A Café for me

Fixed

Bit of a sneaky shot.  The fix-wheel got assembled today, I didn't get a chance to take any photos as the light was diminishing by the time I'd returned from a shakedown ride :)  Stay tuned..

Brad

Fackelmann Planter

I found this when I was at the shops today.  It is a small sprout planter.  It caught my eye as it bares close resemblance to Jack Abbott's design; Harvest.  

I was thinking when I saw this, Jack may have been on to something with his design.  This company has proven that it is an affordable idea, these ones were selling for $6.95 - I was tempted to buy one.  This product is obviously for a different market than Jack's, but both products share similarity and I think this is a positive sign that Jack's design could be successfully brought to market at low cost.

Brad

Run and Gun

I was not able to embed this video in accordance with the owners request.  It is worth visiting this link to view this video review - it is a very simple design but it is well finished with thorough attention to detail, at face value in regard to the design of the product at least.

CLICK HERE


The IDC Run and Gun kit is currently priced at around the $400 to $500 mark.

Brad

Excursion.

Today the Australian component :p of sincro design went on a little excursion to Apollo Steel based in Archerfield.  The Operations Manager gave us an awesome tour of the workshop and a demonstration of the whole plasma cutting process from design through to machine processing and post-processing.  I had designed some seat brackets and tow hooks for the Pony car, so it was a perfect opportunity to learn about the machine by processing these parts.  Here are a few iPhone snaps from the workshop that we were kindly allowed to take.

Although the plasma cutter itself also has a drill head that can drill holes while doing a cut job, it's more cost effective to drill after cutting using this baby.

Check that drill bit out.

Gas nozzles and shields etc; brass, copper and silver.

Sideways gas :p

This touchscreen is were the job is controlled from.  The screen uses infrared touch sensing so you can use it with dirty hands, cool.

This vid shows the first part of the process - etching.

Second part - cutting.

I think we were pushing the capability of the machine with fine detail in small text like this, but I kind of like the raw and rough look of this text.

The really small stuff is hardly legible but was worth a shot :)

Stay tuned, I'll get these parts painted up, fitted and upload some more snaps.

Brad

Fix it.

The bike is nearing completion :)  The weather has been rubbish and unfortunately has kept me from finishing this little project and going for a spin.  I'd been putting it off until a nice sunny day but we haven't had any lately so the other day it was looking like the bad weather would hold off for the afternoon and I'd be able to sneak in a painting session.  However, I was wrong.  It was nice up until I'd just applied the last coat of clear and it started bucketing down.  The result of me being a bit eager and painting on a day with moisture present in the air was a milky, patchy frame.  Luckily the majority of the discolouration was in the final coat of clear so with some 3000 grit and a lot of polishing, it came up okay.

Bad:

Good:

 You can start to see the colour here, the gold flake is very subtle:

Thanks to Luke I have a new set of handlebars.  Luke had some alloy pipe left over from his FSS Net, so he kindly gave me a piece to make myself a set of flat bars.  I made them a slimming 380mm, we'll see how they go when this baby hits the black top lol.  With a bit of a polish and some grips I had laying around from the Sincro Shifter, they look like this:

A few other accessories have been trickling in.  My saddle arrived.  I wasn't sure about it after I'd bought it online, but I'm very pleased with it now, it looks and feels really nice.  Fits my colour scheme well too.

Crank-set all 'dolled up' and waiting for the new chain-ring to arrive.  I ended up getting a 44 tooth chain-ring as it will be a little easier to get used to fixed gear riding, making it easier to accelerate and skid-stop as well as there will be 4 skid patches rather than just 1 for the alternate option; 48/16.  Ideally I would have got a 46T, but they are uncommon and far more expensive.

Wheels!  I am also really happy with the wheels.  The seem to be decent quality for the price I paid.  At this stage I think I might remove the stickers from the rear wheel and leave them on the front - Ideas/opinions??

This set didn't come with tubes and tyres so I went and got some basic tyres and some tubes with 60mm presta valves (Thanks to the friendly dude at 99 Bikes at Chermside :)

These wheels feature machined out sections as well as the blade spokes.  I wonder what these wheels will sound like when spinning..

Not long now till I will be tearing up the streets, fixie style :p  Lets pray for a nice sunny, DRY day so I can finish painting everything..

Brad

A few for you.

Pixel Urchin 2 (R&D Fridays) from Alex Beim on Vimeo.


Fixie window display from Alex Beim on Vimeo.


New Balance rip from Ben Waldman on Vimeo.

