Lyrebird Cycles

[Mark Kelly]

Chainstays_Installed

Chainstays and dropouts installed and aligned.

The one and only time they will be done this way: I really need to simplify this part of the process. Fortunately the lessons learnt in the last weeks should lead there.

[Mark Kelly]

Seatstays

And suddenly we have a bicycle.

[Colinmclelland]

That’s exciting.

Bit late, but it’s so nice to see a 3D printer used to actually help make real stuff rather than just custom plastic landfill for kids!

[Mark Kelly]

Headbadge_cutout_1

The "bas" parts of the headbadge are now copper plated. This will develop patina with age if the silver is occasionally polished.


Headbadge_cutout_2

Headbadge goes here.

The silky oak isn't showing its true colours yet: this stuff is almost opalescent once the tung is applied.

[Colinmclelland]

Wow. I love a good headbadge. That is a good headbadge.

I was impressed by the Equilibrium Cycleworks one when i first saw it, but in my view yours takes the biscuit (as you said).

And kudos for continuing to develop it. I thought the square headbadge was awesome, but this is more awesomer.

Love it.

[RichTheRoadie]

Seconded.

[Mark Kelly]

I must again give credit where it is due: the headbadge design is the work of VSalon member Chooey.

I did two versions with the added copper layer, the one shown above and one where the copper was artificially aged by reacting it with potassium sulphide. I decided I'd prefer to let natural aging take its course: the aesthetics oversight committee (my wife and No 2 son) strongly concurred.

On another note, after a lot of faffing around I am finally happy with the new joints and progress is being made. Should be something to show in the next day or two.

[Colinmclelland]

I must again give credit where it is due: the headbadge design is the work of VSalon member Chooey

No question it’s a great design and you are right to give credit for it. BUT it’s also a great implementation of a great design, and that’s a serious credit to you.

I know Chooey could have given me the same design and I wouldn’t have produced anything nearly as impressive, so it’s not all about the initial design!

Sorry, but it’s still wow for the finished product.

[RichTheRoadie]

Am I gonna have to get hold of some Di2 kit so that we can do a Sydney Lyrebird ride?...!

[Colinmclelland]

Am I gonna have to get hold of some Di2 kit so that we can do a Sydney Lyrebird ride?...!

That sounds like a pretty good plan. I’d hold off though. Based on my track record 12spd road DI2 will drop just as Mark tapes the box shut!

[Colinmclelland]

Since the compression is basically radial, I changed to using 6 reels of 0.3mm fishing line and tensioning by hand (you can't see the hand because it's taking the pic). Note how the bound part (to the left) makes the winding pattern more evident.


Binding

This leaves a carbon surface and tiny epoxy ridges which are easily knocked off by scraping back with a hard edge. I then grind down by about 10% of the laminar thickness and end up with a very even flat surface onto which to bond the next layer.

Re-reading this thread, it’s fair to say I have zero understanding of what you do after you have wrapped the tube with fishing line....

How do you grind anything down without just removing the freshly wound fishing line?

[Mark Kelly]

Colin

Sorry for the slow reply. I have found a better method of binding the tubes so I don't need the fishing line any more. In any case the fishing line was stripped away once the epoxy cured.

[Mark Kelly]

Joints_1

In the home stretch, just finishing off the joint binding.

Something like 82 individual tessellae and over 20 metres of hand laid carbon 12k tow.

[Mark Kelly]

Sanded

Much sanding by the sea.


PU_detail

It takes a while to paint a bike with a No 1 paintbrush.

Seriously, I get better results freehanding the detail than trying to mask it.


PU_seat_cluster

I don't like the wet look, so I'll repolish this with Brasso: a trick I learnt from a radio restorer years ago.

[Mark Kelly]

After many reverses, this frame is finished.

The one and only time this joining technique will be used, it's an utter PITA.

Full

On the other hand, I think I can claim this to be the lightest "woody" ever made.


lightest

[RichTheRoadie]

Stunning. Wow.

[Colinmclelland]

Not surprised i love the look of it, but it reminds me how much i love the lettering choice!

I doubt I’ll be doing it justice, but i’m the lightest i’ve been in about 30 years

Looking forward to ogling it properly...

[Colinmclelland]

Been back a few times to look at this now. I'm biased, and I'll care much more about how it rides, but I think that is one good looking frame.

i'm curious though Mark, what's the thinking behind all the wood tessellae on the head tube and seat tube joints versus bare carbon on the BB and inside of the chainstays? I'm sure it's not a random decision, so what drives it?

Please try to use short words...

[Mark Kelly]

It's largely about visual integration.

I came up with the method used here because I was unhappy with the appearance of the joints on the previous bikes, there was a discontinuity wood -> carbon -> wood. See previous pics in this thread for examples.

This is less of a problem at the chainstays: firstly the drivetrain interrupts the visual flow and secondly there is a counterbalance with the fork at the front end.

From a technical point of view the chainstays have the most severe dimensional limitations so they work best if the wood is mostly in the core and the carbon on the surface, especially on the inside face.

The pics don't do the surface finish justice. In the flesh, the three dimensional nature of the finish on the wood works really well with the visible patterns from the filament winder: think Bastion, except I don't have a multi head winder like CST, the company that makes Bastion's tubes.

[Mark Kelly]

I’ve been smoked out, literally.

If you’ve read the thread on the Australian fires this will be familiar to you but to spell it out: the winery for which I work is in one of the worst affected fire zones and the smoke residue in our grapes renders them unusable.

That’s my main source of income gone for an entire year. The upside is I now have more time to make bikes. If I can sell some bikes, I’ll get through this.

Since I’m crap at marketing, I’m appealing to salonistas to help me out here.
All suggestions welcome, help spread the word, get this out to potential markets, etc etc.

PS Yes, I asked the powers that be whether this would be OK before I posted.