This frameset is the one I’m proud to say won the Best Fillet Award at the 2010 NAHBS in Richmond (where is was shown sans paint) and I just got it back from being sprayed ‘putzmeister green’. Today I hung a Super Record 11 kit and sent it out the door to it’s new home.

Back to heating up metal and making sparks tomorrow.

Dave

I just got this out of a box from JB and turned it around and sent it off to it’s new home on the east coast. Have fun with it J.O. I heart matte finishes.

Dave

I just finished this JKS and took a few basement studio shots and thought I’d share. Sharing is fun.

Dave

I made good solid progress on the JKS Terraplane I’ve been working on this week. I added the rear end to the finished front and tomorrow I’ll get it all cleaned, machined, and aligned making it ready for paint.

More later,

Dave

Finally, Finally it was warm enough to work with the door open today. It’s been a long winter/spring!

Dave

As anyone who stops by here often will know the only thing that I like as much as bikes are Lotus cars and I’m lucky enough to own one. Before I got my current Louts Elise I owned a Lotus Seven clone made by Birkin in South Africa. It was a fantastic little car that warped the fabric of space-time and broke the laws of physics.

I had many adventures in the car as you might imagine driving something like this in Montana – home of the Ford Super Duty F350. I thought you might get a kick out of reading something I wrote a few years ago and posted on my SCCA club’s forum. Without further fanfare – Start your Seven.

Start your Seven.

So let’s say you have a Seven type car and it’s in storage for the winter. You of course want to take it out a few times to get everything loosened up when the weather is good. Folks will look at you like you are from Mars but how’s that different from any other time.

So you go to your storage room and try to start the car. Battery almost dead and it won’t start. No problem you are a smart lad and you brought jumper cables along. It starts right up and all is right with the world. So it’s now time to drive. Where do you go? How bout the Honda dealer to see with they have a Fit on the lot?

So you drive across town to the Honda dealer and pull in and instinctively turn the car off. You wonder right after shutting it off if that was a good move or not. Ahh….it’ll be fine.

You then walk around and look at the shiny cars (the Civic coupe looks very nice for $17K).

OK…….. so now it’s time to head back to the storage locker. Get yourself in the Lil’ car and drive it home right? No problem. But you turn the key and it turns over 1/2 turn and that’s it. Hmmmm. Try again and the same thing. It’s at this point that I developed the “how to” push start your own Seven by yourself -

1) push the car back and forth a bunch of times to get it lined up as best possible so that when you are pushing the car it won’t run into a new row of Hondas.

2) remove door and steering wheel so you can get in the car quickly.

3) double check aim of car as you are about push it down a gentle slope with rows of new cars on each side sans steering wheel.

4) turn on ignition.

5) put car in neutral.

6) think about your order of events very carefully so that when you are running along side your own car without a steering wheel that you can jump in and get it all done in the right order. This is a very important step.

7) with #6 more or less clear in your mind push the car like a mad man down between the row of cars and jump in and accidentally hit your foot hard on the brake pedal making the car come to an instant halt while throwing your unbelted body into the dash. These things should have a steering wheel to hold on to!

8  Turn off ignition to save what little battery is left and push the car back up the grade.

9) repeat…….. push car down grade jump in, push in clutch, put in gear, let out clutch and blip throttle and nothing. You forgot to turn ignition back on.

10) push the car back up the grade. It’s not a problem that it’s cold out anymore as you are now plenty warm. Rejoice in the warmth.

11) TURN ON THE IGNITION! Push the car down the slope being careful to not run over your own foot (it’s pretty close). Jump into the car, push in the clutch, place in gear, let out the clutch and blip the throttle until it catches and push the clutch back in so it doesn’t stall. Too late, it stalled.

12) Turn off ignition, push the car back up the grade and rejoice in the warmth.

13) Turn on ignition, push like a mad man, clutch, gear, clutch, blip, clutch and it’s running. Rejoice in the running.

14) Now with the car running you can relax. Put on your belt and drive it back to the storage locker.

15) Pull out of the Honda lot noticing that it’s very windy and cold. Note that you left the door in the Honda lot and return for it.

16) Pull car up to the door and DO NOT TURN CAR OFF. Reach out of running car and pick up door and install.

17) Drive back in comfort and remove battery when you get back so you can buy a new one.

There that was simple wasn’t it? How to push start your own Seven. I hope you learned a lesson here.

Dave

Posted on SCCA forum 2/25/08

I’ve had a number of balls in the air the past few weeks but have finally just about wrapped up the Gothic bike. It came out super clean and straight – I couldn’t be more pleased.

