As said Another hard out morning in the shed, pulled stumps at mid day, got work tonight so it takes a good couple hrs wind down after a successful morning on the project.
I started by cutting out the chain stay to make room so I can have full selection of the gears. I found the last remaining piece from my very first air compressor, its now used as a boiler to generate steam for timber bending, nad it had the curve I needed so it got shaped and used, being mild steel its heavy but very small, at a guess 50-100g's. so not ride restricting at all in fact im proud to say that this is the first bike ive made that didnt have any mild steel until now, just this small piece. everything else is bicycle tubing, be it chro moly or cheap as chips high tensile blah blah, Notice I leave the wheel in and done up tight, this is to keep everything in alignment while welding etc, I just cover all the good gear with goat leather to protect from sparks etc.
The Idea here is to sleeve the yellow pipe into the cut chain stay, loop it around and under the stand base and weld it!
any way heres some eye candy!
After welding! see how ive had to move the stay over to allow full range of movment, all because ive lowered that rear triangle. im also contemplating running a roller someplace , theres lots of slack on the underside so i'll be monitoring that closely.
Who remembers "The Dukes Of Hazard" remember state trooper Enis, and how Boss hog called him a "Dipstick" all the time....Well thats me im afraid, A real Dipstick, can ya see how the top chain is somehow running under the seat stay, After I finished the stay's welding I put the chain on and was in disbelief, Not a big job to break and fix but messy and un needed! couldnt believe I done it, I even was careful in laying the chain down when I took the wheel off! "Sheesh"
You can also see here why im thinking about an extra tensioner or roller for the bottom chain return. it now may flop and hit the bottom, A test will tell.
I had a disaterous Royal Blunder when installing the seat Tube and BB to the bottom rail, (see huge Gap) the only piece I really wanted there and i cut it too short, while making myself extra work it turned out great! I just grabbed some scraps outa the bin and made some sleeves for the BB tube and another piece to smooth over the underside of the bottom rail where ive gone from rectangular tubing to round!
I put them in and it actually compliments the whole frame, which youll see in the last pic of the day!
Heres the sleeve for that huge gap
After welding I was quite happy with the result, Sort of smoothed out the transition from rectangle to round tube!
And as usual while still horrid to look at my welds seem be turning a corner for the better....sort of, but im hearing a much crisper crackling sound so im getting closer to the mark!
And that concludes the end of day 6. I took it for another test this morning , A whopping 2km return trip, theres a pic in "What have you been riding lately"
im really happy with todays frame work, smoothed out all the bad stuff going on, If I get time i'll have a go at smoothing that sharp corner behind the front wheel but as it stands we only got brakes and a gear cable tomorrow before final test, after that should be about tuesday maybe and shell be stripped and painted!
Still undecided on the bars, I really like the pink mongoose bars but im leaning towards forking out and buying some apes!
cool 
