Collecting velodromes - and some pin striping

As I mentioned last time, I've spent this shedweek painting some pin stripes. Although I greatly admire the old guys who could do this free hand, I don't. I use a tool to do the job, the same as Raleigh were using at 7:20 in this film from 1945. I'm sure you've seen it before, but I love that film although the working conditions were terrifying. I've used a few tools over the years and I can save you some time trying to find one that works. Don't be cheap, just go and buy a Beugler. Easily the best tool I've used and although requiring practice and a reasonable degree of manual dexterity, it's possible to achieve good results quite quickly. Alternatively sent it to me with some cash and beer and I'll do it for you. I've developed a system that works well and requires the minimum number of sessions to get the paint on. I can't paint all the lines at once or both sides at the same time so it has to be done over several evenings. When not in use I wrap the tool in cling film or glad wrap as it's known here in NZ. This prevents the paint inside the tool drying and I only need to clean it when all the lines are on. For paint I use those little pots of enamel for model making, Humbrol or Revell are both equally good. I've found that some colours are easier to use than others. Primary colours go on the best and gold and silver are the hardest to work with. So of course I'm doing my lines in gold. A long time hobby of mine is to photograph original pin stripes on bicycles whenever I find a new pattern. Genuine Victorian examples are rare and disappearing fast as the bikes get over restored. I hate that but then I don't own them.

The patterns seem to have got simpler over the Victorian age, Early bikes could have designs that to our eyes look really quite gaudy and over the top with lots of swirls and flourishes. Later designs were less flamboyant. Since I've never personally seen a geared facile in original paint, I don't know what the design was like. The catalogues merely tell us that plain lining was 5 shillings and gold lining 10 shillings. That price difference suggesting that gold paint was more expensive and as I've found, more difficult to put on successfully.

I've chosen a double box design that I'm going to put on the forks front and rear only. Less is more with pin striping and as this is a later machine, entirely appropriate.

Here's how I do this design. First spend some time thinking about where the design is going to go and the extents of the lines relative to components that are going to be bolted to the frame. For example, on the facile the lines on the left side shouldn't be hidden behind the sun gear. The design is asymmetric with the ends of the boxes further away from the axle on the left than the right. If it was symmetric the result would look odd. You need to think about access with the tool, you can't get into tight corners with it and you may need to have a rethink or be prepared to do a few lines free hand. The disadvantage with using a tool is that if (when) you make a mistake, whilst you can wipe the paint off, it will also mark the surface you are painting on.

With the design worked out, place low tack masking tape across the ends of the boxes.

Then run the tool down the tube and onto the tape, these are the outer lines.

Remove the first piece of tape.

Then run the tool down the inside of the first lines and at the correct distance from them. Run onto the tape again.

Remove the second piece of tape and allow to dry for a few hours.

Then using small pieces of tape, place them outside the lines you just painted. 

Mark on the tape with pencil where the lines across should go. 

Take great care placing these bits of tape and pencil marks as 

they will define how sharp the corners of the boxes are.

Paint both cross lines, starting and finishing on your pencil marks on the tape. 

This is relatively hard as you have no guide to follow. I have a little trick to do it accurately every time.

Remove all these little bits of tape and leave it to dry.

It's important not to wear long loose sleeves when doing stripes as it's easy to brush across a perfect line and ruin it. Also plan the order of the stripes so you don't have to lean over one you've already done, you can always come back later when they're dry. If your corners aren't perfect, you can always join up any gaps with a tiny modellers paint brush. Any lines that are too long can also be trimmed back with a scalpel very gently scraped on the excess bit. Don't polish aggressively as you'll polish the young paint right off, however you can 'age' new lines by doing this.

I'm now at the stage where I can clean up the unmasked threads and put the whole thing back together, how exciting is that?


In other news, Pete and I drove down to Oamaru on Saturday to watch the penny farthing racing. We took a couple of racing bikes down and rode the safety events. I was using my 1906 Royal Enfield road racer and I bent the handlebar at the start of the 200m sprint. Hmmm, I'm going to have to have a good think about this as the bike is pretty much 100% original components all stamped with the Royal Enfield name and serial number. I can easily make a new set of bars to the same pattern but that's not the point. Due to my fear that the weakened bars would break, I was unable to unleash my fearsome gallop in the 4 lap race and Pete cleaned up. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it..

