Kids kick bikes

I'm kicking myself a bit now for not taking some better pictures of these things before I gave them away earlier, but here are some pics of my kids kick bikes that I made as christmas presents. They were literally finished 2 hours before Jennifer and I got on the plane to Minnesota. I put the last paint on them on Monday night, put them together on Tuesday before Christmas and we flew out that night. I just kinda winged the design and put them together based on what parts I could find for cheap. The shaft is bamboo, the legs are wood covered with fiberglass and carbon fiber. I was able to salvage some forks that had been damaged from the bike shop, and I got some seats for cheap. Unfortunately, they were out of white seats, so I got one that was incredibly pink. Yikes.

Since I was running out of time, I ended up not being able to get the surface of the carbon/fiberglass as smooth as I wanted, so I decided that a bit of bondo and some paint would be the best option. The single color black or white did only so much, and so I ended up getting creative with it, and spending an enormous amount of time with the new airbrush toy that I got from my friend Donnell. Airbrushes are cool, but they're also a great way to kill an entire weekend. On the bike for Shiloh I ended up painting a sunset theme, fading from blue to orange to yellow and red. I tried to make it reminiscent of a midwestern sunset over a farm, and even got inspired to paint a little farmhouse and tree on one of the rear stays. It looked pretty good. On the bike for Levi, I was inspired by the pattern of the carbon weave on the stays and went with a trout pattern. I got some awesome greens, white and some pink coloration and was able to do what I consider to be a decent looking rendition of a trout. Marye has promised to send me some action pictures when Levi gets old enough to really make use of the bike. Both of the kids are a bit too young for the bikes, but I wanted to make good use of our brief stop in Minneapolis this Christmas.

Winter doldrums

There's always a point when I'm between projects that I just can't seem to get myself motivated for anything. I've been working a bit on a couple of small kick bikes for the cute babies of various friends from college, but the project has been stalled while waiting for the wheels. As it turns out, no bike suppliers really deal much with tiny replacement wheels, I guess kids bikes are viewed as a piece and are somewhat disposable. I had to order some wheelchair front caster wheels as they actually come small enough to fit the tiny bikes.

Status report

I just got word back from the owner of Daruma MK 2 who has been riding his super commuter daily and reports it to be "Doing great, it's built like a brick shithouse" which I guess is a compliment given the noodlyness of MK 1. I did really like test riding that bike before sending it off. I guess I'm going to have to build myself one...

Aaron

Better shot

Finished at last, finished at last

IMG_0541, originally uploaded by aaroneritz.

Thank god almighty I'm done at last!

I finished the latest bike-- DC3 (DC meaning Daruma Cycles, and 3 meaning the 3rd one ever) and am quite pleased with the work. The frame turned out to be about three pounds even in weight, slightly lighter than the DC1 frame and it should be VASTLY stiffer with its two inch downtube and headtubes and carbon chainstays. I am also pretty pleased with the way that the hand painted bamboo groves look on the finished bike. They were pretty simple once I got the general technique down and switched to the little paintbrush. Now all that remains is to give it to the proper owner and hope that all goes well! I tried to make the bike as impervious to moisture as possible by giving it a double coat of automotive 2 part finish and putting some expanding foam inside the seat tube above the first joint. I'll post more pictures once I get the bike in some better lighting.

Painting

As has been the case with all of the bikes I've built, the final finishing process is proving the hardest part. With the first couple of bikes, I ended up using easily available spray and brush on finishes, and I was a bit underwhelmed by their durability. In looking for something more scratch resistant I've decided to use an automotive two part finish, something like a catalyzed urethane or something with a built in hardener. A teammate of mine on QCW has a couple of connections with collision specialists and has offered to paint the bike for next to nothing. Cool, though it would be nice to be able to do the painting myself eventually.

Life gets in the way

Sometimes it's a bit difficult to get myself doing everything that I need to do. Well, scratch that, it's always difficult to get all that I want to do done in a day. Yesterday my club put on the fourth edition of the Hillbilly Hustle, our annual cyclocross race. It was a great success: great weather, great course (with some serious mud this time) and a really fun atmosphere. I didn't end up finishing the bike this weekend though, something I'm a bit pissed about. I've still got a bit of spot sanding and then the gluing of various cable hangers and the like. I'll get it done soon though, hopefully very soon. Like in the next week soon, but we'll have to see.