Seasons over, projects for next year!

Ive wanted a disc wheel for the track for a while, but either not been able to afford one or got outbid at the last minute on ebay. It got to a point this summer where i just gave up and decided id make my own. Ive been working with composites for 5 years and built boats, sail spars and bike frames from carbon fiber, so i feel pretty comfortable with the material, this is just a new project for me. The first part of the project, and the one I'm least comfortable with, is machining a hub body.

Even a composite disc wheel needs an aluminum hub to seat the bearings, axle and hold the cogs/lock ring. Its pretty crucial that the threads be the right pitch and depth for the cogs to mate, that the bearings press in tightly and that the parts i make interact with parts made by any bike company. Ive got some basic machining experience, and luckily MIT has a "hobby shop" where students and staff can learn to use very nice equipment like milling machines and CNC lathes. I pretty much learned how to drive a lathe while making the first hub body, and I've posted some pics below of the result. Its a prototype, so hubs #2 and #3, which are already started, will be a little different.

What I've made is a pretty basic hub that is designed to bond to the composite disc on the large central flange. It will accept "Phil" axles and bearings and is a standard 120mm. It will also take a standard cog and lock-ring. This prototype is single sided, but the next ones will be flip-flop (fixed/fixed), the other main difference is that this one takes older phil bearings and the next ones will take their newer track specific bearings.

Next steps;
I'm moving into a work space October 1, so things should move along this fall and winter. Next on the list..
-find a steel tooling plate, basically a very flat surface, to mold the disc on.
-mold the disc and bond in the hub body
-think of a great name for my wheels!

I should be able to build each wheel to the riders needs. Heavier, more powerful riders get stiffer stronger wheels, lighter rides can ride lighter wheels, and if I ever made a road version, it could be more compliant to handle rougher pavement.

I'm hoping that Ill be selling custom wheels once i figure out the process, my goal is to be taking orders by mid spring. So keep pushing me on this project and maybe next summer the track team will have a wheel sponsor!

Morning Road Rides?

With my fall schedule in motion, I'm not going into work till 2pm on most weekdays and wanted to see if anyone was down for maybe getting in some road time during the morning hours with me? I wake around 8am so anytime from there outwards is cool with me for a start time.

Bike Envy Alert

Adam from Brooklyn showed up on this sweet Yamaguchi road bike last weekend. SRAM Rival with Neuvation wheels. Tight and Light. Mmmmmmmmmmmm....

this Saturday

As some of you may or may not know, Nick will be getting 'married' in Gainesville at the end of October (I'll be there, perhaps I should wear the team kit to the ceremony?) and in celebration we're having a get together on Saturday that the whole team is invited to. Starting around 11am and going all day into the night we'll have a keg going and a grill in constant use. So show up to wish Nick some good luck and meet his friends that are coming up from Florida, a good time shall be had by all!

Oh yeah, 12 Fisk Place in Cambridge. Google it and goloco a ride if you have to. Just be there!

parting in such sweet sorrow...

I'm sorry to say that it looks like yesterday was the last day I'll be able to make it to the track this season; the students at work start classes on Tuesday, which means I'm back to my 2pm-10pm schedule in the shop. Depending on how much vacation time I have I'll look into taking the day for the end of season BBQ off as a way to wrap things up.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank Thayne and Kip (and anyone else that helped) for getting the team up and going. It was a great experience and really helped make my summer. I'm sure I'll see everyone around and I'll definitely see everyone out on the track next year.

Cross Schedule Posted

check here for the Cross Schedule

the first Sad movie you ever Watched.

“The Red Balloon” is a film of forlorn hope and past occurrences gone wrong.
Remember taking trips with friends or family? The ideal time, the perfect situation; they have an amazing ability to overshadow trials and efforts of the past where we wished to be somewhere else.
Taking an airlift to the east-indies where venture capitalists have established a full blown water park with ivy league school issue track surface grounds and walkways: paradise and disaster.
A cross race in august, paradise and disaster.
A sexy calendar of exotic visions in the booth of the air traffic controllers on a nuclear powered aircraft carrier.
Up for debate.
The point is, its happening. Ciclocross.
The reincarnation, the renaissance, the revival.
State militia in the form of a reemergence of motivated racers, enthusiasts, comrades in zeal.
What kicked off this years Cross campaign? Yesterday, around 1230pm, a B–2 Stealth bomber flew over boston. Those Assemblies cost this nation Billions, each. Why the spectacle? If it were passing through, it would be well above commercial flight altitude: out of view.
But what a site…Strange militaria alien borne.
If you didn’t see it, you heard the disturbance.

http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/b2/

Cyclocross Is raging onward. Now. Already. Tell your lover that they will be sitting on the aft burners next to the Swedish meatball sausepac brewing in 2 fingers of rolling boil.