Another picture of the wooden bicycle, the PLYCYCLE.

So, another pretty picture of the finished wooden bike.

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.

Sanding.

I have been sanding, sanding, sanding, sanding, sanding and sanding some more. Nearly ready to varnish.

Just got to drill a hole for the seat post.

Also, this project made the final edit of a Fixed gear bike documentary a friend of mine made, which I was interviewed for. The film is called BOIKZMOIND keep a look out for it.




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The wooden frame!!!!!

Here it is, fresh out of its clamps, the two halfs finally fixed together with the metal bits and the rear stays all in ONE PIECE!

The frame all in one piece for the first time.

And a vid of the frame.. all in one piece for the first time.

What this really means is that the project has taken a massive step into the final phase. Sanding off all the resin seapage, and final smoothing to make it ready for varnishing.

I could put it together and attempt to ride it, but really I need to put the saddle in and the final strengthening bolts in the topof the stays. Its going to be tough, but I am going to resist.





Fixing and Gluing... Well epoxying.

   I got to a point of no return, having got all the metal work finished, the final laminating of the main frame was upon me.

Prepping for the final epoxy fix on the main frame.

It meant a lot of guess work around the amount of resin I would need to mix up for the job, and in the end I was slightly short and had to do a hasty additional mix. The west system epoxy I have been using has been great, really easy to use at every stage. I put in the metal head tube and bottom bracket sections after the initial 'wetting up' and from there there was no going back. It was just lining it all up and clamping it into position, then cleaning down any excess epoxy after clamping from around the metal parts that I would nor be able to sand back later.

 All clamped up, just need to wait for it to go off.



Head tube with decal, fixed in, no going back.

I also managed to get the back end all lined up, and fixed with epoxy the day before. It was slightly less nerve racking, although I don't know why because technically it was harder. However it all worked out. I had drilled small holes in the inside of the metal drop outs where they join the hanger to allow excess epoxy to squirt out, as the fitting with the wooden frame was too tight at the join to let it out. It allowed me to put plenty in and not worry about a dry join. When I was fixing them together I measured from the center of each stay where it joins the frame, to the end of the drop out to get them centered. I also delicately popped the wheel in to see how it lined up, it was good.

Back end all epoxied together.

Next steps are to fix the main frame and back end together, to have THE WHILE WOODEN FRAME  together as one for the first time. Then to do final shaping and sanding ready for the posh yacht varnish I have procured.









Moving on.

So I made the change to the head tube angle, this will have to be it, there is no going back now. Unfortunately during the fitting and reshaping of the wood, I pranged the paint on the head tube really badly. I have had to rub it back and repaint it, which is a real shame as It was a good paint job and the head set was fitted so I have had to spray over and around the installed headset which is not ideal. But i think it will be fine.
If I hadn't messed up the head tube paint, I could have resined the main frame together, but that had to wait, will be the next job, then i can do the final shape and sand.
Rear drop outs are sprayed in the shiny green colour, just need lacquering, then I can resin the rear set together.
I also spotted a pair of leather handlebar grips on eBay, couldn't resist.

The fix?

      I have had a good look for some replacement forks second hand, and there are some nice ones out there but I cant use them because I have made the head tube on the plycycle longer than average. All the second hand forks are cut down. I don't want to 'fork out' for a new set, so I am going to work with what i have.

How did the front get so out? Well... The head tube is longer (for strength binding to the wood) and therefore lifts the front of the frame, and the forks are slightly longer (off the shelf and cheap) and although individually these extras don't seem like much in the end it is about 3.5cm of lift. Enough to radically move the front of the bike away from what I had in mind.

I put the photo of the bike into photoshop and measured and analysed and this is what I think.
with the forks I have I will never get the top of the frame horizontal with the ground, I can handle that, just. As for the relationship of the front wheel to the main frame, I can play with that a bit. Luckily there is plenty of room to adjust the angle and position of the head tube mounting. So I propose moving the head tube back and steepening the angle. This will take the top of the frame further from the horizontal but I think will bring the bikes proportions back together.

Looking at the angle change in photoshop.

Hopefully I can make the tweak easily enough, and then it really is put it together time.

Drop outs....

I set about getting the drop outs to fit the stays. First I had to cut the stay down to allow the metal section to centre up. Slightly nerve racking as it is a one way event. So measure check, measure check then cut, carefully. I got the top ones bang on, but the bottom ones were still a smidgen too long and had to have a screw drivers shaft with taken off, it was a precise measurement, and worked a treat.
So having got the metal work mostly in shape the thing to do was offer it up. The main adjustment needed to make it all fit was to thin the wood back on the stays. In cutting the stays back, the length of the stay that fitted the tube had shortened, so a quick bit of rasping and they all fitted well.

