19 July 2007

     The frame is made of 1½" x .063" box steel tubing. From past experience, this is more than strong enough for up to a 235lb rider, so in the interest of keeping th physicalsize of the frame down, and trying to keep the weight close to the 30lb mark, that's what I used again.  I salvaged the front fork and headtube from a donor 10 speed, and took a 26" MTB front fork, and spread the legs with a car jack until the 135mm rear hub would fit.  I welded the rear fork directly onto the end of the main backbone and added a little reinforcement inside to hopefully spread the load a bit. My intention is to have seat supports run from the seat down to the fork legs, but if it turns out I can't do that, that's what the internal reinforcing is for :)  Before welding, I also made sure I deburred the inside of all the backbone joints because I also plan to run internal cabling. The burrs might a) be a pain to navigate over to initially run the cable, and b) might cause cable chafing issues, so again, I cleaned them up.

     The fork was cut and shortened around 3½" to get a closer fit between the fork crown and the 451 front wheel.  The fork, after shortening, was still too wide and the chain was having clearance issues. I'm still up in the air over what my best course of action would be, but I have a couple ideas.  Unfortunately, no pictures of the fork shortening, but I'll take lots next time :)

21 July 2007

     First, I hooked up the dual chain idler to control and simplify chain management.  A 2" Delrin roller with sealed 3/8" bearings on either side.  Overkill, yes, but it was the smallest I could find at the time and I'll never have to worry about snapping a power side idler bolt on this thing :)  The chain keeper is a piece of 1" x 1/8" steel with some scrap ¼" rod welded on either end to keep the chain in the right place.  The main keeper strap has a 3/8" hole in the middle and the idler bolt holds the keeper tight when the whole assembly is tightened.  The Delrin is tough, cheap and quiet.

     Next, I had to deal with the chain - fork interference issues and while I could partially solve it by just moving the chain idler pulley further out from the frame, I didn't want to push that too far because it would mess with the chain line pretty badly and it would also put a lot of lateral force on the idler pulley which would no doubt cause premature failure.  So, I pulled out my MAP gas torch, put the fork back in my little ad-hoc fork jig, heated the fork legs up (one at a time) and using a soft face hammer, I hammered them inwards about ½".  I also heated the fork legs a little further up and lightly tapped them too so as to hopefully ease some of the stress on the brazed fork crowns.  The fork leg curves aren't that extreme and give about ¼" of clearance for both sides of the chain.  I plan to run short sections of chain tube, so I'm happy with that.  Cleverly, I forgot to take some before and after pictures.

     I took the old cow horn bars that I had intended to use on the highracer, and quickly mounted them on the Raptor so we could test drive it.  I usually like to let my friend test drive the two wheelers whenever I can.  Better him than me :)  Anyway, even with trying to keep the boom as short as feasible by keeping the pedals close to the front wheel, it was still a fair stretch even with the seat all the way forward.  On the up-side, there is still about 3" of space to move the seat forward if I pop a few more holes in the frame, so that's no problem.  Even after adjusting the seat for me, there was still about 5" of empty space between the seat back and the front of the rear wheel.  So much for 3D modelling . . .

     It feels a little skittish in the steering but it also feels "slow" to maneuver due to the long wheelbase, but nothing that couldn't be gotten used to.  My friend suggested shortening the boom and bottom frame section to both bring the boom in and give more cockpit options.  We measured the weight distribution and it was about 69/31 front/rear.  Now, I'm not sure what a "proper" weight distribution would be for a bike like this, but I was anticipating something in the 60/40 range.  My highracer ended up being just the opposite at 40/60 front/rear but that was because the bike's wheelbase was only about 42" and I didn't want to put a 3' boom out the front, so I had to keep things more rear oriented.  Anyway, aside from the way the handling feels, at least the chain was working fine and clearing the forks, so I'll have to see if I can come up with something for the handling, and if not, I'll have to cut the frame.  Also, part of the handling issues might be due to the fact that the steering head angle is 74º instead of the 73º I was aiming for.  That's pretty high for a road oriented bike unless you're shooting for something extreme like a TT bike.  The reduced steering due to chain - tire clearance is also something to get used to.  Must take gentle corners :)

