The bike is as good as finished... Unfortunately there were a couple of upsets along the way - namely a buckled wheel and a broken brake, but it's getting to the point where it's as good as done; and I'll tell you what - I'm bloody happy with it!
Every now and again, I have a really good idea, and last night was one of those times. I was giving the flat a good once over after clearing the gym room of paint and doing my workout and I came across an old wardrobe frame. You know the kind, the ones you get in Argos for £4.99 that are literally just some metal tubing for you to sling your hangers on. It was Claire's if I remember rightly, and being as she moved out around six months ago now, I guess she's doing fine without it.
Anyhow, after months of initial research on doing up my bike, I found that the people who did the best paint jobs were the people who had support frames for their bikes meaning that they could walk all the way around it and go under and over it as they pleased. I think you might be able to see where this is going. Fortunately, there are two perfectly places holes in the back of the frame (where the spoiler attaches) which I was able to insert a wire coat hanger through (after untwisting it then re-twisting it afterwards) and make my very own 'spraying frame'. Not only does it mean that all the bits take up less floor space (not that that was really a problem), but it also makes the whole entourage look a lot neater, which I like.
I've now been doing further research on the knackered cranks (the thread on the crank arms is torn, meaning I can't use my crank extractor) and it seem the only way to get them off now is with a big saw and a chisel. As much as it's going to pain me to break the cranks off it's going to need to be done in order for me to do the paint job to the standard I want it to. Also, the sanding is becoming a real pain as four hours into it I've done around 20% of the job. Also, the bare metal is getting some speckled surface rust where it's being left out so I'm going have to retreat the entire frame before undercoating it. I think the solution might be to wait and just pay someone to sand-blast it as that would all be done in one quick go that way. Though, I am going to borrow Roz's belt sander and give that a go first. If push comes to shove I can always get a new frame off eBay. Good old eBay.
On that note, I had to return my bathroom scales today as they don't show body fat percentage like they said they would, they show BMI which is completely different. They're obviously not by Ronseal as they don't do exactly what they say on the tin
What do you do when you've spent 14 hours designing and painting a bike that you end up not liking the design? Simple, you get out the glasspaper and scrub it all off, so last night, that's exactly what I did; well, started to anyway. It's going to be a monster effort to do it all, but fortunately the glasspaper that I've bought is really good and cuts through the paint really well without leaving the metal underneath with an abrasive finish. If only the same could be said for the Coping Saw on the pesky seat bolt. It was more like the "not-coping" saw and the bolt saw off (no pun intended) two blades intended for thick metal. I've finally had it up to here *holds his hand near his head* with the bolt, so my drill is charging, and tonight, after my radio show, I'm going to show the little sucker who's boss
There was another big thing that went on this weekend, I finished the paint job on my bike. Hurrah! Shame that I don't like it though, so I'm going to sand it all down and start again. It's not that I don't like the colours or anything, but I really should have done a masking tape test, you see, where I'd ripped the tape to make the curves of the tiger print, it left a kind of feathery edge, as if I've painted on, well, a feather or something. This meant that all of the stripes had white edges, which I tried painting over with a brush but it still didn't look quite right so I'm going to start again from scratch but go a brighter, cleaner, simpler way. Metallic red with white highlights. Maybe that red with silver glittered bits in it to make it really shine in the sun, I'm not sure yet. It depends what Halfords have in stock. As for the issue with the crank and the bottom bracket, well I'm going to take it down to my local bike shop and get them to remove it (I don't mind paying now, even it it mean wrecking the cranks) so that I can get a perfect finish this time. Ideally I would blast sand the frame, but it'd be horribly expensive to have done, so I'm going to do it by hand. Sure it'll take ages, but hey, I've got time!
Yesterday was a good day. Well, the evening part was at least.Me and my new kit hot-footed it down to the gym and I had my most productive session to date. I hit the free-walkers to do my cardio and comfortably bashed out 20 minutes more than my usual trek, which in turn meant that I was bursting with energy when I hit the weights, so I increased all of my weight classes by one (so 32.5kg hammercurls became 37.5kg, 49kg lateral pulldowns became 56kg, 172kg foot press became 190kg... you get the idea) and I still managed three full sets of 15 reps. Maybe it was the extra cardio that did it, maybe my new kit is magic, maybe it was because I was swigging Lucozade Sport or maybe it was just one of those days, but it felt so good. I think I'll stick with the extra cardio and take all the weights up one more class next time so that I fail the third set.
