Okay, kids. I have made a few changes to the bunnyman institute bicycle I have been yacking about here on this forum.
I am going to include one or two new bunnyman institute items: carbon fibre water bottle cage, and carbon fibre rear mech jockey wheel plate. I may even add another item to amuse and surprise some of y’all.
There! Now I can say I had actually manufactured a couple of items for this bike.
I don’t know if I will ever sell Bunnyman Institute components besides when I sell one of these “project” bikes.
The bottle cages are probably cheaper when bought through a commercial vendor (and look quite a bit better, to boot). I do not have the means to make these things looks really, really good. I would never be able to compete with the Taiwanese or Chinese composite concerns, for certain.
Fibre-Lyte (http://www.fibre-lyte.co.uk/) makes a better-looking, better contructed, and probably cheaper rear mech plate. I think they charge about 12.25 GBP (about $20 USD) for a rear mech plate that matches the contours and even the cut-outs of the rear mech plates of either Shimano or Campy. I merely make a flat piece of carbon for mine. They CNC their parts out of thick, carbon sheets; they even make nice chainrings out of the stuff.
I buy my carbon fabric by the yard, these guys buy it by the multiple rolls and probably have autoclaves and the whole nine yards. I use wet epoxy, they probably use pre-preg. I make a plug (mould) out of Bondo (lasts about three times), or even get high-tech and use carbon or fibreglass (lasts for a while), they do theirs out of stainless steel (and it lasts forever).
What am I saying? There is no worry for anybody in the composite bicycle component business that bunnyman will steal their business. But, if someone wants an example of my composite work, they will have to buy a Bunnyman Institute bicycle when one comes up for sale.
Any photo’s?
Yeah, it is hard to keep in touch with myself, especially since this epoxy has a vile smell that will probably kill me about ten years earlier. I sometimes taste the sound of the music and smell the colours melting from the thick oxygen (as the colour is thumping) while I play with this stuff. Just kidding, I do let in LOTS of fresh air and wear a mask.
I am compiling photos and hopefully, I can get it all into an easily viewable format.
Bunnyman, keep it up. I’m hoping to see you demo a sub-500gr all-carbon custom winged aerobar at next year’s interbike. Even at $500+ a piece I’d bet you couldn’t build them fast enough.
You never know what may come out of the hallowed hall of the bunnyman institute.