23 July 2007

      So, after the initial test rides and the discussions we had, I figured what the hell, and decided to shorten the boom and bottom tube.  Normally, I don't like to mess with things like that but the bent was pretty long at nearly 87" and even with the seat adjusted to where I was comfortable, I had too much empty space between the back of the seat and the rear wheel.  On top of that, shortening the boom would remove more tendency for boom flex, shorten the bike and push the rider back so I wouldn't have to shorten the bottom tube as much.  I cut 1½" out of the boom and 2" out of the bottom tube so they are now 15" and 17" respectively.  After brinding and smoothing out the beads, I swapped out the original handlebar stem I was using, and replaced it with a shorter one to bring the cow horns back toward the rider more making them easier and more comfortable to reach.  Moving the bars back means they have to be raised a little more to clear the knees too, but that was expected and I can still see easily over them.

     After that, I quick hooked up the shifter again and with a 2 x 4 block for a seat support I tried another test ride.  Wow, surprising difference!  It's very smooth and much easier to ride than it was before.  I imagine it's partly due to the shorter wheelbase, probably not too much to do with the shorter boom, possibly due to a CoG shift a little more to the rear, and also maybe because the handlebars are closer which makes control more comfortable.  I think the shorter wheelbase also made it feel more responsive as well.  At any rate, it's a definite improvement and I'm glad I decided to shorten the bike.  Tomorrow, seat supports and headrest if I have time..

24 July 2007

     Today I focused on getting the seat supports and headrest done.  I used some 1" x 3/16" AL flat stock for the seat supports, and some old pieces of 1"ID SS tubing from old seat projects.  I took the curved section of tubing to used as the main headrest tube and used a shorter 5" piece across it in a "T" to put a piece of 1" plumbing pipe foam on.  The inside of the SS tube is reinforced with an AL tube where the tube is bolted to the seat.  I wanted it to be stronger so it wouldn't get crushed while tightening the bolts.  I got my daughter to help me locate the headrest for the proper height and I can always tweak the bent section to properly locate it fore and aft, after I decide what seat angle I want to ride this baby at.

     For the seat supports, I drilled a ¼" bolt hole in the top of the supports so that bolt will hold the seat support to the seat and it will also hold the headrest.  I drilled 3 lightening holes, and then 5 or 6 holes for a 65mm skewer to go through. I welded a ½" steel tube with 1/8" wall across the underside of the frame tube and the skewer goes through the seat supports and the tube to hold the seat in place.  The skewer makes it easy to adjust the seat angle or loosen it to move it forward for shorter riders.

     I also managed to get the front derailleur tube on and a small SS tube to act as cable guide by the base of the derailleur.  I'm using a Deore MTB FD so to keep things simple, I had to run the FD cable down the right side of the boom.  I'll put the cable housing stop on later back towards the head tube.

25 July 2007

     Tonight I got on the tiller steering.  I chopped the original stem I was testing with, and welded in an extra 9½" of 1" steel tube from an old seat tube.  A friend of mine sold me an extra compressor he had so I fired up my little mini belt sander to clean up the tubes after welding and it did a great job.  I took some old plastic brake levers with steel housings, chopped the tube clamp off the housings and welded them to a piece of 1" x 1/8" mild steel, about 2" long.  I welded that to the underside of the tiller bar and left a little of the levers sticking out behind the handlebars.  Later, if they prove to be too long, I can easily chop them off and smooth the ends, plus, the plastic is tres light :)  The setup might not be the most sophisticated looking thing, but it is simple and works great so we'll see how the braking power is with them in that position.  I just hope I remember to use my thumbs for panicky stops at the beginning of riding it.  I also got the front derailleur cable stop welded on.