Tomorrow I dive into a new JKS for a client in Maryland. Sounds good to me.

Dave

Here are a few shots of the Gothic lugs all brazed and cleaned and ready to paint. Today I’m working on getting the rear end added to this front. It’s getting classic side tack stays with fabricated caps. Should be cool.

Have a great weekend.

Dave

I can’t tell you how many times over the years I’ve seen webbernet ‘experts’ say with conviction that the tube to tube miters on a lug bike don’t need to be tight because the lug covers them up. I’ve even read that lugged builders choose lugged construction because it allows them to cover up their shoddy mitering work with the lugs. Considering that most of these ‘experts’ have never made anything more complicated than a fist it can be frustrating at best to see just how sure they are of themselves – when in reality they don’t even know how lugged construction works.

So, for those that are interested in learning how this actually works I’ll give you the Cliffs notes version.

A frame lug is a cast piece that the tubes slide into that gives a large surface area for the tubes to be stuck to one another. The lug does provide a small amount of support for the joint but it’s main job is to give a large surface area for the filler (usually silver but can be brass) to bond to. This is what keeps the two tubes stuck together. The tubes have a very close fit into the lugs and it’s this close fit that allows for the molten silver to flow between the two parts with capillary action. If, unlike me, you paid attention in high school physics class you will remember that a liquid will flow between two surfaces if they fit closely together. Picture two panes of glass and how water will flow even uphill between the two panes and you get the idea.

It’s this capillary action that allows the builder to flow the silver into the joint, but remember that this capillary action requires a very tight fit because if the silver is flowing through the joint and hits a gap where the fit isn’t tight it will stop dead in it’s tracks. This is where the tight and accurate miters come into play. When the builder brazes a lugged joint he will heat the lug and tubes up to the point where they are warm enough so that the silver will melt and run between them like the water between the panes of glass. Let’s consider the top tube/head tube joint – in this case the builder will apply the heat and then add the silver rod to the edge of the lug where the top tube enters. He will then use the heat to get the silver to flow between the top tube and the lug until it meets the head tube and then he will flow that silver out to the edge of the lug where the head tube inserts. So he is flowing the silver in one direction, straight through the lug. This assures that the entire space inside the lug is filled with silver and that the area where the top tube contacts the head tube hidden inside the lug is fully brazed.

If the fit between the top tube and head tube isn’t perfectly tight and consistent the capillary action will stop and the silver will not flow all the way through leaving the joint with voids. This will result in a very weak and incomplete joint. This is why a very tight meter is needed. Some will say that you need a very tight miter to TIG weld a joint but that since the lug covers the joint on a lugged bike that this isn’t needed. Those people are talking out their butts and know much less than they think they do. In fact I would say that a skilled tig welder will have no trouble filling a small gap in the miter if needed while a lugged builder just won’t get this to happen inside the lugs without the capillary action.

You can see in the photos just how tight the miters should be for a proper lugged joint. The two tubes are fit together without the lug first to be 100% sure the fit is just so and then the tubes are loaded into the lug and brazed. I dry fit the entire front triangle first into the jig to check all the miters before the lugs get anywhere near the bike. Once the tube fit is right then the fit of the lugs is checked and then once that is done everything is cleaned, fluxed and brazed. You can see a few photos of the upper head tube lug with the top tube inserted. You are looking at the mitered edge of the top tube where it will meet the head tube. This will give you an idea of the fit between the two parts and what the miter itself looks like. You’ll also see how the mitered joint looks from the outside sans lug and what the whole thing looks like with the lug slipped into place.

I did the mitering and lug fit for the pictured frame yesterday and today I will clean it all and braze the front triangle together. Since the miters and lug fit is so tight it will be easy to braze and I look forward to it. I’ll take a few photos today and post them later.

Lesson’s over. Get to work!

Thanks for reading,

Dave

I finished up this JK Special yesterday and it’s ready to go to JB for a as yet determined paint job. It came out very clean and was a pleasure to build. Sharp eyes might notice a slightly different cut to the BB shell. I wanted a clean and simple way to shape the BB so it would match the other lugs well and knock a few grams off. I like the look. JKS’s will come with this new cut from now on.

Today I get into the Gothic build and will post some photos of that as it progresses.

Here are a few photos of the JKS and one of the mountains in front of the house with a fresh and deep coat of snow. Now I love snow but it’s May now so I think enough is enough. It was coming down sideways yesterday but it was a bit too warm to really stick. I did wipe about 2″ off the car this morning though. Ahhhh spring time in the Rockies.

Stay warm.

Dave