THis blog is about my process to change the world and make a bike which is fast . That's right... the 30 to 40 mile an hour commuter bike. It's about making exercise a daily activity. It's about making a bike that can carry 6 full bags of groceries and a few water mellons. It's about a bike that doesn't get chain grease on your most expensive pair of slacks. It's the bike to ride in the rain and snow. It's a super bike.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Back from the machine shop. The feather key / external retaining clip and mil spec washers seem to be doing a decent job of setting everything up.
From here on it's on too the welding. I am most likely going to just wire feed weld the drive shaft together and do some lapping of my beads.
One major discovery is realising 95% of all bearings are metric. Because of this I am going to have to metric too. So my 1/2" drive shaft is going to go 12mm (3/4" now) and the 4130 tubing shells are going down to 1.625 OD.
It's a major setup to do from scratch. When I told my machinist I need to keep a 0.002" tolerance on my bearing cups he said I should hire some one with a newer lathe.
Keeping my x,y,z and zero twist setup is going to be tough.
That bottom bracket spindle is sure getting a little long
So far the parts are coming together well. It's time to make some bearing cups. Which I may just make out of 6061 instead of steel. This is getting heavy. The spindles and drive shaft on this first may just end up as 6061 too. At 3/4" dia. My gut reaction says will not twist. But let's give it a whirl!
Pretty happy about the no gear no chain look. Lets see if it all comes together.
The google "campus" is VERY large. It spans at least 6 city blocks by 6 city blocks. Scattered all around the place are these yellow green and red bikes. The bike are free to use and abuse! BOO!! bikes are your friend don't hurt them... I usually roller skate around the area and I thought It's time to share what I have witnessed.
I ran into a bike mechanic truck servicing a tandem bike and asked if he was fixing the google bikes. He told me he was a fixing the employees bikes. He was saying that the google bikes are in their 3rd generation by now. He didn't know how many bikes there were but he did say most of them will wander off and end up in LA. Looking at the above picture you can tell there are 20" bikes and the newer 26" bike featuring the green tires.
Here is a Google Bike I found on the side of the road. Yes it's specially made for google by REPUBLIC bike company. Most of the bikes REPUBLIC sells are are just like this so it's no big deal really. I was expecting some google people to be designing a bike but the answer is no.
It's a great idea to have bikes all over the place and just grab one and ride it. It might be even better if the pick up and drop off points were some what known. I don't think these republic bike are really top notch bikes but that's no reason to ride them around with a flat tire. I did see lots of riders with low tires riding around, but riding a bike with no tire inflation is what it comes too. Even if you are making 50 thousand dollars being a google worker it would be awesome if you cared about bikes offered in a free service. But the answer is NO!
What about reporting or taking bikes with issues to the BIKE DOCTOR?? hmm. Yeah I am a outsider and what do I know. Google people make this blogger software happen. They don't have time to pump a tire or put a seat post and seat in a bike.
Still as a side note check out the buses the google people use to get to and from work.
I was kind of hoping for some Utopian vision of bike sharing but it didn't really turn out like that.
I walked into modern society where disposable products are the norm even if they are repairable.
video below:
Now imagine if all of those people rode bikes. That would be a bike army.
This little fork detail is of one of most mass produced bikes ever : the Flying Pigeon bike of the People Republic Of China. It's at the top of this BLOG because I am trying to prove a point. The point is that BRAZING a lower temperature metal into the join of a cast piece of steel and a steel tube is the best way to do BIZness.
When joining two piece of tubing that are steel (Aluminum and Exotic material latter) the connected cylinder come to contact point. Today most bikes are welded together. Welding creates a seam some times about 1/4" wide. If you look at the shiny chrome lugged joint above on this head tube you will find that they are allot longer than 1/4". The idea is to provide support where you need it most but also spread the stress along and into the tube itself.
Here is a bottom bracket Lug. Notice that the connecting area's start out fully enclosing a cylinder that would be inserted into it and then becomes pointy.
By creating a pointy cylinder to fit into the bike tubes are less likely to shear off where the lug ends and only the cylinder remains. Plus don't they look really neat?
A really nice TIG weld on a hand made bike is hard to not like. The problem is that TIG welding is a Job that requires years of skill and a big nice welder. This is a reason why robots are making most of Cannodales frames these days.
With the PUPUSH bike I am trying hard to make a bike that is made on the spot it is sold. This requires a fast turn around and also the ability to have worker that may sell bikes but also manufacture bikes. Essentially the skill level needs to come down so that almost any one could make there own bike. I figure lugs were good for bikes for 60 years or so until the invention of the welder so lets bring it back into style. We used to can our own veggies every fall, and chickens used to run in the berbs. In the future you will pedal becuase you want be like the guy in SOYLINT GREEN.!