27 July 2007

     Nothing much done tonight aside from trying to decide, with my friend, what kind of bars I should use.  It handles really well with the bull horns, but it feels a little skittish when using the praying hamster tiller.  From experience with my highracer, I know I can and will get used to riding fast and hard with my hands close together because that's pretty much the only way I ride now on the highracer.  The bonus with the praying hamster is that I believe it is more aero than the bull horns, and the thumb brakes are right there where I like to have my hands anyway.  My friend really likes the bull horns so we'll likely go with those for him on his Raptor 44, but I think I will opt initially for the praying hamster bars and see how they feel after a while.

28 July 2007

     Today was a lot of tweaking and fine tuning and grinding.  I hate it when I get to this part of the build because there is a lot of time spent but not much visible progress.  So, I cleaned up a bunch of the beads still left untouched, I added reinforcement to the top tube - down tube joint as well as the bottom tube - down tube joint.  I think these would get the most stress so to be on the safe side, I added some gussets out of the same material as the frame was made from.  I also added 4 small tabs for the tailbox supports on the rear forks.  A small AL plate on each side will act as the base for the tailbox storage because I want the extra strength for when I start using it to commute.

29 July 2007

     Today I wanted to get the lead out and get it road worthy to try a quick ~50km ride on Monday just to see what it's like on the road when I start to get used to it.  It actually feels quite a bit like the highracer, but it also feels "tighter" and definitely a little smoother/faster.  Anyway, the list of final tasks:

• take the wire wheel to the entire frame and take the rest of the paint off the forks.
• weld some small zip-tie mounts on the front forks so some shorty chain tubes can float there and help stop the chain from hitting the fork leg on turns and bumps.  Then, paint the forks.
• fill and clean up all the extra seat adjustment holes that I cleverly drilled and will never be used. :)
• drill the holes in the frame and tiller bar for the internal cable routing.
• add a light mount on the front of the BB shell.
• get the thing together for a quick 15km or so test ride before tomorrow.

     I managed to get everything done and out for a 18km test ride.  I am very happy with how this thing handles!  On a couple of the stretches of road, I was 3 or 4kph faster than what I normally am doing on the highracer and it really feels almost effortless so far.  The thumb shifters work really well and there is no problem applying enough force to stop fast.  Turning with the bent and trying to deal with the chain - tire interference was not a problem at all and I think it will be all but unnoticed in very short order.  I'm looking forward to the long ride tomorrow and comparing the time and speed to what I can do it in with the highracer.  It also feels smoother as you lean into the corners but doesn't seem as nimble as the highracer so I need to look further ahead a little on the road to make sure I miss any big bumps and holes.  Partly due to the wheelbase, but also likely because the rear wheel is "flying", the ride is very supple and even with the 120psi tires, small bumps and road cracks are not sharp at all.  I was wondering if I needed to consider suspension, but I'm not wondering OR considering any more.  While I am planning to make a triple set of 54/42/30 ovals for it, the 39T small ring seemed more than low enough at present to make it up the local hills.  I'll see for sure though tomorrow on my longer ride.

     The internal cable routing was much easier than I anticipated and I didn't even need to use the "vacuum & thread" trick.  The internal cables really clean up the lines and yes, I DO plan to use the lime green cable housing on the finished bike :) The little chain tubes at the front fork worked awesome and they made zero sound, or at least nothing I could hear over the wind roaring in my ears :)  The chain sometimes hits the end of the right side rear brake arm, but that is easily fixed.  The only real thing I need to tweak is the headrest angle.  I need to bend it forward by about an inch because it's not quite in the right spot yet.  I don't ride using a headrest, but I have found that they do come in handy when I'm slogging hard up a hill.  I need to find a good spot for water bottles too.  I use a 70 oz camel back bladder in a butt pouch slung off my hip to the side and that works ok, but I'd like something to hold a couple bottles on the side of the seat somewhere.  I plan to add a bladder compartment at the tailbox front anyway, but still would like a bidon or two somewhere.  I'd also like to see about some wheel disks too.

     Aside from that, after the ride tomorrow, I'll paint a few more items, deal with the chain - brake caliper issue, tweak the headrest angle, and start working on a tailbox design with suitable storage.

