Thursday, July 04, 2013

New Family Member - Cruzbike Silvio 2.0

Many months ago I decided I wanted to try a recumbent bike,
to help reduce the butt pain experienced when riding my TT bikes.
I've noticed over the years that that has been my largest
limiter when it comes to actually getting on the bike.

So, I searched and searched and tried a few,
then I searched some more. Finally, I decided to
follow my "alterian" nature and selected a
very small manufacturer, of a very unique
machine, who was actually in the
process of a complete overhaul
of their design/manufacturing,
and they are in Australia!!!
(I'm in the USA)

Yup, perfect, almost zero of these in the world.

Sign me up!

Months later, they had worked out
their new "hydroforming"
technique on the frame and
shipped it out.

We picked up the box from the Post-Office and
a trainer from the Powderhorn house,...

What a little box,...
I'm 6'4" How is my bike in there?

Hmmmm, Very interesting.

Uschi and I laid out a new white tarp.

Okay, that looks good.

I'm not sure we are supposed to walk on this,...

Time to unpack.

The well packed box.

Each piece individually wrapped.

Uschi kept an inventory.

What is next?

Many small pieces;
Some aluminum wrapped with carbon fiber, some aluminum.

Look at the finish on this one,...

Focus on Uschi time,...

Pat, pat, pat,...

Finally, the hydroformed aluminum main frame.

Everything spread out and accounted for,...

Uschi played his part and left me
to figure out how to put all these pieces together,...

That was day one.

I decided to work on the build very leisurely.
Knowing that the frame was fresh out of
a new manufacturing process of
a small company, things would
not always go together flawlessly.

Actually, it went pretty smoothly,
I only had to "adjust" a few components
to make them fit.  Basically, it only
took a few days work and lots of
staring and thinking.

Vladi kept an eye on progress

I roughed in the setup and components,... and

Uschi is ready for a maiden voyage.

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