Have your Phil

Zinn/ Lew more info...

Here is a quick exerpt from an email exchange between Paul lew and I regarding the frame and its origins.  The next phase of the restoration will be too fly the built bike to Texas and do a photo shoot of the completed bike at KGS Bikes  with Paul Lew and a borrowered Black Hole Project wheel.  Right now shooting for May if we can all get together.

Phil,

Carbon fiber hand lay-up by Paul Lew, T-800 unidirectional carbon fiber reinforcement, ACG LTM25 pre-preg epoxy, autoclave molded at Carbon-Carbon Advanced Technologies in Ft. Worth, TX over a hand-shaped Rohacell 31 I.G. foam core, co-cured to a CrMo hand built frame by Lennard Zinn.  A steel down-tube joining the head-tube and bottom-bracket remained in place during the forming, molding and curing of the front-wheel splitter to ensure the frame alignment was not changed during the cure cycle.  The down-tube was cut away after the cure cycle was complete and the exit holes were sealed.  The special low-temperature cure pre-preg (Advanced Composites Group LTM25) was selected for a low-temperature 24 hour cure cycle to further reduce the likelihood that the long tubing lengths would expand, and alter the frame alignment from high-temperature curing. 

Paul

Paul Lew, Director of Technology and Innovation

MacLean Quality Composite/ Reynolds Cycling

Zinn custom restoration part 3

The Zinn/ Lew bike has reached another level in its return to the road.  through some research and a brief conversation with lennard Zinn the bike has been confirmed as a collaboration of lennard Zinn and Paul Lew.  The carbon fabrication was the work of master carbon engineer lew while the rest of the bike gets credited to Zinn.  The fork which has been baffling me, has also be confirmed as a replacement fork.  Turns out this bike frame was originally designed for Lew's Black Hole project, and integrated front end. 

   As you can see the idea behind this bikes design was all about reducing leading drag forces.  For now I am going to continue too restore the bike with the dual Disc set-up and parts circa 1994-1995, the approximate original build date of the frame.

 

Team Carrera TT bike project

2009 has started off well.  I am busy writing training plans and scheduling bike fits. 

I have also begun my newest restoration project, although technically it is not a restoration as the frame was never built.  I have acquired a (year to be determined) Team Carrera TT bike and it is in the stand going through frame preparation.  So far I have chased the threads in the bottle mounts and drop out adjusters, adding stainless screws for the bottle cage and Campagnolo adjuster screws as the frame came without these. chased the rear derailleur mount and rinsed the inside fo the frame with Boeshield (yes this is a steel frame), next up is to chase the threads in the shifter mounts, after I replace my M5 x .8 tap and clean the paint out of the BB threads.  A little facing of the headset and BB cups and were are in business.  This bike will be recieving a complete NOS Sante Group since I have always wanted to build a Sante TT bike and the Pearl white frame is also NOS.  I will be using mavic rims front and rear, 32 hole Sante hubs front and rear, 12-18 cassette, 600 EX Aero seatpost and stem, No Sante were offered, and an undetermined bar and saddle.  Although the saddle will be white.  The final project when complete will be quite a looker, although I will most likely change the outer chainring of the Sante crank from a 52t biopace to a 56t TT ring. I am including one picture to whet your appetite for now. 

   

Collecting decisions

        Collecting is an addiction.  Those that are true collectors, not just for hobby or too get a few items, understand the addictive nature of collecting.  With each new piece that I find, I am drawn more and more into the treasure hunt, because that is what it becomes, a treasure hunt.  The quest for that elusive piece of history to display along with the other pieces of history and create a time capsule of sorts. With my collection I have come to an understanding with myself to limit the time line for my collection and to improve the quality of my little snapshot of history.  I want my collection to tell a story and provide others interested in the subject a complete look at the technology.  With that in mind I have decided to limit the main collection to a time frame of 10 years 1986-1996.  Part of this decision comes from the fact that this time period represents the time when I was most active relative to the technology and it is a period with a strong growth of ideas and a fairly solid ending standardization.  I will still have a Post 1996 - present collection and a pre-1986 collection, however I have already begun the process of collection purging with the selling off of pre-1986 components and specialty parts. 

     Most recently passed on was an excellent pair of Dura-Ace EX HF-7261 aero hubs from 1982.  These were a great example of early Shimano innovation but since they neither matched a group I would use or would have been used on a bike in the current collection they have now been passed on. 

     

    I will continue to amass memorabilia, medals, clothing, posters, and the like, but components and frames will be passed on. Back to the restoration grind stone, got a seat post to finish polishing.

It was a good year

As 2008 begins its final weeks, I have turned my eyes away from collecting and instead will focus on restoration and cataloging of the collection in its entirety, 

Under current restoration:

• Zinn Custom
• Orbit Custom
• Carbonne Custom
• Nishiki Linear
• Carrerra Team

To be Cataloged:

• Vintage Aero helmets
• Rare vintage memorabilia
• Vintage Aero equipment
• Pre 1993 Funny Bikes
• Pre 1994 Aero compenents 
• Post 1999 Aero bikes

• Post 1999 Aero components

Over the next few weeks I will also be reconfiguring the pictures, catagories and entries here on the blog to better reflect the projects I am working on and showcase the collection. 

