Project started October 2023,

We contininue with the seating area. After modifying the castings we will make new rear downtubes using the stock S-curves and make the tubes from castings to backbone from new material (donated by the wonderful guys at VG)

 
 
 

We cut off the remaining bits of the stock rear downtubes and machined some slugs. Then we cut the S-curves out of the old framebits that had been removed and shortened them to fit. In total the rear downtubes are now about 80 mm shorter. Then we spent quite some time getting the bit with the castings exactly in the right place and at the right angle, then finally the shortened downtubes were tacked in place.

 
 
 

Starting with a cardboard template based on my drawings we bent the sidetubes for the seat, the shape is a bit different from stock as I always think this area looks too big on most frames. The lines we were after are starting to appear!

 
 
 
 

Finally we started modifying the rear of the backbone by flattening the top so there will not be a bulge in the seatpan. We will be joining the tubes at the top of the seatpost togetrher with a little "casting" fabricated from scratch and adding the final welds next time.