1906 Royal Enfield Road Racer earlier today. 

It doesn't go around corners very well, has poor brakes and is too highly geared. I love it.

Now with added handlebar bend.

We drove back the same day and on the way home we collected velodromes. That is to say we called in to see all known velodromes between Oamaru and Christchurch. It's another hobby of mine. The rules are simple, the velodromes do not have to be in use and in some cases are simply banked grass tracks. If there is no trace remaining we can't count it.

We collected 6 out of a possible 8

Waimate: sealed asphalt, good condition.
Temuka: sealed asphalt in a D shape, OK condition which could be ridden but it had a game of cricket going on at the time.
Tinwald: sealed asphalt, good condition, highly regarded, active club.
Leeston: banked grass track, not in use
Halswell: banked grass track, not in use
Denton Park: Concrete, built for the 1974 Commonwealth games.

We missed Rakaia and Timaru and we couldn't count English Park as there's nothing left. I think I know where one was in Oamaru as well but we'd gone past it by then. If you know of others, I'd love to hear about them.

Pedantically Painting Parts

Painting takes a long time you know. I certainly don't claim to be an expert coach painter but I do admire their old ways of doing these things. About a hundred years ago I painted a few vintage motorcycle petrol tanks using some of these techniques. The results made an impression on me and when an antique bike requires painting, I use the same method. Incidentally, I need to state that I much prefer to leave the original finish intact if possible. Indeed if the bike is Victorian and has any original finish, I will leave it alone. It's a judgement call of course and you may like the wet, shiny look of modern clear coat on your antique bikes. I don't and I'll explain why. The only suitable paint for an antique bicycle is enamel. Not acrylic, cellulose, two pack, clear coat or powder coat. All of those finishes can be excellent and I own bicycles with all of them, but they are all much younger machines where the finish is appropriate. Enamel has the one major advantage over these finishes, it is possible to cut the finish back and polish it to a deep lustre without any loss of colour or fear of breaking through the clear coat. Coach painters, proper coach painters will spend more time taking the paint off than putting it on. The only trouble is that it is getting harder to get proper coach painting enamel due to valid concerns about VOCs. However saying that, Resene have just introduced a new low odour (read low VOC) formulation for their enamel and it is excellent, I'm genuinely impressed by it.

Painting is all about preparation, it's a little like plating in that the finish you get is entirely depending on the substrate finish. Clean and free from rust, dust, oil and other contaminants.

These following steps are the way that I paint, it's not necessarily the best way or the easiest to get right but it works for me. It's certainly not quick but then I've already spent over two years on this so a couple more weeks won't hurt.

first step is to fill any pits or depressions, I use a modern two part epoxy system and slap it on quite liberally, you don't need to spent too much time at this stage as most of it is coming off again anyway. Then when quite dry, use a block and sandpaper to remove the excess so that the blemish is gone. I only needed to apply a small amount of filler at the cut and welded splits on the lower fork legs and backbone. The actual amount used was tiny. You're aiming for a feather edge that when painted will not show through. You can repeat as necessary.

Next step is to mask off all the bits that you don't want to paint, in my case this was all the bits that have been plated and all the larger threads that I don't have taps for.

Next I apply a coat of primer with a spray gun, this is just flashed on to get an idea of highs and lows.

I don't spray in the workshop, I just hang bits up to dry.

When dry, it is rubbed down to key for the next coat, more filler can be added to any lows remaining. For these initial coats I use Scotch pads rather than wet and dry paper, these pads come in a wide variety of grades.

Some Scotch pads, yesterday.

Then apply another coat of primer and repeat the rubbing down. At this point I would normally apply an undercoat but this new formula of enamel doesn't require one so it's straight to the first topcoat. This can be either brushed or sprayed on, it doesn't matter since the finish from the brush or spray gun isn't the final finish. Leave this for few days in the sun to harden then cut it back with a scotch pad, you don't want to break through to the primer or undercoat at this stage.

This is black but rubbed down.

