Cycle Repairing and Adjusting
With a Chapter on building a Bicycle from a Set of Parts

BUILDING A CYCLE 99 the distance from the centre of the hub spindle, when right up at the end of the fork slot, should be 15 in. If without mudguards, f-in. clearance will suffice ; or for a track racer | in. will be ample. If mudguards are to be secured to the frame with pins and nuts to the bridges, see that the proper-sized holes for the pins to be used are drilled in them before brazing, and that they do not get blocked up with brass in brazing. With the forks and stays brazed up to the bridges, set and filed up, the back forks should now be fitted to the bracket lugs. When the short tubes from the bridge to the bracket are cut the proper length, clean the ends and knock them home in the lugs. Before drilling for pegs, test with a straightedge the fork-end faces for truth off the bracket faces. They should be equally distant from these faces. If not, pull over one fork at a time until they are, keeping the two fork ends the proper width apart to fit on the hub without spring. When this is correct, drill and peg. Then fit the top stays in place and braze. In brazing the back lugs of the bracket, it will be best to braze the one nearest to the worker first. If the one farther away is done first, it may become partly unbrazed whilst doing the nearest one. It must also be watched that whilst brazing the first of these lugs, the second one does not get scaled with the heat. To avoid this, put some borax on the joint as soon as it becomes red. Before brazing any of the bracket lugs, the screw threads should be protected by painting with blacklead mixed with water or oil.