techTips

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So you’ve decided you’re going to build that killer custom bike. You’ve got every biker build-off episode stacked and labeled on the DVD shelf and you think, “how hard can it be? These guys make it look so easy, even I can do it!”Now step back into reality for a moment. First, there isn’t anything wrong with the attitude above. It’s positive, decisive, has an aim, and it’s a **** good start, but it’s massively misinformed, and a sad fact of life is that if you don’t want your killer bike to end up for sale as an unfinished project.You’re going to need more info than what you got out of all the OCC episodes. As entertaining as they were, those TV shows and are not any sort of insight into what it takes to build a custom bike.

You’ll need a lot of things to start, so I thought it best to begin with “where” before bravely stepping into the world of “what.” Yes, however you want to play this game, you need somewhere to do it.

This article is aimed at the guy who has a garage or shed next to the house, a buddy who has one, or a small unit somewhere. That’s not to say we aren’t going to look at what the pros do in their places and get some tips, but this isn’t an issue of Motorcycle Dream Garage.

I’ll keep this affordable and filled with necessary essentials. You won’t be taking out second mortgages to get thousands of dollars worth of computers, software and a water jet.

A lot of fine bikes get built by guys under sheets and tarpaulins, in lean-to’s against the side of the house and even in the house itself. A workshop dedicated to your passion isn’t necessarily a necessity to the end result but I have yet to speak with a guy who has built anything out in the yard or under a tarp who would not have preferred to do it in a nice warm workshop.

A dream garage isn’t beyond the realm of possibility. All it takes is a big budget, but I’m prepared to bet that if you could afford to set up a workshop like that to build your pride and joy, you wouldn’t be reading this article.

The first thing we need to ask ourselves is “what do I want to achieve?” The answer isn’t obvious. It’s subjective. Building a bike isn’t the complete answer, either. Building a bike is a step-by-step procedure that encompasses a lot of processes, and to be realistic, if we want to do them all ourselves we need a lot of different spaces dedicated to different disciplines including welding, machining, polishing, painting, and more.

More realistically, we will have to expect our space to a multitasking area, which means some pretty serious organization of both procedures and storage of stuff, and dare I say cleanliness.

Answering “what do I want to achieve,” is quickly followed by, “how much space do I need?” The answer is “how much have I got?”

For the purpose of these articles, we are going to presume you have a space that equates to a normal single car garage. If you have more space, great, you’ll find information here on appeasing your girlfriend by buying her a puppy.

EDITOR’S NOTE: do not Google “naked babe puppy” with moderation turned off.

If you have less than a single-space garage, stay tuned!

You need a space at least as long as the finished bike that must include a couple of feet on every side for a bench. That means a space more or less 12 feet long by about 8 feet wide. Keep in mind this would really be the minimum and this amount of space really doesn’t have much room for storage of parts and tools.

Now that you have the space, all you need is to prepare that really old set of springers that you found two months ago after scouring the planet since before dinosaurs walked. They’ve been sitting outside going rusty, which they will do no matter how much grease or WD-40 you spray on them, until you’re ready to actually bolt them on to the bike in your first of many trial build ups.

If you only have a shed to trick out, look into the possibilities of putting a covered deck on it. This will give shelter for the times when you must scoot the rolling chassis out for one of the many occasions that entails scooting the rolling chassis, such as to place large parts like the engine, tanks, handlebars, and wheels upon it, and to stare at it at a distance while drinking beer.

Also, look for alternative spaces nearby that would permit storage such as garage cabinets, attics, basements, and living room corners where your Rock Band 2 drum kit collects dust. I’m loathe to suggest anywhere in the house, unless you live alone, or soon want to!

These are the “build up/try out” stages which will eventually become the final assembly of all the shiny and painted and polished stuff that you really don’t want lying all over the place.

In our next episode we’ll look into equipping your space. I’ll show you what tools you really need and how to make it a space that you not only want to spend time in, but that will allow you to maximize your own skills and enjoy what you’re doing. That’s a pretty important aspect to the whole thing…

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Last time we managed to figure out how much space we actually need to set up our workshop.The first question was, “what do we want to achieve,” and we discovered the answer wasn’t very straightforward. I hinted at the multitude of tasks and skills we would need to bring to a shop that would suitably build a bike but focused on how much space would be needed. Having determined our available space we can truly ask ourselves what we want to achieve in there.If you’re like me, you want to do it all yourself, no matter what. It’s my scoot and I’m building it my way!But not everyone is able to do that and most of the guys I know who do build their own bikes don’t do 100% of them. I usually find that the guys who are good at the machining side farm out the paintwork for example, or that the guys who are good at the body/metalwork/painting side get help or farm out the mechanical stuff. I don’t want to say that’s always the case because it isn’t but you get the picture, very often we get someone to either help us or we contract part of the build out. I mention this now because it has a lot of relevance on how we are going to equip our bike building shop. In other words, “what do we want to achieve in there?” If we are going to farm out the paintwork, do we need a compressor and an area for painting?Probably the most straightforward way of looking at this is to break down the bike build into a number of sub categories. I suggest the following:1.  Design: knowing what the bike will look like when complete

2.  Frame and tube work

3.  Sheet metal and tins

4.  Machining

5.  Sub-assemblies: motor rebuild/repair, electrical, carburetors, front ends, brakes, etc.

6.  Paint, polishing and plating

7.  Final assembly

The first thing to jump out at us is that we are going to need “clean” and “dirty” areas. Lets go back to our available space. Remember we drew a line in the sand and decided that for the purpose of these articles we had a single bay garage space available. My apologies if you have less, I’ll leave the creativity of your workspace to you but will remind you that less space means the same things are going to apply but you will need to scale some of it down and become very adept at organizing.

The first thing to consider is not tools but benches. However much of the work you are going to do yourself, you will really need to have two benches or “bench areas” This isn’t a luxury, it really is a necessity. Pretty much all fabrication is classed as dirty work. From bending tube for your frame to cleaning, repairing and assembling mechanical parts. We’ll use saws, files, drills, sandpaper, and much more. All of these tasks produce undesirable by-products to our “clean” assembly side of the garage. Get the picture? Ok, so laying out our benches and therefore our “clean” and “dirty” areas suddenly becomes very important.

Check out the image above. We’ve taken a pretty standard garage space with a normal roll up garage door at the front and an entry at a rear corner. There are benches all around. You’re all clever folk and I don’t want to get into exact instructions here, but by looking at the picture you should get a good idea as to what I find to be the ideal bench set up for bike building. Now you can see where the ideal minimum workspace comes from. The floor will inevitably be concrete. If not then it might be timber, or if you’re lucky like me it may simply be good old flattened earth. None of these options are acceptable.