Zinn Custom Restoration part 2

The original plans for this bike have been thwarted by a series of discoveries. 

#1 - The Headset can not be removed as the Fork Crown was bonded to the fork steerer to place it in a position specific to the intended geometry.  The bike being a custom one-of-a-kind was bound to have quirks but this was unexpected.  Not an issue as the D/A is obviously orginal but my black chris king from the same year would have been even cleaner. 

#2 - Due to the unusual shape of the frame the bike can only be run with one chainring.  This is fine and was and still is a common practice, however when designing the build for this bike I was planning on a full Mavic Group.  With 1 chainring, No Front derailleur and only 1 shifter it would seem a waste of the intended mavic group, so I am rethinking the crank choices.

I had thought to maybe sport the bike with a Sante Group and go for a black and White look, but I run into the same issues with the bike having an incomplete group.

#3 - Rear Brake.  Due to the carbon fairing extending from the Seat Mast the intended Dura-Ace AX brakes will also not fit.  Oh well, back to normal brakes. 

Current Specs:

• Front Wheel        Aerosport Disc
• Rear Wheel         Hed Disc
• Bottom Bracket   Dura-Ace 7400 103mm
• Crankset            Custom Caramba Double Barrel with 55T single chainring
• Rear Derailleur   Dura-Ace 8spd
• Freewheel          Regina 7spd 12-21
• Chain
• Front Brake        Dura-Ace Single Pivot
• Rear Brake         Dura-Ace Single Pivot
• Brake levers
• Shiftlevers         Dura-Ace 8spd bar-end (rear only)
• Headset             Dura-Ace 1" Threaded
• Stem                  Look Ergo
• Handlebar          Scott Mini 1-piece aerobar
• Seatpost            Kalloy Black alloy
• Saddle                Avocet O2 air

Zinn Custom Restoration part 1

The Zinn has arrived and the restoration has begun. 

To start the restoration I have begun with the de-rusting of the dropouts and bottom bracket.  The frame itself is in decent shape, the carbon is sound and other than the exposed surfaces their is no additional rust. 

#1 - Cleaning of the rust.

 

                                       

  #2 - The rust removed and initial cleaning/ polishing completed.

  This is as far as I have progressed at this point.  Here is a couple of quick bike shots to see the overall look.  Notice how the Top Tube is parallel to the ground even with a 650c front/ 700c rear wheel combo.

One more on the way

Always vigilant in my watching of the known sources for the recyling of once used TT bikes, I have made the purchase of yet another bike to be proudly displayed in the collection.  Unlike the previous acquisition, pictures to come after some cleaning and restoration, This beauty is a complete bike.   A full mavic equipped dual disc lovely that was once raced by an unknown Italian of the professional persuasion. 

Plans for the current collection are thus.  Within the current collection I am in need of some time to restore all bikes to an appropriate aesthetic.  First up is my custom Orbit, which will recieve the Dura-ace headset now residing on the Zinn and the orginal Chris king will transfer to the Carbonne.  The Zinn's Ritchey dropouts will be restored along with the bottom bracket and the frameset will recieve the Mavic group and discs from the Carbonne, along with Mavic base bars from parts collection. The Carbonne newly robbed of its original Mavic will be redressed with a lovely 8spd Ultegra grouppo and J disc.  No front wheel yet.  lastly the Nishiki Linear is to recieve a stem and bars from the parts collection leaving only a front brake missing.  These are the 4 current incomplete bikes, once finished I will have pictures taken and posted.  I did have a request to post pictures of the bikes in their developmental stage so I may try to remember and post the transformation photos along with the final outcome photo's

If you would like to contribute to the on-line guest collection you may send me photo's of your TT Funny bike for submission (please only mixed wheel bikes).  If you send a decent photo with a short description/ history I will post your bike for all to admire and lust after. 

Enjoy the day and happy riding. 

Newest Aquisition

It's on its way!!! My newest aquisition to the collection.  A custom one-off from the partnering of two great industry names.  The new frame was commisioned through Lennard Zinn and built in conjunction with Paul Lew.  The frame is a mix of Carbon and metal.  The Carbon aspects of the frame are a bit "radical" and were Fabricated by Paul Lew of Lew wheel fame.  The rest of the bike and overall design is attributed to lennard Zinn and the bike bears his name and lews original company name.  Once the bike arrives I will post several pictures and further details. 

Soon my lovelies

I know I know, I am supposed to be updating my blog regularly so new content is available for you all.  I apologize up front.  Here is a quick preview of what is coming up.

Pictures:  I have many pictures now to upload to the various galleries especially the TT gallery.  Thank you too those that have submitted pics of their babies. 

Interbike:  i have recently returned from the Holy land of Bike knowledge known as Interbike and will add some pics and amusing stories from the show.

history:  More to come on the history of some particular items of interest, stay tuned...

links:  I am currently writing for a few publications and industry sources and will get those articles linked ASAP. 

Stay tuned kids, the updates are coming...