Benana's bikes, attempts at frame building and bag making

Chopped of the rear end today. Cleaned it up and left with 2 holes. Plan is to put a wishbone instead. I will put a plate over the top to cover them up.

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Salvaged the seat stays, they aren't now long enough so along with another bit of salvaged seat stay they will make the wishbone. Put a slight bend in the stays for clearance. Bender didn't do a great job but should be alright.

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Roughly cleaned up the dropouts while they are easy to get to. Also made my own hulsroy dimple die. I like how it stands up on its own.

Wasn't really paying enough attention and managed to put a dimple off centre, no photo of that one.

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Nice. Mine doesn't do that 🙂

Is that your name Magic Markered on the dimple press? Ahhh, that brings back good memories of using shared workshops!

Obviously I'm not going to ruin my own clamp! Nah it was a leaving gift from my old work after many years hard service.

Last day on this for a while. Was happy with all my mitres this morning and tacked and brazed this afternoon.

Filled the holes in the bb to try ensure they won't rust again. Only layed small fillets before so happy with how these came out. Picked up a lot of good tips from the recent Brodie videos. Only bit that wasn't ideal was trying to get brass to flow under the plate on the seat post. Should have used silver but I was all set up with brass.

Was originally not going to bother filing them but ended up putting a lot of brass on the wishbone so that will look best if cleaned up to look like one smooth piece.

Left soaking over night so will fish out tomorrow and hopefully continue in the next week or two.

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Added brake mounts and extra bottle bosses yesterday. Planning on trying to make an bolt mounted frame bag so included a row on the toptube.

Plan is to Hammerite tomorrow with a mix of silver and black. Going for the hammered stuff so should cover over any imperfections from the brazing, which there are plenty.

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Didn't really manage to get a photo of painting but the Hammerite was pretty easy to do. Mixed it roughly 50/50 and applied by dabbing with a rag. Can't really go wrong as the texture masks everything.

Started piecing it back together on Sunday. Decided to try a few silver parts I had instead of the black. Planning to make a stem to replace this stack, which should look a bit nicer.

Hit a slight hiccup with the chainring not having enough clearance at the bolts. Planning to dimple it so hopefully all fine. If that doesn't go well then, I guess a longer BB but will put the chainline out.

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Alignment of the wishbone isn't amazing but hopefully can still get the brake working okay. Might be a problem with the mudguard too but we will have to wait and see.

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Also started repairing a mates Steve Goff. It had cracked at the seatube/BB because it had no hole for water to espace , making it rusty.

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They had already had a go at trying to fix it. I think involving both mig and Tig. Unfortunately they undercut the downtube a bit. Hopefully it's alright. Frame is generally a bit battered, not sure if it's worth doing but I guess a good challenge.

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that is one cool frame! hope it gets fixed!

Tell your friend if he wants to sell some time in the future Id be well interested!

That wishbone weld looks awesome! Has that more modern look to it. Subbed!

It is pretty sweet and I'll let him know! The seat tube that sticks out is also a bit cracked from having a too short a seat post. Another issue is you can also hear rust in the forks. I don't think it's too bad but hard to say.

Thanks! I like how it looks aestheticly would have been nice to get it true but sometimes better to crack on and not fuss too much.

This is my first frame, apart from bmx, with a sloping toptube. Going to feel very modern.

Alignment will come with practice, I guess! I’d love to learn to do this, but have no facility to weld whatsoever. Can’t wait to see the progress

Sporadic update as I have some time off and a new project I'm excited about.

Didn't show finished photos of these projects though.

Fixed the frame in theory. The bottom bracket cones really struggled to line, I guess the shell has warped with all the messing about. It's been built back up but haven't seen it yet.

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Dimpled the stays okay and got it running. Ended up fitting a longer seat post, mudguards and riding it most of last winter. Ultimately I think it's a bit small.

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I've been wanting a cargo bike for a while and now I want to transport my tools around it's more necessary.

I bought this inbred from here fairly cheaply as it had cracks in the chainstays and is generally a bit battered. It seemed the perfect start for a long tail cargo design.

Made some progress earlier in the year

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This looks really hot