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Monday, November 7, 2011

Thinking Out Loud

Very shortly I will have my repaired case on the bench.  When that happens I will have in hand all of the big bits that are needed to make decisions about the frame.  I have looked at many frame designs and been inspired by many old racers, new racers, notional racers and racers that are perfect.  Very early I decided the Overland had to be a hard tail and use a girder fork.  The Overland also has to be stable yet be a reasonable curve carver.  I realize that any design will have compromises and as a result I’m trying to shoot right for the middle.  This is the engine and the gear box I’m using.  The gear box is a Norton Atlas box. 




After much looking and thinking and reading I have come up with the following frame design outline.  Wheel base will be between 56 and 58 inches.  Wheels will be the 18 inch in the rear and 19 inch in the front.  There is to be a single down tube and single backbone frame with almost bicycle like bends in the rear triangle to accommodate the tire width. 

My idea is to use the engine and gear box coupled solidly as one unit and then use the combination as a stressed frame member to provide a stiff front triangle. I also want to use alloy plates for the engine mount to front down tube.  I’m also planning on using a chromalloy sub-frame to couple the box to the engine and then the sub-frame would be welded to the seat down tube and the rear triangle.  I also want to keep everything as narrow as possible. 

Just some first thoughts and soon I hope to have some sort of a first drawing of what I have in mind.  So anybody have any thoughts please chime in.  I’m not opposed to considering alternate ideas.  I pretty much have one chance at all this and I really don’t want to fuck it up.

While waiting for all the bits and pieces to land in my garage I have built a frame jig which is not perfect nor meant for anything but this one frame.  So after I do some drawing I’m going to start putting things on the frame table and trying to nail down the final shape and orientation of things.

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