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05-14-21, 06:16 AM

#68

Geepig

Senior Member

Join Date: Sep 2020

Location: Eastern Poland

Posts: 744

Bikes: Romet Jubilat x 4, Wigry x 1, Turing x 1

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Well, with enough parts painted matt black, it seemed an opportune moment to begin reassembly. I always find this the second most worrying stage (after trying to make a sale, of course), because out of all those choices I had, the ones I now make will fix the course of things. However, before that, I had one special thing to do. Remember my wood-burning piec? I decided that one way to accelerate the paint aging process would be to put the frame components on the grass and pour cold ash from the fires all over them to gain that dusty grey effect, then rub it in to lightly score the surface. Stage two will be the liberal application of grease to the bearings so that when the excess is wiped away some of it will be absorbed by the paint finish. Stage 3 will be the touching up of different areas as they are damaged during assembly and so forth.

Ash Wednesday for Turing

Wifie asked me what do they call this this type of art finish, and I explained it didn’t have one yet as I had only invented it this week - and I was not yet dead enough for the art establishment to name it for me…

As time goes on, I have fewer and fewer tasks to do involving spanners, partly due to the lack of equipment and parts and partly because of the work on the farm, the latter also limiting the riding, which also has to fit in the gaps between the inclement weather. A trip to the city is required so that I can get the mudguards off Whitey, the wheels off Pigdog and maybe even the front wheel off Whitey. I really should have done more test fitting of parts when they were all together in the garage, but time was against it.

I have enrolled for the Rat Rod Bike’s annual build-off with Turing, because it is good to have an aim that is something different from those which I have tackled so far. I could have done this with Danusia, but I have some ideas for that bike involving cardboard that I have yet to explore. With this in mind I installed the fork, Best’s handlebar stem and seat stem, and Whitey’s seat and handlebars - the latter upsidedown. I swopped out Turing’s fork locking nut with the one from the Kid’s bike, and the result looks good. Good enough that when we had some visitors at the weekend they thought it was a genuinely old bike. Well, older than them, as Turing is no longer a spring chicken.

I did spend some time trying to figure out why Flash Wigry does not ride as well as My Wigry. I made a vast improvement by stripping, cleaning, regreasing and setting the tolerance on the fork bearings. I played around with the adjustment of the rear hub, but while I improved how it worked I cannot say that the coaster brake is satisfactory as it can take between an eighth and a half turn for the brake to kick in, depending on what one does immediately prior to braking. Still, it went back in the warsztat better than when it came out.

Fancy Wigry being overhauled

I took Zenit for a long ride, all the way up our street, to beyond the end of the village, turned down a track that took me into the woods opposite the gully in front of our cottage, and then rode fast through the wood as it descended first gently, then dropped me into quite a steep and narrow gully. On the way I startled a young deer, which darted first across the track in front before wheel around and disappearing in another direction. One part of the track clearly ran down the back of what were formerly the strip fields that began in our village, and on the other side there were the occasional end of fields still in use running down into the valley, away from the village.

Zenit was mainly good, except when the rear brake lever malfunctioned. In the rush to build it I failed to notice that it should have had a cable ending/adjuster mechanism fitted - and so shortly before arriving at the gullies I was down to one front brake. Eek, and they had a slippery surface and significant wheel erosion, about as deep as my pedals.

Still, I managed to descend in a controlled manner, thanks mostly to my tires and years of experience, and eventually exited onto the single road into our village. I chose to push it up the final slope as it was too good a day to finish it all sweaty. One day I may convert it to Pigdog six gear, mostly for the teeth on the biggest gear.

A forest - but where is Zenit?

#romet #rower #bicycle #wigry #jubilat #shopper #poland #polska

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