VintageSteelEU

Sprockets on the freewheel I was working on are still soaking the penetrating oil and I didn't have much time to get back to cleaning it. But I got another Suntour Cyclone FD. Good condition, overall, and cleaned up nicely. Not even that much grime on it. The only issue was flaking chrome on the inside of the cage plates. I didn't feel I like the idea of the chain transporting flakes of chrome plating all over the drivetrain, so I gently removed the flaky bits with a grinding bit on a rotary tool. All moving parts got some oil and it's now ready to go on the Superator to finish the build.

RCMoeur 

Earlier today, I had high expectations as I saddled up my big ol' chrome cruiser for the ride down to the co-op. Alas, less than a mile in, I was assailed by horrible crunching cracking noises from the bottom bracket. Abort and back to base.

After a crazy shift at the co-op involving odd chains, adult tricycles, and even a near-brawl, and then taking out the trash, recycle, kitty poop, and bunny byproducts, I decided to diagnose the problem while fresh in my memory. So I herniated hoisted the bike onto the stand and started wrenching under an appropriately full moon.




Turned out it was a seriously loose fixed cup in a removable adapter, compounded by munged threads in the bottom bracket spindle. After disassembly, tapping and di, er, thread chasing, mentally calculating the right amount of Loctite to balance semi-permanent security vs. eventual maintenance, and reassembly, it seems the clunky cracking has been banished and the bike is back in heavy-haul action. So maybe I'll ride it to the co-op next week.

bikingshearer 

How could you hear the crunching bottom bracket over that saddle. those handlebars, the spokes, the pump, etc.?

RCMoeur 

Wisdom is achieved when one can be both loud and silent at the same time.

And I figure it's my bike and I'm spending my time on it, so I don't want it to be all that boring or mundane. It makes me happy, in spite of the unavoidable "quality workout" it provides. And if other riders are quite happy with black matte graphics on black matte frames with black matte wheels and black matte tires, that's OK too.

But this bike is never truly silent, in that Wald baskets are notorious for singing the song of their tribe, fortunately not all that loudly unless I'm hauling loose metal parts in them. And there was a big difference between that level of sound and what I was hearing - and feeling - from the bottom bracket yesterday. All fixed now.

bikingshearer 

I was just funnin' with ya. "It makes me happy." That's all the justification needed, regardless of what I or anyone else might think.

I personally would not go the "explosion in a paint factory" route, nor would I go the black-on-black route. But if forced to choose one or the other, I'd take your color palette in a heartbeat.

Tailwinds, and keep the rubber side down.

PromptCritical 

Building up a bike for my daughter with parts I’ve collected and an eBay frame. I was going to put on a Shimano drivetrain, but after all the trouble I’ve had with our tandem and its Shimano system, I decided to use a SRAM Eagle 12-speed combo (900 hub, XDR Driver, 10-30 cassette and trigger shifter).

I’m incredibly impressed with the engineering attention to detail, the nice touches, how easily it went together and how well it works. The engineers that designed this setup must also work on bikes!

Ran into a snag with the front disc brake, so it’s not rideable yet (I’m now a convert to Centerlock discs), but I love ❤️ Ho it shifts on the stand. Reminds me of paddle shifters on my jalopy!

curbtender

That would fit in nicely in your hometown. A couple of ladies bring by their burning man bikes to get the fur out of the axles, lol.

bikingshearer 

[QUOTE=curbtender;23224264]That would fit in nicely in your hometown. A couple of ladies bring by their burning man bikes to get the fur out of the axles, lol.[/QUOTE]
Nah. Too hum-drum.

Mr. 66

The Rock Hopper gets a redux for the Mrs. 66.

BTinNYC 

The Crescent 318 brazing guinea pig.



And that yellow package behind the vise, that's a pair of plastic gloves from a Chinese restaurant. When they gave them to everyone at my MIL'S 93rd birthday dinner, I couldn't believe they were handing out condoms, and said so, just to amuse myself. Sure as **** nobody else laughed. 😜 😜 😜

BTinNYC 

Shifter bosses

Aubergine 

Been putting together a 1970s Claud Butler 531 frame using parts taken from my stash. Front wheel has a SON dynamo and rear has a wide range Suntour Ultra 6 freewheel. Bar cons, Mafac Racer brakes with C Record levers (which work very nicely together), Specialites TA triple with a 26-38-42 combination, Vélo Orange fenders. The bike will be my vélotaf/wet weather ride.

i set it up at first with the brake cables running along the bars, but the rear brake cable stops were clearly designed for cables running out the top of the levers. So I'll find a hole punch and open up the top of the hoods to reroute the brake cables. (Edit to say I found the punch, and the cables have been rerouted. Much better!)

jamesdak 

Spent too much time today swapping parts between an old C4 Air One vintage C.F. bike and the new to me Sancineto. Made a stupid mistake in the process and decided to just do a rare for me bike tear down. So stripped the Air One completely except for the headset and binder bolt and listed it locally for sale. I was going to move it along anyone, just not like this.



And while it's not really wrenching I did drop off the old C.F. fork for my Colnago CT1 to a local guy for some minor repair.

dualresponse

Gettin' my tweed ride randonneuring on! Fired up the sewing machine and roughed up a front bag. Will tidy it all up tomorrow.

RCMoeur 

I'd received a pair of lowrider front racks that I thought might be perfect for my Bike Friday. This being Friday, I test-fitted them only to find they were just a bit mismatched for the 20" fork. So I reinstalled the older Blackburn lowriders with my blacksmithed center support, and then remembered that I'd been planning to see if some 20" fenders that I'd purchased for the bike years ago might fit. No better time than a cooler-than-usual Friday, and after fabricating a few unique brackets (and finding out one set of stays were missing), they were finally in place and looking decent.


