𝟏𝟗𝟑𝟕 𝐔𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐗𝐋𝐖𝐁 - BO17 Build Journal - Finished in 3rd Place - 1937 Uncle Stretch Colson XLWB

[SoulGarageOH]

You are definitely one of the top bike builders here, but you may be the BEST bike photographer here. I think your photography skills equal, if not surpass, your bike-building skills. You have a keen eye for framing, angles, and consideration of foreground and background relationships, which really compliments your cool bikes.

 

[Shrunken_Head_Pedaler]

Should be working on covering a ceiling stain at a rental unit, but I decided to take a cruise instead since we are expected to get a lot of rain later. I LOVE the way this bike rides!!!

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I need to get to Savanna Georgia. My brother is a mechanical engineer for Gulfstream and has been there 6-7 years. Looks awesome there. Most haunted city? I photograph old buildings and signs, and I love how rich the history is there. Great photos you have taken! Always fun to search out new backdrops.

 

[GuitarlCarl]

@kingfish254 Ever go on a business trip to Chicago? You should ride with the Chicago Taildraggers if you do. There's half a dozen of us here on RRB. Including our president @Skipton and @Pookie42 and Chicago has so much beautiful scenery to photograph your bike with, everything from The lakefront to graffiti and classic architecture.

Guitarl

 

[kingfish254]

You are definitely one of the top bike builders here, but you may be the BEST bike photographer here. I think your photography skills equal, if not surpass, your bike-building skills. You have a keen eye for framing, angles, and consideration of foreground and background relationships, which really compliments your cool bikes.

Wow, thanks for the compliments. I guess it comes from 11 years of riding my build off bikes around town and taking photos of them that show off the bike and the city. It's almost second nature now to catch a photo op out of the corner of my eye. Just ask @Dr. Tankenstein how many times I make U-turns right in the middle of one of our rides .

 

[kingfish254]

I need to get to Savanna Georgia. My brother is a mechanical engineer for Gulfstream and has been there 6-7 years. Looks awesome there. Most haunted city? I photograph old buildings and signs, and I love how rich the history is there. Great photos you have taken! Always fun to search out new backdrops.

Come on down and we'll ride!!! My dad was one of the first 100 employees in 1967 that opened that Grumman plant (making Gulfstream IIs at the time) . The "most haunted" label is a tourist gimmick. We have less than 400K people in the surrounding area, but we get almost 15 MILLION tourists each year. I'm very proud of my hometown, it is a unique old city. Plenty of old buildings to look at. We have the largest contiguous Landmark National Historic District in the US. I live right in the heart in an 1873 rowhouse we restored 20 years ago.

 

[kingfish254]

@kingfish254 Ever go on a business trip to Chicago? You should ride with the Chicago Taildraggers if you do. There's half a dozen of us here on RRB. Including our president @Skipton and @Pookie42 and Chicago has so much beautiful scenery to photograph your bike with, everything from The lakefront to graffiti and classic architecture.

Guitarl

Haven't been to Chicago in many years. Back when I was up that way it was out in Naperville and such. There have been a couple of times that I thought a trip would fall into place and I reached out to Skipton and Onewheelsqueal, but it got cancelled both times. I've wanted to ride with you guys for a long time.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Just ask @Dr. Tankenstein how many times I make U-turns right in the middle of one of our rides

Ditto. @ingola has waited in multiple spots with eyes rolled as I pose a bike

 

[Dr. Tankenstein]

Wow, thanks for the compliments. I guess it comes from 11 years of riding my build off bikes around town and taking photos of them that show off the bike and the city. It's almost second nature now to catch a photo op out of the corner of my eye. Just ask @Dr. Tankenstein how many times I make U-turns right in the middle of one of our rides .

It only happens once or twice….a block, per ride!
Just kidding, it’s always cool to stop and grab memories of our rides, it’s one of best reasons to ride downtown.

 

[ingola]

Ditto. @ingola has waited in multiple spots with eyes rolled as I pose a bike

If it wasn't for your stops I'd have no good pictures of my bikes they would all have toes and deformed thumbs that look like toes

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

There's a beautiful park almost every block in Savannah. It's incredible. My favorite city.

 

[kingfish254]

There's a beautiful park almost every block in Savannah. It's incredible. My favorite city.

