Mt Cook to Oamaru tour 2000 - video

Free penny farthing part designs

As I am getting near the end of this build and have recently been contacted by a few people who have been following my blog who are about to start building their own replica I have decided to offer a set of 3 technical drawings of the following parts - Spoon brake profile , adjustable mounting step, slotted adjustable cranks. All drawings are 1- 1 scale and then all you have to do is to take the drawings to a company that specializes in laser cutting steel  and have the parts cut to the required thickness. Doing this will save you a lot of time and then some minor finishing is required eg. machining of the slotted cranks and drilling the holes in the spoon brake and mounting step. If you take a look back at my blog you can see what the finished items look like . Pictured above are the set of 3 drawings that need to be printed out on A4 paper to achieve the correct size and here is a link to my flickr page for you to download

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27102950@N06/sets/72157631924901953/with/8153710090/

Peter Mathews penny farthing display

T grips

For this bike I have chosen to use T grips and after using several different styles of grips of the years, I have come to the conclusion that T grips are by far the most comfortable grips for general riding and long distance touring. The position is far more natural  and puts less stress on your wrists whilst riding. As mentioned in a previous posting my mate Ken who is a professional tobacco pipe maker is making two pairs of T grips one in traditional ebonite and the other from black hardwood. Last night I received from Ken a photo of the 1st grip he has made from ebonite. It looks fantastic and will look even better once fitted to the nickel plated drop bars. 

Adjustable mounting step

This morning at work was quiet so I managed to get a few small jobs done, cutting the saddle pivot bolt a bit shorter so it's a better fit and I drilled a 6.5mm hole in the spoon brake profile for a custom made pivot pin. The main job was to bend , shape and drill the mounting step. Luckily I had some steel tube of the same diameter as the backbone section where the step will be mounted and I used that tube as a guide for bending the step and with a section of 10mm hardboard I was able to get the perfect dimensions of what the step will look like once attached to the backbone. I've made 9 mounting steps before on previous bikes but this one looks to be the best so far and getting the profile laser cut saved a lot of time. I used some spare bolts I had at work but latter on these will be changed to better looking ones. Pictured in this post are a few shots of the adjustable mounting step which once finished will be nickel plated !.

Mock up photos

Today I fitted the saddle to the backbone and figured out the height of the step on the backbone which will be exactly the same height as a 52 " Columbia Expert 22.5 inches from the ground or 571.5mm !. Now I have a few small jobs to do before sending the front fork assembly to Tokyo to get the handle bars made and fitted . First up the front saddle pivot bolt is a little to long which needs 5mm taken of it so it can be tightened. Then the spoon brake pivot hole needs to be drilled in the spoon brake profile to 6.5mm and the hole on the steering head casting where the spoon brake pivots also needs to be drilled to the same diameter. Later on a short stainless steel rod of 6.5mm will be made that will pass through these two holes which in turn will hold the brake spring in place.

The step that was laser cut needs to be bent so I will attempt to bend this part cold in my bench mounted vice at work. The diameter of the backbone at that point is 25mm and I'm pretty sure I have some steel rod of the same diameter at work that I can use re getting the step to fit the backbone. After these jobs have been finished I'll do the drawing and design for the spoon brake lever as that will need to be bent to the same profile as the handle bar . It's looking pretty good and now there is not that much to do , the main job is getting the handle bars and lever fitted. Once they have been fitted it will ready for it's first test ride ( un painted of course ) and if everything is ok then we can go and get the small parts nickel plated and the frame painted.

Today I took a few photos of it outside which are included in this post

Laser cut parts are finished

Today I received the laser cut parts I designed for the spoon brake profile and the adjustable mounting step. Both parts look great and once the curved spoon section is welded onto the brake profile it will look like it's once piece instead of two parts. The next step when I get time is to mark where the brake pivot hole is to be drilled and to bend the steel adjustable step around the backbone at the perfect height for mounting.  That job might be tricky but I'll do my best to make it fit tightly as possible. The step is very important as the entire weight of the rider is upon the step while mounting and dismounting. Pictured in this post are the spoon brake profile and the spoon section which still separate parts at this stage and the adjustable step which has yet to be bent and held together with with nuts and bolts.