A concrete floor constantly creates dust and when cleaning and sweeping the dust will invariably impregnate your more delicate parts, doing them no favors whatsoever. DUST IS YOUR ENEMY!

If the floor is concrete, the minimum you must do is paint it. There are plenty of floor paints out there, but remember if you paint it with cheap paint, you’ll paint it often! If the floor is timber, again the minimum you need to do is paint it. A good and inexpensive fix on a timber floor is to get sturdy plywood nailed down to get a decent and relatively smooth surface and then paint. If, like me, you have a pounded earth floor, you must pave it with concrete and of course, paint it.

What you must remember is that the floor really needs to be flat for safety and easy to clean. a flat and clean floor is easier to find those mixture screws that just rolled off the bench. A good and easily maintainable surface is tile. The adhesive PVC/Lino types are nice or ceramic tiles if you’re feeling ritzy and confident that you won’t be dropping anything heavy on them! The tiling option is in lieu of paint. Remember that when we are in our assembly phases, major final assembly or sub-assemblies, we are going to be scooting back and forth on our old office chairs and it’s ****** annoying when you can’t scoot straight due to a lumpy floor. Whatever you decide, make your floor flat and easy to mop, which basically means waterproof. The methods I have suggested are the best ones I know of, but by all means feel free to comment below and expand my knowledge with further ones.

Onwards and upwards to benches. We need two narrow benches, one running down each side of the garage and an open area between the two, which by no coincidence whatsoever is enough for us to walk around our soon to be growing pride and joy. At the risk of sounding a bit patronizing here, I will mention that the benches really need to be solid. This means that unless you have a large budget and can afford to shop with the Formula 1 workshop suppliers, you will be building them yourselves.

Welded steel frameworks with thick plywood tops are fantastic and sturdy, and 3″ by 3″ (or 4×4) legs and frames solidly screwed together, work perfectly. Solid wood benches will do the trick as well. I have to leave that to you. Personally I favor solid timber legs and frames and cheapo kitchen worktops because they are easy to keep clean and tidy, which makes losing things like your idle jets a lot harder to do!

Did I mention they should not be too deep? I’ll come to that in a minute….

One side will be your “clean” side and the other will be “dirty.” For the clean side, I strongly suggest that you make the bench approximately the height of your dining table. bout 30 inches high is good. A very large part of your clean work is actually assembling sub-assemblies such as the engine, gearbox, carbs, electrical stuff and more. You’ll be more attentive, more comfortable and be able to do it for longer if you’re sitting comfortably for a **** of a lot of this stuff.

Take a minute and try this experiment. Sit at your dining table, upright, back straight and see how far you can reach across without straining. Bet it’s about 24 inches before you really have to stretch. With that new found knowledge under your belt think about why you would want to make your bench any wider. Can’t find a good reason? The thing is that the larger the bench area the more **** you are able to accumulate on it.” Remember that we are trying to achieve an enjoyable workspace that is a pleasure to be in and work in. On this side try to keep the bench completely clear underneath.

Look at the image above. The ideal is to be able to scoot back and forth along the length of the workshop without smacking your knees and ankles on stuff piled under the bench.

For seating, make a couple of them. Old office chairs will do, but take the backs off as scooting back and forth around your bike as it comes together gets a bit trickier as it gets larger and you don’t want to be dragging anything around behind your back that you shouldn’t. I tend to think of the clean bench as more of a desk than a bench. I like it well lit, completely uncluttered and with hand tools within easy reach.

The left hand bench is at a relatively standard height, kitchen counter top high, which is more or less about three feet tall. This is a good height for work done while standing and is pretty much everything you’ll do on the “dirty” side of the garage.

Hammering, prying, filing, and more are all done best when we are standing up. On this side somewhere we will need a good solid vise. Think about the mounting and support of it, as you will tend to use the vise as a grip to hold stuff whilst you hammer things apart/together. Mount it sturdily. Also think about its position. I suggest in a set up like we have in in our one-bay garage that you mount your vise about two thirds of the way down the “dirty” bench towards the front door.

This side is where you want to organize all your storage. Under this bench is dead space and space is something we don’t have an abundance off. Parts bins and large stuff like a compressor, or welding machine should be under this bench. If at all possible attach some sort of doors here. Even if it’s only curtains, remember don’t use material that bursts into flame if you walk past it with a cigarette!

Other work we will be doing on this bench will include welding, so it’s good to cover a section of the bench, just a couple of feet, in metal. Steel is good, a piece of 14 or 12 gauge screwed down to the surface will be a great help when you weld anything. Tack a small piece of angle iron to the back of it as an “earth post” as well. That way if you weld something small the bench can act as the earth and you have one less clamp/cable to think about when you’re welding. Screw a length of angle iron to the wall as well. Do this above your head, over six feet high. This is to place all your clamps and mole grips to so they are within easy reach while you’re working. If you suddenly find you need another clamp in a hurry they are there right in front of your face.

A bench grinder, actually if possible have three of them! I’ll explain…. They are pretty cheap so there’s no need to go to the big expensive suppliers for these things. A good bench grinder is a savior and they can be a bit of a multi tool.

Another important piece is a wire brush and a polisher. I suggest that you fab up three free-standing platforms about four feet high if you are able. This way you are not constantly changing stones and mops. On one have a course and a fine grindstone. Use the second platform for a steel and brass wire brush and the third for the polishing mops. There isn’t anything at all that we do on one of these three tools that can be remotely thought of as clean work. Having them on their own stands facilitates moving them outside whenever possible to do the dirty work out there.

Remember to keep it narrow. We are working on and/or building motorcycles. The parts and assemblies are not the size of car stuff and we don’t need massive benches to work on. You’ll need the space in the middle of the workshop where the bike will actually be assembled, and narrow benches help out in this regard. I’m trying to keep you from having to get on with a particular task you’ve set your mind to achieving one day without having to clear a space through mountains of **** to do it.

I think that’s about as far as I need to go regarding benches. Just remember two basic rules:

Rule #1:  Keep it clean and tidy by putting things away.

Rule #2:  Keep it clean and tidy by putting things away.

Seriously though, I can’t say this often enough. These rules need to be applied constantly. You might feel that you’re spending more time cleaning up than building and sometimes you will be, but trust me that in the long run it will be quicker and you will save a shitload of time, not to mention a shitload of money on parts you won’t have to replace because you haven’t lost them.

