The Spoon Brake

I've spent this shedweek making the spoon. Of the various original geared faciles that I've personally seen, I've yet to find one with it's original brake. Even the one I am copying has a modern replacement, it's just a rough casting that still requires finishing. I've seen a few others that look like they are made from the same casting but never an original. So this week I have been in touch with a well known collector from the States who has owned two originals and still has one of them. I discovered that he is the source of the castings that I've been finding scattered around the planet. He had them cast using one of his originals as a pattern. He also very kindly sent me some good clear photos of how his looks when mounted. My lever will be slightly different since I have the deep drop bars but I can adapt the style to suit. I was also interested to discover that his estimate for the total surviving number of geared faciles is only 12+ worldwide. In return for all of this information, I've promised to send him a scan of an original 1885 Ellis & Co. brochure from my own archive.

When I measured the original bike I traced the outline of the lever and spoon even though they weren't original parts. This was fortunate since they were cast from originals and so are accurate (if slightly too small) to copy. What I wasn't sure on was how the lever and spoon interacted, the photos cleared this up. Choice of material is important when making these parts. Even though you are only applying hand pressure, the force at the spoon, due to mechanical advantage, is considerably (3 times in this case) higher. I'm pretty confident that I could bend mild steel of this gauge with 3 times my hand force. I searched around for some higher tensile plate that would take the force, I ended up buying some 1/4" Bisalloy 80 (roughly 3X yield strength of mild steel) mostly because the local supplier had some offcuts and it was cheap. Except when I got it home I found it was 6mm. Unless I use shims I'll have that authentic brake rattle common to most antique bicycles.

First mark out the shape of the spoon using the original as a pattern and roughly cut it out. Then drill the pivot hole. Bisalloy 80 is hard to drill, the manufacturer recommends cobalt drills. I just used HSS at a lower speed and it was OK. Then assemble and mark where the spoon will sit so that it contacts the tyre with as much surface area as possible.

The spoon itself is made from a scrap piece of thick wall water pipe.

Make a jig to hold it all in the right place...

...and take it to Tweed Pete to weld up. 

I asked him to build up a decent fillet so that...

...I could then dress it off and make it look organic and beautiful. 

Like melted cheese or something.

Then make the top pivot pin, this is machined in the lathe from a high tensile bolt and then the upright is shaped so that it sits at the correct angle relative to the lever. This angle is important, the angle when it is in the off position should be the same as the angle in the on position relative to the brake lever it passes through.

Reuse the same jig and take it back to Pete...

...to get it welded up. The thread is just used to hold it in the jig.

A stunningly bad photo of the finished spoon in situ.

Next week I'll start on the lever itself. It's a little more complicated than the spoon.

In other news, I was riding the motorbike to work this morning. Taking a right hand bend into a T junction when, accompanied by a loud report, the rear tyre parted company with the rim. As you can imagine this is not an ideal situation to be in when leant over on two wheels on a frosty morning. For safety reasons, I tend to prefer my tyres to be firmly attached to my rims. By sheer skilliance I was able to not fall off. I pushed the bike home, changed my underpants and then had to spent the morning running around like a blue arsed fly trying to get the tyre replaced. It's an odd size (of course). Unfortunately this time I can't blame Mr. Middleton for my two wheeled misadventure.

I've also lashed out on some modern riding gear. I last bought a motorcycle jacket when I was 17, a long time ago. I still think it's the height of fashion, an opinion not shared by my children. Or my lovely wife. This new one has all sorts of body armour and such like contrivances to assist your comfort level when sliding down the road. My wimp glands decided it may be prudent to invest in suchlike technology.

The bike has been causing me some trouble just lately, first new chain and sprockets, then new front tyre, then the starter motor packed up and now this. I'm having to bump start every day since I'm still waiting for a moron on Trademe to send me a replacement starter motor but that's a story for another day...

Road Trip

America is quite a big place you know. I know this to be true because over a period of two and a half weeks I dragged the extended whanau around California and Nevada in a big van.

A big van last week.

