We are celebrating today, Cinco de Mayo, but is has no connection to the 1862 battle of Puebla when the Mexicans defeated the French. Instead we are celebrating a milestone in the construction of the new bicycle.

We have enough of the bicycle completed and assembled to be able to sit on the frame and coast down a hill, feet in the air, laughing and screaming “Look Ma, No Brakes.” Both Judy and I have taken turns coasting on the bicycle frame. The frame has one seat, two wheels and handlebars. It has no cranks, no chains and no brakes. There are no gears to shift, no pedals to click into and indeed nothing to put your feet on. But it is a time to celebrate our progress.

I do have to back up and re-design one part of the bicycle. I was showing a friend the new frame and explaining how the NuVinci hub worked. Part of the demonstration was to get out the shifter parts and hold them up to the hub. Suddenly a glaring oversight became apparent. I had bought and installed some cast steel dropouts to hold the wheel axles. These are really heavy-duty and strong. However, they are too bulky and the shifter assembly will not fit on the hub. I am going to have to disassemble both the front and rear suspension and hack saw a big chunk of the dropout off and grind it much thinner and then braze them back together again.

Oh well two steps forward and one step back.