Cupcakes fabrication

👀

How’re you getting on with this?

The painter shrunk the frame.

Coincidentally I was speaking with the painter yesterday.

By mutual agreement it's been low priority because I've been busy writing my thesis. But that is now completed, so the project should be moving forward.

I'm in the mood for going 1*11 grx on this, taking the bits from my grave bike. So the idea is that I'll do a test build like that to check, and if I like it I'll be taking the front mech braze-on back off before paint.

The project is also clashing with an upcoming (tomorrow!) house move, but that will give me a garage/workshop to support the infinite spiral of bike projects...

Dibs on the gravel ;)

(I am very much joking I don’t need more bikes and I’m in the wrong country).

Front hangers are pointless anyway

Hard agree.

taking the bits from my grave bike

Tomb robbing, it’s deadly serious.

House move is now complete. I've almost unravelled all the broken/annoying stuff in the new place. And in a week or so I'll have defended my thesis.

So! The time draws near to actually build and ride this thing.

I'll try to bribe the painter to move it up the queue. Meantime, I am heavily tempted to go 1-by on this and therefore remove the front mech mount before paint. (Reason: I like 1-by, and recent popularity of Classified hubs suggests that front mechs are possibly on their way out). Edit: just noticed I already said this a few posts back, so I must actually believe it...

What’s happened with this then? Any updates?

@cheekysnaker

I just collected this from the painter's workshop. I've also finished my thesis (post-viva amendments), so I have some time.

Photos once I get it home...

...

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Oi oi that looks delightful. And well done on the thesis completion. When are you Dr Cupcakes?

Cheers.

As soon as I get confirmation of the revised manuscript being accepted... Could be any day now (or weeks, or months). Who knows.

Another thing happened in the Cupcakes stable. Not sure if this is the right place to share it but fuckit.

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Alright Sheldon

Great stuff. Nice to see this sort of bike with a nice fork crown / shoulders rather than the standard iron girder.

What is this lozenge shaped hole for?

I'm taking this as a compliment :)

As far as I can tell this recumbent is technically useless because it's not as fast, stable or manoeuvrable as an upright solo. But... it puts a smile on my face to ride. Also, I am lucky enough to have a garage while my friend had three recumbents and only a shed in which to store them. One thing leads to another, and here we are..

Cheers. The hole is for internal routing of the rear brake cable. It goes into the down tube as you see it that picture, and emerges just above the bottom bracket, then running along the top of the chain stay. My hope is that it captures some of the nice "clean internal routing" vibes while swerving the frustrations of routing through the bottom bracket shell, chainstay, bars, stem, or head tube...

Definitely.

I am not ready to embrace recumbents, but I respect more enlightened people that do.

Rob English started out with recumbents. Could be a winning formula

Excellent, great colour!

How many links in that chain!?

And he also started out working as an engineer before getting drawn further into the world of bikes. Not that he's not still an engineer. After our car needed some expensive work I've actually been pondering a velomobile based on Rob's explorations in that direction.

Haha, I'm afraid to count! I would guess about 2.5 normal chains should do it. I've got an Alfine 11 rear hub to go on there which will reduce the chain length a bit, and also improve some other recumbent madness:

• the rear mech is perilously close to the tyre when in the largest sprocket
  
• the low gear isn't low enough for proper hills (i.e. Scotland) and a bigger cassette would foul the stays, while using a smaller chainring would make the high gear insufficient for cruising
  
• if you forget to downshift when you come to a stop, you're pickled when using a derailleur gear system because you have to be in a low gear to get started without falling over
  
  

All in all, the recumbent is really amusing while also being kinda terrifying, and surprisingly inefficient.

I wouldn't have bought one, but a friend has been developing something of a recumbent-related problem: he had three, and only a small shed to store them in. I have a garage and a moderate amount of patience for ridiculous bike-related stuff.

Thanks! Paint is by Armour Custom Bicycles. As well as being a friend he is something of a paint wizard. I realised the other day that he's painted 5 bikes for me now. And as I type this, I realise that two of those haven't yet been presented "on here" so I'll probably have to rename this thread...

The idea with this paint was such a dark purple that it almost looks black, but shines a bit in changing light and has some sparkles in the clear coat to distract the viewer from the un-finished fillets:)

Recumbents make me feel funny and not in a good way….
Let’s see more of these other projects then!