3-Star Delusion - finally an actual ride...

[kingfish254]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - now with rear tire clearance!

Those frame darts look so cool, you may want to consider not using the tank.
Love the wheelset!

 

[expjawa]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - now with rear tire clearance!

I don't know, I had envisioned it with the tank from the beginning. Doing it without will require a recalibration of my thought process... The darts on the lower top tube are painted over with what looks like primer. I might be able to remove it, but haven't been able to yet. The darts are only partly obscured with the tank sides, and I particularly like the rockets painted on the tank, so I'm between one or the other.

 

[kingfish254]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - now with rear tire clearance!

Go for the tank then. Stick with what's in your head for the vision of the build.
Looking sharp!

 

[expjawa]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - now with rear tire clearance!

Thanks. I'm envisioning something that still makes fairly extensive use of bodywork panels like I did last year, but with a bit of a different twist as to how they're applied. I think the tank is important to visually tie the front to the rear. If I didn't have the tank, I'd probably make a tank plate. But I do, so that's what I'll use. That lets me keep the horn as well, although I have to fix it to make it work...

 

[kingfish254]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - now with rear tire clearance!

Duh!!!! I should have known you were going outside the box and beyond. I am looking forward to riding along on this one.
I have some breakdown pics on the horn in my build and somewhere else I think.

 

[expjawa]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - now with rear tire clearance!

I don't know if its really outside the box; I'm not that creative. I see a lot of this as a refinement of what I did last year, maybe with more rat. There are a lot of the same elements at play here. I saw the pics you posted regarding the horn, I meant to thank you for posting them. I'll have to look at that in more detail when I get to that point.

 

[expjawa]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - now with rear tire clearance!

OK, my fork has been reworked and assembled. What I wanted to do was replace the bent fork that came on the bike with a Schwinn Ashtabula-style flat blade fork from a balloon tire bike. It was the only thing I had around that more or less matched and had the width to clear the front tire when mounted on the 3G rim. I also wanted to make use of the truss rod from a Murray Meteor Flite that came with the first fork I tried to use. You might recall that Schwinn used a bigger headset bearing the most of the rest of the industry. That meant that the fork wasn't a drop in. The crown race was about a millimeter and a half larger on the Schwinn fork. That was an issue not only for bearing compatibility, but also for clamp brackets for the truss rod, which are sandwiched under the crown race. At least it was a material-plus condition, that could be reworked by machining. An added bonus was that the steerer tube was the right length.

I handed off the fork to a coworker/riding buddy that runs our machine shop at work. He turned down the diameter of the crown race pilot on the fork in one of the small CNC lathes in our shop (after hours, of course). Fork in the lathe:

He tried it in the old manual lathe first, but the chuck was worn enough that he couldn't get it to run true (as a machinist, he's funny about that sort of thing). The curved fork legs made it a little difficult to work with, and certainly looked odd while spinning about the steerer tube. He did tell me that he thought the fork was slightly bent, since the true position of the crown race pilot was out by about .030" in relation to the threaded portion of the steerer. Admittedly, that's severe run out in our industry, but under the circumstances, I wasn't too concerned.

Anyway, after I got it back, I set about opening up the fork ends to accommodate the modern 9mm axle. I had to do the same thing for the truss ends. I guess I could've had Sean do that too on a mill while he had the fork, but I didn't want to give away too much of the work. A simple grinding disc in the Dremel did the job.

The fork with the wheel & tire mounted:

And finally, the frame with the fork, wheels, and truss all mounted:

Not a lot of clearance, but enough. More to come, stay tuned...

 

[kingfish254]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - no more forking around!

Great to see the bike right side up again. My neck was getting sore.
I like the trusses. Those wheels/tires are sick!

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - no more forking around!

that looks goooooooooooooooooooooood.

 

[expjawa]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - no more forking around!

Thanks guys. I plan to get the crankset and chain line sorted out next, then start going after the body work. I've got a plan coming together as to what I want it to look like, but its still a bit in flux. I want to find a way to capitalize on the raised vents in the fender skirts, as well as a way to best use the headlamp...

 

[expjawa]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - have chainline, will travel...