Yes, that was all part of General Oglethorpe's design plan for the city in 1733. From the beginning it was laid out in a grid pattern that placed a "square" every couple of blocks. We have 22 of them that remain, plus we have the expansive Forsyth Park where my Fountain pics take place. . One of those squares is also where Forrest Gump sat with his box of choclates.

Let me know if you ever make it down to Savannah brother! It would be great to show you around on a bike.

 

[Ulu]

Compared to that, Clovis is (literally) a rodeo town. It was lumber money that built it and ranching/ag that sustained it.
I don’t think we have a building standing here that was built before 1850.

 

[BartRidesEternal]

Yes, that was all part of General Oglethorpe's design plan for the city in 1733. From the beginning it was laid out in a grid pattern that placed a "square" every couple of blocks. We have 22 of them that remain, plus we have the expansive Forsyth Park where my Fountain pics take place. . One of those squares is also where Forrest Gump sat with his box of choclates.

Let me know if you ever make it down to Savannah brother! It would be great to show you around on a bike.

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Awesome, thanks for that history lesson. Seems like an interesting place to be (especially your bike parts pile)
I am very curious about the US in general, you mentioned Chicago, I am VERY curious about the accent there!

Anyway, reading the forum here I can't go there and leave without going on a ride. I would love to try your stretched Colson. How is the feel of the bike with the current setup?
Do you ride with soft tires?

 

[kingfish254]

Awesome, thanks for that history lesson. Seems like an interesting place to be (especially your bike parts pile)
I am very curious about the US in general, you mentioned Chicago, I am VERY curious about the accent there!

Anyway, reading the forum here I can't go there and leave without going on a ride. I would love to try your stretched Colson. How is the feel of the bike with the current setup?
Do you ride with soft tires?

If you want to see an exaggerated satire of the Chicago accent, just search YouTube for "Da Bears". . We have a completely different accent here in the South (which is also exaggerated in most TV or films).

Whenever you come to the US, try and find RRBers in the city you visit and hookup with them for a ride.

My Uncle Stretch Colson really does ride super smooth. The tires are 26x3" so they hold a lot of air, but I keep them around 40psi. They provide a ton of cushion, but they still roll well on the 65mm rims. Especially with the massive springer fork and the ultra springy PHAT (Lepper Primus clone) saddle. The bike is super heavy, but I don't notice that while riding. Can't wait to get the Nexus 3 speed cabling hooked up though to get a little better gearing off the line at stop signs.

 

[kingfish254]

Gonna work on my bat tank idea next.

When @Dr. Tankenstein was over, we discovered the bat had these cool carbon fiber ports in the sides of it.

I removed the end cap to get a look inside.

 

[kingfish254]

I had to cut that posting short because just as I was typing, Queenfish decided she wanted to go get some dinner.

I scraped away the paint to get a feel for what the four carbon holes were like. Then I started drilling and beating them out.
I think these will make cool exhaust ports with maybe even a light glowing inside of the bat tank.

 

[kingfish254]

I've been wondering what the best method to put the bend in this aluminum bat would be, so I reached out to @Skydreamer since he did the master class repair on my cracked BB on HEXtreme last year. We had made plans for me to come over this coming Sarurday and get it done. So that is why I started stripping down the bat tonight, because I want to remove any inner core and paint that might get in our way.

Well, as I continued scraping the bat, I noticed a material change in the handle section. Even though it pings like aluminum when I hit it with my ring, it's not. It's some sort of composite material. The good news is that I don't need to worry about annealling the metal or doing any pie cuts or such to make my bend. I should be able to heat up the composite section hot enough with a simple heat gun and get the bend I need right in my shop without having to travel to Mark's.

 

[kingfish254]

I knew it was raining while I was doing my work, but when I finished and wanted to head back inside, I saw ankle deep water in the courtyard. I was about to go barefoot, but remembered I had some cheap crocs in my shop for when I scrub the courtyard.

Once I cleared the drain strainer, the water went down pretty quickly.

 

[kingfish254]

I was also able to do a very simple tank mockup of how the Holey Bat Tank would look.

 

[hamqqea]

I'm looking and wondering what the end result will be. Holes for lighting look good. What is your plan for the end cap of the bat behind the head tube?