March 9th, 2007 by steven

Uncategorized

Gary’s Bike (part 1)

I’m about to start a new frame for my friend Gary. He’s asked if I can document it’s progress so I figured I’d write about it here. There’s also a flickr set with the images for the build.

The design of the frame is mostly Gary’s with some input from me as we went along. Not sure quite what the inspiration of the design was but it’s meant as a replacement for his current full suspension bike. A Gary Fisher Cake.

One of the main aims of this bike was to produce a riding position as similar to the Fisher as we could get. I think this’ll come pretty close. It’s a fairly standard sloping top-tube frame designed round a 120mm travel fork. Columbus tubing, Ritchey socket style dropouts, s-bend chain-stays and a huge 35mm seat-tube (more on that later!).

Anyway, I’ve not cut or burnt anything in anger yet so I guess we’re still officially at the design stage. Here’s a dimensioned drawing to get started with.

Currently playing in iTunes: Hard Life by Bonnie Prince Billy

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3 Responses to “Gary’s Bike (part 1)”

  1. March 10th, 2007 at 12:21 am 
    kenneth says:

    see now

    here’s the thing i don’t understand

    you say the new bike is meant as a replacement for the old bike…and that the new bike will replicate the old bike as much as possible…

    so

    why not just stick with the old bike?

    i know its how you bike people work…

  2. March 10th, 2007 at 8:37 am 
    steven says:

    haha, well, it’s like this, erm….. well…. you see..

    Actually I didn’t say it will replicate the old bike as much as possible. What I did say was that I was trying to replicate the riding position. That’s different.

    The original bike is a full suspension bike which brings with it a whole different set of issues like weight, pivots wearing out etc. This is a simple light rigid frame.

    ….and you’ll never understand how us bike people work! ….but I know you want to….

  3. March 10th, 2007 at 7:47 pm 
    Gary says:

    Steven has summed it up pretty well.
    I like my position on the Cake and in general, its handling. What I don’t like is the bearings/bushes needing replaced often, the weight and the high bottom bracket. Also for the riding I’m doing at the moment, I don’t need a 5″ travel bike.
    My new frame addresses all of these points. Additionally, I’ve enjoyed the design process, it’ll be my first custom frame and it’ll be cool having a frame built by a mate!

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