Then apply the first final topcoat candidate. I say candidate because bicycles are tricky things to paint and any undetected runs will need to be sorted out properly and another coat put on top. If you do get runs, wait until very dry for a week or more and use a block to remove the run, this may break through to the lower coats requiring another topcoat.

It's not a garage darling, it's my spray booth.

I like to let my freshly painted bits dry for a day or so in a dust free environment, then hang them in the sun for a week.

Hanging out to dry.

At this point, I then cut back the finish very carefully. I use 1200 grit wet and dry paper which has been rubbed on itself to make it even smoother, you want to remove as little paint as possible. Then using lots of water and a bar of soap rubbed on the paper, very gently and carefully go over the entire finish. This takes time. You are trying to remove as little paint as possible whilst achieving a flat surface. You have to be very careful about contamination of the paper as any grit will cause swirl marks in the finish. I also do it entirely by hand as the paint is still young and relatively soft. Then hang it up for another couple of days to cure this new outer surface.

Finally polish with a gentle, very mildly abrasive polish. T-cut is too much and you'll tear through the paint with it. Take your time and do it in good daylight. The finish will be a deep, smooth lustre. Of course this is almost impossible to photograph successfully so you'll have to take my word for it. The paint will continue to harden over the next few months so treat it carefully.

Mmmm, shiny.

Mr Middleton berated me once for having 4 molecules of paint out of place, it won't happen again I tell you.

Next week, I'll paint some pinstripes on it.


In other news, I am very pleased to announce that the deck is finally done. All that remained for me to do this week was to apply the final coat of stain. In sharp contrast to the care taken to apply the paint to the bike, I just slapped the stain on with a big fat brush. It was excellent and I now have stain all over myself and a cat that was a little too curious.

In more other news, this week I celebrated my birthday. We went out for dinner to the children's favourite restaurant, Tutto Bene. I think the kids like it because it's a loud, lively very Italian restaurant and I can't tell them off for shouting. The food and service were excellent btw.

Philip Louis Renouf

A few days ago Anne left a comment on one of the entries. She told me that she was the great granddaughter of Philip Louis Renouf and she was trying to research his history. Renouf was a very active man in the cycle industry during the 1880s and he is responsible or jointly responsible for both of the marked patents on the geared facile. Anne, I would love to get in touch with you about your grandfather but I don't have your contact email. The blog comments don't give me that information. If you send me an email or use the link to the right, I can share what I have with you. Thanks, Bob

Over The Handlebars

My shedweek has been spent contriving a plating tank so I could plate the handlebars. This has been going on for so long now that I'm a little tired of it, I'm pretty much over the bars. As I mentioned last time, my previous attempt was an utter failure. This time I decided to plate each half separately to try and make the job slightly easier. The depth of the drop of the grips and the geometry of the head mean that a simple square cut tube will not work, it's not possible to get the handle bar fully immersed in the solution. When I picked up the tube from Pete, I mentioned this difficulty and he simply suggested that I cut the tube at an angle and mount it off vertical. Clearly Pete's not as dumb as I look as this turned out to be the winning answer.

A little trig. to calculate the angle of the cut and then recycle the 

failed polythene tank into a little stand for the tube tank. 

With the tube mounted it looks like a big fat mortar. 

The tube is 150 mm diameter cable conduit and the end cap is stuck on with evil smelling PVC glue. I tested this before hand and it was absolutely watertight. I wanted to plate both halves on the same day so that the conditions would be the same and the resulting finish would be the identical. This meant waiting until the weekend and getting up early. In the meantime I used the same tank to plate the brake lever and the trouser guard.

The contrived set up looks a lot like a Heath Robinson drawing

Try to imagine where the submersed handlebar is compared to the other side and you can see the difficulty obtaining a tank to completely cover it. The central part of the head is masked by paint, only the bars are plated.

Now that the bars are done I can soft solder the trouser guard into the head. To ensure that it is in the correct place I installed the wheel again. This meant I needed to protect the tyre and rim from the heat. I wrapped a wet rag around the tyre and then used 4 layers of old baked bean can steel to act as a heat shield.

Baked bean can heat shield.

This worked well and the tyre and rim paint are undamaged.

The neck was also plated at some point in the last two weeks but I'm old and I can't remember when I did it. Again, the area to be plated was masked with paint. Also at some point in the last two weeks I've had all the bits nitrided that require hardening. I'm still polishing these and I'll plate them in the coming week.

