Saturday, August 28, 2010

Monty's Getting Close

I've been back in the shop every day for the last three days, and have gotten Monty very close to completion. Yesterday I did some finish work on the dropouts—for example, put these little points on them:


I also brazed the chainstays into the bottom bracket (a bit clumsily—my two months off showed themselves). The first thing I had to do today was clean up the inside of the bottom bracket, grinding down what was left of the brazed-in chainstays and then re-tapping the threads. With the BB opened back up, I was able to put the frame on the surface plate and make sure the dropouts were centred. Then I used a new tool Olivier made that uses a true wheel as a reference for determining that both dropouts are also at the same height. (Imagine a wheel in a bike with centred dropouts at different heights... viewed from the back, the wheel would jut off to one side, like a slash: /).

Once I was sure the wheel was going to track properly in the dropouts, I started to work on the seatstays. I capped them quite a while ago, so I just needed to cut them to length; nonetheless a tricky and important job. Here is the driveside stay dry-fit in place:


And here's the other end of the same stay:


Those dropouts really are elephantine. Lots of filing to be done once the seatstays are brazed in.

I have also decided on a new colour scheme for Monty. He will be light blue, cream, and red—the colours of the Canadian cycling team in its glory days. Here's Jocelyn Lovell on a track tandem, showing off the colours:


These colours seem fairly closely related to those of the Royal Canadian Air Force, seen here:


Some similarities to the Toronto Blue Jays logo during the period they won their World Series titles...


And, quite a bit like the first Mariposa—which was also a fixed gear.



Monty will be a Canadian nationalist, much like the forthcoming Greg Curnoe bike.

One more day in the shop and Monty will be ready to head to Velocolour for paint...


Update: Here is a proposed colour scheme for Monty, who I think I will rename "Jocelyn Lovell bike." The frame will be the light blue colour all over, except for a masked cream head tube, and red logos and decals. The fork crown will be blue with the "chevron" painted red, and the fork blades and dropouts will be white. I'm not 100% sure I'll have the Reynolds 531 decals applied (to the frame and fork), but I think I will.

4 comments:

RMHampel said...

Outstanding progress on the bike, Adam. I'm liking the colour scheme as well. I remember Jocelyn Lovell; such a sad end to his career.

Hey, would you consider a commission?

Take care,
Ron

Neil said...

Hi Adam, Just wanted to say that I really enjoy reading about your progress, and I'm thinking of picking up the torch myself!
Quick questions: When you file your miters, have you found that you need any specific files to get the curve just right?
Cheers,
Neil

AH said...

It's great to know some people are still reading after all this time away from the blog! Thanks for the comments.

Ron: Jocelyn Lovell is one of the greatest Canadian cyclists -- but not very well known today. I'm going to see what I can do about writing an article about him in the near future. And for now I just have a few bikes planned for myself -- but once they're done, I'd certainly be open to commissions!

And Neil: yes, different half-round files correspond to different miters, so I use the one with the 1" radius for 1" miters, the one with the 1 1/8" radius for 1 1/8" miters, etc. I usually just make sure I'm using the right one by putting it in the appropriate tubing block and seeing if the curve matches up.

Back in the shop tomorrow to finish off the seatstays -- and then still the bridges to do...

RMHampel said...

"And for now I just have a few bikes planned for myself -- but once they're done, I'd certainly be open to commissions!"

Count me in!
Ron