Sunday, November 28, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Food for Thought.
Check this out.
This one
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danprovost/glif-iphone-4-tripod-mount-and-stand
then this one
http://www.theglif.com/
Sorry about the lack of images in this post, but it is really worth a look at how a simple idea worked for these guys. I wonder why they needed backing, i'd rather save the cash and get the product produced, however it is a brilliant way of completely reducing risk, and insuring sales. I guess thats why they did it.
Interesting.
This one
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danprovost/glif-iphone-4-tripod-mount-and-stand
then this one
http://www.theglif.com/
Sorry about the lack of images in this post, but it is really worth a look at how a simple idea worked for these guys. I wonder why they needed backing, i'd rather save the cash and get the product produced, however it is a brilliant way of completely reducing risk, and insuring sales. I guess thats why they did it.
Interesting.
Want
TikTok+LunaTik MultiTouch Watch Kits for iPod Nano from Scott Wilson on Vimeo.
Think i might just have to buy this, although it does look rather big it is really awesome!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Tear Down...
I stripped the Centurion down today to prep it for paint and re-assembly. I pretty much just pulled everything apart, cleaned bits and pieces and sorted what could be kept and what I'd throw away. The good news is that a lot of the bike's components are pretty high quality parts, and much of the bike can be re-used.
After pulling everything apart I gave the frame a bit of attention. The goal here was to remove the rust on the top tube of the frame and weld various holes and cut off all the unnecessary brackets and protrusions. The frame came up reasonably well for a nearly 27 year old bike and a bit of bondo and spray filler will see it fairly smooth.
Most of the bike came apart with relative ease. A couple of bits, namely the crank-set, did not.
The first thing that needed attention was the massive rust spot that wrapped the upper forward area of the top tube. Luckily, the rust wasn't toooo bad. Once the paint had been chipped off and the tube wire brushed and filed, it looks a bit better. A bit of bondo to fill the pitting, will see it look nice and smooth.
These are an example of some of the little bits sticking out from the frame that me no likey...
Some grinding and filing had the 'sticky outy' bits looking as they should. Gone.
There were a few places where the frame had been drilled into for screw bosses, such as the drink bottle holder and the gear lever attachments. These bits had to be welded up and ground back. The frame did not like me welding it and I got close to blowing major holes in it a couple of times. I think the combination of very thin wall, old tube as well as a crazy metal composition made it difficult to weld. I turned the amperage right down to try and minimize the risk of blowing holes in it. I eventually worked out a good way to attack it and all was well :)
Shut your hole:
Smooth and shiny:
The other thing I did was cut off the hanger that the chain tensioner/derailleur used to bolt to. I haven't got a photo of it before hand but there was a threaded eye hanging from the lower part of this bracket, so I cut it off and tried to match it with the other side.
So here is the salvaged pile as it stands:
After pulling everything apart I gave the frame a bit of attention. The goal here was to remove the rust on the top tube of the frame and weld various holes and cut off all the unnecessary brackets and protrusions. The frame came up reasonably well for a nearly 27 year old bike and a bit of bondo and spray filler will see it fairly smooth.
Most of the bike came apart with relative ease. A couple of bits, namely the crank-set, did not.
The first thing that needed attention was the massive rust spot that wrapped the upper forward area of the top tube. Luckily, the rust wasn't toooo bad. Once the paint had been chipped off and the tube wire brushed and filed, it looks a bit better. A bit of bondo to fill the pitting, will see it look nice and smooth.
Some grinding and filing had the 'sticky outy' bits looking as they should. Gone.
There were a few places where the frame had been drilled into for screw bosses, such as the drink bottle holder and the gear lever attachments. These bits had to be welded up and ground back. The frame did not like me welding it and I got close to blowing major holes in it a couple of times. I think the combination of very thin wall, old tube as well as a crazy metal composition made it difficult to weld. I turned the amperage right down to try and minimize the risk of blowing holes in it. I eventually worked out a good way to attack it and all was well :)
Shut your hole:
The other thing I did was cut off the hanger that the chain tensioner/derailleur used to bolt to. I haven't got a photo of it before hand but there was a threaded eye hanging from the lower part of this bracket, so I cut it off and tried to match it with the other side.
So here is the salvaged pile as it stands:
I should be able to re-use the bottom bracket, pulled it apart and cleaned the ball bearings.
Most of the fixing components are made from raw alloy, including the "Turbo's Sugino Aero Mighty racing crankset", so they should polish up nice.
The list of parts that I now need is reasonably short (I'm trying to keep this a cheap project as a change from my usual projects). The main thing is a set of wheels, see further down the page, but the list is:
- Wheels/Tubes/Tyres
- Chain ring, Probably a 46T
- Brake line Brake pads (I'm going to run fixed rear and front brake)
- Seat
- Grips or Bar wrap
I need to decide what wheel set to go with, I'm tossing up between two. The first ones are similar to Michaels, in fact if i recall correctly, exactly the same minus a sticker.
The second set are a little different, have a good look before you form your opinion. I think they are kind of cool, they're a bit more "track style' with blade type spokes as apposed to round, triple wall rim and wider spoke spacing. I'd likely take the stickers off them or at least one of them.
Today I was thinking that the colour scheme will be black, white and polished alloy. Also Luke, what size is the smaller alloy tubing that you purchased for your net? I may be chasing a small piece if you don't mind.
Let me know what you think so far and any suggestions for the bike or wheel selection are welcome.
Brad
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Centurion...
Had a big win today.
It is curb side collection in my local area soon, so the the streets are lined with everyone's pre-loved crap. Anyway, I was driving home from the movies and thought I'd detour around the back streets to my home just in case I could end my quest for a suitable fixie frame. You wouldn't believe how stoked I was when I drove past a pile of stuff with an old cruddy looking bike sticking out the side. Enter the Centurion.
