Genesis cycletruck/Tricross/Solaris MAX - KingTwin tandem

Ha. To make an omelette you have to break an egg. Or something

A smashing job…

Was the paint dry is the main thing?

Hah that's about it, can't all go smoothly..

@Tom13 pretty much luckily, as I'd about run out of yellow while I was doing the frame, just enough left to dust over the fork again. You can still just about see where it chipped but I can't be bothered to order another full tin of paint. Onwards!

Fair enough. You putting graphics on?

Always fancied a set of those CB wheels. They look great.

Probably not, I did message DnFive to see if they had any Merida ones but didn't get a reply. I saved the plastic head badge when I stripped the frame though.
It needs one more coat of clear but today's weather isn't the best for outdoor painting! Popped the headset in to get an idea of how it'll look.

@tallsam they're lovely, will need to find another project to use them on..

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Can't just tease us with a front pic. I know a couple of places that have done graphics for me should you want to go that route. You just need to send them the file.

Cheers, I think I'm happy with it as is tbh, might get some stickers at some point..
One last tease before it gets built up in the next couple of days, parcel arrived from Germany yesterday with the last pieces of the puzzle, lights and guards.

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It's done! Finished putting it together yesterday and I'm really happy with how it's turned out, the colour particularly. It did take about 3hrs to route all the dyno cables through the frame and guards, but I'm glad I did, they're hidden nicely. The Curana guards and IQ-XS are really nice bits of kit.

Still got a few snaggy bits to sort out though, after the first ride at lunch:
 • Most pressing is the cranks, which it turns out are goosed. They've been in the parts box for years and I remembered them having some wobble which I hoped the new spindle spacer kit would sort. Unfortunately it looks like the splines are knackered and the wobble is throwing all the gears off and making it unrideable, a shame because they look good. On the look out for some trusty Shimano HT2 to replace (thinking SLX M660).
 • Get a flap for the front guard, a bell, and replace the chainstay protector with some old innertube.
 • I'm waiting on some rubber grommets to tidy up the cable exit from the rear guard -> rear light and might reroute the rear cable from front light to downtube slightly.
 • I've got an old Hope skewer that it would be good to trim down to use as a seatpost clamp, not sure if I'd be able to thread it though..

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A few more

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Extremely cool machine, well done!

Very nice. Love the Dynamo routing, also didn't realise you were running an XTR rear mech.

This is excellent

Thanks all, looking forward to being able to take it for a decent ride.

@Tom13 I'm wondering whether to route the cable for the rear light around the top left of the crown instead of underneath. Yep, picked up some m950 bits on an old Scott, it's got the Xtr rear hub and ceramic Mavic rims from that. Foolishly sold the cranks..

This has turned out very lovely!!

Uuuh, it's turned out really well! Love the yellow colour and dynamo routing.

What's reasoning behind keeping the rear v-brake instead of adding a disc tab?

Thank you! @Josh too!

Cost mostly, didn't have a big budget for a the project and wanted to make use of the rim brake Xtr rear wheel I'd got. Rear brake feels a lot better than the front ironically, I'd forgotten Spyres are road pull calipers, need to add a Spyke/BB7 to the list of things to sort.

Tiny job, but the rubber grommets arrived. Fitted to the rear guard cable hole to stop water sneaking through.

I'm wondering whether I'd be able to cut down the Hope skewer and use a die to re-thread it further down, to use as a seat clamp. Unsure whether a die will cut threads into a hardened (I'm assuming) steel skewer though, thoughts anyone?

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Ironically I extended the thread on a pair of those skewers that I run on my Airbourne. It is on the back of a road bike with thin dropouts and they were designed as a MTB skewer. The thread didn't go far enough along and
was bottoming out where the thread stopped so I extended it and chopped off the excess.

That's good to know that the thread can be extended, I'll get hold of a tap and die set in that case and give it a go, thanks.

I tried the XT cranks from the Frontier at lunchtime and that threw up an issue with the cassette slipping badly. Looks like a new one is on the shopping list along with new cranks. Thinking of trying an 11-40t ZTTO from AliX, I've had some ZTTO dropper levers that have been decent quality.

Getting so close to being ridable. Fresh Deore cranks, courtesy of @Oddo, and a new ZTTO cassette have sorted the slipping/shifting issues. Unfortunately it's now highlighted that the BB is knackered too.
I found a battered bell in the spares box that's polished up okay, just need a thinner band for it to fit the 22mm bars.

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Haha, nice one! Could've sent a BB with it ;).
Really cool and utilitarian outcome. 10/10 would ride.

The only issues that spring to mind with shortening and re threading a qr skewer:

It’s 5mm, qr seatpost clamps are usually 6 (or 8mm) I think?

You’ll be cutting the threads, when they would likely be rolled if being made as a regular qr skewer. So as well as being 5mm it’ll be weaker at the threads too.

Thank you, it's so good to be able to ride it now! Think I might have a spare bb hiding somewhere..

@MCamb good points, the clamp on at the moment is m6. Might try it anyway as worst case the seatpost slips.

Took it for a spin out to the supermarket this evening for the first time, with the trailer. Not even 1km in, dropping off a kerb the empty trailer bounced. Urgh! Apart from that and the bag of spanners bb it rides really nicely. Smooth, upright and relaxed, which is exactly what I was after. Keen to try the dyno lights in the dark dark now.

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Careful showing a picture of that rear mudguard on here, comments can be brutal. Guess it's to get the rear light up high? Could it be repositioned up the guard? Looks great though