Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Jocelyn Lovell Bike: Build 1.1


Since I wasn't happy with my shellac colour, I took it off, wrapped some new white tape, and then applied somewhere between 20-25 coats of clear shellac. Now it looks right! Everything still needs to be polished, and I still need new Mafac brake blocks, but otherwise this is pretty close. It looks great now—and seems to ride very well too!

9 comments:

Michael said...

Great looking bike Adam, I've been following your blog for a while.

I have at least one pair of NOS Mafac pads and holders and I'm in Toronto if you're interested in a swap?

James Black said...

Very nice work. The lugs look great.

Do you have a secret trick for securing the unused brake lever?

AH said...

Thanks to you both!

Michael: I'm going to use those new Kool-Stop Mafac pads -- but they're not easy to track down. I think Martin at Hoopdriver will be able to get some, but it might take a while...

James: yes I do! I actually haven't installed it yet -- but the plan is outlined here (bottom of page), and Olivier has since made it for me. I'll report back about how it works.

James Black said...

I see, I must have overlooked that when you first posted it. Clever solution.

Thanks for posting, I've been enjoying the updates. I'm learning about bikes as well as cool Canadian dudes like Greg Curnoe.

AH said...

A very quick anecdote about how cool and how CANADIAN Greg Curnoe is:

He was once invited to have an exhibition of his work in New York -- a situation that, as a fierce Canadian nationalist but also someone eager for recognition, was somewhat ambivalent for him. His solution: he went to the show, but he sent his work in a crate sealed up with Robertson (square)-head screws -- a type of screw invented in Canada, and of a type un-openable by any New York gallery owner, unless they happened to own Canadian hardware.

Anonymous said...

Have you hung it on a scale? Looks pretty darn light.

AH said...

No -- but I should! (I wonder who has such a scale?) It's built to be very light (the cranks, the wheels, the tubes, etc.) and it does indeed feel pretty light. I'd be interested to know. (The one thing that would make it a bit heavier: it's a HUGE frame!)

Alex W said...

hi Adam, i realize i always ask you what blue you've used, and i realize you never answer :-), but i'm not going to give up!
i'm still trying to find the right blue for my girlfriend's bike, and JL is even better than Niles. In Germany, where i live, the RAL color system dominates for paint shops, but for various reasons it's 'weak' in the blues department. so: what say ye? any clue as to what this blue is?
Thanks so much.

AH said...

Hi Alex! Sorry for never answering! It's because I don't know -- I need to ask Noah and have a look at his colour book. I know that he mixed the paint for Niles by hand, but JL is an actual stock colour -- so I'll find out which! I'll be in there before too long, picking out the colours for the Greg Curnoe bike, which is coming along (I need to take some photos!)