     Today was a nice day and I needed minimal stuff with me to go to work, so I took the Raptor instead of Xine. It takes a little bit of paying attention to take bigger radius turns with the chain/wheel overlap, but I quickly got the hang of it and had no rubbing issues at all on the commute, in or back. Now that I can directly compare the performance of the highracer and the lowracer on the exact same stretches of road, the performance difference is pretty evident. On average, on flat road or slightly climbing, the lowracer is 5 to 10kph faster than the highracer. On a downhill, of pretty much any kind, a 10 to 15kph higher speed with the lowracer is pretty much standard.  Not only is the lowracer faster on downhills, but it also carries more speed, for longer distances, after a downhill and when starting up a hill. The ride in was not at maximum effort, by far, and in concert with trying to get used to how the Raptor handles, the seat was too far forward and the seat was not laid back enough. Even with that, I still beat the best time on my highracer by over 4 minutes. I can hardly wait to see what I can do once I get the seat dialed in and actually try for a PB. On the ride home, I goofed up and didn't start the ride timer for the first 3 or 4km, so I estimated it at about 7 minutes. 7 minutes is pretty slow because I normally cover the first 8km in 10 or 11 minutes, but I screwed up, so I'll have lots of time to see how fast I can make the return commute. Anyway, even with the very slow estimate at the start, I was still at the old start point in 44:30, which is almost 1 minute faster than my best time on the highracer, and again, I wasn't pushing as hard as I was on the highracer.  To be honest, the overall performance boost was a surprise.  I figured it would be a little faster because it felt tighter and smoother than the highracer, but I didn't expect the performance that I've gotten so far out of it.  I have a couple ideas why too.
     First, the wind resitance is noticeably less.  A combination of being lower to the ground where the wind isn't as smooth or strong, and the fact that my body's aero profile overlaps much more of the bent's aero profile.  On the highracer, the bike and my wind profile are pretty much stacked one on top of the other rather than about 80% overlapped like on the Raptor. The seat angle on the Raptor is about 29º vs the 35º on the highracer, and that seems to make a big difference in how much air I'm pushing too.
     Second, I think the 140mm cranks are a fairly big, and quite noticeable, improvement over the 130mm cranks on the highracer and the Speed.  It is much easier to accelerate on the Raptor than the highracer. When I pedal hard, the acceleration is much more evident with the 140's but on the 130's, if I push hard it often results in knee pain. The longer cranks also help me push taller gears and/or higher cadences which helps carry more speed, for longer on the hills, and then accelerating away at the top of the hills.
     Lastly, right now I'm using a 52/39 biopace double. I rotated them so they line up better with a recumbent layout and they might also be having an effect on the overall speed increase. In the end, I'm going to make a 54/42/30 oval triple with 10% ovality for the Raptor, but the double seems to be working fine for now.

     So, with my theories on the speed increase at least formulated in part, I'll take it all apart, and start painting it up.  I'd like to have it all painted and assembled for the club TT on Thursday.  Hopefully all/enough of the bugs are out of it that I can race it confidently.  I need to tweak the headrest though and bend it a little closer to my head.

1 Aug 2007

     So, Tuesday I took it all apart and painted it. I wanted a burgundy kind of colour, and thought hat was what the paint can lid looked like, but it turned out to be more brownish than purpley-reddish.  It's ok, I still like it.  The headrest isn't painted yet because I'm not done tweaking it yet and once I get the proper seat angle and headrest clearance, I'll paint it flat black.  Some people would consider the lime green cable housing . . . "garish", but I like the contrast.  I think the internal cable routing makes it less of an eye-sore.

2 Aug 2007

     Tonight, I did the bike club's 15km TT and rode the Raptor instead of the highracer.  No problems on the ~10km warm-up ride to the start and the new bent was very smooth, very comfortable and very easy to cruise in the high 30's.  A couple little gremlins reared their heads though.

