Genesis cycletruck/Tricross/Solaris MAX - KingTwin tandem

Had a productive day today. Charge first:

1. Big flaps - 3mm rubber sheet (arrived rolled up so hopefully will straighten with time)
   
2. Trimmed the mudguard stays
   
3. Made a little mount for the B&M rear dynamo light that arrived this morning. It bolts onto the rear rack top mount (so it's removable should I want to) and puts the light central and above the rear tyre. Didn't quite finish it, snapped my last 6mm drill bit before I could sort routing the wire through the mount. Works nicely though.
   
   

Just need to make a little chainstay bridge to properly bolt up that part of the guard and it'll be done. You can see how dire the paint job is in the second photo and it's just reminded me I need to do a better job of the bracket holding the guard on to the wishbone.

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Genesis:

1. Everything has now arrived bar the 20" rim for the front. Popped the rear tyre on and the Sunrace cassette, it's massive, easily hides the 160mm rotor on the other side. Seems nicely made and reasonably light for the price.
   
2. The bit I've been most cautious about is extending the steerer on the fork as i couldn't find a 20" fork with a long enough one. Needed to be at least 350mm (HT is 275mm). Got some 25.4 tube with 1.6mm wall which is a snug fit inside the 1 1/8th steerer on the fork to use as a plug. Cut that to approx 300mm. Malleted it right down til it hit the bottom of the crown on the fork, so about 180mm of insertion. Then drew plenty of brass down between the two, similar to brazing a lug. Then malleted an additional piece of 1 1/8th steerer onto the exposed bit of the plug. It was a nice tight fit, then fed more brass into that half of the join and filled the gap made by the bevel of the two tubes with more brass. The combo of a really long plug, lots of brass pulled into the join and the really tight fits between the steerers and plugs has given me a reasonable amount of confidence that it's strong enough. It's also dead straight which is good. Just have to wait and see if it snaps in half..
   

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That is one chunky wheel.

chonky

And a little chonk to go with it!

Budget build so a Gusset Black Dog 36h with a Deore hub and a 20x2.3 Maxxis Grifter. Annoyingly didn't notice the valve wasn't lined up with an 'open' set of spokes until it was all laced up, but not annoying enough to re-lace it..

Disc mount and guides on the fork and then bracing tube, guides and hanger on the frame and it'll be ready to be built up and ridden, then I can make the rack.

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Cute ^

Absolutely fabulous.

oh i like this

Sneak peek

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This is so good already!

Sick!!!

Started building the cargo bike up yesterday to mock up the brace for the rack, after brazing on the remaining guides/a hanger. Frustratingly I've made a major balls up with the head tube length and it's 40mm too short due to forgetting to account for the smaller wheel as well as the shorter fork. It currently has a 75° head angle, clearly no good for anything! While it's annoying to make such a simple oversight and I'll have to cut off the HT and replace with a new one, it shouldn't be too much more work. Got to wait for more reinforcement rings to arrive from Ceeway now though.

Have you ridden it yet? Seems like you’ve done a nice job of the fabrication side. Maybe it’s a shame to cut that off. I’d take it for a spin first before getting the hacksaw/grinder out.

Yeah, as @Mucker said, my first frame has some very strange geo thanks to my incompetence but actually rides fine haha. Take it for a roll and see, might be great!

I imagine the steeper steering might even make it a bit more stable at low speeds

If the weight is going to be upfront, a slightly steeper HA will be welcome, it’s personal preference of course!

Hmm, not ridden it yet, still need to pop the headset in. I think it's going to need replacing, it's a full 4° steeper than I was aiming for and will need a massive stack of spacers under the stem too. Nothing to be lost by trying it though! Will report back..

Do you have the surly fork still ?

You could maybe put spacers between the crown and crown race. Obviously not a long term solution especially with a load of weight on but it might help to figure out how much difference the longer headtube is going to make.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs3mMEqleNF/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1clrcu560nqwc

Still got the Surly fork but that'll be too long and go too far the other way unfortunately.

@frankenbike I think that'd work if I wasn't having a rack on it too, but the headtube/fork all needs to be set up at the correct length the get the brace (and therefore rack) to be horizontal before brazing it on.

Gave it a quick test ride this evening as it is, definetly not going to work and needs re-chopping. Not the end of the world though, shouldn't be a huge amount of extra work.

Fork now has a disc mount and a pair of M4 nuts to mount guards at some point. It's been sprayed gloss black with some clear now too. HT re-chopping over the next couple of days.

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Been busy, busy, busy but snuck off work a little early today to have a good few hours on the frame. The first attempt at the HT was 280mm long and ended up 40mm too short, fortunately the tube from Ceeway was 600mm so the offcut was perfect for the new HT. Old one chopped off, new one + reinforcing rings brazed on. Then built it up and mitred the cross brace and brazed that on too. Bike part of the build is all finished. Just need to build the rack, which should be fairly straightforward, and by being a bolt on rack I can make a couple in different sizes. Had a quick spin up the road and it rides well, head angle is far more appropriate now. Looking forward to getting it finished and taking some proper photos.

Still to do:

1. Rack
   
2. Paint (powder coat most likely)
   
3. Guards
   
4. Chop steerer to right height
   
5. Nicer seatpost/clamp
   
   

Taking suggestions for frame colours, I think I want the rack/fork to be black.

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That looks awesome. I'm down for a flat purple with black rack/fork.

I recognise the pink and blue plug from TNR03. We chatted briefly in Turin. That was a great week.