My first rack

I picked up my rack from Pat yesterday. I had it done in clear powder coat so I could gaze upon the details of my work for years to come.

I suspect real rack maker/brazer/crafts people would be horrified by my clumpy, poorly-finished brazing work, but I really like it. I feel good about the integrity of all the joints, given the relatively light weight duty the rack will serve.

Essentially, I built a copy of the rack the Alex gave to me a few years ago. The only things I changed were the back stop design; the height of the rack relative to the front wheel; I added braze-on to attach the fender to; and I added some wiring clips.

Everything turned out really well on it. I'm amazed at how well the fender braze-on lines up. I wish I could take credit for that, but Pat has this so totally half-ass-looking system of jigging up the bike and the rack with hunks of lumber and big clips that just seems impossibly error prone -- but it works really really well.

I need to lengthen one wire and shorten another to make it tidy looking.
I'll get right on that.

The wiring clips are so homely that I feel bad for them. But they're mine (of me?) and so I'll love them.

My goal was to learn to build a rack and I'm very grateful to Pat for providing the space and having the patience to walk me through it. The guy is a saint. Really.  I busted two drill bits, ham-fisted a bunch of cuts and filing -- likely screwing up some of his tools... he just smiles (maybe that's rage suppression technique?) and says it's ok... But really, the biggest hit here is a time hit. Pat is a busy dude, so to take a week night away and teach this class, essentially for free -- we paid for tubing and a measly "shop fee" -- is huge. Cause he's also running around during the week to make sure we have tubes and supplies and there's fuel for the heater and on and on. Anyway -- thanks Pat, I'm super happy with the product of my time in your shop.

Now, I want to build one for Liza's new bike. I've got a design sort of bumping around in my noggin, so hopefully I can get that done in the next year or so.