     After I took off from the start of the TT, a couple km down the road, and the return chain came out from under the little derailleur pulley and jammed.  I had to coast for a little bit, but got it back in place, and hit the gas again.  A few minutes later, on a little rough section, it came off again and jammed, AND this time the chain was twisted completely sideways and it took more effort and time to get it untwisted and back in the groove while coasting.  Obviously it was a flawed design, and while being pissed off that I waited until the time trial to discover this fact, I could hear my friend's voice in my head telling me to "just use a little piece of chain tube!".  So, a little while later, it derailled a third time (all before the 7km mark), twisted itself into a quasi-Mobius loop again, and this time I just reached down, managed to jerk it out, and just dropped the chain on top of the whole idler assembly and tried to hammer out the rest of the TT as best I could.  The chain was making a little noise from rattling on the top, but it didn't seem to be hampering my performance any.

     The 2nd little glitch ocurred at the 7.5km turn-around.  Due to the reduced steering range and the narrow road the TT is held on, I was trying to come up with a smooth, quick, and hopefully not too clumsy looking method of getting the Raptor turned 180 degrees and headed back the other way.  Still being mad at the whole idler issue, as I approached the turn-around, I decided to say screw it, take the turn hot, stick my left leg out like and outrigger, crank the lowracer hard on its left side and see if I could carve the corner hard and not end up in the shoulder (where I wiped out in the sand and threw the chain off the chainrings on a previous "test" attempt).  I slowed down to around the low 20's, executed my planned maneuver, and the Raptor carved around the 180º corner like it was on rails, neither wheel slid out, I cleared the other shoulder by almost 6" and I managed to smoothly pull out of the power-turn, get my left foot clipped back in first try and I accelerated away from the turn.  I was so happy I didn't even care about the three chain derailments before that!  The bottom picture shows the technique but it doesn't look to be leaned over as far as it felt like it was.  It was a very cool feeling and one I'll have to practice some more to get consitent at, but at least now I know I can do something like that if I have to.  After that, I kept the hammer down, kept my HR at as close to 180BPM as I could and waited for the finish line to appear.  I managed to cross the line at 22:08 which was almost 3 minutes faster than my best time on the highracer, and a new PB by a wide margin.  I really am amazed at how fast the Raptor is and am looking forward to trying the last TT of the year and see what I can do when I don't have to do rolling maintenance in the middle of a race.

3 Aug 2007

     Time for a new chain idler with a simplified chain tube for the return side as my friend initially suggested.  I made a little 17T pulley out of a piece of .080" 7075 using Giles Pucket's little app and made a small AL bearing carrier for an old 5/8" sealed bearing I had kicking around.  The bearing goes in the carrier, the sprocket screws onto the face of the carrier with 3 screws and further secures the pressed-in bearing. Two small Al adapters act as spacers to hold the idler in the proper location and also reduce the bearing's ID to .375 to match the old idler's mounting plate.  A piece of 16 gauge steel bent into a "J" acts as both the chain keeper for the sprocket and also the mount for the chain tube.  I'll make another inner spacer that is a little shorter because the idler sticks out a little further than I would like.  I'll try a few km with it the way it is right now and make sure it's going to work like I hope it is.

     I also tweaked the headrest angle and have it in a pretty comfortable spot now, so I painted it and put a piece of 1" plumbing insulation foam on it.  I need to repair a small tear in the seat mesh from my first unsuccessful power-turn attempt and then the next update should have something to do with the tailbox and/or the new oval chainrings :)

11 Aug 2007

     I've been primarily focusing on the Raptor 44, and started assembling pieces for the 44i so haven't really advanced the '74's tailbox for new chainrings, but the idler was bugging me.  It was out from the frame about ¼" too far, so I spun it around, made a smaller spacer for it, made a new chain keeper and moved the return side chain tube up higher to give the return side a more relaxed path from the chainring to rear derailleur. In the previous idler picture you can see the return side of the chain is actually turning sideways a little.  That has been fixed with the new setup.

