Stratos
- Thread starter Toeslider
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So I finally got some parts that work together and started working on the rack. Originally this wasn't going to be a rack, I just bought it for parts, but things change the more you look at them.
First I needed to modify the brackets to work the way I wanted. I wanted four bars, so I started out by laying out making tape on the "good" end I wanted to use:
That way I could transfer the same curve to the end I was going to cut off:
Story of my life/build: After messing around with the tape for a while (which was working fine), I realized I had two brackets and could just lay one over the other and trace it to do the same thing...
Few minutes with the cut off wheel and we're making progress:
A little clean up work on the belt sander and getting close. My belt sander only has one belt and it's a little aggressive. Knocks the edges down quick, but cleanup takes longer:
Takes a long time with 800 grit to get all the molecules going in the same direction:
Some of the parts I picked up for this project. Took a little bit of doing to get them all to play nice together, as some thread pitches were not as advertised. Think I'm on the right track now:
I need to shorten the rods down to a more acceptable size, but you kind of see where this is going now. Once I put the threaded star inserts in there's probably no taking them out, so I can't completely assemble it yet:
The rods originally telescoped, but I'm going to use the inner rods for something else (although I might play around a little with making it a telescoping rack):
That's it for tonight. I feel like I finally accomplished something for a change.
First I needed to modify the brackets to work the way I wanted. I wanted four bars, so I started out by laying out making tape on the "good" end I wanted to use:
That way I could transfer the same curve to the end I was going to cut off:
Story of my life/build: After messing around with the tape for a while (which was working fine), I realized I had two brackets and could just lay one over the other and trace it to do the same thing...
Few minutes with the cut off wheel and we're making progress:
A little clean up work on the belt sander and getting close. My belt sander only has one belt and it's a little aggressive. Knocks the edges down quick, but cleanup takes longer:
Takes a long time with 800 grit to get all the molecules going in the same direction:
Some of the parts I picked up for this project. Took a little bit of doing to get them all to play nice together, as some thread pitches were not as advertised. Think I'm on the right track now:
I need to shorten the rods down to a more acceptable size, but you kind of see where this is going now. Once I put the threaded star inserts in there's probably no taking them out, so I can't completely assemble it yet:
The rods originally telescoped, but I'm going to use the inner rods for something else (although I might play around a little with making it a telescoping rack):
That's it for tonight. I feel like I finally accomplished something for a change.
Nice rack, dude 
... 
... 
Well designed and machined! RaCk oN~!
Well, I got my rack shortened up and assembled, that was the easy part, now I have to figure out how to make it fit. At the rate I'm going this may just be a bike with a cool custom rack!
Problem is, nothing fits right without modifying somehow. I've got parts coming tomorrow that I KNOW won't fit, but I ordered because no one makes what I actually need. Plus, I didn't realize when I was ordering they were coming from the U.K., so that slowed things down a bit. All part of the game I guess.
Next step is to turn these into something cool:
Problem is, nothing fits right without modifying somehow. I've got parts coming tomorrow that I KNOW won't fit, but I ordered because no one makes what I actually need. Plus, I didn't realize when I was ordering they were coming from the U.K., so that slowed things down a bit. All part of the game I guess.
Next step is to turn these into something cool:
The Renaissance Man
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Making this stuff work that don't fit is a big part of the fun! The telescoping rack sounds intriguing!
FINALLY!
I've been watching this package float around the United States for about 18 days now. When I ordered these parts I didn't realize I was ordering from a U.K. company, and thought they would be held up, but they only took two days to get from the U.K. to New York. That's when the trouble started. After tracking said they left NY I heard nothing for several days. Then they popped up in Chicago. Then I they disappeared. Then they popped up in Chicago again. Then they disappeared again for longer. Then they reappeared in Cincinnati (1 day away via USPS, 2 hours as the crow flies). That was EIGHT DAYS AGO. I was just about to go to the post office today to see when I should give up on this package, when it shows up in my mailbox:
As I'm opening it, I'm thinking to myself "please be 4, please be 4, please be 4..."
So they all made it here, but the worst part is I didn't/don't know if my idea is going to work or what it will take to make it look good, and I've been dying to fit things together all this time. In my head it looks awesome, in real life, well, we shall see...
I've been watching this package float around the United States for about 18 days now. When I ordered these parts I didn't realize I was ordering from a U.K. company, and thought they would be held up, but they only took two days to get from the U.K. to New York. That's when the trouble started. After tracking said they left NY I heard nothing for several days. Then they popped up in Chicago. Then I they disappeared. Then they popped up in Chicago again. Then they disappeared again for longer. Then they reappeared in Cincinnati (1 day away via USPS, 2 hours as the crow flies). That was EIGHT DAYS AGO. I was just about to go to the post office today to see when I should give up on this package, when it shows up in my mailbox:
As I'm opening it, I'm thinking to myself "please be 4, please be 4, please be 4..."
