The Step

As I thought, I've not had a big shedweek. Only just enough time to fashion a step from some scrap steel. The scrap steel being the original handlebars off my Honda motorcycle that I commute on. The bike was stored in a garage when we had the earthquake. The bike got thrown around a bit and the bars bent into interesting shapes. I find it rather fitting that this week is the 2 year anniversary of the original magnitude 7.1 that started all this and I've incorporated a piece of the damage into my latest project.

I'm not terribly good at bending steel around and it took me a long time to get something that resembled a step.

 First cut a suitable bent section from the handlebar.

Bend it roughly into shape. A little heat helps here.

Then make a female pattern to hammer the step shape into.

Some careful filing to make it a good fit against the fork leg

File the serrations.

The step is screwed to the fork leg while it is brazed, the screw head will be filed off after brazing.

I've also drilled and tapped the holes for the mudguard mount on the rear fork crown.

I've now completed all the components for the backbone and now just need to make a suitable jig to hold the bits together while I braze it up.

In other news, we had a glorious weekend and I was able to dismantle the old deck in one go. I have a design in my head for the new deck but it's going to be complicated, nothing new there then...

We were treated to an amazing electrical storm last night with almost continual lightning and then later hailstones the size of golf balls. It doesn't happen too often but when it does it is most spectacular.