Before nitriding, afterwards they go an interesting blue colour.

I'm now at the point where I can prep for painting and then wait for a spell of decent weather.

In other news the deck is very nearly complete, I've screwed the actual decking on to the joists rather than use nails. My tendonitis wouldn't cope with hammering 3500 nails very well. I'm only about 8 metres of decking short which isn't too bad considering that I bought 750 metres to start with. I've been borrowing an 18v cordless drill from Dan, a fellow member of our pub quiz team. It has made the job so much easier. All that really remains to do is to stain the bare timber, I'll be leaving the choice of colour to my lovely wife (resident soft furnishings expert) for obvious reasons. Doing the deck myself has had a significant impact on the facile project, I hope to get back into production properly next week.

In more other news, my whanau spent the long weekend up in Nelson. We caught up with Mr. Middleton and his family and had a most enjoyable meal and evening with them. I failed to find anything to steal from his shed, I was hoping to locate a set of Westwood rims but it was not to be.

I took my mountain bike up to Nelson and on the Saturday morning I did a little ride up into the hills. The Dun Mountain track is wasome and even more wasome when I discovered that the first half follows the bed of the first (horse drawn) railway in NZ, towards the top you ride over some of the original sleepers from the 1860's. It was cold and windy at the top (878m) so I pulled my jacket out of my pocket. At this point I must have dislodged my brain as I descended like a complete twat (again) and had a minor off. I don't seem to learn do I? Just a bit of gravel rash and a hurty knee this time though. So this week I actually was over the handlebars.

Later, driving into town for dinner, my lovely wife in our car and my in laws in their car got caught speeding. Being a long weekend it is zero tolerance and she got fined $30 for 58kph in a 50kph zone. She was very sheepish but I didn't say a word, I didn't need to. The fine will have to come out of her shoe allowance. It's the only way she's going to learn.

Not the solution for not enough solution

I've mentioned this before, but I like to do my own nickel plating for several reasons. The first is obvious, it's hard for me to lose bits in the bottom of my tank. Imagine if you have spent something like 40+ hours on a single component and the plating shop you have outsourced to doesn't wire it securely and it falls into a huge tank. The chances of recovery are slim and none. It does happen. I also like to do my own polishing. Polishing is not a highly paid job and you can guarantee that the dude doing your polishing will not take the same care that you would. I've seen some beautiful parts ruined by overzealous polishing, the polisher trying to get a mirror finish on every surface at the expense of fine detail. In addition, I can spend the time and effort to mask the components correctly, you don't want to plate a bearing surface for example. Masking is easy, either with tape or paint, but it all adds to the time and cost if outsourced.

I only have 10 litres of plating solution at present, this is more than adequate for the usual small items like cranks and brake levers. Handlebars are slightly more tricky, particularly if they are wide and bent into interesting 3 dimensional shapes. The answer is to use a little creativity in your choice of tank. I have previously used plastic garden window boxes for long thin items, but after scouring all the local garden centres, I'm unable to find any that are long enough, skinny enough and deep enough. And don't have holes in the bottom. Obviously.

So this week I tried something that I have attempted once before but which failed spectacularly. I made a custom tank out of scrap wood and then lined it with polythene. Last time the polythene had a tiny hole in it and I lost all my solution, I wasn't happy or popular since at the time I was plating in the dining room (tiny English 2 up 2 down). My lovely wife not particularly wanting the green carpet. We learn by our mistakes and I certainly did that day.

Some quick calculations to determine the maximum dimension of the tank to give me enough coverage and clearance for both sides of the handlebars at one go. Then make the thing and line it with polythene sheet. This time I planned to fill it with 10 litres of water and leave it overnight to check for leaks. The first bit went OK, but then I turned my back for a couple of seconds and when I turned back I had 10 litres of water all over the kitchen floor. Water is easy to clean off lino so I did learn by my mistake. I also learnt that this wasn't a practical solution, the tiniest of holes or tears causes titanic failure. Luckily my lovely wife and children are away this week on holiday so I could clear up the mess at my leisure. You'll notice that there is a slight shortage of photos in this entry, this is not because my camera is funded by the US government but simply that my family have taken it on holiday...

