BFS rebuild the Alumasled

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The Alumasled was built in 2006, its my second aluminum honeycomb composite bike. I built it from scratch, and became my favorite bike to ride. This bike has about 2500 miles on it. Its been used as a canvas for many of my parade and theme rides with the Coaster BC, its been Phantom of the Opera bike complete with a 40 inch wide 6 foot tall pipe organ (cardboard with working electric keyboard ) attached to it, it was Santas sled covered in red wrapping paper with xmas presents piled up on the back, its been completely covered with shamrocks and carrying a pot of gold, its been a wizards ride as four legged dragon creature carrying a pot of mystical goodies on it. This bike has been a show bike, its been to many bike shows and car shows. But most of all it my favorite bike to ride.
The abuse is showing, the hot sun and the rain storms it has sat thru, the stuff that has been bolted on and glued to it have taken its tole on the veneered edges. The lower edges have been shreaded from bottoming out on dips and bumps in the curbs and sidewalks, its fallen over, the points on the front and rear have been bumped on stuff and are quite ragged. Its time for a rebuild.
Here we go.
This was the bikes maiden ride, before the veneer was applied.
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This is the bike as last riden, with the wizards creature still on it.
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To remove the back wheel remove the side panel. These panels are held on with screws, there are thru inserts in the removed panel to keep the panel from crushing when the screw is tightened, there are threaded inserts that the screw is screwed into.
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The side panels have all been disassembled from the rear. Here you can see the damage from bottoming out on bumps and curbs, and the corrosion from water trapped between the panels.
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Here is the Alumasled blown apart.
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The panels around the bottombracket and the head tube were held on with double sided tape. The BB is epoxied into the honeycomb, as is the head tube, an eccentric slug that rotates to adjust the chain tension.
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The main frame showing damage from bottoming out. And NO there is NOT a tube frame inside, the honeycomb composite IS the frame.
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Thats the original concept drawing in the background.
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Re: BFS rebuild the Alumasled (06/01)

Today I shaved off the ragged bottom edges of the aluminum panels and edge filled the new contours. I hope they match and look good when I put the bike back together.
First I made a MDF template from my original pattern to use to route off the ragged edge of the main frame.
These are the original patternes.
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This will change the bottom contour about 3/4 inch in placesand 1/8 inch in others places. The new template is clamped to the panel and using a router with a bearing that rides on the template will reshape the aluminum panel, two passes are nessessary to cut the 1 inch thick aluminum honeycomb.
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After the edge has been routed, I edge filled the panel. I mash the honeycomb up inside the aluminum skins and a fill the void with Rock Hard water putty, this will make the edge stronger and more durable.
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This same process is done to the rear side panels, but I use the original side panel patterns to remove the ragged edges then use that panel to bookend match the other like panel.
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I edge fill with water putty and wait for it to harden.
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Today I routed off the excess edge filling, removed some pieces of veneer, patched some other veneer, and greased the bottom bracket.
Routing off the excess edge filling was the same process as cutting the ragged edges off, lay the pattern on the panel and route the edge.
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I am trying to save as much of the original veneer as possible, as I am under a deadline to have the bike back together to take to show this next weekend. Therefore I patched in a few small pieces of veneer.
The nose was beatup and got a patch, and the bottom of the middle side panels got patched.
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So while the epoxy was setting on my patches, I cleaned and greased the BB. This BB is an after market piece I got from a LBS. It uses a euro style 3 piece crank. The eccentric slug the crank sets in allows me to adjust the chain by loosening the set screw and rotating the slug, therefore no slot is needed at the rear wheel mount.
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