Not exactly ready to ride.
Check out the bars on this puppy. They look like antlers!
Now for the history. I turned to the internetz to see if anyone had made one of these bad boys into a hip fixie and stumbled across a website that an avid Centurion fan had devoted to the history of this brand of bike and everything associated with them. The website has everything from frame tube construction to how many layers of paint each model of bike received. I was looking to see if I could find my bike model and when it was made.
TURBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I had planned on making an awesome crack about how lucky I was to have picked up a forced induction model rather than the regular (and obviously lower powered) naturally aspirated model. But according to some research from my new mate's website, The Turbo model was one of the highest quality competition racing models of the early-mid 80's. From the original centurion catalogue (unbiased review lol):
"Introducing the new Turbo for 1984. The full race Centurion that's sending our competitors back to the drawing board. We've spared no expense to make the Turbo our best."
The guy from the website rates it as the best Centurion bike pre 84 and the third best they ever made.
These gnarly bars are likely an after-market addition to the C. Turbo
I could go on for ages about a bunch of rad little features this bike has but I'd start to blabber so here is a quick rundown:
- Centurion Turbo 1983/1984
- Designed in the USA, Manufactured in Japan
- Manganese Alloy Tange tubing (apparently some of the straightest, strongest and most expensive tubing available at the time.)
- 2.2kg frame
The frame has a bit of rust, especially in one particular part toward where the top tube connects to the head tube. This doesn't fill me with confidence because I've read the tubing has a 0.8mm wall thickness, may have to graft some new tube. At this stage I'm thinking I'll paint it the Mazda red that I painted one of talksteer's 'exo-shells', it just looks so good in the sun. There is a lot of work before that happens anyway.
This is part of the original Centurion product catalogue, some of it is quite funny actually.
Looks pretty awesome in its original guise.
A couple more snaps:
It is curb side collection in my local area soon, so the the streets are lined with everyone's pre-loved crap. Anyway, I was driving home from the movies and thought I'd detour around the back streets to my home just in case I could end my quest for a suitable fixie frame. You wouldn't believe how stoked I was when I drove past a pile of stuff with an old cruddy looking bike sticking out the side. Enter the Centurion.
Now for the history. I turned to the internetz to see if anyone had made one of these bad boys into a hip fixie and stumbled across a website that an avid Centurion fan had devoted to the history of this brand of bike and everything associated with them. The website has everything from frame tube construction to how many layers of paint each model of bike received. I was looking to see if I could find my bike model and when it was made.
I had planned on making an awesome crack about how lucky I was to have picked up a forced induction model rather than the regular (and obviously lower powered) naturally aspirated model. But according to some research from my new mate's website, The Turbo model was one of the highest quality competition racing models of the early-mid 80's. From the original centurion catalogue (unbiased review lol):
"Introducing the new Turbo for 1984. The full race Centurion that's sending our competitors back to the drawing board. We've spared no expense to make the Turbo our best."
The guy from the website rates it as the best Centurion bike pre 84 and the third best they ever made.
I could go on for ages about a bunch of rad little features this bike has but I'd start to blabber so here is a quick rundown:
- Centurion Turbo 1983/1984
- Designed in the USA, Manufactured in Japan
- Manganese Alloy Tange tubing (apparently some of the straightest, strongest and most expensive tubing available at the time.)
- 2.2kg frame
The frame has a bit of rust, especially in one particular part toward where the top tube connects to the head tube. This doesn't fill me with confidence because I've read the tubing has a 0.8mm wall thickness, may have to graft some new tube. At this stage I'm thinking I'll paint it the Mazda red that I painted one of talksteer's 'exo-shells', it just looks so good in the sun. There is a lot of work before that happens anyway.
This is part of the original Centurion product catalogue, some of it is quite funny actually.
A couple more snaps:
Brad
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Exo-Shell
I painted a few more bits and pieces to compliment my model at the exhibition tomorrow night - I blame you Brett ;) The colourful pieces are additional 'Exo-Shells' that could replace the carbon fibre parts, to allow people to colour match their product to their vehicle/taste. I also painted up the carbon molds to display with some squares of raw carbon fibre cloth.
I took a little vid to try show the paint better, it's hard to show the metallic and the finish in images, even this doesn't show it as well as I'd hope, that probably comes down to my fail video skills (where were you mike :). Added some mad music for extra 'corny-ness'.
The pearl/metallic content in these photos looks much coarser than it actually is, the camera only picked up the larger pieces of metal.
Brad
I took a little vid to try show the paint better, it's hard to show the metallic and the finish in images, even this doesn't show it as well as I'd hope, that probably comes down to my fail video skills (where were you mike :). Added some mad music for extra 'corny-ness'.
The pearl/metallic content in these photos looks much coarser than it actually is, the camera only picked up the larger pieces of metal.
Mazda 2 - Spirited Green Metallic
Brad's wild purple concoction with loads of Fine Russet Pearl
Mazda RX8 - Velocity Red Pearl
Mouldy.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Listowie - Polish furniture design
I came across this small animation depicting a number of scenarios that this modular seating design could be effective in. It's very basic but a little bit of fun.
Listowie - furniture design from matt on Vimeo.
This one is on of the stranger ones I've seen in a while, if you read the description in vimeo it sort of explains what they're attempting to achieve. If we knew the back-story and leading research that resulted in this, I think it would be more engaging. If you dont like the 1st 30sec, don't bother with the rest:
Friday, November 12, 2010
550D Testing
So, i have finally had a chance to have a quick play with my new camera. Sorry about the lack of interesting subjects, but the side of my house isn't a very interesting place to be. I'm pretty happy with it to be honest, the screen is really nice to look at and there is less surprises when you upload the images to the computer.
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