Seatposts go in here

 


After a bit of careful reaming and sanding with my new tool, the seatpost sleeve goes in nicely.

BB joint

 
The seat tube is a fabulous piece of aerodynamically grown bamboo. It's got an ovoid cross section and is super stout, which will make for an excellent end product. I was able to miter the downtube/seat tube junction so that the rear portion of the tube overhangs and will mesh nicely with the square section of the chainstay unit. It's gonna be swell.

More progress, slowly

 
Spent a couple of hours working on Vinod's bike last night. These pics were taken after the final fitting of the tubes, and before I tacked the joints with epoxy.

foam it up

 
Filling tubes with expanding foam is a good way to prevent crush damage and also stiffen up the tube for general riding. I used a two part, 4lb per cubic foot mix that has good general volume stability without being overly heavy.

Aerodynamic bamboo

 

Working on Vinod's bike now and I have this really cool segment of "aerodynamic" bamboo that grew in an oval shape. I'm thinking of using it for the seat tube since it's both really beefy and also has an interesting profile. I'm always leery of the torsional stiffness of bamboo after my first bike turned out to be kind of a bamboo noodle. The addition of expanding foam, plus the ultra-dense nature of these culms should alleviate that problem though. V is a big guy, a former rower and rugby player, so I need to make sure that the bike will stand up to the test.

SHARP

 
Carbon fiber is super sharp once cured. Little knives and daggers of carbonium have sliced me up on many occasions and this was no exception. I nearly dropped Risheeta's frame and sliced my thumb on some fresh carbon as I caught it. Ouch.

Built up

I got Jerry's bike put together with a Force grouppo last Wednesday at the shop. I didn't have enough of a chance to take it for a "real" test ride, but my lap around the block at night told me that I had put together a reasonably good bike. I think that I was able to capture the snappy handling and smooth ride of my own road bike, but a little bit stiffer and a little bit lighter. Jerry was happy to have it finally done, and it looked really quite sharp with the Force kit and Richey finishing items. I didn't have my camera, so I don't have any pictures of it fully put together, but hopefully I'll get those along with a 1 week report from Jerry.