So they all made it here, but the worst part is I didn't/don't know if my idea is going to work or what it will take to make it look good, and I've been dying to fit things together all this time. In my head it looks awesome, in real life, well, we shall see...
I am very curious for you to unveil what is in your head with those four stems. Hmmmmmm 
I am very curious for you to unveil what is in your head with those four stems. Hmmmmmm
Not trying to keep people in suspense, it's just taking forever to flesh out. More tedious backyard machining then I thought, but I think everything in place to make it happen this weekend.
Ok, so here's where I've been going with all this:
Still a lot of fitting to be done, but imagine a 1" handlebar with a 7/8" bar mounted beneath it. The smaller bar will be cut down some and have lights on it. I still have to ream out the stems for the handlebar because they are for 7/8", so I can't mount it up yet. I also need to cut away the fender mount on the steerer to gain some clearance.
It took me forever to get these things to fit, because they are 1-1/8" stems and the fork legs are 1-1/4". Tried a bunch of different things like grinding and sanding drums, even went to my friends machine shop and tried a fly cutter, but it was going to take forever. A step but would work great, but all the ones I found went up to 1-3/8", which would make the hole too big. I decided to get one and try to grind off the last step, but that went nowhere. The final solution made quick work of things, but it took me a long time to stumble on the right combination and process:
I was talking to a machinist at a car show yesterday and told him what I needed to do. He told me I could use a bi-metal hole saw, which I already had, but I wasn't convinced it would work, mainly because of centering issues. I was going to use the step bit and just go in as far as I could with the 1-1/4" step, and then just grind away the rest, but then I realized once I went in with the 1-1/4" step it would give me a "guide" for the hole saw, and I wouldn't have to worry about centering the hole saw. Once I figured that out it went real quick. Oh well...
Need to align everything and trim some stuff up, but I think it's gonna work.
Still a lot of fitting to be done, but imagine a 1" handlebar with a 7/8" bar mounted beneath it. The smaller bar will be cut down some and have lights on it. I still have to ream out the stems for the handlebar because they are for 7/8", so I can't mount it up yet. I also need to cut away the fender mount on the steerer to gain some clearance.
It took me forever to get these things to fit, because they are 1-1/8" stems and the fork legs are 1-1/4". Tried a bunch of different things like grinding and sanding drums, even went to my friends machine shop and tried a fly cutter, but it was going to take forever. A step but would work great, but all the ones I found went up to 1-3/8", which would make the hole too big. I decided to get one and try to grind off the last step, but that went nowhere. The final solution made quick work of things, but it took me a long time to stumble on the right combination and process:
I was talking to a machinist at a car show yesterday and told him what I needed to do. He told me I could use a bi-metal hole saw, which I already had, but I wasn't convinced it would work, mainly because of centering issues. I was going to use the step bit and just go in as far as I could with the 1-1/4" step, and then just grind away the rest, but then I realized once I went in with the 1-1/4" step it would give me a "guide" for the hole saw, and I wouldn't have to worry about centering the hole saw. Once I figured that out it went real quick. Oh well...
Need to align everything and trim some stuff up, but I think it's gonna work.
Wait, what?! 
Uh... uh.. 
This is just wild.
Uh... uh.. This is just wild.
I’ll have to remember your step drill centering - hole saw technique!
Bars are gonna look cool.
Bars are gonna look cool.
Neat idea. It would be cool if the top and bottom bar curved down and up and then merged together into one bar.
Quadruple stems on a triple tree?.....cool!......can't wait to see where you take this.
...can't wait to see where you take this.
Okay, so I shifted a few things around in the interest of not losing my mind, and I am getting very close to the final configuration:
Nothing like tightening down 40 inaccessible Allen bolts to accomplish the same thing the bicycle industry figured out how to do in 10 seconds with one bolt 90 years ago...
Don't mind the big stack of spacers, that's only (hopefully) temporary.
Both bars will get cut down a bit. This was just to make sure I could get everything to line up the way I wanted.
In the end, they will look more like this:
Nothing like tightening down 40 inaccessible Allen bolts to accomplish the same thing the bicycle industry figured out how to do in 10 seconds with one bolt 90 years ago...
Don't mind the big stack of spacers, that's only (hopefully) temporary.
Both bars will get cut down a bit. This was just to make sure I could get everything to line up the way I wanted.
In the end, they will look more like this:
A couple of good sized, matched, dual headlights hanging from that lower bar would be cool!
If it’s harder, more complicated, and more expensive—it must be better!
Cut the bars down tonight:
This will probably be the next step:
This will probably be the next step:
Well the lower bars are now literally "LED light bars". Pretty clever, hats off to you, Sir.
