Marin 1990 Bear Valley Rebuild - FINISHED !!! PAGE 38 !!!

in a strange way I kind of hope the build goes on forever- the process is a wonder in itself.

I'm really pleased the first job has worked out to be a success, with those forks. I'm nervous with bated breath to see that the rest of the jobs work out a-ok

It's this sort of thread that has made me join up, love following your work.
Great job on the fork thread proving the old saying "If you want a job done properly, do it yourself".
I'm sure the rest of the work on them should be child's play to a man of your skill and patience.

Inspirational. Does make all my attempts to rebuild seem super rubbish but there we go!

I know you aren't going to be off roading it but will you even want to take it for a little spin after all this effort?

Thanks for all the comments

coomber":ht5iqvjz said:

I know you aren't going to be off roading it but will you even want to take it for a little spin after all this effort?

Click to expand...

Of course ! (if its dry … )

I am really looking forward to it. I have just moved into a new office at work and I even moved all the furniture around so I have a safe place for the bike I plan on riding it in over summer and its not staying in the bike shed ! :shock:

I have got to find myself a big hill and see how fast I can pedal it to

Hoping to have my first go at brazing over the weekend and de-boss / smooth off the forks ready for powder

WD

Well it was another good day with the build

It started with the eyelets falling off the dropouts from this :



To this (crappy picture alert ) :



Then I thought I would have a go at brazing the dints ... I took a bit of a flyer and tried on the actual forks I am using :shock: I had done a bit of reading up on the net and wasn’t quite sure if my torch was going to be hot enough (butane / propane mix) but as the steel tubes are relatively thin walled they heat up OK / quickly.

After paint stipping the forks I found a few more small dints so I tried one of the smallest ones first. Note my brazing area, the sink :



And then flatted back :



I was pleasantly surprised with the results (my first ever go at brazing) so as I gained confidence, I tackled the larger dints :





And then :





And then the big one, the braze area is long as there was a few tiny dints close by and the braze areas run into each other :



This photo was taken to show the reflection is true (the black line is the upper fork blade) – as the forks are going gloss black they need to be perfect as the colour is very unforgiving to imperfections :



I was very happy with how they turned out, just need to finish dressing up the welds / dropouts etc and remove the crown race now

WD

Fantastic work there,

I, for one, am breathing a huge sigh of relief that the brazing went well for you today

Your attention to detail is just stunning WD. :shock:

This post is better than watching TV :!:
I think there should be some kind of WD Pro merchandising.
Start selling T-shirts :idea:

Swaped all the thumbie bits over to make the the best set I could. Some bits from Canada, some from Austria, a bit of polish, the modified clamps, stainless bolts and re-zinced springs and adjusters :







Also found a few other pics on my camera / in my album that I hadn't posted.

Some black bling for the cables :



Found these to go on the back of the canti studs, stainless steel so they polish up nicely :



Polished quite a few Ti bolts to, these are for the bar ends, more in the stem etc :



The forks are fully dressed up now and ready for powder, If I can get to the couriers they will be going early next week

WD