Genesis cycletruck/Tricross/Solaris MAX - KingTwin tandem

@Dexter nice idea, purple is very tempting, possibly a fairly light shade. Also feeling sand or ivory/cream at the moment, with fresh Genesis decals.

@velosaurus neat, it really was a fantastic ride! What were you riding? I've not got the best memory.

I am the same, always remember the bike, not the rider. Camino Ti. Yeah great week although we did find a hotel that day it rained.

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I spend a bit of time mechanic-ing at a cycle co-op and had a scavenge of the scrap pile today. Found a '93(?) Rockhopper. Frame is very ratty and everything was ditched bar the headset/BB/stem/cranks. BB took standing on a 4ft lever to get it out but all serviced now. Going to stick it in the shed and slowly collect some bits, thinking a riser bar/nobbly tyred cruiser kinda thing.

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Finally found the time to get the Genesis into a rideable state with a rack attached, proper chuffed! Finished off the brazing this evening and drilled some holes, then had a quick spin round town. It's definitely on the sedate side of things given it weighs about 15 tons, but it's smooth, comfortable and the steering is actually pretty nimble. Still needs a brace between the HT and rack before I put any serious weight on it. I'll braze some nuts into the four corners of the rack to take some wing bolts for easy removal of a bread crate for chucking shopping in.

To do:

1. Finish brazing
   
2. Paint
   
3. Chop steerer
   
4. More purple ano
   
5. Decent photos
   
6. Guards
   
7. Find a load of innertubes for the rack
   
   

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Your genesis has inspired me to turn a frame I bought off of here recently into a cycle truck. Think I’m going to go for an Omnium style long tube from bb to under the rack.

No idea when I’ll get it done as I really need to get cracking on some stuff for taking to Bespoked.

This is awesome stuff.

Nice! Sounds good, are you thinking a stubby extra HT under the rack like the longer Omniums? Hoping to get down to Bespoked this year for a day.

@loctez cheers! Really enjoying riding it.

Brazed a small brace on the HT this morning, so it now has two more bolts perpendicular to the other two. Then emptied the dregs of a can of gloss black onto the rack for some vague road salt proofing. Once I'm happy with it I'll strip it back down and sent it off to get powder coated. Maneuvering it while walking is going to take a bit of getting used to, already dented the rack ramming a bollard and taken a chunk out of hall plaster..

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This is rad! Rack looks like it's pointing slightly downwards in the pics, sure it's level in real life though.

Wow! dammit now i wanna build a cargo bike.
very cool

Thanks! Think it's just the perspective making it look angled down, it's pointing up by about 2°.

Now with more purple after a spares box rummage.

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I think more ano purple and a clearcoat would be perfect on this.

Looking good!

Did you reinforce the DT where it meets the horizontal box section? Everything else looks super heavy duty, but to me that looks looks like a potential weak spot... it is the thinnest part of a butted tube too

Thought I would point this out now before you paint, as it would be relatively easy to braze more steel on in its current state.

stubby extra HT under the rack like the longer Omniums?

Yeah, exactly.

Could cut the steerer down on the fork I have on the minivelo just now or just buy a new bmx fork.

Might try and extend the headtube after I cut the downtube away from it rather than do a total replacement like you have. If I can just sleeve some tubing over the existing headtube and capillary braze it it'd be good, maybe size up to a 44mm bottom cup, will need to see if I can work out tubing sizes to get me there...

Keeping the new segments aligned may also prove to be too difficult though.

I didn't, I had a long think about it being slightly concerned that the DT is probably only ~0.7mm there (was thinking half a section of tubing between DT and box section to give additional thickness) but didn't bother as I didn't have any appropriately sized tubing and I'm impatient. I suspect it will be fine with the weight that's typically being carried. But as you say it makes sense to reinforce now anyway, before paint, additional weight isn't a concern. Might do a triangular gusset similar to the HT brace between the box section and DT.

@M_Vatwork sweet! Sounds a good plan. As you say alignment could be awkward. Replacing the HT ended up being very simple and quick in practice, the majority of the removal being done with a grinder.

Picked up an old Tricross from my Dad who now only rides an e-bike. Going to use it for longer road rides. Low spec but the frame is surprisingly nice. Currently put 42c Conti Sport Contacts, carbon post, Fizik saddle, and slightly flared bars on it (+destickered rims).
Bought some hydro Di2 R875 brifters for the DIY drop barred frame, will pair with a bar end shifter for now, then upgrade to Di2 at a later date. Internally routed Sora R3000 levers will then go onto the Tricross, along with a compact double and some mini-v's. Sticking with Shimano 9 speed on the Tricross for cheapness.

Genesis cycletruck got a new BB as the XT one disintegrated. Needs an additional brace on the DT then will be stripped for powder coating.

And finally started collecting uber cheap/free bits for the Rockhopper. Tempted to use it to do a bikepacking loop of the Shropshire Way.

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Nice pic, and the bike looks like a beast with those beefy tyres. :)

Top of the Wrekin?

It's got surprisingly big clearance for a pre-gravel hype frame, think it's a 2012 model and the fork would probably take a 2.2" and the rear up to about 45c. It's a great all round bike to be honest. Just need to get rid of those side exit brifters..

@Landslide close! Top of Pole Bank on the Long Mynd, one of my all time favourite places.

Tricross now has the R3000 shifters and mini-v's. Completely painless internal cable routing which was a treat. Still need to find a black compact double for it. Had a nightmare getting the new cable stuck inside the shifter though (again! Did the same thing last year and ended up buying a new shifter after dismantling and being completely unable to re-mantle), ended up drilling the shifter to remove the stuck bit.

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I think you could make do with some black chainrings to make the crankset work on that.

Good call, will have a hunt through the spares box.
Ordered some more tubing to finish off the Genesis and some motorbike bars and pink Jagwire gear outer for the Rockhopper. The bars are 820mm wide and weigh a ton, they'll need a shim cutting from some 25.4x1.6 tube as they're 22mm diameter along the whole length. Just need a rear 26" wheel if anyone has one? (Rim brake/Shimano freehub/130mm hub).

Making some steady progress on various bits and bobs. Did a steerer extension on a 1" threaded fork, as well as converting to threadless, for @Batt.

Chop
Insert 22.2 mm plug
Braze
File
Polish
Etc.

And chopped a shim from the same dia. tubing for the moto bars. Discovered the seatpost is properly stuck in the Rockhopper, will try to remove it mechanically, if not >> caustic soda, if not >> burn it out as a last resort, want to try and avoid damaging the paint even more.

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Rad

Fork Arrived! Excited to get the bike back together again.