After all that energy releasing, I went home and began on the masking taping of the tiger stripes on the bike. So far, after three hours of taping, I'm bloody chuffed with it, but when I finally gave up just after midnight I was only about half way through. Doing one side isn't too bad, but matching up the 'open' tops and bottoms of the stripes is a right mission I can tell you! I think it's going to look mean once it's done. Hopefully I'll be able to get it finished by tomorrow and sprayed on Sunday (weather permitting). If not, I have Monday off so I'll do it then. So, what do you think?
The Bike Mod project has finally moved up a gear (pun very much intended). This weekend the weather was lovely, so I seized the opportunity to work some more on the bike in the great outdoors - well, the low roof behind my flat at least. After a quick trip to Halfords to buy a crank extractor and a bottom bracket remover I returned to my flat and got started on finally removing the pedals and the cranks, or so was the plan anyway. It all started ok, the crank extractor screwed in perfectly, but as I tightened the inserter that removed the crank, the extractor net threaded out, meaning that the extractor wouldn't grip and subsequently rendered it useless. I was presented with a choice. Get out my power drill or buzz-saw and remove the thing, permanently, or just mask up the pedal joints and spray around them as much as I could. I went for option number two. 
Coat number one, and stage two of the modification (after taking it all apart), the white base was applied on Saturday, and I was really happy with the results. In fact, it looked so good that I almost contemplated leaving it white, and I think that if I didn't have such a cool design in my head for how I wanted the final piece to look, I would have done.
After completing the spraying outside, I took the bike back in to dry for 24 hours. The next day (Sunday) I got up and checked the frame to find that all was excellent. The base had worked really well so I was ready to apply the main coat, though this too is being done in two stages, the main base, and the 'details' layer. I might as well tell you what I intend to do as you'll hopefully see it by the end of this week anyway. The idea of using the three paint colours (blue, green and bluey-green) is to have a gradient fade from blue to green across the full length of the bike, then use the bluey-green to paint a tiger stripes effect over the original layer. 
As the bluey-green is darker than the blue, but lighter than the green it should create an optical effect where the stripes change colour as they move down the frame despite it only really being one colour. This is further enhanced by the fact that I'm using pearlescent paint that changes colour in the light and that the painting is deliberately being made 'patchy' so that it more resembles tiger fur. Well that's the idea anyway. So, on Sunday, the undercoat of the main painting was done, and was I happy with it? You bet your bottom dollar I was!
As you can see from the photograph, the patchy gradient effect has worked very well indeed. Again though, I just had to leave it to dry so that I can mask up the stripes effect during the week and paint it next weekend as I don't think I'll get a chance before. Opinions would be much appreciated at this point
I don't think I've ever been as comfortable as I was on Saturday morning. I just couldn't get out of bed. I was warm, relaxed and generally had no reason to move, so, for most of the morning, I didn't. The rumbling in my stomach and the overwhelming feeling that I was wasting the day finally dragged me up sometime just after midday. I didn't really have anything to do, so after I'd showered and got ready for the day I sat in my lounge wondering where the day would take me. The answer was ultimately Halfords. If you're a long time reader, you'll know all about my bike mod project. If not, well here's your chance to catch up by firstly reading this - http://andywhitehead.lastminuteliving.com/andys_land_of_adventure/bike_mod_project/index.html. Up to speed? Ok, I'll continue.