So what else do we need in this shop?

Lighting! Yeah, I know…. No ****, Sherlock. It seems obvious but put your Hands up now and be honest….. How many of you out there were going to go down to the nearest Kwik-E-Mart and buy a long fluorescent light from Apu? Don’t let me stop you, but before you do please keep these facts in mind. I won’t go into great detail, by all means research what I’m about to tell you yourselves.

Fluorescent light is very bad for you.

It’s bad for your eyes and it’s bad for your skin. The humming is maddening if you’re quietly working. Last but not least, it’s really bad for morale! Really. It is and that’s a big deal! Now I know we’re rough & tough bikers that laugh at danger and smile at the tattooist needle. You can check it out yourselves but fluorescent light really is a depressing light and countless studies have proven this to be so. Even Navy submarines have completely removed fluorescent lights because they were proven to be a contributing factor to submariners suicides! Air Traffic Controllers have the highest suicide rate by profession in the world. Air Traffic Control Towers no longer have fluorescent lights and it has apparently helped.

Carefully bear your lighting in mind and plan it out when you run your power circuits for the sockets around your garage. I favor halogen spotlights. They are as reasonably priced as fluo stuff and can be placed to suit different work spaces. You can have a lot or as little light as you like. Have a couple of office-type anglepoise lamps handy as well. These guys are really useful for that close up work like cleaning cylinder heads and carbs.

Now let’s look at storage and think about it carefully. You will know by now which tasks in your build you’re farming out (if any) and therefore what you need in your shop to do the stuff on your list. For example, if you plan on painting the bike yourself you know you need a compressor and that will need housing somewhere. I’ve already hinted that it would need to go under the left hand bench somewhere, but space and neighbors/family permitting it could actually go in its own little lean-to building on the side of the garage outside. Bear in mind they can be noisy. If you’re planning on doing all the welding, then a place needs to be found for the welder. Again under the bench has been suggested and that’s probably the best place. It does need to be kept dry and as clean as possible.

The point I’m getting at is that all these different disciplines carry their own levels of baggage in the way of consumables and accessories. We will also accumulate parts along the way to the finished build. Space, especially storage space, often becomes harder and harder to come by. Shelves are good but kitchen-type cupboards on the wall at eyeball height are better. Especially for keeping things separated and clean. Don’t store anything heavy up there as there’s not much that will lower your spirits to the height of a wiener dog’s ******** faster than something heavy falling out of a cupboard and bashing you in the noggin when you’re concentrating on grinding valves. Store the heavy stuff and parts below the bench. I find it extremely useful to store bagged and labeled small parts in cupboards.

The cheapest way of building a low-cost custom bike is to be really **** about your parts storage. An example is the rear fender on my current build. It’s going to require four 10mm Allen Bolts, eight nylon washers, four Belleville washers, and four Nylock nuts. These are sitting in a zip-locked bag ready for use. I do this for every assembly and sub-assembly. The amount of time and hassle it saves is incredible, not to mention the monetary savings because I only acquire these things once.

This is as far as we’ll go on about laying out your basic workshop. We’ll do one more part on setting up your home garage that will focus more on the tools needed for various disciplines.

Stay tuned mofos (as Trent would say) because believe it or not, the tool universe does not revolve around a certain very good factory in Milwaukee…

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Last time we sorted our space into three well-defined areas. “THREE?” I can hear you from here. Yes, three. Think back to where we acquired our space by fair means or foul, and we spent Parts 1 and 2 getting it sorted and organized into our designated work areas. We have our “stand up-height dirty bench” running down one side, and our “sitting-height clean bench” running down the other. We also have our “what will we name our build in the center” area. Okay? THREE, like I said! Who’s article is this anyway?Today we’re going to be talking about equipping this wondrous space we have created, so in the words of the great Norm Abram, let’s take a moment to talk about shop safety. I won’t nag like a fully paid up clipboard-carrying member of the Health & Safety brigade because you’re all grown-ups.The most important thing is to use common sense. Flying particles get in your eyes, ears, and everywhere, so take steps to stop them from hurting you. Wear eye protection when necessary, which is most of the time in all honesty. Wear gloves when needed and safety footwear such as steel-toe boots if you value the bones in your feet or if you’re prone to dropping things. Think and use your head.The second most important thing is that if you don’t know how to use a tool, LEAVE IT ALONE, especially power tools. When in doubt, SHOUT OUT. In other words, if you’re not sure about a tool, get help or have someone else to do it. It would be remiss of me not to mention this at all.

What we need now is to cut down on the echo and reverberation in your new garage caused by the use of tools. Before you all go running off for Google to find the nearest Snap-on van, like I know you were all about to, let’s have a brewski and sit down on one of our old office chairs at our new and immaculate bench with a pad and paper and start makin’ some notes. Have a nice pause…. How good does that feel? I’m not the sort to say I told you so, but hey, I told you so!

At this stage it’s very easy to throw caution to the wind and make great long lists of all the shiny spanners and pullers and tools you remember seeing in Billy Lane’s workshop on Discovery. Slow down now and take a sip of that brew….. Tools are expensive, and good tools are more so. The first thing to do is to list the basics that everybody needs in their toolbox, no matter what skills you possess.

For the purpose of this article I’m going to suppose that you all have empty toolboxes. So what’s obvious? I’ll list them:

1.  Spanners and Wrenches

2.  Screwdrivers

3.  Pliers

4.  Hammers

5.  Grips

6.  Socket Set

7.  Torque Wrench

Obvious? To some they are, but let’s put things into perspective item by item:

1.  Spanners and wrenches: As cheap-assed bikerMetric readers I’ll assume you’re on a tight budget and can’t really stretch to combination spanners. You’ll have to buy two sets of open-ended wrenches to start.

“Two sets!?” I hear you cry. Yes, two. It’s hard to tighten or loosen a nut and bolt with only one.

You will need more, but to start get two sets of either Metric (6mm through 32mm), or Imperial/Standard (3/16″ thru to 1¼”), depending on whether your project is old Brit iron, American (Standard) or anything else (Metric). You will need a few that are bigger than as the project progresses, but it’s better to deal with those when they are required.

I’m afraid you will also need to buy a set of ring wrenches as well. Here’s why; you will severely damage a nut or bolt head of a really tightened-up and stubborn nut and bolt trying to release it with an open-ended wrench. This is why the ring wrench exists. People loosen with open ended wrenches because they are generally faster and you aren’t really subjecting them to massive amounts of torque. Likewise when tightening.