So back to the drawing board. Pete is going to try and locate some pipe of suitable dimensions to make a tank.


In other news, my lovely wife's parents arrived from England this week. They have been whisked off to Wanaka to stay in luxurious accommodation while I work on the deck. I'm beginning to dislike the deck. I managed a full 20 hours at the weekend on it and I ache all over. It is also raining now, so I can't work on it as planned. I'm also taking the opportunity to grow a beard as a nice surprise for when she gets back. This has nothing to do with being less concerned about personal grooming when my primary caregiver isn't present.

Trying to guard your trousers

I've had a disappointingly light shedweek, but I have managed to find a little time to make the trouser guard. Our American friends, who aren't as good at sailing as us, call it a pants guard. When I bought my first original penny farthing about a hundred years ago now, I thought this part was a tyre scraper to help prevent headers from stones getting jammed under the head. I was wrong and discovered the truth when I first rode the bike around a bend on a muddy road. As the wheel is steered to one side, the guard prevents your trousers, or leg, from getting abraided on the mucky tyre.

The guard on the original is a full 12 inches long, much longer than on a penny farthing. This is a reflection of the relative safety of the design, the seat being that much farther back and consequently the guard needing to extend farther back to be useful.

The original guard is bent and mangled, it is probably made from the mildest steel.

Due to the extra length of the guard, the material it is made from is important, it needs to resist bending as your leg contacts it. The obvious choice is spring steel, the same material I used for the saddle rails. Here's a tip if you need a small amount of spring steel rod, you probably already know this but you're cleverer than me and I didn't. Model shops sell it in many diameters as piano wire or music wire. It comes in 36" lengths and is cheap and easy to find. The original guard is 3/16" and this gauge is considerably easier to bend than the saddle rails.

First bend two 90 degree bends at the appropriate places.

Then squish in a handy bending jig to produce the rounded end that wraps the tyre. 

Also bend the guard to follow the tyre.

Next grind the rounded end into a pleasing flat profile.

Then the tricky bit, drilling the holes in the fork legs. 

drilling into a convex surface requires a little care to prevent the drill wandering. 

I mounted the fork legs onto the mill table and milled a flat before drilling the hole. 

A little tweaking to get the guard in the right place and at the correct angle.

I still need to heat treat the guard to remove the residual stresses from bending but I need to wait for my lovely wife to go out so I can bake it in the oven at 200 degrees Celsigrade for an hour. I'll then plate it and soft solder it into the forks before I paint them.

She nipped out tonight but caught me when she got back. 

I think I got away with it. I'll let you know next week.

So that's now the frame completed, there is nothing left to do other than stamp the serial number all over the components. Next week I'll start plating some bits and pieces and begin to prep for painting. The weather is rapidly improving here and I should be able to spray the enamel fairly soon. I do like this time of year, we're on the steep part of the seasonal sine wave and the improvements in daylight hours and temperature are rapid and noticeable.


In other news, today is our wedding anniversary, we have been married for ages now. I had hoped to have completed my lovely wife's deck but it was not to be. I'll post a picture when I've got it done, it has turned into something of an ordeal. My lovely wife visited relatives across the ditch in Sydney last weekend and I worked all the daylight hours possible to try and finish it while she was gone. I failed but I did earn considerable family credits for trying. She says I'm often quite trying, now I think about it.

On Guard

As promised last time, I've spent my shedweek making the gear guard.

The original guard.

From the literature of the day, the sole purpose of this gear guard is to protect the gears from mud, stones and other debris thrown up from the unsealed roads of the day. By all accounts it was very effective. One reviewer mentioned that he threw a handful of mud at the guard just to see what would happen. It mostly got deflected and what did hit the gears apparently just got squished out. The guard is not designed to protect fingers belonging to inquisitive, small children. The Victorians were unconcerned about such things, at that time common sense was still reasonably common. You lived or died by your wits, unlike today where the government of [insert country of residence] manages your health and safety on your behalf. But I digress.

