Arrival of the BE(a)ST

[metalchewy]

What I wonder is how long it will be before the manufacture of home-designed parts in plastic begins to take off in our corner of the bicycle world, with people just printing off tanks and other stuff down in our own workshops and fitting them straight onto their bikes?

You can manufacture your own parts at home, or at a builder space if they have them where you live. A good 3D printer at home can help you model and make your own parts.

I use this software to model my parts online. I only use it or personal use as it is a free account for Fusion 360 to model my thoughts.
https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/personal
I then save my design in a format for use in the 3D printers that I have available to me. Printing medium can be from brittle, to near carbon fiber strengths.

A couple of years after ago at CES I saw an entire car that had been 3D printed except the engine and drive train.

Anyway, Test, model, re-test until it fits your needs. Then make more for sharing.


Edit------------
Check YouTube for tutorials on Fusion360

 

[GeePig]

Wow, excellent description!

It will be some time before I can consider any of this because I have worked for too many years at a computer, and now almost only use one during office hours (like now - but when I retire (work less, anyway) and we have made our cottage winter-proof, I plan to expand my services for bicycles to include fun things - like waterproof tanks to store things like books and printed maps, battery cases that look like petrol engines...

 

[GeePig]

With my recently refurbished broken vice (hah!), I could start work on preparing the connectors for my dual fork system.

A bit of filing and it will be like new, gov'nor!

At least filing is indeed an ideal job for a cold winter evening down in my garage, with no chance at all of perspiration getting into my eyes.

 

[GeePig]

Since I have started work on the tail lights, I thought I should give some consideration to creating a headlight.

It is still a toss up between a headlight and the racing plate from the front of Ten Turing. Of course, the decision would be much easier if I had both to try - and who ever has too many headlights?

This is not going to be some vintage thing, as I want to continue the 1970s vibe.

Wifie had a delivery the other day to the local paczkomat ('parcel-o-mat', pronounced 'patch-ko-mat'), so I have a small, fresh stock of cardboard. The first stage is to cut it into rectangles, run it over a hard edge to break up the corrugations, flatten it and then mark out the triangles.

 

[GeePig]

Finally for the day, progress has been made on the tank:

It is kind of looking tank shaped, but it needs a lot of fiddling around the back and front yet. There are also a few highpoints that need a little treatment, but progress is good. This stage is a bit like when you weld something together from steel, and then you need to add some filler before you apply the paint - except in this case it is paper before the final tiling.

By the way, 'żabka' means 'frog', and it is a chain of very small supermarkets.

 

[GeePig]

Last night I spent my garage time beginning to assemble the front wheel for the BE(a)ST.

The rim is a standard steel Romet one, while the hub is from some other bike - but I needed it for the fatter and longer axle I will be using. I painted the hub matt black some time ago, but I have given it a quick wipe with grease to give it a satin look. The spokes are in the same dark green over black that I used on Ten Turing, while the cream has a slight greyish-green to it.

I want the colours to continue the theme I have used for decades of matt or satin black for functional parts - to unify their source and make them all equivalent. However, in the past, I largely left the more decorative parts in whatever colour they came in. For this reason my Honda C70 project always had a bright red and blue tank with 'Kawasaki' down the side. On the Ten Turing project I decided to use dark green for some of the functional parts that were also decorative - such as chainwheel, fenders and spokes. I found I could make the green brighter by spraying a clear coat over it, or darker by spraying lightly over matt black.

For larger areas I have since selected this cream, and I may be using it on my tank and rear fairing instead of the white I originally intended.

I am not sure yet how this is all going to work out on the metallic red of the Best frame, but there is still plenty of time to worry about that.

 

[GeePig]

Well, that's the prezzies wrapped!

I have a bit of paper left over for a few tweaks, but it is essentially ready for tiling. It is surprising how long it can take to get everything trimmed, wrapped and stuck down.

 

[GeePig]

I finished building the front wheel, and then realised that I might not be using it, because I might be changing the plan for the front suspension again.

Ah hum, but at least the wheel will be ready for my next build.

Plan H - Get the Zenit fork, which has a longer fork stem, and mount a bracket for the extra fork above and below the head tube. Extend the link to mount the wheel in front of the front fork - so that the link is mounted firmly in the rear fork, but the front fork has a slot in the link to take account of the change in the distance between the fork dropouts as the front fork compresses.

Plan I - The same as Plan H, but with a change from 24" to 26" wheel.

As the rear dropouts lift the rear of the frame I had hoped to drop the level of the front fork to match, but that would be difficult to achieve without a more complex way of mounting the front fork. As it happens, the front fork comes off the Pigdog frame, which used 26" wheels and came with one off-road tire...

Plan J - only have one fork tube mount, but this time beneath the fork tube. This would mean I can still use the Best fork, but I would need some way of filling the gap on the front fork above and below the the mounting point. As it happens, the pig dog frame is here in my garage and I happen to have the spring from the 'rear suspension' sitting on my bench.

