Its finished...mostly.

It is mostly finished. Here look......

The mostly finished plywood frame bike.

So why is it not finished? Well I have all the bits except about 10cm of chain. In my excitement, I bought the chain I wanted without checking that it was long enough. So I need to buy another chain to match and make it up to length. Then the bike will be ridable.

I have sat on it and it didn't break, that is an achievement in itself.

However I am going to make some substitutions of some components. Mainly the stem. I fitted a classic Campagnolo style stem and I think it looks a bit weedy on the fat wooden frame. It also rakes down which I am not so keen on now. So I am changing it for a black ahead stem that will slope up to the bars. It is also a clamp type that will allow me to fit the wooden handle bars (with ally bar re-enforcement) I am hoping to make next.

I am also undecided on the bars I put on or if flat bull horns would be better. If  I make bars they will be flat bull horns, a bit like the 'Charge' ones but without the upturn on the ends.

Mostly finished bike movie.

What bugs me? Well heaps, as you can imagine. The seat post is not at an angle that lies true to the frames angles. Also it slipped in its grips when setting and the seat sits ever so slightly off true. The varnish is thicker and more gaudy than I had expected. I should have done a test with it. There are lots of bumps and bits where I have either rushed or not thought a process through properly.

However. Having said all of the above, I am very proud of what I have made, having never attempted anything like this before, and having done it from my garage.

Remember this....

It ended up pretty close.

Using Bike CAD

Having been all excited about materials and getting started, it dawned upon me to focus a little more on the actual design of the bicycle. Bicycle design can be just a few sketches on paper, like I did below, but I thought I would have a crack at Bike CAD an on-line bicycle design tool. It is set up with some basic templates for most bicycle styles that are then 100% customisable. So I went with a road frame and entered my hight and

chose some parameters, below is what came out. I have a geared bike and a fixed gear bike and I enjoy both for different reasons, but as you can see here I have gone for a single speed design, mainly because for my first complete build it will be easier.
Bike CAD is set up for steel framed bikes so I am looking at this for basic measurements and geometry. I found it really useful to be able to type in different seat post angles and see the changes to all the other angles straight away. No doubt this will evolve, but I like the basic simple shape of this bike and I hope it will be possible for me to adapt this into wood with out too many changes to the frame geometry.