Bike Project

All these posts about working on bikes has somewhat inspired me to join in on the act, however, my bike is a little different. All I'm going to do is give it a new paint job (get ready to mix some paint Brad) to make it a little more personal and unique, let me know what you think. The smaller image on the right is what the current colour scheme is.

Sincro Custom Wheel Design.

I thought I'd post up a concept wheel I designed earlier this year.  I think this is a fun idea that has a number of possible applications.

The concept is based on a traditional three-piece wheel design, consisting of an inner, outer and centre disc.  The difference with this concept is that the centre disc is made from two pieces.  One piece, the support structure, is manufactured from forged aluminium to create a fine, strong and lightweight wheel structure.  The second piece can be manufactured from a limitless number of materials including timber, rubber, silicone, plastic etc.  As this second piece is not required to support vehicle load, it can be of interesting design and material composition.

Of the three potential market applications that initially sprung to mind, the first market would be for luxury or expensive modified cars requiring custom wheel sets with a unique point of difference.  These consumers would be able to work with sincro to create a unique disc design that reflects the style of their vehicle.  This unique piece could then be machined from a material of the customer's choice, including decorative timbers.

The second would be tuner/race/modified vehicle enthusiasts who wish to modify wheels to be unique in design/style/colour.  Here, people would be able to use an online service to select from a number of component configurations in order to 'customise' a personal set of wheels to reflect their style and taste.  In addition to this the outer shell could be manufactured from molded plastic to exploit the light weight design of this wheel and create optimal aero-dynamic effect of the wheel's disc.

The third option is similar in ways to the second, in that the wheel's outer and supporting structure would be standard components and the outer shell would be manufactured from molded plastic.  In this application, the wheels would be utilised by automotive manufacturers as an 'optional extra', where they could offer the consumer, likely of a younger generation, the opportunity to customise the wheels to match the rest of their vehicle, style and taste.  This application has a real potential as the demand increases for standard, yet 'culture specific' automotive components.  This variation could be considered as an improved contemporary version of the hubcap.

Feel free to leave a comment.  Anyone, it's getting lonely over here haha.

Brad

Stance..

I saw Sea Shepherd's new anti-whaling vessel on the news tonight.  It's a pretty rad machine and will be registered in Australian waters.  I still like Sea Shepherd's late Ady Gil vessel better, with its lairy curvaceous 'Batmobile-esque' physique, but perhaps the new godzilla vessel is a tad more refined with a more of a 'no bull shit' image.  Regardless, these wave piercing vessels are a pretty rad piece of design.

Ady Gil.

In its original Earthrace guise.

The new Gojira (Godzilla).

Cool.

Brad.

Forgot to mention.

Decided on the colour scheme for the fixie.  I mixed up some paint today: Porsche Macadamia Metallic.

So this means the canvas will consist of brown, black and polished.  The frame, forks and other accents will go brown.  The seat, grips, chain-ring, chain, wheels and hubs will be black.  The goose neck, seat post, front brake caliper, brake lever, bars, crankset and pedals will be polished alloy.  Will be subtle but classy I think.

Brad

Frame Prep

The work on my single speed hipster whip continues.  I prepped the frame a few days ago and honestly haven't done much on it since, the return of the freshly caged pony had thieved my attention momentarily (pics to come).

Into it.

Wire brushed all the lug joints.

Stripped.

I love the lugs that appear to have been popular at the time these bikes were manufactured.

And what about how the seat stays are attached to the seat tube.  Awesome.

Primed and primer fillered.

Brought out the hard stuff :p  Spray putty, primer filler's big brother.

Bog.  This was where I welded up the first hole in the frame.  I was a bit over zealous with the bastard file and ended up with a slight divot in the tube.  It's likely that no-one would have noticed, but when in doubt - bog!

Bit of a smooth character.

Final coat of primer.  Although, I have now noticed a couple of small spots that I will touch up before colour.

The forks needed a bit of attention, they came up nice.

I was keen to see how these were constructed, as they appear to be one piece.  Here you can see what looks like a braze to join the legs of the forks with the connecting part that joins to the lower bearing race.  This is a rad way to make forks, they look much nicer than a bent piece of tube or three pieces brazed into a lug.

Sharpen the shoulders with some filler/sanding.

As I've previously mentioned, the crank-set is all alloy so I started polishing them to see how they'd come up. There were some deep scratches so the took quite a bit of work with the Emory tape (then a bunch of wet & dry) to get them relatively smooth.

Had to fend off the magpies.

With my new pedals.

Brad