Thanks to our forum's one and only Mad Honkster, I received a beautiful, brand-new 119mm Shimano BB in the mail today:
Bike jewelry, with just the right taper to match.
Out with the old...
I noticed the non-drive side has witness marks from a BB cup long ago removed via the slice-and-dice method:
New bits installed. It spins so very, very nicely.
I went with the big daddy - the 50t chainring. It just looks
right.
To be honest, I'm still concerned about clearance. It looks worse in the photo than it appears; there's 3mm of clearance at the narrowest spot.
This is with the crank fully seated, of course. I don't know how much chainstay flex this frame has. In the worst of cases, I'll shim the drive side BB and use the narrower NDS lockring from the other BB set.
I debated on whether a garish chain would be over the top for the build. Then I said "what the hell" and put it on anyway.
The dropout adjuster springs had to be replaced with shorter ones to allow the axle to come back far enough. A bit concerning is the fact that there's some significant drag in the 7-speed Shimano hub. I've only had experience with the 8-speeds, so I am a bit concerned - particularly as the donor bike had the tacoed rear wheel (with no external damage to the hub).
Yes, the fender is not fitted to the frame yet; this bike is still very much a mock-up and barely functional.
Mock up or not, it looks fabulous. Exactly what I'd hoped.
Thanks again to the always-generous @
Mad Honk for helping to get the build a massive step further forward.
Now it's time to manhandle those fenders into this thing permanently.
-Kurt