It turns out that getting a good chainline past a 3" wide tire isn't real easy. I needed to use a crank that was wider and had longer left-hand thread to allow me to space the sprocket out. I found this in a crank taken from a late-model Schwinn that was still wrapped in its original plastic. Then it was playing with sprockets and spacers to get it to where I needed it to be. I originally planned to use a Monark sprocket as shown, which had a fair amount of offset in it already. I could put it on essentially inside-out to minimize the spacers required:

However, I think the 52T ring is a little tall for a quasi-fat bike, even with a 22T rear. Besides, I don't want anyone to think that I'm copying any other builds... So, I went through several others looking for a combination of chainline, tooth number and appearance to meet my needs. I stuck this Redline BMX ring on, which I thought looked cool, but since is was flat it required a lot more spacing.

In fact, I ran out of spacers and stuck another sprocket behind it to help push it out enough. That in and of itself looked kind of cool, but not real practical.

So I moved on to a few others. A Schwinn Stingray:

A Murray:

There were a few others as well that I decided against mocking up. For the moment, I've decided to go with the Stingray sprocket. It is similar enough to the Columbia sprocket (both 5-spoke designs) to be reminiscent, but different enough to be custom. Plus, I was able to get a decent chainline with it.

Then it was a matter of getting the chain guard to fit past the offset sprocket. I had to rebend the mount bracket, but it was adjustable enough along the frame that I could fit it up just the same. With the tank in place and the rear fender sitting on the tire:

 

[kingfish254]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - have chainline, will travel...

Have you thought about an offset cog for the wheel?
http://www.choppersus.com/store/product ... Tires-20T/

 

[expjawa]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - have chainline, will travel...

The cog isn't the issue. The one that came on the 3G wheelset is offset appropriately to clear a wide tire on their wide rims. The issue I had was to get the chainring far enough out to match it. If it were a 3-piece crank, it be a matter of getting a longer bottom bracket. But working with a 1-piece crank was more restrictive. But either way, I'm where I need to be now.

 

[noodlenoggin]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - have chainline, will travel...

I really like this build, it flows well. Looking forward to the finished product.

 

[expjawa]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - of bars & saddles...

I had been thinking of using a banana seat from the beginning, but I'm still not sure. I put this sprung seat pan from a girl's Monark on it last night; I think it has possibilities.

I almost think that it looks better on it than the banana, but a lot of that depends on what direction I take the bike as whole. So, I moved on to trying different handlebars to see what worked best. Again, I had some preconceived ideas of what I wanted, but until you actually see it, well, who knows?

I started just grabbing random bars off the rack and sticking them it to see what they looked like. Schwinn Varsity drops:

The tall stem makes it look odd, but with a short road bike stem it might be neat.

Inverted squared-off cruiser type bars:

Mustache bars:

I kinda dig these, but am not yet convinced.

Rounded-bend cruiser bars:

Inverted:

Velo Orange "Milano" bars:

These have a neat gullwing shape and a slight drop (or rise).

Some higher-rise cruiser bars:

They have almost a mini-ape look. Inverted:

I guess I haven't made any real headway with either the saddle or the bars. I'd welcome oppinions on the matter, but I think that ultimately, I've got to get the rest of the bodywork that I'm planning fitted to the frame first. With that on, I can decide on the seat. Then, with the seat in place, I can figure out the bars. One step at a time...

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - of bars & saddles...

Your bike can beat up my bike.

 

[kingfish254]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - of bars & saddles...

Loving this build!
I really like the mustache bars, but the varsity drops look kinda cool too.

 

[Jake Sensi]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - of bars & saddles...

THEM MAGNUM P.I BARS ALL THE WAY!! I AGREE WITH B ON THAT. THIS BIKE IS TUFF. THAT FRONT TIRE IS KILLER!! GTB PEACE

 

[expjawa]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - of bars & saddles...

The mustache bars are what I was leaning towards (in fact, I bought them for this build). We'll have to see how things come together though; part of it will come down to how readily I can make the headlight play nice with them. Here's a couple more shots with the 'stache bars:

Angled a little different:

 

[kim_dude]

Re: 3-Star Delusion - of bars & saddles...

+1 for the 'stache