More on the trailer

So far, brilliant. It is proving really good at hauling some fairly heavy loads around (the missus loves bottled water...), although I must say that I am seeing the weak points in the design and construction of the frame and will be building my own frame soon with several improvements.

I also need to talk to the box supplier about a better solution to keeping the the lid on...

A little metalwork

Today I started work in earnest on Mrs Words' bike. Before the final stripping of the old paint and sanding in prep for primer & paint, there were a few frame fixings that I wanted to remove.

Like many production bikes, this Raleigh was fitted with many "braze-ons" (I put that in quotes, as these were actually tack welded on) that would not be necessary and consequently would spoil the smooth look I'm hoping to achieve. Also, given that this bike will be using a Nexus hub, some of the "braze-ons" are simply redundant.

So I set about cutting them off and cleaning up with a file. At the same time I drilled out the down tube cable stop to allow the Nexus cable to run through uninterrupted. I'd also decided on internal cable routing for the rear brake, so the top tube cable stops were removed and the new cable holes drilled.


Clearly there is still a lot of work left, particularly sanding - but in a strange sort of way that is all part of the fun. Provided the weather plays ball tomorrow, hopefully I'll get a good lick of primer going. Then it will be to Mrs Words to get going with the new, soon to be revealed Such logo. Apparently I am font illiterate.

Mrs Words' Bike

Last time my sister, Mrs Words, was around in London, we hatched this idea that rather than her buy a new bike to replace her sadly stolen Trek FX, I'd help her find a solid cheapie on eBay and then go about customising it. And so we ended up with a mid-to-late 90's Raleigh Pioneer. It was acquired for a smidge over 40 quid, and was in remarkably good nick to start with.

The idea to build a comfortable, practical but interesting town bike that would be suitable for the odd foray along canal towpath. So I'm thinking hub gears and fat tyres with lots of air volume.

The Raleigh frame is a nice starting point: it is solid so will take the inevitable day-to-day knocks, it has huge tyre clearances to run cushy rubber, it has relaxed geometry which will make it an easy ride and it has horizontal dropouts, so will work perfectly with a hub gear.

So far I've got the frame stripped and again I was very happy that it was in incredibly good shape. The second bonus was that the rear hub spacing is spot on for the Nexus-8 hub that I plan to use, so no cold setting of the rear triangle will be required.

I'm looking forward cleaning up the frame in advance of paint. Hopefully, weather permitting, that will start next weekend. Mrs Words (also pretty handy with anything graphic, it should be mentioned) will be designing the graphics for this frame, as well as a new Such logo.

A Such trailer

For a number of reasons, for the last year we have been addicted to using the car for our weekly shop. In Reading the big-box Sainsbury's was out of town on a road that wasn't bike trailer friendly, the trailer was damaged in a minor accident in town, ... all "good" excuses to default to the comfort of the car, especially during the winter.

But enough, using the car for the 10k round trip to our new "local" supermarket was starting to make far less sense, and given traffic was also a rather painful experience. It was time to resurrect the trailer!

The trailer in question was originally a fairly crude "low-cost" kiddie trailer. The frame was bent in the accident, and the fabric was beginning to tear from having been used for load carrying it wasn't designed for. My plan was to strip it right down to the basic frame, straighten it and then mount a suitable box onto the frame that would be suitable for load carrying.

Stripping it was easy enough and, being steel, it straightened easily enough without cracking or any other loss of integrity. For the box, my research found that a "Euro standard" industrial packing crate was just about the size I was looking for (800x600), so I ordered one.

Assembling the lot was easy enough and I was quite chuffed that it all fitted together so well without modification - almost as though the parts were made for each other.

In practice it works really nicely, the low CofG making it very stable and the large crate proving easily able to swallow the weekly shop. To add to my sense of achievement, I hadn't got 50m from our flat when a lady stopped me to ask about the trailer. I think that perhaps I should build these to sell; I'm currently looking into sourcing the parts needed - but I do think that I can build something similar (and better) fairly inexpensively.

I also need to solve the problem of keeping the lid on (for this particular type of crate), as well as mount suitable lights, reflectors and mount a flag. Watch this space.