(the "oversize nail clippers" leaning against the workstand were needed to trim the fender stays.)

georges1

Eying carefully on ebay future MTB spare parts to be purchased , then in june get the gary fisher and then the trek fuel100 assembled. After that from July 2024 until mid 2025 assembly of all road bikes

jamesdak 

This afternoon was a disassembly of the old Dura Ace headset on the Holdsworth. The grease reminded me more of green peanut butter than grease. Once I got everything all cleaned up I got rid of the caged bearings and rebuilt it with a bunch of loose bearings with fresh grease. It feels so much better now. This was done in anticipation of converting this back to a proper drop bar road bike setup.

bikamper

The 90 year old Craftsman 918 lathe had some work done on it over the past week. Sometime in its past, the counter shaft drive pulley was replaced. Because the correct pulley probably wasn't available, or a previous owner made do with what they had(How I was raised), mods were made. Those mods consisted of going without the grease seals and retainers on the left side of the counter shaft. I learned this after pumping grease into the shaft, kicking on the power, and instantly having grease goblins on the white wall behind the lathe, on my shirt, and in my face. Missed my mouth. Just.

The heavy felt grease seals are available as re-pops. The retainers...nope. I hit on the "Hey, I have a lathe. I can make those" thing. After a little thought and Outhouse Engineering's' motto of 'measure once and hope for the best', I hit on modifying engine freeze plugs to work as retainers. It looked good on paper.

First issue was that the new hires at the local NAPA are useless. They can't look up anything without a make/model/year/# of cylinders/with or without AC. I went to the local Auto Zone instead and the old guy behind the counter just asked "what size and how many". I grabbed four at 1 5/8" because I screw up often.
The first two attempts ended up on the 'Experience Pile'. I did not take into account that the backside of the plugs were convex. That made them too thick and messed up the belt alignment. The third attempt worked out and I was able to do the job using a single freeze plug. First I faced the back flat. That gave me a pilot hole that I could bore to the correct ID. Then I used a cut off tool and cut the ring off the back of the plug back. Success.

Both seal retainers on either side of the bearing race. The thing with the bolt in it.


The bolt on the pulley keeps the ring with the felt seal in place on the left side. The Hi-Low range selector/knob/whatzit/thingamajig covers the right side seal when in High range.


I ran the lathe at high speed for a couple of minutes and no more grease goblins flying around.

RCMoeur 

Rode 26 miles this morning with the club, had a nice nap, and now getting back to tube patching. Already patched over a dozen, and tested a bunch more.



Only 10 more bins to go through...

Pompiere

I ran into that when I needed an alternator for an old tractor. It had been converted to 12 volts by mounting a junkyard alternator to it. There are several different alternators that are popular for this mod because they have the diodes and voltage regulator built in, so there is only one wire to connect to the battery. The tractor came to me that way, so I had no idea what car the alternator came from. Just saying "I need one of these" and handing them the part wasn't good enough. The counter person passed me off to someone with more mechanical experience. First, he scrolled through a lot of microfiche to find one that looked like mine so he could figure out how to hook it to the test machine. The alternator only has one output terminal, how hard can it be? After he confirmed it was junk, I asked how much for a new one and his reply was "What make and model?" Didn't we already cover this? So I said what about the one on the microfiche. It was only $45, so I said to ring it up. The mounting ears were slightly different, but I just needed to move a couple washers to line up the pulley to the drive belt and I was in business.

jdawginsc 

Not bike related. Making a throne/reading bench for my princess “niece” (daughter of a work wife). Her name is Lily which the legs spell as a secret if you look at the entire thing from the left of center.

Phases 1 and 2 complete. 3 and 4 to come.

bikamper

I had converted a 1952 Ford pickup to 12 volts using the ubiquitous Delco 10SI alternator. Back then it was a still a 3 wire unit. I think I paid $3 at a swap meet. The diode pack went south, so I went to the local NAPA for one. First I heard was that no one rebuilds alternators. Another guy who wanted to be helpful asked for make, year, and model. To humor the guy, I said 1952 Ford F2. So he reached for the vintage book. I just stared until he said there was no listing. Sighed and walked out. I wandered over to Trak Auto(remember them)on a whim and said I needed a diode pack for a 10 SI alternator. He handed me one and told me to make the accountant happy that he needed the make, model, and year, to ring it up and gave me the “yeah, it’s bull” wink. So I said 1968 Buick Electra.

BTW, my 1948 DeSoto has a Delco 10SI alternator in it, converted to 6 volt positive ground. So nice to have bright headlights.

Aubergine 

Bike is now almost done. The last fiddly bits - - adjusting the Mafac brake shoes, getting the rear fender set in place, running the dynamo wires - - took more time than the rest of the danged installation. All I need to do now is wrap the bars once I get the tape, and then straighten out the handlebar bag. I'll take a better photo once it is done.

bikamper

According to my bone doc and my physical therapist, I'm fixing myself much faster and better than expected.


If I behave myself()I can be boot free by the end of the week. To celebrate, I crawled slowly up on the sidecar rig, backed it out of the garage, and rode up and down the street in front of the house just to see if I could shift it. I could. In an act of good judgement, I rode it right back into the garage and shut it down. Good judgement comes from wisdom. Wisdom comes from bad judgement. If I get the okay after my next session, I may try pedaling a bike up and down the driveway.

victorm

For it’s 30th birthday the Hot got reunited with an original tire set.