Since we live in New Zealand and all other family members live in England we consulted a globe and decided that California is roughly midway. About a hundred years ago I spent time working in various parts of America but I'd never been to the west coast. Well goodness me, isn't San Francisco a pleasant city? I was very taken with the place and it's people, a view probably enhanced by the kindness shown to us by a local wheelman. I would like to publicly thank Christian Wignall and his family for going out of their way to make us feel welcome and entertained.

Almost as soon as we arrived I had been loaned an 1888 New Rapid for a guided tour of the area. New Rapids have a well deserved reputation as high quality machines and I was very excited to have the chance of an extended ride.

Christian with some wonderful engineering and a big bridge in the background.

Christian has done extensive research into the company and he had published this a few years ago in the Veteran Cycle Club journal. I thought that I recognised the name. An online version is available here, I urge you to take a look.

The next day Christian took me to meet Greg Barron of Rideable Bicycle Replicas. I needed to buy some tyring (or tiring since I bought the US system) and Greg was very happy to give us a tour of his workshop and his collection of antique bikes.

Greg's unique storage solution.

Whilst there I was pleased to be introduced to a few other wheelmen.

Greg Barron, some other bloke, Christian Wignall & Mike Walker.

Later we drove down to Half Moon Bay to visit Jack Castor and his amazing collection. I had briefly met Jack once before and it was good to renew his acquaintance.

Shite and Briny the next day we picked up the van and started the road trip. Highlights in no particular order would have to include.

Yosemite National Park, all of it. 

We stayed here for a few days and did and saw many exciting things.

Black bears, a mother and her cub just a hundred meters or so away. 

Quite close enough thank you very much.

Yosemite does waterfalls very well indeed. This is Vernal Falls.

Snakes and lizards, my son was in heaven, my lovely wife less so. 

This dinosaur was *this* big.

White water farting. 

Ghost Towns in the desert.

Death Valley, what a fascinating place! We stayed the night at the aptly named Furnace Creek, being spring it was only a mere 115F (46C). I was pleased to find an early example of Mr Starley's tricycle balance gear on an 1894 steam tractor. More massive but just the same technology.

How do you differentiate between different differentials?

Dried up and not quite so dried up salt lakes, the most famous being Mono lake. 

Ducks float ridiculously high in the water.

A helicopter flight into the Grand Canyon. It really is a very big hole indeed, so big that our feeble minds can't really comprehend the scale even when you are there staring at it and you know the statistics.

The Colorado river is a mile below us.

Riding over the Golden Gate Bridge. Christian once again assisted us with a loan of a bicycle each and also acted as our tour guide. Later we had a personal tour of all the really steep streets in San Francisco that they don't put in the guide books. Not on bicycles I might add.

The cable car museum, my son and I spent a very happy afternoon here. We now understand how the cable cars can cross other cables. Of course we immediately had to go out into the street and find examples of all the engineering solutions we had just seen described.

My idea of heaven.

Meanwhile my lovely wife took my daughter shoe shopping. I had failed to warn the shoe shops in advance but I think the staff coped reasonably well. Details are unclear at this stage of the volume purchased but I've found at least two new pairs in her shoe room.

Because the light is better in my workshop, that's why.

Las Vegas, not my cup of tea I'm afraid. I tapped a bronze statue outside Caesar's Palace to discover it was fibreglass. Pretty much sums the place up.

Outdoor Escalators. Seriously?

Normal service will resume next week.

A Gripping Tale

As promised last time, I've spent this shedweek making some T grips.

 This is the one remaining grip on the original, the second one was missing.

Held in place by a single screw.

The originals are made of buffalo horn, this material although not easy to get, is still available. These days it comes from farmed Asian water buffalo and there are a few companies that deal in it. These horns are mostly hollow except for the very tip which is solid. The handles on antique bicycles are at the upper end of the size range of these solid tips and only the biggest horns will do. That's the first problem, you're paying for trophy horns. The second problem comes if you live in a country like NZ that has very strict import laws on animal products. I'm confident that it would be possible to achieve but I only have limited time available in my lifetime and I don't particularly enjoy fighting with bureaucracy. I'm not complaining about the MAF laws by the way, I just can't be bothered dealing with them.

