Finally Done!!

No more workin on bikes.....can finally can start riding again!!

Almost done with Katrina's and starting on mine.

Ran into some mishaps while doing the finishing work on the bikes.  Bought the wrong size bottle cage bolts, stem spacers and seat tube bolts.  Luckily though we bought a bunch of stuff we ended up not using.  The brakes and derailluers came with their own cables...we got about $100 after taking those things back. 

A lot of people turn their noses up at performace bike.  That is the place you want to use when building something like this.  You can return stuff much more easily their than anywhere I have seen.

The frames are very close now.  All we have left is the KAT-BIRD decals and an extreme tune up.  Praying it goes smoothly because the Wurstride is coming up and we need to get some time in the saddle with these bikes.

Starting to look like a bike

We still have to finish with the derailleurs but we are very close to having first bike finished.  We had to take a break this weekend because of time constraints.

First snag in the assembly process

I have taken out bottom brackets and headsets before but with the way they do things with the new bikes today everything has to be precise.  That's why I ended up ruining a brand new bottom bracket.  DANG IT!! 

There was basically too much paint and we had to take the frames into a shop so the real tools could come out and hone out the bottom bracket and steerer tube.

Baby steps...BAAaBy steps!

Frames are back from clear coating

Well we learned a lot this week about powder coating clear coat.  It did bake and slightly discolor the 1shot paint which was a possibility we knew.  However they are still green and did not turn brown and that's what we hoped for.  They also now have another layer that is tough as nails which is important for making the bikes last forever.  There are a few spots and imperfections but for the most part they look good and we are sooooo ready to start assembly.

Other options would have been to either pay for an exspensive custom glitter metallic powder coating or possibly to carefully clear coat from a spray can at home.

This is the first pictures from Katrina's phone.

Paint the Lugs

We were both nervous about painting the lugs.  Knowing you're getting close to the end and you don't want to screw something up puts the preasure on.  Plus neither of us have steady hands.

Of course like always.  I tend to jump into things with out reading directions or doing any research.   Painting of the lugs was a little bit of trouble because we did it wrong.  I decided that mixing the paint and metal flakes would be the best way to do things.  I realize now that's wrong.  The paint looked dull and it was very clumpy.  Luckily Sam, model painting expert, from the neighborhood came down and gave us a better idea for doing it.  I wish I had talked to him beforehand.  You can definitely tell the difference between his method (painting heavily and sprinkling metal flakes) and ours.  Smoother and looks better.  The pictures don't do it justice...it looks pimp!!

Frames are back from powder coating

After many changes we decided to go with an off white.   Unfortunately the shop was out of off white so we went with the basic white.  We are very pleased with the outcome.  Aside from a few blemishs the frames look great.  Next we are going to paint the lugs, clear coat the frame, and then put the stickers on.  So very excited about moving closer to being able to install parts.

Still Cleaning up the Frames

This part of the frame build is more daunting than we thought.  You can always find another blemish.  Plus you have the fact that we are not the best brazers thus leaving huge globs of silver and brass to knock down. 

However over the past few weeks we are starting to develope some good techniques.  First off getting an entire file kit is a good idea.  That way you have everything from big files to little files and assorted coursenesses. 

The little files also come in handy for those little hard to reach spots that your fingers can't get to.  Wrapping the file in whatever grit sandpaper or emory cloth proves most useful in reaching those tight spots. 

Patience is important.  Find a spot and don't loose focus on it until you are done with it.  It's hard to do when you feel like you are making no progress on that spot.  As you can see below eventually it starts to change slowly but surely.

Also don't loose your cool and take some kind of power tool like a dermel or drill to the spot.  You can use a dermel but be careful not to go down into the metal too far.  You will create ruts that take forever to fix.

Sanner Cycles Video

Dan from Thrillist Magazine came by Tim's shop to shot a quick video. 

***Video of Tim's Shop***

FRAMES DONE!!!

Finally at the end of the day as we are coverd in dirt and metal shavings the frames are done. 

They don't look like much now but they are strong, solid, straight, and ready to be prepped for painting.  Once we have filed and sanded off all the clumps of silver and brass we left on the frames and smoothed everything out we will bring the frames back to Tim's shop for powder coating.

Day 4 - Finishing the frame build

The frames are very close to done.  Today we are going to add the braze-ons for the water bottle cages, cable stops, the rear brake calipar, and Katrina's rack mounts. 

Since my bike is more of a racing geometry I opted not to have the rack mounts.  I am also only getting two water bottle cages. 

Katrina's bike is going to be more for road biking and some light touring so her frame will have 3 water bottle cages and rack mounts. As mentioned before has more tire clearance.

Also because the heat has caused the tubes to shrink slightly we then had to ream out the seat post tube to make sure the seat post would fit.

We also took a break to challenge Tim to a game of ping pong before finishing our bikes.  He slaughter me 4 to 21 but Katrina managed to lose by one point. 

Day 3 - Braze braze braze

On the third day we finally get a reprieve with the weather.  With temps in the triple digits last weekend we had a nice little nip in the air bringing temperatures down to the mid nineties which made the temperature perfect in the shop. 

Today we have to braze all the lugs we tacked with exception of one, the seatpost lug.  That is a tough braze and we need to have everything else done before hitting that.

Because the need for our braze to get all the way into the joint and under each lug we used silver on these sections.  Silver is tons more expensive than brass but it's easier for us novices to use so Tim has us use silver on most of the frame.

Ordering Paint

Today we ordered the paint for the bike.  Even though we are having Tim's painter powder coat the bikes we wanted to make it look custom.  So we decided to paint all the lugs in an emerald green.  Tim told us that "1 shot paint" is excellent for doing that.   We can brush on the paint and then heat it and it will smooth out and look professional. 

In addition to that we ordered some metallic silver paint to outline the lugs.

After that we ordered some holographic metal flakes to mix with the green paint.

Day 2 - Tacking the pieces together

Now for tacking the pieces together.  We used copper and silver wire to attach all the pieces together so we could can remove it from the jig and finish brazing the rest of the bike. 

Tim is such a good instructor.  An example of how good he is.  When you have things in each of your hand what does a person normally do to grab something?....use their mouth.  I was running out of wire at one point and needed to pull more wire straight but I had the tourch in one hand and the rolled up wire in the other. 

I hadn't even moved...it just looked at it... when Tim said "don't put that in your mouth".  I would have totally burned my mouth!

Day 2 - Putting the pieces in the Jig

After getting the first triangle together we have to get the Jig set up with the proper angles.  Of course I made Katrina go first.  Tim helped us set everything up and get the first triangle in.  Then after that we put in the second triangle and lined everything up.

Katrina had to crimp her rear chain stays in order to give her more tire size options in case she wanted thicker more comfortable tires at anytime.