 Drop outs mocked in, with wheel.

When it all came together, it fitted better than I had expected, so well that I could pop the wheel gently in and see it all there for the first time. All good news, but the point of all this apart from seeing if all the planning would actually work, was to spot bond the metal components with acrylic adhesive so that I can give it all to my colleague Lew to braise up. But I ran out of time, that will have to wait, but its all there ready.

Drop out mock up detail.

Once I get the metal work done I can start the final phase of the project, final bonding, shaping and fine sanding followed by varnish. It all seems possible now.

Today I also spray painted the head tube, so it will be ready for bonding into the main frame. All I need to complete that is the transfer with the PLYCYCLE logo and some spray lacquer.

Name.

I think this bike will be called the 'Plycycle', and in order to represent this on the head tube I have knocked up a logo to go with it.

In other news the drop outs are coming on, getting to grips with the metal work.

Drop outs work in progress.

The next stage is to line up the frame accurately and tack glue the drop out components in position ready for braising. Inside they are scuffed ready for fixing to the frame. I just have to decide what adhesive I will use. I was planning to use the same epoxy as everything else, but I have been given some acrylic structural adhesive, that may just be a bit better. I will do some tests.



Head tube.

While trying to move things on I thought I would have a go at assembling the front end of the bike. Stating with the head tube I proudly got out the head set, lined up the pieces and offered the top bearing cup up to the head tube. It didn't fit. Not just in a small way, there was just no way it was ever going in. For those of you who are reading this having made your own frame from scratch, you will now be realising how green I am to this.
I was worried that I had bought the wrong size tube or head set or both. On double checking, I had the correct ones.
I decided to swallow my pride and put in a call to the guys at Ceeway where I had bought the tubing from. They were very patient with me and explained all about reaming.
Reaming. The tubing is sold with an internal diameter that is slightly too small for the headsets. This is because as the frame is braised, distortions occur and the tubing is often not as truly round as it should be. So when the braising is complete, the frame is 'reamed and faced' to true it up and cut it out to the correct size for the head set.
So my head tube needed reaming. The tools I needed were easy to find but very expensive, so a quick web search brought up Argos racing cycles, bespoke frame builders and restorers, who are fairly local to me. I nipped over one lunch and they were more than happy to do the job for me for a fraction of the cost of the tools. Perfect. I pick it up next week.

Frame tacked together for dropout measuring.

In addition to the front end shenanigans, Lew and I have been mithering about with the drop outs. The actual drop outs have been bent to match the angles of the stays. Lew bent the stainless drop out sections with an oxyacetylene torch. The next step is to make the tube fittings to fit the wood. As mentioned below, we have revised the plans for this a couple of times, and we think we have now got a simple and effective way forward. The only recent change in plan is in how to physically join the drop out plate to the tubing. Normally a simple butt would be used and braised together. However because of the over sized tubing I need to accommodate the wooden stays, a butt was not going to work as well as we thought. It would need an insert made, and that is just too much machining for this project. so we have decided to try and squeeze the ends of the tubing into an ellipse using a jig, to take the shape of the drop out and make the braising more straight forward. Lew is testing this weekend, I will reveal the out come soon.

As you can see above I have put the frame together slightly more formally in order to get the drop out angle was right. I found that by the bottom bracket I needed a wedge, as my initial measurements had been wrong. Nothing a bit of resin and a bolt cant mend.

It was also an opportunity to start putting some of the bolts into the frame. The first being the bottom bracket ones. These now go thought the metal fin inside the frame and it is rock solid. When the frame has its final lamination (when the head tube is done) It will re-enforce it again.

I also need to start thinking for a name and a badge to put on the front.

Not much to show, but still going.

Its all in the title. Again, not much to show, but I have been doing little bits and pieces. Truing up the frame cut outs for the stays and the stays themselves. However the biggest focus of the build recently has been the fabrication of the metal rear drop outs. We have angled the drop out brackets to match that of the stays so the actual drop out plate runs parallel to the frame and therefore true.
I hope to have something to fit to the wooden frame soon, as that will push the build into the final phase.

Lash it together.

It feels like a while since I made any real progress on the bike, despite having done regular bits and bobs to it over the last few weeks. Today I managed to shape the top stay set.

The two roughly shaped stay sets.

 The way that they have come together after the redesign for the drop out fitting. Now that the stays are roughly shaped, the really tricky bit lies ahead, fitting them to the frame so that they end up square and my wheel runs true. So I fixed them to the frame with tape to see how they will sit.

Stays taped on frame video.

Stays taped onto the frame.

I was very pleased that they do actually meet pretty much where I had hoped they would. Of course using tape is not a real  guide. The next step in the build is to cut the excesses down on the end of the stays so they are square. Then do the same in the frame and see how it sits then. I have a feeling that I may need to add another section of ply in the bottom bracket join, as I may have cut too much away. Not sure yet.