Now you have a dilemma. At the top I said if you were on a tight budget to buy open-ended and not combination wrenches. This is where you’ve got to decide on whether to buy three sets of spanners/wrenches or just two sets of combination wrenches.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: SEND $9.99 TO FIND OUT HOW! DON’T DELAY!]

Yeah, you got it, this is why combinations are more expensive. My recommendation is to buy the combination sets. Buy good ones if you can stretch your budget to it. The reasons being that you will have these things forever hopefully and that good spanners not only feel nicer to use (it’s true) but they are actually easier to use because they actually fit the fasteners properly.

From experience over the years I have come into possession of many spanners. I have Snap-on, Britool, Craftsman, Facom… You name the brand, I’m pretty sure I can find it in my box. As well as thousands of others that have been picked up off the supermarket shelf/got free with a roll cab/been given to me, et cetera. The point is this, I only go for the good stuff out of my box when I’m working without thinking. The good spanners, and I include all the above makes in that statement – yes I know there are others – just feel so much better when you’re using them. There are two tools that I will always blow a budget with and high-quality wrenches is one of the two. Trust me, buy good stuff with these. You can save money on other stuff.

2.  Screwdrivers: It’s really cool to have a nice set of Snap-on screwdrivers in the box because they really are a pleasure to use. But if your budget won’t stretch to them, don’t bother. Save a few bucks and get a couple sets from your local tool supply or auto parts shop. Be comprehensive and get a good assortment of flat blades and Phillips heads. Also get “stubbies,” both flat and Phillips heads. A good multi-head ratcheting screwdriver with all the bits in a case can be a godsend, but don’t fret about screwdrivers, we don’t really use them that much.

3.  Pliers: Again, I wouldn’t get too carried away with makes of pliers. Having a top notch set of side cutters is worth it and a pair of long nose and needle nose pliers as well but as for all the others, fill up with the bargain gear and save some money. They are tools that don’t get masses of use. The tools that matter are the wrenches mentioned above and if you have the good ones I mentioned you’re laughing because you know.

4.  Hammers: Today it seems there are two makes of hammer; Good and ****! You can tell by the price. A good hammer isn’t actually expensive today but a **** one is cheaper than a crack whore with no teeth. The lesson is don’t buy cheap! I hear this said a lot about tools in general, and it is a good policy if you can afford it, but it really does apply to hammers.

We need to start with a good weight lump hammer and a good ball-peen.

I like Stanley hammers, but to be honest if you’ve heard of the make you should be safe. Do not buy a hammer that either has no make marked on it or a make that you’ve never heard of. I have seen large pieces of hammer head do serious damage to someone other than the person using it. Cheap hammers break and they break into dangerous sized pieces. Like wrenches, you can tell much about a hammer simply by picking it up and swinging it around a bit. The weight will feel well-proportioned and it will feel relatively balanced in a way that makes you want to hit stuff. Other types of specialty hammers we will deal with later.

5.  Grips: Molegrips, or vice grips as I’ve heard them called, are a must, especially if we are going to be doing any welding (and we will in later articles). There really isn’t any substitute. As with hammers and wrenches, buy a brand that you’re familiar with, not an inexpensive nor nameless variety. I include G-clamps in the grip category. With these get half a dozen or so in various sizes and you’ll be set.

6.  Socket Sets: This is tool #2 that I can blow a budget with big time. The cheapest way to buy socket sets, is, funny enough, to buy complete socket sets. Taking this route means you end up with a very comprehensive set of sockets that look really cool in the top of your box, but contain a lot of socket sizes you will never actually use. If money is tight, then go for a socket set from your local tool/auto supply store to start with, but I would recommend putting your socket set together piecemeal, and buying what you need individually.

Another other point to note is that the main article you’re buying with any socket set is the ratchet itself, and believe me, using a nice ratchet makes the job so much more pleasurable over using a cheap one that the difference is hardly believable. Like man folks who started their mechanical lives in the garage industry, I had an account with the Snap-on man, and like everyone else I over-spent massively and mostly on spanners and ratchets.

I have to say, and I must emphasize that this is a personal opinion but is based on many years of experience with other top makes, that the boys from Kenosha, Wisconsin make the best ratchets out there. It’s not really surprising as they did start the ball rolling when the fledgling company manufactured and marketed ten sockets that would “snap on” to five interchangeable handles. Hence the name, Snap-on. That was in the 1920’s. These boys have been at it for a long time and it shows. If you can stretch your budget to buy their 1/4″ and 3/8″ drive ratchets (or 6 and 12mm), you won’t be sorry and you’ll have them forever.

Likwise with extensions. Get good ones and have a few different lengths, from very short, like 2″ to 12″ long. You’ll be amazed how much they get used.

The only other items not to buy cheap in your socket set are the Impact Sockets. DO NOT EVER BUY CHEAP IMPACT SOCKETS. I’m not even going to go into why. Really. I’m not!

As for the sockets themselves, quite frankly, over the years (and I shake myself for writing this but it’s true) I have found that if I abuse a socket enough, it will rip itself apart, whatever the make. I primarily refer to 12 pointers. six pointers can of course take a phenomenal amount of abuse, but are not so versatile in hard-to-get-at places. The last few years I’ve been using any old socket that I can get my hands on and they work as well as the really expensive ones if I treat them with respect.

I know that all tools should be treated with respect but we don’t live in an ideal world and let’s be honest, we all have our off days. There are mainly three types of sockets to consider; A) normal everyday sockets we see in everyone’s toolbox, B) long reach sockets and C) heavy duty (black) sockets that come in normal and long reach.

Personally I wouldn’t go rushing out spending on these wily-nilly and buying entire sets. Buy them individually as you need them and you’ll be amazed how quick you’ll build up a really comprehensive and useful socket set. As you need them you can expand with Allen Head sockets and Torx bits. If money is an issue and your project doesn’t have any Torx Head bolts then it’s a bit of a waste, really. The last thing to include in your socket set is a good breaker bar. it’s not an essential because there are always pieces of pipe lying around that we can lay our hands on to extend the length of a spanner, but a useful thing to bung on the Christmas or birthday list, and an absolute godsend when the last guy to lock up you rear spindle nuts did it with an air wrench!

