kingfish254]

Looking sweet man!!!
I need to put on my shades.

[Peatbog]

Yep, that combo of black and eye-blinding shine is sweet.

[SCHWINNRAY69]

This is awesome...I can't believe how shiny it is!!

[justride]

I didn't have a lot of time to work on the bike today, and I'm missing a couple wheel bits and the left stem, so I missed my goal of riding her around, but I did do a little work on the sissybar. I will probably have to pin these together somehow so they aren't so flexy, but they do the job for the most part.



The setup is pretty basic - 1/2 inch weldable tube, with a couple shaft collar rings and a shiny spring in between them. This is totally cosmetic, but I'm kinda feeling this look - maybe paint the tube black, and leave everything else nice and shiny...



Thanks for all the compliments! This has been fun, if not a little stressful at times. Thank God for beer...