18 Aug 2007

     I took the Raptor to the local 15km TT again and was very happy with its performance.  It was quite a bit windier than last time and cooler with thicker air, but I was only 19 seconds off my PB and the bike was smooth, comfortable and the headrest and modded chain idler worked without a hitch.  I was feeling pretty good on the ~12km warm down ride back and all of a sudden the bent felt very hard to pedal and I started smelling burning rubber.  ??  I hopped off it and discovered the headrest was very close to the tire for some reason and I couldn't believe that I had bent it because I don't push back with my neck like that.  On further investigation, I found that the frame had failed at the bottom rear joint.  I don't think the bead actually failed, but rather the metal around it.  The right side, bottom and half of the left side had cracked open, and I was able to gingerly ride it back the remaining couple of kms without a full failure. Gotta' love steel! :)  With so little steel still holding it together yet, I think the culprit was me thinning the metal a little too much while cleaning up the bead and the rough road to, at and from the TT.  I'm glad it failed when and where it did though because I didn't end up stranded.

     So, I tore the bike down enough to get at the crack, took a wire wheel to it to remove the paint and mae a couple doublers out of 1/8" steel.  Realigned and clamped the frame, welded on the doublers, cleaned up the beads a little and painted it up.

     Still need to get a tailbox made and I'm in the process of making the oval triple rings for it.

12 May 2008

     I finally got around to making the tailbox for the Raptor because I didn't want to commute on the highracer again and the Speed . . . was not. :)  I had a few criteria for the tailbox, very similar to the Speed's. This box was going to be as wide as my shoulders this time to see if I couldn't get some more cargo space, plus it would play fender and I'd try to make it match something a little more aero. Something like a RazzFazz tailbox or like LeeW's trike tailbox.  I also wanted it to be easy to remove, preferably without tools so I can easily run stock or super-stock whenever I want.

     After 16 hours and about 350 zip ties, what I came up with is to the right.  It has tons of storage, which I'm very happy with, and the AL base plates I added on each side of the chainstays provides lots of firm support for the extra size box and I can easily remove the tailbox by undoing 2 thumb screws pictured right.  I'll add two more in a day or so.  I also added to smaller compartment bulkheads near the front on each side.  The one on the right is for my water bladder and the one on the left is for tools and spares.  I'm still deciding where I'm going to put the flag mount. Trial run is tomorrow and in the evening I'll start on the wheel discs.  Full construction details are here.  Front and rear views of the tailbox are below so you can see a general idea of the shape.

13 May 2008

     After a couple false starts tonight, I finally got the rear wheel discs made.  I made them out of some .3mm plastic sheet that is used to wrap insulation on steam pipes and such.  It's a little thick, maybe, for this application, but I managed to get the drive side nice and tight so as not to rub on the big ring or the rear derailleur cage.  Both sides came out pretty well and I'm much happier with the end result than I was with my first attempt(s) on the Mk 3.  I need to decide what I'm going to do with the valve stem, which will be accessed from the non-drive side, and then I'll spray paint the discs flat black.

     I was also feeling in the mood and the new high-tech SRAM Red cassette. The fabrication process is pretty cool but it's got an additional "revolutionary" aspect in that it has a number of teeth shaved off each cog. It's also very light at about 155g.  Supposedly the shaved teeth provides a big improvement in shifting.  Well, on the cheap, I decided to make the SRAM MTB version out of my 11/34 cassette and at a paltry 440g, it could use some shaving too.  Cleverly I marked the teeth to be shaved in pretty much the same orientation as the Red's.  I left the 11T intact and marked 1 more on the opposite side one each of the three biggest cogs.  7 minutes later, including cleaning and reassembly, I produced what I will dub the SRAM Crimson.  If you look close, you can see the staggered path of shaved teeth leading out from the 9 o'clock position, and a smaller area in roughly the 3 o'clock position.  After finishing up, I was horrified to realize that at least one of the biggest rings has THREE shaved teeth!  So much for my R&D department.  They're SO fired!  The new weight of the cassette is a svelt 425g and had I known about that extra tooth that could have been removed, I could have taken even more weight off for even better shifting and more weight savings!  I'll see how much better the shifting works tomorrow.  I hope I didn't hose a perfectly good cassette . . .