I've spent some time researching valid historical alternatives. It seems that the Victorians used a great variety of materials, some ethical and some decidedly not. I think that getting some fresh ivory into NZ would cause even more problems, not least for the poor elephant. Lignum vitae is an interesting wood you know, it's also massively over harvested and now virtually extinct. However, I like to recycle and reuse stuff and about a year ago I saw a set of lawn bowls in an antique shop. Bowls of a certain age (mine are 1959) are made of lignum vitae and are just big enough to get some handles out of if you use a little ingenuity.

A bowl from 1959, shortly before it met with a saw.

First, sand off the coating to determine the grain direction. 

Then chop into pieces to get the blanks out.

Mount in the four jaw and bore the tapered hole through the grip, 

by taking the chuck off with the work still mounted I could repeatedly check for a good fit.

Flip through 90 degrees and drill and tap the hole for the retaining screw. Amazingly, this stuff is hard enough to take a screw thread, it was also unmarked by the jaws of the chuck. It machines beautifully by the way, with a lightly perfumed odour, the wood is very oily and the cut self lubricates. You get no problems with machining the end grain at all, it appears to be uniformly dense. I experimented and sure enough this wood sinks in water, decidedly so.

The blocks I have are only just long enough to get the grips out of so I need to glue some temporary stubs to either end so I can turn them. Gluing lignum vitae seems to be a topic that raises as much debate as greasing/not greasing tapered bottom bracket axles. In the end I rough sanded the ends for some mechanical interference with the glue, I also wiped with a solvent to remove the surface oil. I then glued using Araldite, a common two part epoxy.

Battersea Power Station

I could then mark and centre drill each stub so I could turn between centres.

Turn to shape until nearly parted off then remove. 

Snap the glued end off and hand file the end profile.

Then place on the handle bars and sit on the bike. Rotate until comfortable, mark this position and make the hole. Finally run the tap through the grip and the bar.

The last thing to do is to file the ends of the bars to match the profile of the T grip. 

The grips are held very securely, there is no play or movement at all. I'm pleased with the result, I now have 3 of the 5 contact points finished, the remaining two being the 'pedals' on the end of the levers which will probably be the last parts to be made.

The total weight is now 34.75 lbs (~15.75 kg)

I think I'll make the brake hardware next, I'm itching to get started on the driving gear but if I do that first then I'll just want to ride it and then rush the rest of it.


In other news, I have been gently reminded that I have not yet finished the deck I promised that I would build for my lovely wife back in the spring. In truth I haven't even started it yet. She pointed out that even Mr. Middleton has managed to build a deck in the meantime. I'm going to have to get on with it, sigh.

A Riveting Post

The promising start to the saddle making last week didn't end well. I got the saddle top cut out, creased the edge, cut out the vent and then screwed up the rivet holes. I tried to punch them through from below after marking the positions. The punch tended to wander a little going through the thickness of the leather. The result is that whilst the holes are lined up correctly with those in the cantle plate and the nose piece, the upper sides of the rivets do not line up perfectly on the top side of the saddle. Since I have plenty of leather, I chalked it up to experience and made another. Tim has told me how he makes his holes so this time should be better. Also the second time around I made a few changes to how I stretched the leather top over the block to make the process slightly easier and quicker. I didn't work, it took me longer. For some reason the second top is softer than the first one, this one marks very easily whereas the first one was quite hard, I'll carry on though and see how it works out.

Right where did we get to?

First thing is to cut the leather off the block and make it the right shape.

I asked Tim about how to get both sides the same and unfortunately there is no easy way. Fortunately the facile I am copying still had the original saddle leather so I was able to accurately copy the shape and dimensions.

Next run an edge beveller around the inner edge to produce a smooth chamfer.

Then dampen the leather slightly and run an edge creaser around the outer edge to

 produce a line. This requires care, particularly around the tight bend on the nose.

Then bevel the outer edge.

Then cut out the vent from the top of the saddle. 

I took measurements, photos and a rubbing from the original since I felt this was important to get the dimensions correct. Tim advised that I get a clickers knife to cut the vent. I failed to find one anywhere but I discovered that there is an easily available Stanley knife blade (5192) that is very similarly shaped. The blade is reasonably easy to control and well suited to this job. As an aside, Mr Middleton recently introduced me to diamond files. They come in at least three grades, the finest being of most use to me. I've been using mine to touch up high speed steel cutting tools in the lathe. I recently spotted a curved one and bought it with a view to honing these hooked Stanley knife blades. It turns out that I can get the Stanley blades sharper than new with it, scalpel sharp in fact, I'm most impressed and if you don't already own one, go and get one immediately if not sooner.