I did consider making a one off rolling machine to make this guard and also the rear mudguard. I decided against it at present although I may review this later.
So a quick scratch of the head and then get cracking. I approached Autobend again (they did a sterling job bending my handlebars if you recall all of that brouhaha) and enquired about bending some 1.375" thin wall mild steel tubing into the correct radius. "No problem" they said, as long as the correct centre line radius is 101mm (I think they meant 4" but I didn't argue).

By a staggering stroke of good fortune, that is exactly the dimension I require, which was nice. 

So starting with a 180 degree bend, the first thing to do is to make an indent on the bottom of the guard. This is so that the guard sits vertically when bolted to the upper and lower fork legs. The upper legs are angled in towards the head and the difference is taken up by this little indent.

Note the little cut out opposite the hole to allow a screwdriver access.

I've mentioned before that I don't like hitting stuff, I prefer squeezing in a controlled fashion so I made a little hard wood insert to go up inside the bend, this has the indent cut into it. All I need to do is then squeeze it in the vice with an external form of a suitable shape.

An indented hardwood plug...

...getting squished in the vice.

Next I need to chop out the inner part of the bend. This is not easy as you can't use a hacksaw, so I bolted a guide to the drill table and drill a series of holes around both sides. A combination of a junior hacksaw and a cut off wheel in the Dremel soon parted the two halves. I was mildly concerned that the radius would change when I removed the inner half of the bend but it stayed exactly the same.

I tried but couldn't get a tune out of this.

At this point the guard is very difficult to hold in the vice without damaging the shape. The answer is to make a suitable clamp from some scrap MDF, this has the curve of the guard cut out with a coping saw and then the inner part radiused slightly so that it sits inside with altering the shape when it is clamped up in the vice.

Cleaning up the edge with an angle grinder back to the marked line.

Then to finish the actual shape of the guard just profile the ends and tidy up with files.

Now to mark out, cut and bend the top mount, this is a reasonable simple affair.

The shape of the top mount.

Bent to shape.

Next job is to establish where the guard is going to sit on the fork legs, it has to be concentric with the sun gear so that the planet is always equidistant when purring round. Once again a little scrap of MDF with the outer radius of the sun and the inner radius of the guard cut out proved jolly useful.

The hole and the cut out are to allow me to scribe positions on the fork legs

The top mount gets riveted to the guard in the correct marked position, I use nails for rivets. My son is 12 and is now taller than me, has much bigger hands and feet and is estimated at current rates to stop at 6'6". I figured it was time he learnt how to rivet, hammering being really bad for my tendonitis at the moment.

The original riveted top mount.

My son's attempt.

I cleaned up this side.

Not bad for a tyro. He already has dibs on this bike, "When you die, can I have this?" Charming isn't it? Just because I've got a gammy hand and fewer teeth than he has, he's already started putting labels on my stuff. Sounds familiar eh Dad?

Then using the MDF jig I can mark out the holes for the screws to bolt the guard to the fork legs. The steel of the fork legs is pretty thin and even with BA screws, the thread count in use would be tiny if I just tapped the threads directly into the tubes. So I didn't, I made some little bosses, just like water bottle bosses, and silver soldered them in.

That's Boss as my kids say when describing something which meets with their approval. 

Honestly, I'm so down with the kids it scares me sometimes.

Make the holes a loose fit and braze them in. I needed to dismantle the bike to do this, it took me an hour and a half and I had quite a pile of bits on the work bench at the end.

I bolted the legs up to prevent movement as the heat is applied.

File flush so that when it's painted only you and I will know.

Finished, and no I'm not going to put it all back together just for a photo. 

I have two more holes to drill for the trouser guard, which I'll do next week.

While I've got it all apart I'm going to harden, plate and paint what I've made so far, studying the photos and my notes of the original, relatively little was plated. Each side of the handlebars, the brake components, the two gears and all the nuts and bolts are plated. Everything else was painted including the crank, con rods and levers. More later.


In other news, we've had a little storm this week. I read on the interweb (so it must be true) that we had 250 kph winds, the strongest on record. Apparently the storm was the worst since 1975 and the second worst ever. I thought our house was going to flat pack itself, we lost power and our trees lost limbs. The morning dawned beautiful, calm and smelled fresh and clean. Commuting in to work took ages due to the many trees down across roads. My lovely wife teaches at a rural school and she's still not able to get to work. They have no electrickery yet anyway.