Saturday 10 August 2013

The Pogward Resplendent

Well what can I say, this thing is probably as finished as it will ever be now, short of some different brakes if I can find anything suitable, and just possibly dismantling the rear hub and polishing the housing so the finish matches the front hub - this might be excessively anal though. I have discovered some latent OCD in the last few months, so who knows.

I treated the beast to a new set of Shwalbe Marathon Plus tyres, as the rear tyre was pretty cut up and bald, and as a finishing touch made a copper headbadge.

This will not be the end of the blog I imagine, I found myself laying out the geometry for a new frame in Solidworks this morning, something quite different than this... parts may be ordered soon.

Anyway, lets let the pics tell the story.


Friday 2 August 2013

Grab your coat

A surprise update!

After the last update I got to pondering the fact that the Pogward was starting to look really quite tatty..... the rust was getting worse but not worse enough that it became awesome, and overall it was looking kind of bland. 'Sod it' I said, it needs some loving, and in extremely short order this happened;

A complete Pogward, Thursday last
One hour later
I then brazed some extra bits onto the rack
So my pannier lower catch had something to catch onto
Some potentially, but not actually, awesome rust
More of the same





So I had decided that powdercoating was the order of the day, as it has worked out very well on my lovely wifes' Mixte, so I took the frame to the same place, Elite Powdercoating. I got the call and picked it up 3 days later, and they have done a fantastic job;

A halogen induced misrepresentation of the frames true colour
Frogmouth MkII is excited with his new protective layer
Nicely masked parts, the boys at Elite obviously cared, which I like
The rack and stem
The modicum of work I put into cleaning up the lug joints has paid off handsomely
Mmmmm nothing like a well defined lug
Our kitchen bench - the boss was out obviously
My favourite part of the frame



Having the finished frame back home was so exciting that at the first available minute after my familial tasks had been completed, I headed straight out to the garage. I pretty much finished putting the bulk of it together that night. Foolishly, with the enthusiasm of a schoolboy with his first stick mag, I decided to go for a test ride without checking everything..... unfortunately I had not tightened the steering so within half a meter I had dumped myself on the driveway, skinned most of my knee and twisted my ankle - what a dick. Fortunately there were no scratches to the bike, but I had to drive to work the next day and have been slightly hobbly for the last few days. Anyway, here is the preliminary results of my travails;


Personally I think that looks fantastic, it has lifted the whole look of it. I am not 100% convinced about the coloured stem, but it's not too distracting, so we will leave it to brew. The colour is a charcoal with a metallic flake, very pretty up close.

I also filled the tubes with this stuff as I figure it will add to the overall longevity.

There is a bit more loving to apply, but this should be done by next weekend.....