Next make the rivet holes. 

This time I took Tim's advice about the rivet holes and managed to get them in the right place. The upper sides need to be countersunk to allow the rivets to lie flush with the surface so that clothing doesn't catch on them.

Dye all the cut edges and when dry burnish to a gloss finish, 

I cheated and used my polished mop to do this. 

Lightly toasted leather doesn't half smell bad you know.

Then comes the bit that I was nervous about, the two creases along the sides of the saddle top. These two lines have to be the same and are done freehand with no guides. I marked the positions lightly with pencil to make sure they were symmetrical and then just went for it. I don't have the correct creasing tool for this so I smoothed the edge of an old fashioned steel tyre lever and used that.

The leather has to dampened again before creasing the line.

Then rivet the top on using copper rivets. I had just enough genuine 1/2" Brooks rivets left over from a previous job. Tim advised that these rivets are too large to be historically correct so I turned them down in the lathe until the heads were 3/8" as per the originals. I hate turning copper, it's so soft that it's hard, a little like sweeping water into a pile. Or herding cats. Or something.

The five holes that I had drilled, the three in the nose piece and the two new holes in the cantle plate were easy to rivet since I had sized them to the rivets. The four original, outermost holes in the cantle plate were larger and I couldn't get the rivets to hold properly and consequently had to remove them and have a little think. Of course I had no rivets left so I had to make some more from some much larger copper rivets used to hold truck brake shoes on. My Father has a large pot full and I stole some many years ago. This time I made some little copper washers and used them as roves to hold the tension on the rivet whilst I headed it, this worked out well. I'm not completely happy with the leather top, I think I could do better but I'll ride it and see how it works out in use.

The saddle is still not yet complete, I'm having a makers stamp made but it hasn't arrived yet. I'll post a photo when I get it.

I can now sit on the bike, and very comfortable it is to, which means that I can now make the handle T grips and get them at the right ergonomic angle. More later.


In other news, this week we've had a bad dose of redundancy going around at work. It's interesting that when the list of redundancies is announced all those on the list become work place pariahs. The fortunate few remaining in employment no longer make eye contact or want to linger and chat. They may catch redundancy you see. For those readers familiar with the traditions of English pantomimes.

"Where's my career"?

All together now children, "It's behind you".

 To my surprise, I am one of the lucky few to be kept on. I've had a lot of time off this year to look after my children and I didn't expect to survive the cut.

I explained what redundancy meant to my children and shortly afterwards they demonstrated their clear understanding of the nature of the problem by playing 'redundancy touch' (no returns allowed). This game is very similar to 'cheese touch', 'Jamie touch' or 'double dog poo touch'. Jamie being an unfortunate boy in my son's class. Children can be so pleasant.

On Tenterhooks

Assorted shipments have arrived and so work on the saddle can resume. You may recall that I'm following the advice of Tim, who is an expert at this stuff. The first thing to do is to obtain half a cow. And not just any old half of a cow either. I don't actually need half a cow but this is the smallest amount I can obtain directly from the supplier and I'm sure it will get used. Tim gave his recommendations for the type of leather I needed and I was almost able to obtain what he advised. The important bit is that the leather is naturally tanned (with oak bark etc.) and is suitably thick. Chrome tanned leather (most leather is tanned with chromium salts) won't do at all, it won't move enough when stretched over the block and won't retain the new shape when dried. Also the part of the animal is important too. Tim advises using the butt rather than the shoulder as it will stretch less when complete and will be more durable. Also, as every female on the planet knows, the butt is thicker than the shoulder.

Half a cow, yesterday.

My hide was produced by Chahin tannery in Mexico, it is 6 mm skirting, Tim thinks that this is too thick and has suggested ways of thinning it. Since I have so much leather, I'm going to try at full thickness first and then do it again if it doesn't work well. It's all a new learning experience for me.

The orientation of the saddle on the hide is also important, it needs to run vertically, up the animals side rather than along it's back. This is again to prevent unwanted stretch.

