You are reading a single comment by @jdmitch and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@jdmitch
Fear not, you'll all be able to vote on the gusset options when the time comes for that - I'll do sample cut outs of the foam/aluminium and blue tack them in place to give an idea of what the different options will look like. I have to admit I was tempted to emulate the Look (upper one, not lower one), but it probably would be a lot more work.
I think I am settling on next steps of trimming the track ends slightly more so that I don't have to remove as much aluminium around the welds, but I should really do this with a grinder, which I have but is not set up at the moment, so it may be a few weeks before I make much progress. I am also starting to think that removing a bit of alu from the dropouts will be fine, because these are solid (whereas I can't be as sure that what is hollow and what is solid around the welds to the chainstays). Any aluminium removed that contributes to a flatter surface for bolting the ends on should be more than made up for by the added strength of the superior joint. The reality is, it is probably along the lines of 1-1.5mm of the 5m thickness, and then the track ends are 6mm thick each (I measured them - thicker than I thought!) so the total thickness will be 9.5-10, which should be plenty hefty. There are some odd bits on the side where the derailleur hanger was, but I think I can work around this.
So unfortunately I am going to have put this on ice really until I get my bench grinder set up, though I may do a bit of filing on the aluminium (really, I'd prefer to save that until I am at the point of no return). In any case, I am out of the country for the next week, so don't expect any updates :( I am still on the lookout for some forks, preferably carbon, that will suit this (1" steerer, >140mm threaded, or 175mm threadless).