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.