August, 2006

Z-Bone Clone

Aka

Muffler Bone Clone

It’s been several years since I built a bike.

The quest for speed (reference the recurrent theme of 20 miles in one hour) has died down. I’m now 65 and nearly retired.

The idea of a traveling bike that packs small enough to get onboard a plane as luggage is attractive.

I have long been a fan of George Reynolds creations, although my budget doesn’t allow purchase of one.

When the titanium Z-Bone came out, a year ago, it looked like it would be relatively easy to copy in steel.

This spring, I decided to do just that.

For the unwashed masses, here’s a picture of one.

I began to obtain the necessary parts. To date, I have the following

1. a set of 20 inch wheels and tires (used, from a RANS Rocket)

2. A pair of Moustache handlebars (new from Nashbar)

3. A Shimano crankset. Used from eBay and biopace type rings with 28, 42, 56 teeth, giving a gearing range of 20.7 to 86.3 gear inches. That’s 25mph+ at 100 rpm. I can’t go over 20mph on a sustained basis, so that’s good to go.

4. A FWD fork purchased new from Barcroft Cycles.

this thing is a real work of art!!!

I still need a Cane Creek (or equivalent) shock, chain and tubing.

As implied, the main tube will be 2 Inch muffler pipe. My Speed Machine Clone shows this to be okay with a gussett reinforcement at the head tube. I expect about a 4 or 5 pound weight penalty from this decision.

October 23, 2006

It has occured to me that with every bike I have built, maybe excepting the High Racer Clone, I kind of wished I could build it again, but better because of what I had learned building the first version.

So--- I am going to build two muffler bone clones.

The first one will be, in fact, muffler pipe.

The second will be “more better”, with thin wall 2 inch chromalloy and fitting of the Beautiful Barcroft Fork.