Question for NZVET on your SWB

[trikeman]

Steve: I was looking at your SWB you built after your Meridian. Which do you like better -the Meridian LWB or SWB ?

[nzvet]

Steve: I was looking at your SWB you built after your Meridian. Which do you like better -the Meridian LWB or SWB ?
Hey Trikeman !

mmmmm, both very different bikes and liked each for different reasons.
Meridian:
After surfing the net for some time it was finding Brad's Meridian that introduced me to the AZ family. Felt the straight forward design was an ideal first build project and it was. Learnt heaps from it and did not take long to build. Think I did about 800 Km's and had a huge amount of fun. The long wheel base was particularly good at speed yet the steering geometry also made it very manouverable. A low BB was a very friendly and comfortable riding position and easy to master. My wife even got going first time!
SWB:
My first SWB was an adaption of the Marauder design I took from the AZ Bonanza Book. In this case I was looking for more performance by lifting the BB but keeping a similar seat height. I preferred this for riding in traffic. Yes, the SWB did turn out faster and lighter which was what I was after along with being more easily transported.
Getting the design to work and build was much more complex and time consuming but I enjoyed the challenge. Issues of chain clearance, seating position, weight distribution, leg and foot clearance took a bit more thinking. Understandable as I was making it up as I went along. The steering turned out a bit twitchy with a tendancy to oversteer (I fixed this problem with SWB MK2).
Definately took a bit longer to learn to ride and a lot more practice starting and stopping with such a high BB. Even after 1200 km's I was still a bit wobbly on up hill starts (the clipless don't help though!).

Ideally I would liked to have kept both bikes because they are very different and fun rides. Alas!, the Meridian had to be sacrificed for parts for the SWB (and then SWB MK2).

Best regards

Steve

[trikeman]

Thanks Steve. I had read your review of the SWB at bentridersonline, and looked at all the pictures of version 2 on your photo site. That was about what I expected. It must have been great fun drilling the hole for the head tube in the big round main tube and getting it aligned.

http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s156/nzvet/SWB%20MK2/?action=view&current=P10208031.jpg

[nzvet]

...... It must have been great fun drilling the hole for the head tube in the big round main tube and getting it aligned.


Yes, I recall using quite a bit of filler weld. ;)

Steve