Once the stays are fitting well it will be a case of tacking them in with wood screws and measure up and make the metal drop outs. Once those work I can do the final shaping and sanding then fitting. Once together that is it, no undoing it. I liked the way it looked so much I propped a wheel up in the frame, and y'know what? It started to look like a bike. I also took the opportunity to see how the drop out might place.

 Prop a wheel in just to see.                               Drop in the drop out.

Glue it together.

       I did the first big epoxy bond of the main frame. Judging the correct amount of epoxy to mix up was a pure guess really, and in the end I got it right, just. There was only a teaspoon full left over. It was great to see it come together and to take the clamps off and feel it as one piece at last.

First epoxy of main frame sections.

       While the frame was going off, I took the opportunity to start shaping the stays.I cut a section of the 22mm tubing to fit the end of the stay to. It needed a lot of thinning down, more than I had really appreciated, but the end result looks fine and with a bit more attention will come together nicely.  

 Unshaped (before) and shaped (after).

Drop out tube attached to end of shaped stay.

        Just got to match the second stay to the first, and then fit to the frame for the measuring, making and fitting of the drop outs. I also have to true up the sections of the frame where the stays meet the main frame so that they fit squarely. 

Metal work, works!

   I have in my grubby hands two pieces of metal work greatness. Lew ( the engineering man) made the parts up for me from my card board templates. I had stock head tube section and a standard blank bottom bracket shell from Ceeway, which I bought back at the start of the wooden bike build in order to measure up to. As the wooden frame came together and I understood more clearly where and how the metal parts would need to fit, I was able to discuss the detail with Lew. He then made a jig to hold the plate at 90 deg' to the tube as he braised them together.

Head tube and fin fixing.

    Hopefully this shows how I intend to sandwich the fin between the yet to be laminated wooden layers that make up the wooden bike frame. The Head tube has a wedge shape to it in an effort to increase its holding strength in the frame, it may well be bolted through as a precaution too.

Bottom bracket with fitting fin.

      With the bottom bracket, we decided to take the fin all the way around the shell. Originally I had intended to have the bottom section of the bracket shell exposed with the fin similar to the head tube. But then I decided to surround the shell with wood, and after discussion with a couple of engineering types it seemed a good idea to get as much strength into the bottom bracket area as possible. It seems obvious, but the stresses going through this section are huge, especially if I go fixed gear or single speed with the bike. Gearing it will drasticly reduce the loading, but I don't really want that.

   Next I need to paint the bits that will be exposed to the outside, while leaving the bits bare that will have direct epoxy resin contact.

   I have also just ordered  from Ceeway, two blank stainless track style drop outs and some 22mm tube to make the rear stay/drop our connections. I had hoped to use the left over head tube but it was just too big at 31mm diameter. Ceeway is just a treasure trove of frame building bits.

   On the wood working front, I hope to have the stays shaped soon and if the weather is warm enough I will have a go at the first stage of bonding the four frame layers into two halfs.

Poxy epoxy.

I went to get some epoxy resin today, but the shop didnt have what I wanted. So I will have to go to the place I know has it but is the other side of town.
If I can get some resin then I can start testing with some off cuts for the laminating process. Seeing as I have never done any epoxy based bonding, I think it best not to experiment on the actual frame.
I also held up a wheel to the frame today to work out the rear stay lengths. I think I will have to cut into the rear curve that follows the wheel contour as I am going to have to bring the wheel about an inch closer to the frame than I had originally thought. Its not a problem at all, I had just got used to how it was looking and the cut will change that shape.

The frame shaping continues.

I have ben bevering away at making the shapes on the ply wood frame look good. I relly like the way it is turning out now.

I am going to get the resin soon and then take out the center two layers so that I can drill them out to reduce the weight. Next fabrication job is to cut and shape the rear stays.

I started again. Wooden bike frame MK2

I did it, I started again. The wooden bike frame had got to a point where I had to make a decision, as I explained in the last build post. It just didnt feel right. So I umm'd and arr'd and eventually I jumped into my van and went to a new ply wood supplier. Avon plywood. They were brilliant. I talked it over with the man there and we decided that I should go with Birch ply, my original plan. I bought a sheet of 12mm birch ply and set to work.
Having done it once the second attempt at the wooden bike frame came together much faster. In a couple of hours I was back to the same place as the first frame.

Work in progress.

I took the opportunity to make an amendment, I noticed that there was possibly not enough space for the seat post to slot in and maintain enough strength, so I extended this in the new frame.