During the last couple of months, the project has been at a bit of a stand-still as my next stage was (and still is) to paint the frame and the weather hasn't been good enough to do it outside, but Saturday was pretty nice so I seized my opportunity to make a little progress. Turns out "little" is all the progress that I made. After shelling out £60 for a new ratchet set, a chain link remover (which is comically overprived incidently), a puncture repair kit, some abrasive cloths, a can of white undercoat, a can of clear lacquer and three similar but different shades of bluey-green pearlescent paint (as seen in the picture) I made it back home ready to finish dismantling the last, messiest bits of the frame. I say messiest as it was the bottom bracket and the headstock which are filled with grease and oil around the bearings, so I got pretty filthy taking that all apart and cleaning out the tubes. Fortunately I was dressed in some nasty old shorts and a very 80s purple tie-dye t-shirt which I didn't mind getting dirty. I came across a bit of an issue though in the fact that to remove the pedals I needed a 14mm ratchet, and mine only went up to 13mm. Typical. So, I grabbed the frame and walked down to the bike shop down the road and got them to loosen it for me. I'd forgotten at this point that I was dressed like a reject from 1985 and got some very funny looks as I walked down the street. It could have been worse I suppose. I could have been sporting some Global Hypercolour! I've since realised I also need a Crank Puller and a Bottom Bracket Puller to get the pedals off, so unbeknown to me at the time, I was stuck. No amount of hammering was going to get these off. So, for now, that's where my progress ended, but at least now I know the extra kit that I'm going to need. This whole thing is going to be a lot trickier than I first anticipated!
Anyway, what else did I do on Saturday? Oh yes, I watch four series of Red Dwarf and had a workout in the lounge as my gym kit was all in the wash - and that's it really. Not a lot to tell, but it was nice and relaxing... unlike Sunday!
Bikes are cool; and competitions are cooler, so what could be better than combining the two? I'm pretty sure that I've already mentioned that I'm modifying a bike for a competition that I'm entering next year called the King of Cool. Just incase I haven't, I'll reiterate. The King of Cool (KoC) is an annual competition in May where modification specialists, hobby projecters, people who want a laugh and general uber-geeks "trick-out" cars, bikes, motorbikes and any other mode of transport that comes to mind in order to win a cash prize of £250,000. The competition is always tight, and in order to have a shot at the prize money you need to think of something really different and inventive. The guy who won last year modified an entire train carriage in a real Pimp My Ride style, including a waterfall, an abundance of TV screens and a full bar.
Personally, I'm going down the bike route. Not only can I do it in the comfort of my flat, but I don't know the first thing about cars or engines; let alone trains! I grew up with bikes. When I was younger I'd be outside every Sunday with my dad, and whilst he cleaned his car, I cleaned my bike. I know how they work I can build them from scratch and chains that aren't attached to 5,000rpm engines don't scare me.
So what am I going to be doing?
Well if you're going to do something like this, there's no point doing it by halves, so I'm starting with one of the rarest, but one of the coolest bikes in the UK; a Schwinn Stingray Chopper. Even in it
s raw
form it oozes style and is great fun to ride down the street. Everyone turns to have a look, people talk to you about it when you stop at a junction; hell, people have shouted to me out of cars, off the street, everywhere. It's just an awesome headturner and I must say I love the attention it gets.
So what am I going to do to it? Well, I can't divulge everything as you never know who's reading, but it includes new handlebars, extended forks, a custom paint job, extra / extended fenders (mudflaps as we're not in the US) and maybe something very special done to the wheels, but that's my golden goose so I'm not getting into that! That's the relatively easy part. The hard bit is the "extras" that I'm also going to be doing. How does built in satelitte navigation and an mp3 player grab you for starters? Add those to some strategically placed neon lights (which incidently are horribly expensive for what they are) and a couple of extra electronic goodies and we're talking a serious piece of kit.
The only thing that is worrying me is the weight. Though the steel frame is ideal for welding, it's really heavy, so once I've added loads to it I'm not sure how much it will weigh when it's finished. It should be ok though, but it might mean changing my plans slightly as I go.
The bike in the picture is my Photoshopped version of what the frame and suchl
ike might look like once it's done (without giving too much away). I'd love to hear some feedback about what you think about it.
I'm also keeping a photo log of the build as it happens that's stored here on my Glowfoto Account. It's very early stages at the moment, but I've got plenty of time. Should hopefully have the spraying done in the next couple of weeks. Like I said, it'd be cool to hear some feedback or suggestions, no
matter how weird, wacky or downright stupid, so feel free to drop me a line!
Now come on, everybody...
I want to ride my bicycle,
I want to ride my bike,
I want to ride my bicycle,
I want to ride it where I liiiiike...
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