October 29, 2003

Some various views of the built up bike showing the components that were used.  To recap, I purchased a new VK 2 from Velokraft, but the shipment was slightly delayed as Kamil is in the middle of setting up his new shop to meet the demand for his products.  I then decided to build up the VK 1 to test road characteristics.  At this point, I have only 50 miles on it so it is premature to report a full review.  I will post at a later date.  Most of the components on the bike will be transferred to the VK 2 when it arrives, except for the crank set.  I have a new Rotor Crank which I plan to use.

Views showing the aft end of the bike.  I am using my old Spinergy 650 here.  Notice that the rear (as well as the front) brake system is mountain type “V” brakes (more on this later).  I am using the seat that was originally supplies by Kamil.  This seat is wider than the Optima seat.  I was able to mount a bottle cage on the rear as shown.  Also shown is a new headrest which I built for the new bike.  More details later.

Details of the front end of the bike, and in particular the “V” type brakes.  Mounting the rear brake was not a problem, but the front was.  The front wheel had to be dished off center in the fork (and not in the same path with the rear wheel) in order to accommodate the brakes.  I would opt for regular caliper road brakes for the front, but that would take modification to the fork, and that is something that Velokraft now does.   On my new VK 2 this is not a concern because I intend on using a cut down carbon fork as I have done with my Baron Clone (see previous entries).   This not only uses a regular caliper brake, but brings down the bottom bracket by 1½ inches reducing trail.  One thing to be said for “V” brakes, however, is that they do stop you…….very well.  I put on Dura Ace 170 mm cranks, but on the VK 2 I will use Rotor Cranks of the same size.  The Dura Ace front derailleur worked well here.  The 1 3/8 inch adaptor fits the boom perfectly and I had no problems shifting.

The next photo shows the reason for the chain tube.  The chain interferes with the front brake and must be suspended above it.  The “suspension” is accomplished by a Nylon tie wrap through the seat and around the chain tube.  Another reason to go with road brakes on the front.

These PICS show the headrest I constructed for the new bike.  I was “inspired” by Garrie Hill’s headrest, and this is my version of it.  To construct it I carved and shaped a blue foam piece to an approximate shape.  I then covered it with a thick layer of Bondo, and then the sand/shape/wax task.  I laid 2 plies of a diagonal 6 ounce carbon over the male mold.  After curing, I destroyed the inner mold and was left with a thin shell.  On the inside (where the male mold was) I added 2 more narrow strips of strengthening carbon with a 1/8 inch core of balsa, and essentially made a spine.  I did some fashioning work to make it attractive and to tie it together.  Very strong and light at 55 grams.  Like one third of which is on my Baron Clone.

The first two PICS show the comparison of the VK 1 and my Baron Clone.  The wheelbases are very close.  The seat height of the VK 1 is slightly higher than the BC.  The only difference is that the bottom bracket of the VK 1 is greater.  This will change with the VK 2 because I will be using a custom fork rather than the VK offset. More detail will be shown later.  The last photo shows me seated on the bike.

I will now change the subject, but I think there are many benters who may be interested.  In my 6 years of recumbent riding (some 35/40,000 miles) I have hit the pavement 3-4 times.  The most recent 3 months ago.  The road rash injury seems to be in the same general area.  I have now gone to padded pants and elbow guards.  The pants shown in these 3 PICS were bought from Price Point (pricepoint.com) and were slightly modified.  I have my hand on the portion of my rump that has been affected by road rash.  These pants are marketed to BMX’ers and as such the padding is more on the side than rearward.  So I bought a larger size and had a seamstress take it in at the rear (near the crotch to the waist) in order to rotate the padding aft.

Shown here are regular road shorts that were highly modified.  The padding shown was given to me by my bike shop in the form of BMX underwear.  I removed the padding (4 pieces) and had the seamstress sew them on the shorts in the desired locations.  The only objection is that they could be longer because when you fall, the shorts ride up the leg.  I had the legs made tight so that would not happen.  The padding on both shorts are very hard and robust and a full ½ plus inch thick.  Not flimsy.  One cannot compress the pads by pinching.

These 3 PICS show the elbow pads I am using, also bought from Price Point.  I hope I never have to prove these items out.

I had modified a commercially available fork to use with my 20 inch front wheel.  This was shown earlier on this site.  What I did not realize is that the Weyless fork chosen had limited clearance at the top (crown).  While there is adequate clearance when used with a racing rim as my Sun M14-A is, there is slight interference when used with a slightly wider rim.  This is shown in the last photo.  I went with a fork that was used on my Baron Clone (Pedal Force, pedalforce.com) and modified it.  This fork is shown in the first 2 PICS.  Hopefully you can see the added clearance at the crown area.