Naked Panther

[The Renaissance Man]

Nice subtle touch on the discs! I probably wouldn't have thought about using heat paint, good call.

This bike has such a clean look, really nice job! Just what I've come to expect from a Chad T build.

 

[furyus]

Very impressed. Your build oozes competence and durability, as well as looking cool as heck. Love to have that bike in my garage.

furyus

 

[OddJob]

I'm sure it rides as smooooth as it looks! The bars, stem, frame curves, saddle....all harken to yesterday, while your drivetrain and brakes talk tomorrow 's tongue! The tires tie it all together....well done!

 

[Chad T]

Nice subtle touch on the discs! I probably wouldn't have thought about using heat paint, good call.

This bike has such a clean look, really nice job! Just what I've come to expect from a Chad T build.

Thank you! I wouldn't have thought of the high temp either but I had to buy some flat black so figured I might as well. Don't know if these rotors will ever see high temps. They stop you instantly.

Very impressed. Your build oozes competence and durability, as well as looking cool as heck. Love to have that bike in my garage.

furyus

Thanks furyus. Hope to see that sweet Varsity of yours running soon.

I'm sure it rides as smooooth as it looks! The bars, stem, frame curves, saddle....all harken to yesterday, while your drivetrain and brakes talk tomorrow 's tongue! The tires tie it all together....well done!

Thank you OJ. It's the smoothest riding bike I've ever ridden.

I know it's gained some weight but it still feels pretty quick. It will shift gears as fast as you can click the button with your thumb. I like to start in one of the low gears then once I'm moving I'll do 3-5 click shift. Really amazing drivetrain. Quietest derailleur bike I've ever ridden too. Zero chain noise and the freehub is eerily silent.

Pretty happy to be where I'm at at this point in the build off. I've got my runner built and the frame has it's final finish. Now I can accessorize, decorate, fine tune everything and try to get a decent pic. I know this isn't a contender for lots of votes but I want it to look as cool as I can make it look.

I have some plans to try to tone down the horsey high fork look. First plan is to ad fenders. I want fenders to keep anything off the bare alum..(this is my first big boy bike since I bought my Paramount MTB in 1992). I also think it will be hard to resist taking this for a ride in the snow if I get a chance.

Settled on these Planet bike full ATB fenders. I liked the black stays and they were cheap at the local bike shop. Pretty nice kit.

I also thought putting a front fender down tight on the tire would help it not look so jacked up.

It was killing me not being able to ride it yesterday while the fender install was going on. Got that finished up this evening and took her for a test. Still nice and tight and quiet so that's good. Will get her out in the daylight tomorrow for some decent pics hopefully.

 

[OddJob]

You've got a great all-purpose bike there Chad! And the planet fenders fit your build well. If you want, you could always switch out the tires and fenders for an extended off-road adventure at any time. Fit and finish is awesome on your build!

 

[Chad T]

Thank you brother! I think I could end up building something more off-road ready in the future. This frame has a really high top tube for me to get too rambunctious on.

Couple of quick pics from this morning. Kickstand should open up some more photo ops.

 

[Imaginos]

That is a work of art.

 

[kingfish254]

Looking sweet!

 

[metalchewy]

Great ride, another one i'd love to ride the tires off of!![emoji106] [emoji106]

 

[Chad T]

Thank you so much fellas!

Made a reflector for the rear fender and installed a kickstand yesterday.

Hopefully get started on the carbon fiber tank panel later today. Off work for the next 12 days so should be wrapping this up soon. Still have a few things to fiddle with though.

 

[G-Matt]

Great looking all purpose bike . If you only had one bike this would be the way to go. Off road , cruiser & urban assault commuter all in one . Tight & clean bike with a lot of detail. [emoji1303]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[OddJob]

Hey Chad, when it comes time for pics that red fence in the background with a few green vines hanging might give your bike that on/off road look. Get the bike close enough, like 2-3 ft away and shoot. Your industrial black and chrome juxtaposed against the deep natural red and green tones should look awesome!

 

[GuitarlCarl]

A sheet of carbon fiber huh?
I was thinking a nice slim tank between the cantilevers would look good on there. This is a sweet clean ride, the new bare metal with the carbon fiber has that techy look. I like it.

Carl.

 

[deorman]

Great bike! I'd stay out of mud with those fenders though.

 

[SkyknightJohn]

Great job!

 

[Chad T]

Thank you so much for the kind words fellow builders. OJ I'll have to try that spot. It's tricky though because it only gets direct light in mid-afternoon.

Great bike! I'd stay out of mud with those fenders though.

No mud for this one but I may try it in the snow. The rear fender I think will be OK but the front one is more open in the back which could cause a clog.

Was able to cross one more thing off the punch list today.

Added a v-brake noodle to improve the front brake cable routing. Used some brass shim to attach a cable ferrule to the noodle. Then the noodle butts up to the cable inside the hollow stem bolt.

Made a different guide for the bottom of the cable. It needs to flex a lot with the suspension so came up with this leather strap deal with a bicycle spoke.

Back cable angle at the brake matches the fender stay angle. A happy accident.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Such a great looking bike! I like how the fenders almost disappear.

 

[franconuevo]

Chad, this is amazing.
I can't believe the difference in the shine after you hit it with the Mothers polish.
Actually, I can't even imagine sanding down an entire aluminum bike like you did. I'd be intimidated.
What an effort on this bike, and man does it show
Just Beautiful

F.

 

[deorman]

Well whadda you know. Noodle brakes are good for something after all.

 

[Chad T]

Such a great looking bike! I like how the fenders almost disappear.

Thank you! Made a slight change to the rear fender. The reflector wouldn't lay flat so I replaced it with some carbon fiber wrap. Needed something to cover the big Planet Bike logo.

Also tried to see if I could cut a Schwinn "S" out of the wrap. Came out ok so I stuck it to a piece of masking tape so I could remove the backer and this became the 1st installment of "Schwinnanigans"...

Lemon Pledge really makes black plastic shiney.

Chad, this is amazing.
I can't believe the difference in the shine after you hit it with the Mothers polish.
Actually, I can't even imagine sanding down an entire aluminum bike like you did. I'd be intimidated.
What an effort on this bike, and man does it show
Just Beautiful

F.

Thank you Franco....The frame sanded and polished up fairly easily thank goodness. It can be some work sometimes.

Well whadda you know. Noodle brakes are good for something after all.

Love the brake noodle for making a tight turn with a cable.

Next up on the Schwinnanigans is a red and white chain guard decal I'm using on the seat tube. Applied the decal to a brass plaque I cut from shim stock and put some double sided 3m tape on the back to hold it to the seat tube.

Tank decals are for the carbon fiber tank panel. Carbon fiber is not a lot of fun to work with. Guy at work told me to wear a dust mask and as soon as I started cutting it I could feel the microscopic little needles hitting my skin so I grabbed my respirator.

Did most of the cutting with snips and then sanded it down. Fairly hard stuff to sand. Really rough finish on it as well so I've been spraying it with laquer and sanding it every day.

Finally got it fairly smooth and figured out some mounting hardware. Just straps out of brass shim and raided my slot car parts for some tiny black screws and found these black plastic gears that make decent nuts for them.

I'm using the gears on the outside and putting the straps behind the panel so the screws blend in.

Got the decal on the non-drive side just have to flip it and put the other one on. Going to leave kind of a satin finish on the panel.

Had my son take a short 3 sec ride vid the other day. Super short but you can see the quickness with the low gear, the brakes and the cushy suspension in action..