This Blog is to provide some BASIC knowledge about bikes. It's also not really conforming with most modern idea's on what a BIKE should be. What a bike should be is changing quickly with Three wheel trikes hitting the streets. It's only a mater of time before the high tech design behind HUMAN POWERED VEHICLES (HPV) merge with the daily cyclist. ala :: the PUPUSH BIKE IS BORN!
How hard is it to make a bike or bike BIZ. and use metals mined and processed into steel here in the USA. How hard is it to find skilled works to make such bikes??
Well first off the in the 21st century the United States only produces a very small amount of RAW iron ORE.. The biggest producers are first China and then Australia. Most of the steel in the USA is now imported or made from recycled steel.
In the picture above you can see it's quite the job to work in a foundry. This is a pour taking place in Japan. It's just like buying avocados from Brazil. It's much easier to pay someone else to farm them than to support the local farmers. In the Bike manufacturing world if you invest locally the business you support grow and become juicier and of course so much closer. Fresh ripe steel yeah. !!
So if I wanted to make a bicycle and get best THE bang for buck but also be able to heat treat my frame, and of course use steel lugs what would I use.... well 4130 cromoly of course. 4130 is AN alloy and very popular back in the mid 80's for racing BMX bikes. Allot of those bikes has buffed surface finishes which showed off the reflective head treated coloring of the material.
Ok so cromoly 4130 is an alloy. What does the 4130 mean? Well it's really just coding from the ... American Iron and Steel Institute. So:
4 = molybdenum major alloy
1 = chromium alloy, 0.95%
30 = 0.3% molybdenum in the alloy
Allot of people have A disconnected view when it comes it how products are made. Cell phones in the hands of Green Peace activists are a prime example. Vegans won't even wear leather, yet all the anti mining activists are not going give up use of metals any time soon. I point this out not because I like to club cute baby animals but because it's time we as a people Begin to honor our supply chain. This respect goes all the way down to line to the miners and steel workers producing our "green" and clean bicycles and even our armed forces keeping the trucks juiced up and on the road. (for the time being).
Steel can be made and found in the United States. The question is do I want to pay for it when I can buy Chinese steel for allot cheaper. Well thinking ahead It always makes sense to support our local economy unless we want it to vaporize. 4130 cold drawn steel can be found here in the USA and it's some top notch STUFF.
Cold drawn steel is where the tube I want becomes to diameter I need. It's kind of like grabbing a stick of spaghetti and pulling it through a eye of needle. Depending of the shape of the hole you can draw (pull) some amazing shapes. This is how steel can become elliptical or triangular. Aluminum tubing that is shaped in different "profiles" is done by pushing a heated Al cylinder through a die. This is extruded rather than pulled. Yes big machines are needed to do this process because our fingers can't squeeze that tight or pull that weight.
Cross section of cold drawn steel machine from way long ago.
Side view
Cold drawn HEX tubes
Cars ( as an example) are not really manufactured by Humans any more. Yes it takes a Human to piece all the end items together but for the most part the art of manufacturing / job has long since dwindled away. Riding in a hand made bike gives us a stronger connection to our creator. Having a list of names of the people that helped make that product along it's supply chain gives us a little bit more real pride to hold on too.
TO cut to chase buying Italian steel or Japanese tubing may have some really slick properties that are not available in the United States when buying a tube set for a conventional "DIAMOND" shaped frame. Well let's look beyond that and say I was starting a bike BIZ maybe large well organized coop. Well no matter what I am going to want use USA iron and a USA steel plant to make my product. Made buy Americans in American. Ok so what are my options???
Well for right now let promote Plymouth Steel.
Check out there videos on 4130. It's a start in the right direction.
And of course we need some bending so lets see how that ProMoly bends up. BENT
The answer is it's takes allot of people along the way to make a bike. Will you be one toooo.
SO here is a nifty new map which can help you understand your travel times (enhanced in servitude) via car to you destinations. Of course if your riding a bike your don't need to pay any attention to any of this.
1962 Here is José. You have to give it to the French man for creating this crazy type of sport or challenge. Quite an good machinist was needed to make that fine beauty back in the 1960's.
First off let just say these blogs are to just breifly provide a little snap shot into the lives of some of these great men who pioneered the whole HUMAN POWERED VEHICLE science and risked their lives to do so. Allot could be said about José Meiffret although this is just an introduction.
Here is quote from a note José Meiffret kept in his pocket when he attempted to break records.
"In case of fatal accident, I beg of the spectators not to feel sorry for me. I am a poor man, an orphan since the age of eleven, and I have suffered much. Death holds no terror for me. This record attempt is my way of expressing myself. If the doctors can do no more for me, please bury me by the side of the road where I have fallen."
Thats right it's a 130 tooth chain ring with super bling mounted in the weight saving cut outs.
