May 8, 2007

Downhill!

It’s close. So very, very close. So close I can hardly contain myself…


Here’s the swingarm, shockmount, and swingarm crossbrace. I thought about doing an all square/rectangular theme for the rear end, but I had a piece of .035″x1.125″ round tubing sitting right in front of me that was already the right size, so I just welded it in.


Here are the chainstays tacked up. I’m not super happy with the dropouts, so there will probably be another rear end built at some point (with super-short chainstays, to boot) using Instigator drops, which weld right up and have a nice built-in disc mount.


Closeup of the swingarm/chainstay after I welded it up. Not much too exciting here. Man, this thing requires a lot of little welds…


Wheel installed (with a Kenda Nevegal tire). This rear end is 450mm, but there’s a TON of room to go shorter. I’ll probably do a 430 or 435mm rear end as well just so that I can compare them head to head. And also so that I can use some better dropouts than the crappy ones I made.


Final shot for the night – this actually doesn’t do the tire clearance justice. You can easily put a 3.5″ tire in there if you want to. I have word from reputable sources that a DH-worth 29er tire will be available at some point this summer. Keeping my fingers crossed…