http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/.....ers_part_1.jpg

Here's a project I am working on right now. Like this very minute.

This is my bike. Or most of my bike. It is a GT IT-1, 2005 model, and it is broken. It is a proper Downhill bike. I rode it summer 2009 for the entire season in the Alps, and on the third day of my holiday, a minor component on the left hand side exploded. It was a chain tensioner, and the thing can't be pedalled without it.

The bike is a prototype, and GT do not replace or sell the parts, so I rode without a chain all summer, until in the last fortnight, a crash exploded all the seals in the rear suspension unit, leaking fluid everywhere. It was out of action properly.

Since I returned, I haven't been able to afford the £100 to get the shock repaired, and haven't been able to fabricate a spare part for the chain. That is changing. A proper job has money coming in, so that shock is getting fixed, but the bike is still covered in cack from a year and a half ago. So I am stripping and rebuilding the bike, and I figured I would sort of blog the progress. This will be boring for most, but there is a reason why this bike is special. It's to do with that large hole through the frame.

This bike doesn't use any of your normal crap to shift gears. A regular bike has a front and rear derailleur. As the derailleurs move, they shift the chain from cog to cog, causing a new ratio to be selected, increasing or decreasing the resistance. This bike has none of that, it has a gearbox that sits in that hole.

The idea behind this little project, is to get this bike from it's current sorry state in to full working order, and back on to the hill again, with photos to accompany it.

Stage 1 of the rebuild is stripping off everything on it and cleaning it. I haven't got a before shot, as I only thought of doing this a few minutes ago. But here is the frame ready for the process to be started.