14 May 2008

      Well, I got 25km on the "SRAM Crimson" and it didn't work worse than before I ground the teeth off. It didn't seem to have a noticeable improvement in shifting either.  While the new cassette is definitely light, any shifting immprovement might be able to be summed up with two words:  GIMM and ICK.  We had company tonight for a little while so I didn't get a lot of time in the garage, but I did manage to install the other two anchor mounts for the tailbox and I got the left side wheel disc painted flat black. I wasn't happy with a few ripples in the left side disc, so I tightened that up a little before I painted it. Both sides worked great as well on the 25km test ride but what kind of speed bonus they give me is anybody's guess. I also made a little doghouse cover for the valve stem and made a couple spare covers to carry with me.  I'll see if I can put up some pictures of it tomorrow.  Tomorrow I'll try to make the front wheel discs and paint the power side of the rear wheel.

20 May 2008

     The same type of plastic wheel discs were made for the front and installed, and painted. I did a commute on it and put about 60km on them.  The bike looks nice, I think, but the front wheel discs make the steering pretty wiggy when there is a strong wind.  Inside a velodrome or on a guaranteed calm day, they'd likely be fine but for now, it's not exactly confidence inspiring to ride with them. So, off comes the front discs. On the upside, I think I have a better, simpler, cleaner looking way to make discs and they can be removed and installed in seconds.  I just need to see if I can find the parts I need to do what I have in mind.

21 May 2008

     With mounting the tailbox, every time it leans against something, it scuffs the paint job.  Not acceptable. So, I decided to mount a kickstand and just happened to have a candidate that worked out perfectly for it.  The first picture is the small mount I made for it using ¼" plate and a couple small pieces of 1/8" steel.  It slips over the lower frame and bolts on using a ¼" bolt.

     Next picture shows it mounted.  It's plenty rigid and I made sure not to tighten the mounting bolt too tight because I didn't want to crush the main frame.  The next picture shows the bike on the stand.  I wiggled and wobbled the bike around and there is no tendency to try and tip over. Sweet :)  The picture below shows the kick stand stowed with the tailbox on. I can reach down quick when I stop, and flick the kickstand out with my hand before I even stand up. I'm very happy with it :)  Maybe I'll paint it flat black too . . .

4 Jul 2008

     The pictures are from the Waterford MI races on June 21st and 22nd.  The Raptor had both complete sets of wheel discs until I lost the one side off teh front during a wind gust in the first couple laps of the 1 hour TT. So much for that wheel disc fastening scheme :)  Other than that, teh new oval rings and teh rear wheel disc worked great. I ran it in stock class instead of super stock because I wanted to run in the same class as the "big-dogs" and see how I faired. (get it? :))  Anyway, aside from my fitness level lacking and grinding a little too much in the 200ft sprint, I was pretty happy with the Raptor's performance but there are some issues I want to deal with.

     The bottom picture is the start of the 25 lap race. The red arrow is me, the 3 green arrows are Bill "The Cannon" Hannon, Warren Beauchamp and Doug Jacobs.  They are all on NoComs and you can see how much higher and how much more upright I am than they are. My intent was to make the Raptor as low as a NoCom, but I obviously missed the mark.  Frame-wise, I'm even a little higher than an M5 or a Baron.  I could really feel the wind pushing against me in some of the races and if I had been smart, I would have asked one of the NoCom guys if I could maybe try their bike.

     At any rate, the one event combined two aspects.  You started at the bottom of a small hill and sprinted to the top. When you crested the hill, you stopped pedalling and tried to coast as far as you could. I did ok at the hill climb and got 3rd, but with all that speed, I only got 6th in the coast-down.  Why?  Well I was probably one of the heaviest low-racer guys there and the weight of the Raptor is definitely more than the other lowracers, so that weight plus the speed should have helped more, but it didn't and I have some ideas about that.

     Now, don't get me wrong.  I am not about to start cutting on the Raptor 74.  It's a great bike and a lot of fun to commute on and I'm not going to try to convert it into something that is faster and lower.  I simply take the mods, and based off the Raptor, I make a new bike and see how the mods work out.  I am not that overly concerned about it all to be honest, and I am very happy with the results but I want to see if I can fine-tune my craft a little bit more and take my results and push every one of them up for a new PB at Waterfod next year.  Due to my schedule I likely won't be able to go do much more racing this year anyway, so I'll have lots of time to train, build, and did I mention train?