It occurred to me this morning that I had not actually put the wheels on the frame for a very long time. So I did. See the pic below.
I have to be honest and say that I was disappointed, mainly with the forks and the impact they have. The front wheel has a super fat tyre fitted at the moment which it will not in the final assembly so ignore that. The main problem is the rake and size of the forks where it meats the head tube. Being aluminium the crown is very fat and really doesnt sit well by the steel head tube. I had thought that the chunky nature of the aluminium forks world work well, and they do to a certain extent but over all they just look a bit ridged compared to the rest of the frame. Also they are too long as they were intended for a 700c wheel, With the forks being too long it pushes the bike quite high, it was already a short high design, so this just pushes it a bit too far for my liking. There is a simple solution and that is to find a new set of forks. I think I will go for steel this time. I will look for a 26 inch fork that will fit the wheels properly and not push the geometry up.
ThePlycycle Mk2 with wheels on.
As a result of fitting the back wheel found I had forgotten to carve out the frame where the rear wheel fits behind the bottom bracket. Or rather doesn't fit. I have to deflate the tyre to fit the wheel at the mo. it was on my list of things to do I just forgot. Luckily it is an easy fix, one i will ahve to do before i do the final varnish coats.
There has also been a tiny bit of warping in the frame, and i wonder if it has been because i didnt get it varnished before the winter. it has caused the rear wheel to not align as perfectly as It did when I set the drop outs. It is not a disaster, just disappointing.
On the plus side the first thinned coat of varnish looks good and holds promise for the next full coat.