So far I like Plan J the best, mostly because I only have to make one fork top mount and avoid having to paint one of the original steel rims from Ten Turing. The 26" wheels from Pigdog are on my neighbour's Kross, the wheels from the Kross are on Ten Turing, so it would be funny to have a Turing wheel in Pigdog's fork.

I still don't discount the possibility of using the 26" wheel, now that I think about it,

 

[GeePig]

I have begun the task of tiling the tank in earnest.

Since the tank is curved and cardboard is usually flat, I run the tiles over the edge of a hard but not particularly sharp board, typically my cutting board, made from the hardboard base of a drawer, one of a number that a neighbour thoughtfully abandoned. It is important to run them off diagonally, otherwise you end up with a really corrugated surface. Having some corrugations is normal, as is a set of fine creases on the diagonal. If you do it enough then the cardboard becomes as soft as leather.

Thin corrugated cardboard is the best because it is quicker to process and is less prone to the inner corrugations squeezing out on the edges. I try to keep a stock of pizza boxes for this kind of work.

The picture shows the first tile, which after processing I cut out the circle where it will fit over the filler cap base.

 

[GeePig]

I had quite a busy weekend, which luckily included a trip to our farm.

Last week, which had the last day or two of November and consequently the end of one our busiest periods at work, was as manic as the work on the tank and stuff. On Saturday we found both a new desk and cupboard for wifie, but it was so heavy that the best thing was to deliver it to the farm along with a number of other bits and pieces, rather than rely on getting everything in the car for Christmas. Sunday was when we went, and I picked up the 26" front wheel rim, spokes and tire while we were there.

I also took the remaining piece of hinge and the inadequate-in-number set of spokes for the rear wheel of the Wigry (28 spokes, enough for the standard wheel but inadequate for the replacement rim - at 36 spokes. I thought I had some more spokes, somewhere). I also really believed that the 26" tire was going to hang around for years before finding a use for it.

The wheel is the wrong colour, but I hope that - if I use it - I can find some non-freezing days when I can spray it.

 

[Karate Chicken Industries]

To me, these builds are just that. What you want to engineer for how You want to ride it.

My point is, build it how you want to ride it.

Yup, Ride What Ya Brung

@BikeFromTheDead just what I said to you last week. It's a common theme here.

 

[GeePig]

I will, what I roll from the shop is what I got!

 

[GeePig]

Well, that was a week where almost nothing got done, except the tank.

I was alright and then I was not alright, a bit of a ..... where I had no idea what I was doing. Even typing this is some work, where the next sentence takes some effort. They say that I had the dreaded rain-fog, a kind of of post-covid thing, which could take months to get over...

Anyway, I have to try and remember how to do lots of things, like how to upload my files.

Ha ha! That looks like it!

I have spent some part of this week covering the tank with card, and adding the filler cap as well. I still need to add an upper layer to the cap, as well as a whole array of finer details that will come obvious when I try to put it on the the bike. I really look forward to fitting a whole bunch of things to where the seat will be - and figure out how the rear segment will come together.

 

[GeePig]

That was a week's worth of work, including the filler.

I have also been working on the tail lights, which I have not taken a shot off and which really need an outside layer, and maybe a 'rear' layer. If you look at the one on the tank filler top you can see that it goes down right on the lower edge of the top surface where there is nothing to support it. Just like the outer skin around the edge, it will have a much smaller set of convolutions.

 

[GeePig]

Today I have been working my way to the back of the cycle.

I have glued down the part that will hold the rear lights, the front support and the part that goes around the whole section. It took a whole lot of fiddling to get it done, including the small side pieces you can see at the bottom and the trimming of one outer section so that it matches the whole part. One of the last bits of the visible parts of the main cardboard body will be to cover that bottom section.

Finally I need to cover the rear lights and insert them, finish off the main tank and.... finish and cover the mid section with foam and the black material I will be using for the outer cover. Before that I need to fill those gaps between the seat stays, with an, as-yet, unknown number of sections.

However, before the final fitting of the seat foam and the rear lamps, will be to paint the whole thing with something appropriate. What, I do not know.

Green comes to mind, if I had any.

 

[GeePig]

Lying in hospital at the moment, listening to some really old people talking about their lives, from our ward on a Sunday. Hopefully I will be out by tomorrow or the day after, but in the meantime it is great to hear everyone going on about their bikes here.

 

[Shrunken_Head_Pedaler]

Lying in hospital at the moment, listening to some really old people talking about their lives, from our ward on a Sunday. Hopefully I will be out by tomorrow or the day after, but in the meantime it is great to hear everyone going on about their bikes here.

Get well fast!

 

[hamqqea]

How's the food, got a good view? Can't help overhearing everyone around, makes for some interesting encounters... Not like we're going anywhere.

Get well soon.

 

[Karate Chicken Industries]

Heal Up, Man!

 

[Kevin B]

Feel better.