Lastly I am going to mention things that are so basic I forgot to list them above. They are:

Allen keys, wire brushes, pry bars, tire levers, a utility knife, a solid and sharp pocket knife, and rags. In fact get yourself two laundry baskets, one under the dirty bench for dirty rags and one next to your clean bench full of clean ones. I **** thee not, YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH RAGS IN THE WORKSHOP, and no I’m not sorry for shouting at you. It’s too important for “pretty please.” Buy good ones that are white, and wash them first. If you do this, they last a long time. The red ones are cheap, suck, and stay covered in oil no matter how many times you wash them.

7.  Torque Wrench: This is the last most important hand tool you will need. As with hammers and a good socket handle, a solid and well-made torque wrench from a name brand will do you best. These are used to gauge exact tightness for various applications from transmissions to forks, and a piece of **** is going to screw your build up faster than a stalker can boil your puppy. Over-tightening can be a very bad thing and cost a lot to recover, so beware the bargain torque wrenches. I prefer calibrated clutch mechanism torque wrenches, as once the desired torque is met, the clutch slips and you can tighten no more.

I think that about covers the basics. Next time we’ll look at the power tools that come in handy, including welding and compressed air tools. Also, I’ll cover what we’ll be needing if we’re going to venture into that mystical black art that is frame construction. Yep, we’ll have a look see at tube benders and learn now to set up a frame jig. So until next time, Au revoir!

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Part 4, you cry? Yeah, Part 4. It’s what you get because writing stuff about tools is simply so much fun I can’t stop!Okay, this isn’t supposed to be on par with “War and Peace” but it has taken us this long to get into the basics of what we want in our workshops while bearing in mind we are doing this on a budget. Therefore, we are putting more careful thought into it than we would if we had bottomless pockets.Now we have our shop sorted into what we are going to be doing in it with workbenches and it’s well equipped with basic hand tools. Now we need to be looking into power tools. Let’s go through the power tools first as they should be the most familiar tools to you in most cases. I will mention that all the power tools we are about to discuss are available as both electrical and air tools and that when you’re trawling around the various tools suppliers, you will be amazed at the apparent inexpensiveness of the air tool version compared to it’s electrical cousin. The reason for this is that the air tools don’t have any means of propulsion, they are driven by a compressor, not an electric motor. I mention this now because it will have relevance later.As we did before with the hand tools, I’ll list the power tools we are likely to need and deal with them one at a time.

There, that wasn’t hard. See you next week with Part 5, “The Joke’s on You!”

Oh, you want more? All right, I jest. Of course there is more to it so here we go.

Drills come in all shapes and sizes. There are drill press (AKA pillar drills) that come bench mounted and free standing. There are power drills and there are there are cordless drills.

Drills, like spanners and ratchets, are one power tool you really don’t want to buy cheap. When it comes to a drill press, it’s actually hard to buy a crappy one, because the makers don’t cater to the home handyman market so they all tend to be pretty good. If you have the space in your shop, get the biggest one that you can afford. Do this especially if you’re going to build your own frames and want to be notching tubes. Failing that, get a bench-mounted version and again, get the best you can afford. Once you have it set up, you’ll be amazed how much you use it.If you don’t like how it works, swap put the head bearings on your cheapo and be amazed at the difference.

Power drills:

These are the sort you plug in and hold on to. WARNING WILL ROBINSON! There is so much **** on the tool suppliers shelves that is “drill shaped” it’s unbelievable. This is a massive market for the home handyman and consequently everybody and their dog is making them, sadly, most of them won’t last you through a bike build.

There are two very good makes of power tools and they are DeWalt and Makita. Anything else is merely a different level of ****. Don’t waste your money. You want at least 700 watts and if it comes with a hand tightening “quick chuck,” take the **** thing off and replace it with a conventional ½” chuck that is tightened and loosened with a chuck key. “What the ****,” I hear you crying, so I’ll explain. The drill’s purpose is to drill holes. No I won’t apologize for stating the obvious because a drilled hole should be round! How many times have you drilled through a piece of metal to attach rivets or whatever and looked at the hole and it’s vaguely triangular or oval? Remember when our builder friend bought a hub with holes so ****** up a blinded space monkey drugged with acid could have done better? There are a couple of reasons why this happens.

First, dumbassery. There is nothing I can do about that. You’re either a dumbass or you’re not. There, I just saved a third of you from wasting your time on something that is only going to mame, kill, or get your sorry assed divorced.

Next, cheap drills built by jackwagon joe and his dog for the home handyman have poor bearing support on the chuck and consequently the chuck, after a few uses, starts to wander in the housing. This does not happen with DeWalt or Makita stuff. At least I’ve never managed to get them to do it and I try. Ever taken the metal plate out of your head to stop the voices without a proper drill and a securely placed bit? It’s a good way to go end up writing techTips for some stupid ******* online motorcycle magazine or some ****. Another reason is that the hand-tightening chuck has started to loosen and the drill bit is wandering might be a poorly sharpened drill bit, which can cause all sorts of trouble; torn fingers, impalement, pirate eye, and more. We’ll come back to drill bits shortly. First, a photo of Honolulu. Where right now the water is 80 degrees and everybody is walking around in shorts laughing:

We use drills for all sorts of things that we really shouldn’t do, from fitting wire brushes in them to running water pumps to move water out of a flooded basement. These things are why cheapo drills exist. I have probably half a dozen various makes of drills that get used for things other than drilling holes and they all live in a bottom drawer under the bench. My two good Makita drills that I drill perfectly round holes with, they live in the top drawer and are told bedtime stories every night. I smooch them and wish them sweet dreams. Okay, that last bit might be an exaggeration, I only breathe heavily on their handles but they do get looked after a lot better than the cheapo ones and I’ve had them for many years.

 

Cordless drills:

These things are a bit of a luxury in a bike workshop and we don’t use them a lot but they can be very handy at times. Again, don’t buy cheap ****, if you’re getting one, like a power drill, get at least 14.2 volt but preferably an18 or 24. The really nice thing about a good cordless is battery life. Compared to a cheap one it’s worlds apart. Like Vulcan and Romulus. One cares about co-existing and lives with logic and the other just wants to kick your ***.

And for the ladies, there’s Venus and Mars. One cares but should shut up and the other just wants to kick your ***.

Make sure you have spare batteries – it’s a general rule for any cordless tool – so when you’re using the tool you can be charging the spare battery at the same time.

That’s about it for drills. I’ll summarize with a bit about drill bits. There are a multitude of exotic coated drill bits on the market that seem to be able to drill through anything with the weakest drill you can get your hands on. We’ve all seen the adverts. They are usually gold in color, but it seems we have gotten wise to that so now so the latest are apparently coated in a silvery gray and made of super strong unobtanium alloy that would enable you to walk on the surface of the sun if you coated the soles of your shoes in it.