The first most striking difference apart from being much lighter in colour, is that bitch ply has many more possibly twice as many laminate layers as the hard wood ply in the same cross section, this gives it a very different feel. The birch is also easier to work on. The look as the curves are worked in is much more striking (see the video) and I have a much better feeling about this build. 

Old frame MK1 darker - New frame MK2 lighter.

The main reason for loosing confidence in the last frame was the amount of air gaps between the laminate layers. Looking this over with the fella from Avon ply, he thought it was just bad luck on my first sheet of 25mm hard wood ply. However, the new wood has no voids yet. This gives me renewed confidence, as I was hatching all sorts of plans to inject epoxy resin into the voids in the MK1 frame.

Just seen this has uploaded sideways, sent from my phone, didn't check it, didn't keep it, that'll teach me.

As you can see in the vid, I have now got four layers of ply wood in the frame. This will mean two extra fixings of epoxy, but will make the cutting out of the middle two layers for weight reduction much easier as I would have had to use a router on MK1. I can just use a large hole cutter on the two matching middle sections.

I am really glad I started again, I feel much happier about it now, even if I have had to spend on a new sheet of ply. I learnt a lot on MK1 and know that MK2 will be better.

A bit of frame shaping.

Wit a few hours sneaked in over the last week end I managed to start roughly shaping the wooden bike frame. It is very early in the process and I have cut the frame over large so that I can work it back quite a way while finding a shape I like. The first steps were promising, as the lines that the laminated layers of the ply wood give as it is shaped look just how I had hoped they would.

The only thing is that the more I work with this hard wood ply that I have bought, the less confident I am in it. I think it is too brittle. I may have to use this frame as a test. I have been mulling it over and four layers of 12mm marine birch marine ply would do it. Going for the 12mm, would make it affordable, rather than the 25mm that I went for here. Part of the problem is that the ply I bought wasn't marine grade, and the gaps in lamination are just too frequent and I think the weak spots it makes are just too much.

I suppose I knew this strength issue when I started, but thought I could get by it with careful cutting and some epoxy resin. It may well work, but I am bracing myself for a restart.

On a more technical note, I bought a 40mm hole cutter for the bottom bracket placement. Drilled the hole and it fits perfectly. Big smile. I will now get together with the mechanical engineer at work who has kindly offered to help me out a bit with the metal fabrication work around the bottom bracket and head tube.

However, I have really enjoyed the basic shaping I have done this weekend, it has been the first time the frame has started to have a real feel about it in the way I saw in my head back along. I wont mind if I have to do it again as I love the process.

Cutting the frame....

So I did it I took the saw to my quite expensive piece of ply wood. It is the bit I have been looking forward to the most in this whole wooden bike building project. The first cut. I used the card board templates to mark out and just got stuck in. As it turns out I have enough ply for a second attempt if I make a boo boo on this first attempt.

I cut two pieces from the same template, which are now mostly the same shape. Next I need to temporarily fix them together so that I can shape them to be exactly the same shape. This will also include detailing and trimming to reduce weight.

I also marked out a rough template for the rear stays, but they are not cut out yet, the video shows the two parts of the frame, cut and lying together.

I have decided to use West Systems Epoxy in my build. It looks like it will do everything I need. Most of all they put out a really great info booklet and DVD to help first timer like me. The main place the epoxy will be used is to join my two halfs of the frame and probably to reinforce internal sections I router out for weight saving.

Frame template.

So with a big sheet of ply staring at me I wanted to jump right in and start sawing. However, being on a tight budget, I decided to take the advice of Micheal and Jeff, and start making a card board template. So I made one, and laid it up on my 1981 Ralliegh fixie (which I love the frame geometry of ) to see how it worked.

Not too bad was the answer, but there were some tweaks to be made, so I drew out and cut another.

Its laid out a bit squiffy here in the pic but it does actually fit cleanly. The thich section infront of the rear wheel is the biggest change, and I like the first template, but for strenght i will go this way first and can cut the section out later if it looks like the strenght is there. You can also see that i laid in a couple of scraps of ply to see what the rear stays might look like.

  
I am worried that they will not be strong enough, even with the main frame hugging the wheel line. So I am looking at extending the rear drop out frame to go furthur up the stay and hope fully reienforce the stay.

It may look something like this. I did some snap tests with a lenght of the new ply wood the correct lenght and width for the stay. On its own it beaks with relativly little force, doubled up (one for each side) the strengh is obviously double but felt much better to me. Add to this the strength of a triangle shape when bolted into position with a wheel and the drop out extention ( to reduce the leverage) and a two part epoxy resin top coat and I think it will be ok. Only one way to find out.

Other bits to arive last week were the crank set and bottom braket, thanks to Charlie the bike monger, great for bits n pieces. so with most of the hard wear now on the bench, I can relly start measuring up.