98cc

Thanks BVB, I need to get them finished for the ride I'm doing in October. It's quite good knowing you need to get something done by a certain date or else you won't be able to do the event that you have already paid for haha.

Thanks born loser, the bits for my bike have cost about $700. The long spokes are $4 each and the tyre rubber is $40 a meter so these were the main costs. I wont need to buy anything else apart for some paint to do the forks and frame from this point though

Ok i have made a fair bit of progress since the last update. First of all i have drilled the holes in the rims for the spokes, all 400 of them! I painted the rims gloss black with base and clear. Then it was the job of cutting and threading the spokes and lacing all the bits up. All 4 wheels are done now which i am very pleased with because they are definitely the trickiest bit of the build. This was the tool my mate lent me for rolling the threads on the spokes. Its pretty old and i imagine it has done a few thousand spokes in its life. Rolling the thread takes less than 10 seconds. Here are some pics of lacing up one of the big wheels, i didn't take any of the small wheels as they are pretty standard. Put all the spokes in the hub The first side in with the nipples loosely on The other side going in I found the perfect jig to true them up in the scrap at work so i just tacked the bearing carriers on top of it. Truing up the wheels was a long job and the big ones took around 4 hours each to do with the 72 spokes to tighten up. And all done with the tyres on Mock up..... Next job is making up the front forks

I just found out that the vintage car club rally im going on in my Austin 7 tomorrow finishes in Rotorua so im looking foward to going to this as i havent been to the Rotorua one yet

I have got the rear forks all finished and welded on now. The hubs i got from the guy in Oamaru, they are just steel front hubs off a normal bike. The rims are all drilled and ready for painting so hopefully that will happen this weekend.

Thanks born looser and rot808. If you ever want to do one bl, get in touch with Grahame Simpson in Oamaru. He is extremely helpful. Yeah it should be a good thing for leadfoot and roycroft events Amy! Rustisize, Grahame gets the engineering company in oamaru to do it. They have a big press and the just swage the taper into it.

I had an awesome few days in Oamaru making penny farthing bits, we managed to get all the stuff i needed finished so hopefully the bikes will go together pretty quickly now. For the front and rear rims we first had to form the round tube into a crescent shaped section. This is done by pulling the tube through a set of rollers with an electric winch, you have to do 3 passes through the rollers to get the right section. We then rolled the crescent section into a circle, This only takes a couple of minutes. Both of the front rims have been rolled to 52 inch diameter. And the rear rims, we could roll 3 at a time. The backbones were rolled to fit the rims. Lastly we did the tyres. First you cut the rubber to length and set it up in the machine. You then tension the wire and this compresses the rubber into itself untill it fits tightly onto the rim. You lock the wire in place with the 2 cap screws and remove the tyre from the machine, you then silver solder the ends of the wire together. Once you undo the 2 cap screws and remove the locking jig the rubber completely covers the join and you are left with the finished tyre. These solid tyres will do two lengths of New Zealand before they need replacing. And this is the pile of bits at the end of the weekend. The next job is to drill all the holes in the rims and paint them ready for lacing up.

Yup they are a solid piece of rubber with a wire through the center. You first cut the rubber slightly larger than the circumference of the wheel, you then lay the rubber around the rim and using a special tool tension the wire until the rubber is tight on the rim and then braze the ends of the wire together.

I am flying down to chch tonight, and then going to Oamaru tomorrow morning and spending the rest of the week making the rims, backbones, spokes and tyres. I will try to take as many pics as possible

Yeah i reckon, do some sketches! I will see if i can do it

Thanks flyingbrick and steelies! Na the rim is just a single piece troton, a bit of a pain for transport but they will fit in the van lying on an angle.

I got the hubs back from the platers, they did a great job. The place that did it was Electroless Coating Systems in Glenfield. I am planning on getting a few of the other bits done like the handle bars and the front brake mechanism if i decide to build it. I have also got my flights booked to Christchurch next month, my mate is picking me up and then we are driving to Oamaru and spending a few days there making the front and rear rims, the spokes and the backbones.

Thanks Tortron yeah I was pretty lucky with the stuff I got to do, we did build wind vanes the year before though!

Yeah it was year 12 engineering, after i finished the first project which was a little steam engine my teacher let me start on this

Oh yeah i forgot to say that the stub on the flanges have a 5mm hole on each side and these are filled with weld onto the axle, you cant see it in the picture.

I got the flanges for the hubs finished today and got the hubs assembled, I am extremely pleased with how they turned out. I will be sending them off to be nickel plated this week. Big pic dump of machining the flanges..... First rough out one side Then flip it around and use a boring bar to machine out the inner step Machine the 13 degree taper Drill the hole for the axle and bore to size Flip it around and holding it on the inner step with a live center machine the rest of it down to size Machine the radius in the corner Drill all the holes, I was lucky that the guy in Oamaru lent me his drilling jig All of the flanges finished And press it all together, i made the fits size for size so it didn't take much to push them on And all finished!!! Next is the rear forks

Im looking foward to this, its always a cool event. Is anyone else from OS going to be there?

Yeah you should do! Do you have a pic of the bike? I will put up the details for the ride when i get them for anyone interested in doing it

I got some steel ordered for my front hubs the other day And i have now made the axles, the next job is making the flanges an welding them on. I am also planning on getting the hubs nickel plated when they finished. And assembled up with the bearing carriers and cranks.

Thanks Born Loser and Seedy Al, the oamaru ordinary cycle club do a penny farthing and vintage bicycle ride in october, its 4 days long and this year it is going from mt Sommers to Akaroa 180km so the goal it to get the bikes finished before then. Do you know what that program/doco is called? Would love to watch it

I have started making the rear forks, they are made out of 51mm dia steel tube that is cut out and bent to shape.

Thanks for that, yeah I'm pretty excited about it

Na no progress since i left school, i have just got an engineering apprenticeship so hopefully i will be getting back into it next year

Awesome, what are you going to do about ignition?

I have been making some more parts, I am making 2 bikes now so double everything. I made these today, they are the handle bar clamps, just mocked up with a bit of 5/8th tube at the moment Here we have the neck and neck to back bone adapter and the bottom half of the fork pivot assembly. The tapered holes are where the pivot runs, i need to get the holes case hardened if anyone can help me with that or else i will have to send them down to oamaru for the guy to do. In the bottom left are just blocks for head tube adjustment And these bits are parts for the seat mounts, they still need the holes drilled in them but after that i can assemble up the seat