There is a phrase for these types of products back on my planet, we call it “bollox!” Get yourselves a good set of HSS Drill Bits and good set of Metric ones as well from a reputable engineering tool supply company.

Here’s a tip; the boxes are usually red. Rattle can one of them orange or something, a different color and likewise the bottoms of the drill bits to match the color of the bin they go home in. Trust me that it will save hours of drill sorting fun later. Finally, do some research and find out what drill speed the material your drilling likes to be drilled at! Seriously. The type/thickness/size of hole alter the drilling speed. Get a Zeus Book by begging, borrowing or stealing. Click that link and not only will it make your drilling chores a little easier, but you will save a fortune by not burning out drill bits as well.

Grinders:

We covered bench grinders in Part 1. Nothing to add here so click that link if you forgot. Remember we had them on free-standing mountings so we can move them about, especially outside because nothing clean ever comes off a bench grinder. Well, the same principle applies to hand-held angle grinders. It really isn’t worth spending a lot of money on these, besides you don’t have a lot now because you just spent it on good drills! Again there are so many brands on the market now and they really are very cheap. I have four on the go at any one time.

I’ll explain. One has a grinding wheel on the grinder, one has a cutting wheel on it, one has a wire brush on it, and the last one has a grinding pad for gently grinding discs on it to send to Venus.

These are cheap tools and sharing the workload between them in this way helps them to survive a lot longer and secondly life in the workshop is infinitely more simple when we have tools dedicated to a single use. I don’t believe that given the cost of these things it’s even worth the time searching for different types of discs when you want to go from wire brushing to grinding. It’s much more pleasant to simply pick up the tool with the appropriate disc on it. If you are unable to do this, because you spent your money on a drill, some bits, fancy lighting, wrenches, and socket sets, then one grinder and all the heads you need will be fine.

Saws:

Unless you are going to be building your own frames then I suggest you save space and money and use your hacksaw and vice to do whatever sawing the work you’re doing will entail. But if you are going to be chopping up tubes for frames, we need to talk about the ways to do it.

The three common methods are:

1.  The Chop Saw

2.  The Band Saw

3.  The Jig Saw

1.  The Chop Saw: This is very much like a slightly heavy duty version of the carpenters saw used for cutting up wooden studwork on dry walling. Our version has a slightly more powerful motor and usually a fiber-cutting wheel instead of a saw blade, although saw blades that will cut mild steel are now appearing. These things are not my favorite method of cutting up steel. On the plus side they are fast and accurate, but that’s it. On the minus side they are very messy and not only throw steel grindings out the back at a **** of a speed, but the fiber disc degenerates as it’s being used and the mess is incredible. You need to dedicate an area to this tool or the mess will very quickly spread all over your workshop. Remember our enemy is a dirty bench. If you do get one of these blades, I suggest you mount it on a move around trolley of some description and wheel it outside for use.

2.  The Band Saw:  WARNING WILL ROBINSON! There are very good band saws out there but they are expensive. There are pretty cheap band saws out there that are generally pieces of ****. There are some middle of the road-priced band saws from some of the reputable tool suppliers like Bailey that I’m told are very good. I’m afraid I cant speak from experience about these. You will have to do some research.

What I do know is that whatever make of band saw you get, the first thing you do with it, even before plugging it in, is to change the blade.

All band saws come with cheap and nasty blades that end up twisting and cutting at funny angles. It really is a ride down Misery Street. If you don’t believe me, looky here; scoot to 1:47 for what is probably inevitable if you buy one of those cheap band saws It should be noted that what replaced the one that ended up all over Billy’s floor in pieces was a proper one.

3.  The Jig Saw: Jig saws deserve a mention if we are going to be cutting out sheet steel or aluminum to make tanks. These saws don’t often go under a lot of strain as long as we don’t try pushing them through with blunt blades. Change the blade often and buy good ones. There isn’t really a vast amount of **** out there in the jig saw market for some reason. The one I have at the moment cost me about 40 bucks eight years ago and it’s still going strong. I’ve never seen the need to go for a Makita or De Walt version and spend big money on these.

Now that we’ve covered the basics of power tools you will need, it’s time to cast a glance at the more specialized tools that we may need in our future bike building adventures such as compressors, welders and how to build a frame jig.

Part 5 COMING LATER THIS WEEK. It will be something like this:

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Now that we’ve discussed how to set up your small garage with proper benches, spacing, lighting, hand tools, and some power saws, we’re going to finish “Setting Up Your Home Garage” by starting with compressors.

“so listen up, punks!”

Compressors don’t only run spray guns. Yes, as I mentioned in Part 4, we can get air drills, air sanders, air grinders, air chisels, and more to run with compressors. Most air tools don’t need anything like the amount of air that a spray gun requires, and good professional spray guns use in the region of 11 to 14 Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM). I’ll save you all the mathematical working out and tell you the answer. If you are going to spray properly, at a minimum, your compressor needs a 3HP motor.

The size of the tank isn’t that important, although the bigger it is, the less the compressor motor will run between feeding your tool with air. But, as with all things in engineering, there is a pay off. A bigger tank means a bigger piece of equipment which means more space taken up. I alluded to a separate and small lean-to type of building in Part 1 to house the compressor, family and neighbors permitting. If you get a compressor, I would really recommend this course of action and run the air line in through the wall. Coincidentally, a 3HP compressor at the moment is the largest we can get that runs on single phase electricity (AKA 120-volt AC service), which is convenient. If you don’t intend to paint with it then you could go for a smaller 2HP unit and save a few bucks, but you won’t save a massive amount, and you’ll kick yourself later if you change your mind about doing any painting.

My recommendation is to put compressed air in your shop. I don’t do this often, I prefer to lay out the facts and let people choose, but I can’t emphasize how useful compressed air is. From blowing the kid’s – and your own – tires (Yes, I worded that to get a giggle out of ya!), to blowing out carb jets, to painting stuff, it’s one of the most useful tools you can own. Not to mention that once you have one you have access to all the less expensive and more reliable air tools that you’ll be able to use.

Now on to welders. Good grief! This is really a subject that I could do a whole article about. I’m going to be quite brief because if you can weld already, you don’t need me to confuse things for you and if you can’t, you won’t learn how to from an article on the internet. You’ll have to take a course or at the very least team up with a buddy who has all the gear and get him/her to teach you.