Brooks saddles are moulded under high pressure as in this short film at (6:00).  Do make sure you watch part two as well. Obviously my shed doesn't run to such tooling so I need to do it manually.

The first thing to do is to make the wooden block that the leather will be moulded over. When I did this previously I used one large piece of timber and carved it out. I used a lump of oak just because I happened to have it lying around. This was hard work and I wouldn't recommend it. So this time I decided to laminate the block from planks of pine, this has a big advantage that I'll get to in a minute.

Cutting out the laminates.

First mark the outline on the planks and then jigsaw them out. I used a coping saw just because I'm a retro grouch and like doing stuff by hand. Actually, I can't easily get blades for my jigsaw, it being an older model bought in England many years ago and now residing in NZ.

Glue them all together and clamp it up for 24 hours.

Clean up the profile before doing any shaping. 

I found that large metal working bastard files were better than a wood rasp designed for the job.

Then start to shape the block to match the saddle cantle plate and nose piece. 

Most importantly the the block needs to be a shape that you think will be comfortable to sit on. After so many miles cycling, I happen to know reasonably well what that means for me. That shape is not a simple triangle with folded over edges. The sides of such saddles tend to dig in most painfully. This is where the laminated construction comes into it's own, the lamination lines make it easy to see when you have both sides the same.

Finally when you are happy with the shape, varnish the block to protect it from moisture. 

A Brooks B70 has deep side flaps so I made my block quite deep to allow for this.

Now we need a way to stretch the leather over the block. When I did this previously I punched a series of holes around the perimeter of the leather and then threaded cord through the holes. By using a series of wedges I was able to tighten the cord. This wasn't very satisfactory and the tension in the cords wasn't easily adjusted. I hit upon the idea of using adjustable tenterhooks. Once again punch the series of holes around the circumference and then screw a series of wood screws around the base of the block. The leather can then be stretched by threading zip ties through each hole and around a screw head.

Tenterhook tensioning technique.

Next dunk the leather in some warm water. You will see air bubbles rising out of the edges and face of the leather, You need to keep it in the water until all the bubbles have stopped and then a bit longer for good measure. I left it in for an hour as Brooks do but that is probably overkill. When you take the leather out of the water it has a rubbery, gooey feel to it.

So now strap it down onto the block with the zip ties, it is possible to massage the leather down to conform to the shape of the block and then tighten the zip ties to hold it in place. Due to the thickness of the hide and the three dimensional nature of my block this is not a quick process and it is quite hard to completely remove the bulge on the top of the saddle. It would probably be easier with two people. One to massage the leather down the sides and the other to tighten the straps at the same time.

I'm going to buy shares in a zip tie company.

This whole process took me an hour and a half from getting the leather out of the water to having the leather tightly conforming to the block. Tim has recommended a specific type of dye to use when the leather is still wet, so the next step is to make a dauber (I made it earlier from cotton wool wrapped in cotton cloth) and give the saddle a number of coats until the desired colour is achieved. Then leave it to dry.

So far so good, but now the skilled bit starts.

To be continued...

<out of character rant>

In other news, we have had two cyclists killed this week in Christchurch. My thoughts are with both families, really they are. In recent months I've started to notice a worrying tendency for the press to report on the clothing choices that dead cyclists make. In both cases the cyclists were wearing helmets which is a legal requirement here in NZ, this was duly reported. Also noted was the fact that the cyclists were not wearing high visibility clothing. It appears to be a subtle shift in the blame process. Note that both collisions, I won't call them accidents, were in bright daylight in dry conditions and within 1 km of each other. The cyclists are effectively being partially blamed for being killed by not dressing like a Christmas tree. Do all cars have to be painted bright orange? Is the colour of cars involved in collisions noted in the press? With all the post earthquake roadworks, demolition and building going on in Christchurch, at least half of the population of the city and most of the road network are swathed in bright orange traffic cones and high visibility jackets. This has become the new normal and consequently a cyclist does not stand out anymore.

New Zealand driving standards are very poor when compared with developed countries. Factor in the national sport of drink driving and you arrive at the shameful road toll that we have. Until people start to drive with some awareness and empathy, things will not improve.

I'm not holding my breath.

</out of character rant>