I've been unusually busy lately so bicycles got put to the side while I was neck deep in work and planning for Boston.
But I found the time this weekend to do this:







Considering I honestly did not expect this to work on my first try, I'm pretty happy, even though it's a bit of a sloppy looking fit. I think I might take a second stab this next weekend when I'm painting the guard.

Looks great! Nice work, Kate.

Neal

Nicely done! How about some full profile shots of the bike?!

Super work. Thanks for sharing the photos. I'm probably going to have to do the same thing for one of my bikes and this is a huge help.

This looks more rigid than the rod/clamp/drawbolt setup that VO sells for attaching chain guards.

Thanks! Hey it's getting close to July, do you still think I might be able to borrow that Raleigh?

It's not the prettiest shot, I was going to wait till I'd painted it and ride out to the docks for the "full reveal". But since you asked, haha.


Good I'm glad! I did a lot of scouring the net before I made these and I was pretty disappointed I couldn't find a lot of images or resources.

I'm impressed!

VO sells that? I was going to try to fabricate that but I got stuck with how to flatten and widen the rod to drill a hole through.

I don't know that this is more ridged. It's pliable aluminum. I sort of pushed it around into place a lot when I assembled it and I'm not certain it will stay yet. These brackets are a bit too long, so the crank arm is only clearing by millimeters. I'll have to fabricate a new set at some point.

Great work. I might try and use stainless flat bar when I get around to mounting mine. I had planned to start with some front derailleur ataptors but using more than one gets pricey, and one is still left making something to go from the adaptor to the chaincase/guard so might as well just make it all from scratch. Thanks for posting this and that's a sweet looking bike as is.

One of my favorite bikes on C&V.

Scott

Good job! When you say "clearing by just a few mm" bear in mind the only important word is "clearing." As long as it's clearing, it's clearing. If you have it where you want it, it will in all likelihood stay there.

I think this will be a problem for you when you use the bike, so be ready for it. Professionally made bracketry is usually stiff, either from having out of plane stiffening formed into it during stamping or from being made from thick, stiff material.

Because you are fabricating a one-of bracket (like I also need to do), you can either bend the edges up to create stiffeners or you can secondarily bond stiffeners onto your flat-pattern bracket (use epoxy for adequate strength and weather resistance). After fabricating the bracketry, you can spray paint everything to match the frame.

Can you shoot and post a shot of the mounting brackets taken froom the non-drive side, please? I'd like to see the overall effect. The guard hides the brackets ell from the viewing angles the phtotos were taken from. I'd like to see it from the other directions.

In thinking about my own bracketry design, I was going to attach the front bracket by cutting a large diameter hole and capturing the sheet metal bracket between the bottom bracket's fixed cup and the frame, rather than using a band clamp around the seat tube as you've done. There's lots of ways to do things.

Thanks for the great pics.

Unless and until you bump it with your foot. Then it will rub. Soft aluminum does not spring back.

More tips -

For a really finished appearance, trim your mounting screws flush with the end of the lock nuts. The protruding threads will not be visible (cleaner appearance).

Design the brackets so the mounting hardware is underneath the tube rather than on its top side. It'll be less visible underneath.

Consider using smaller hardware (nuts & bolts). Even a #4 hardware would have plenty of strength but it is a lot smaller and the bands can be made correspondingly smaller, etc.

When you custom design, you are in total control. It's great!

I especially liked this bit of your post, thought-provoking stuff for makers of one-off hardware and brackets. Two other possibilities for adding stiffness to brackets might be adding a twist of up to 90 degrees or using a bead roller to put a stiffening rib into the flat stock before forming the bracket.

And OP, that is a seriously beautiful bike. Well done!

A seriously awesome shade of blue.

Wow thank you for all the tips Mike. Trimming the screws is something I'll hopefully do eventually. I'll definitely have the two arm bracket bolt underneath next time. I'm with limited tools here so I don't know how much more I can do. There's a reason I used tin snips instead of a jeweler saw, haha. How do you bend the edges up?

I haven't been able to truly test it's stability until the single stack bolts for the chainwheel come in. Once I have those I'll be able to give it a good ride and see how much knocking about I end up doing.

And thanks everyone for the complements on the bike. The paint color is one of my favorite things about it. I was never big on having a blue bike before I realized just how much depth and variance of color this paint has.

Well. It's a good thing I decided to remake the brackets since I snapped one of the arms of the down tube bracket when flattening it out again. I bent the first set in and out of shape way to many times even though I knew a stress crack was inevitable. The new set's only been bent once and is a slightly smaller, better fit. I've also lined the inside with strips cut from a broken rim strip I found, and got a little fancy with the edges. Thanks again Mike for the tips, I think this set came out much better.
I've probably only ridden 10 -15 miles, but it hasn't budged an inch. I think I'm good to go.
Oh, I also painted it. The paint is in no way even remotely perfect but I like it well enough. The original paint was a bit uneven too.













And just wanted to throw this up here, thanks Southpaw for inspiring me on what to do with the empty shifter mount:

Oh, and for fun, here's a "before an after" of the chain guard

I like the placement better this time around. Nice job on the brackets! Looks pro.

The use of elastic stop nuts (nylon locknuts) is ideal on short fasteners like these. On long ones they wear you out when installing and removing.

Looks super. I'm hoping for something similar eventually on my 5-speed. Will make note of your work!

A++

Quite a looker you have there

Beautiful bike in every respect. Congratulations!

Beautiful Bike, nice color combo. What did you use under the clamps to protect the paint?

Thanks again everyone! You'll make my bike blush!

Michael Angelo I just wrapped and tapped some short rags the first go around, and then when the brackets were more or less finished, I had a 1/4 inch wide rim strip that I cut liners from and attached with rubber cement. I don't think the rubber cement held very well, but it held well enough.