There are four major welding disciplines in use today, two minor ones, and a couple of high-tech laser based systems in use by NASA, the aviation industry and I believe the Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, Skoda, and Scania).

We are really only interested in the major four. We’ll leave the high tech stuff to the aliens and their Luftewaffe buddies in the USA.

It would be downright criminal of me if I didn’t warn you that if you can’t weld, don’t attempt it without some instruction. I have literally seen bike frames come apart at the seams and the consequences of that happening are never very pleasant. Please DO NOT take chances, YOU MIGHT DIE!

Now let us briefly look at the disciplines anyway. This way if you know what they are, it should help you decide whether or not you want to learn them.

tig welding for dummies!

1.  Oxy-Acetylene (OA) welding (commonly called gas welding). I’m sure you’ve all seen examples of this done. There are two large gas bottles; one is black (oxygen) and one is red (acetylene). These two gasses get mixed at the nozzle of the welding torch and are lit to produce a very hot and small blue flame that will melt steel very quickly. The idea is to melt the two pieces of steel together in a small continuous pool and fill in between with a filler rod made of steel. It’s a very skillful process and hard to do without a lot of practice and instruction. OA used to be the way almost everything automotive was welded. It’s very effective because the welder has to pay attention to every inch of weld he’s welding, therefore a bad weld is actually quite difficult to achieve. It’s drawback on sheet metal is that it’s a long process relative to the other disciplines and that can cause distortion on flat panels. That’s not a lot of use to us in bike building.

2.  Arc Welding. This is the old type of industrial process used on everything from pipelines running through Alaska to truck chassis. It’s fast and cheap and it’s relatively easy to learn. The operator has an electrode (AKA the welding rod) attached to an insulated grip, and the piece to be welded is attached to an earth lead between it and the welding machine. To weld, the operative touches or “arcs” the electrode to the workpiece and the subsequent short circuit melts the metal. The happy worker bee fills in between the metal pieces with his electrode filler rod. As I say, the plus to arc welding is that it’s cheap, quick and easy to learn. It’s downside is that because of the amperages involved, arc welding thin gauge metal can be next to impossible without the absolute state of the art welding machine and a very good welder, which means it’s only really useful for heavy stuff. Again, not a great deal of use for bike building.

3.  Metal Inert Gas (MIG) Welding. This is a welding process that was originally developed back in the 1940’s for welding aluminum and other non-ferrous metals. MIG welding is a semi-automatic process in which a wire connected to a source of direct current acts as an electrode (much like the Arc Welding process) and joins two pieces of metal as it is continuously passed through a welding gun. A flow of an inert gas (usually Argon) is also passed through the welding gun at the same time as the wire electrode. This inert gas acts as a shield, keeping airborne contaminants away from the weld zone. In it’s favour MIG has a lot going for it; it’s quite easy for the beginner to learn, it’s a fast procedure which makes it suitable for sheet metal, and it’s in common usage and therefore relatively cheap. Both the cost of the welding machines themselves and the consumables are what I consider affordable to the garage builder. The drawback is that it is very easy for the beginner to think that he/she has a good weld but in actual fact the weld doesn’t have enough penetration. It’s very easy to do “pretty” welds with a MIG, but pretty welds are not necessarily good welds. I would advise getting some instruction!

4.  Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) Welding. TIG welding is an arc welding process that uses a non-consumable tungsten electrode to produce the weld. The weld area is protected from atmospheric contamination by a shielding gas, usually an inert gas such as Argon, and a filler metal is normally used, though some welds, known as autogenous welds, do not require it. A constant-current welding power supply produces energy which is conducted across the arc through a column of highly ionized gas and metal vapors known as a plasma. This is the popular process used in bike building today. See photo on the left of the sort of weld it is possible to achieve using TIG. The process is actually a cross between gas welding and MIG, in so much as the welder needs the skills of the gas welder in technique which is very similar, but the welding process is pretty close to what happens in MIG welding, where the electrode is manually introduced instead of fed automatically from a spool in the machine. Nearly all the bike builders and factories today TIG weld their frames. The plus side of TIG is that the welds are nearly always very good to perfect, dependent on the skill of the operator, for the same reasons as gas welding. The downside is the equipment is expensive, it is also arguably the most difficult welding technique to master and therefore, GET SOME INSTRUCTION!

 

The next two items we are going to look at putting in our workshop are a tube bender and a frame jig. If you want to build your own frames, or even change up any original donor frame, these two really are a must. So don’t be a dumbass and start cutting up the frame of your bike to put in a fancy single down tube without a frame jig. Don’t even hardtail your original frame without one. Seriously. You’ll just build some unrideable piece of ****.

We’ll start with the bender.

jd squared – model 3 | tube bender

1.  Tube bender. To bend structural tube, which is what bike frames are made of, we need a decent bender. There are a few on the market. One is a ratchet bender called the JD Squared, Model 3. This is a very good bender for the small operative or the home builder. I have owned and used one in the past and it works very well. I believe it to be reasonably priced ($295), and if your budget would allow it then I would definitely recommend one of these as an option. They are robust and relatively straightforward to operate, but when bending something like 1.25″ CFS 3 (DOM seamless) for example, it is necessary to use a long handle and a second pair of eyes to watch the degree wheel and make sure you don’t bend too many degrees! You can keep pulling and checking and pulling and checking but besides being time consuming, the one thing that benders will not do if you go to far is bend it back! It should be noted that a hydraulic adapter be fitted to the Model 3, which negates the long handle and turns it back into a one man operation but, as with all things, this accessory has a price ($95).

Another bender is the Pro 3 from Pro Tools. This type of bender in my humble opinion is far easier to use, and we are less likely to go past our desired bend point because we are looking directly at the gauge. Although it has to be said that it costs 40% more and I like the JD Squared Model 3. These two are good examples of what’s out there on the market today.

One thing to bare in mind if you’re thinking about buying a bender is to determine if the machine itself is merely a paperweight without die sets. You can see in the video above that dies are needed and there are costs involved in buying them. If you’re thinking of doing different types of frames, instead of repeating the same one over and over, or simply building one, then you will need at least 7/8″, 1″ and 1.25″ die sets and more from 150 to 300 bucks a pop. You can see how it can turn into a big investment. Know what tubing you’re using, build with that, and go from there. Let a new client’s deposit for some other diameter pay for your new die set.

home made bender 1

home made bender 2

Look at these “Bite My Shiny Metal ***” pics above. You’ll see that in principle it is pretty much the same as the Pro 3 setup, but more compact, even as the idea is the same. See, an hydraulic ram pushes the die set around and bends the tube to the required degree. I mention the “Bite My Shiny Metal ***” bender above because we are on a budget, and this is a home-made option. You can Google “home made benders” and maybe you’ll find something cool and affordable.

The cost in total when I built this bender was under 50 bucks plus the die set. In fact I saved at least the cost of one die set if not two by building my own bender. If there is enough interest I will make the drawings available through bikerMetric at a future date and write an how to article on how to build one. It really isn’t difficult, with the tooling we have talked about having in our shop above in place I would label the task as an “easy to medium” level in difficulty.

You will see from looking at the two popular options above that bending tube is a serious and not a very cheap business. Although having said that, you will find that once you have a bender in your shop you will develop a whole new network of ‘friends’ who want this or that bending, in short it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that it could pay for itself before long.

2.  Frame jig. This is a controversial subject. Everyone has an opinion on what is required of a frame jig. Let’s start by getting things in perspective. There are two types frame jigs and both of them have only one purpose; to hold pieces of tubing firmly relative to each other that  enable us to weld them together precisely. The first type of frame jig, which every motorcycle builder must have, is very basic and has no adjustability in it since it is designed to hold a certain dimension of “part” (say a 1979 Yamaha XS650) and is only used time after time for builds of one model/size frame only (like building multiple 1979 Yamaha XS650s). These are known as “production jigs” and are used in factories which turn out multiple frames that are exactly as the one preceding the other day after day.

Excuse me. I had to yawn.

For a “production jig,” all one has to do is clamp and reclamp… [EDITOR’S NOTE: Dammit, Matt, you said “bender.” Clamps has nothing to do with our agreement!]… the precut/bent pieces of tube in and weld them together. These jigs are a fast and efficient way of holding pieces of tube relative to each other to build a frame.

The second type of frame jig i call an “adjustment jig,” because it has adjustment abilities dialed in to it at every level; including rake, wheelbase, ground clearance and more. They are used by factories for research and development and prototyping. Chances are the first frame on any production model out there was pulled off one of these jigs, with measurements duly taken on the fitments and clamps from production jigs then made up to match it’s configuration to go into production. The re-configured jig is then set, possibly for the next concept based off it’s original design.

The reality is we need an “adjustment jig.” It’s very unlikely that the first frame idea we come up with, however killer it’s design, is going to satisfy us forever. When we want to build another one, we are either delving back into our pockets to build another jig or to fund modifying the one we have, which isn’t what we want any more because we might want different frame parameters. If you want to go to the lengths of building your own frame, it just doesn’t make sense financially or other wise to build a production jig. Take a look at the frame jig photo below:

adjustment jig – front

The jig above is on a bench where a guy or gal is able to get all around it to weld and curse that the sandwich hasn’t arrived and there is no beer. It’s a pretty common set up made basically of a thick steel bed with the jig fixtures either welded to it or bolted down through pre-drilled and possibly tapped holes. The neck is adjustable for both rake and height. It’s a neat and tidy set up and should work well for all garage builders. Considering that for us, space is at a premium, we would need this to be easily wheeled or moved out of the way when it’s not is use.

adjustment jig – side

The photo above, taken in a naughty gynecologist’s office, you see a jig that is movable, fully adjustable for all aspects of the frame, and can be rotated to facilitate welding the lower rails and underneath without having to take the frame out of the jig very often. In fact, with this jig we can weld almost completely around every frame tube and when we do take it out, it’s only to finish welding the last hard-to-get-to areas. The only reason to put the frame back in the jig after that is to check and see that no misalignment has occurred in the final stages.

That is a frame jig’s most important aspect; to keep frames straight. Without one, you’re a pretender and again, building a bike that will be unsafe and unrideable. You’ll kill yourself or somebody else that way.

As you can see a frame jig is not a half-assed affair and needs to be sturdy and able to hold various fitments and clamp the frame tubes in place whist they are welded together.

The jig in these pics are known as “Mr. Stiffy” (a very naughty gynecologist) and like the bender, if there is enough interest shown I will make the drawings to build this jig available through bikerMetric at some time in the future and do an article on how to build one.

The last item to mention in this two thousand and twelve-piece article is an adjustable bike stand or lift. On my planet there are only two types:

rich people slumming on bikerMetric…

 

you.

See the pics above for what they look like. Keeping in mind our constant need to be wary of space (or the lack of it) and money. I’d suggest the first example might be too large for us. Yeah, it could work in the space we have available but it takes up too much room in my opinion the cost could be better spent elsewhere, such as beer and ********, or an air compressor and proper saws. Then there is what to do with it when not in use. It’s a big item even when static.

So what to do? We really do need something to allow our pride and joys to progress and develop. It’s great to have the bike up off the floor at a level where we are not constantly on our knees or bending over and putting strain on our backs, knees and elbows. Yes, we could build it up on a bench or table placed in the center, and that would certainly get rid of the bending and knee problems, but what do we do when it’s finished? The bike is not so easy to get down when complete as it is easy to get up there in pieces. Have a look the last photo above. These things really are a godsend. Get one. End of discussion.

The last piece of equipment I will mention is a fridge! Yep, a fridge.

Remember, your brew kit for tea/coffee/cocoa whatever, and kettle will all be neatly occupying a small corner of a bench somewhere ready for use periodically. You need somewhere to put your milk. I don’t care if you take yours black, I don’t, and if I decide to pay you a visit one day you’ll be very embarrassed to not be able to offer me my coffee how I like it after I’ve gone to all this trouble to tell you all these things and more. A fridge is also a jolly good place to store your beer for other peoples visits, like Trent’s, and a bottle of wine for visits from Frank and hot babes you want to impress.

If you want an engineering reason for a little refrigerator, store your Loctites, graphite greases and CopperLube in there as well. Oh, and Super Glue. Refrigeration makes it harder to get out that way but it lasts longer without solidifying.

I’m finishing the tools saga here and now. It’s time to move on and actually put this fantastically well equipped super space to use and build a bike.

If there is anything you guys think I’ve missed or haven’t covered in enough depth, feel free to **** off contact me through bikerMetric and ask away. Please remember that the only “stupid question” is the one that you were either too afraid or too embarrassed to ask! Nobody knows everything, and even seemingly simple questions make us think.

Next time we will look at frames:

Do we buy one or do we make one? That’s the dilemma we’ll be discussing. There are pros and cons to both routes as we will see.

Stay tuned and watch this space. Oh, and two sugars in my coffee.

And to complete our legal agreement, I must end this segment with “matt groening.”

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