Mr. 66

Diacomp helps you stop, this time just the opposite.



The upper bolt broke on the Craftsman and it was diacomp to the rescue, and a close shot of the Hunt Wilde

mrv 

chemical strip before polish? i was working on a set of crank arms trying to remove the black paint. But I'm not taking a file to them to get it done. I got aggressive with the emery cloth, and tried to remove the paint with a stripper (chemical stripper, not like hiring someone from a bar...... anyway...) Just curious if you used a chemical stripper.
thanks.

SurferRosa

Yeah, I always use Easy-Off (with lye).

mrv 

I’m giving up on salvaging the Specialized stem
I’ll have to follow the Jobst Brandt note to Sheldon Brown and cut it off and drill it out.

I’m thinking I’ll start a while Allez-Catastrophé thread as a cautionary tale.

RCMoeur 

Over the weekend, I took my 1st-gen Bike Friday out for the weekly club ride, and the small-wheeled bike decided to be a big-time crankypants in terms of shifting. Embarrassing if you're the Fearless Leader.

So I started by replacing some kinky kinked shift housing and extended the run up to the handlebar a bit to eliminate some tight turns. That solved the barcon-derailleur communication, but the bike was still a-clatterin'.

I looked up the chain history on my bike-tracking spreadsheet. 2950 miles, last waxed about 300 miles ago, showed less than 1/32" wear per 12" at last waxing. All within tolerances. But I re-checked it today, and it was showing nearly 1/8" wear. Big change in a short span. Off the old SuperShuttle goes and I thread on a spankin-new KMC RustBuster. Bike's happier, but that's when I discover that my lack of careful oversight has led 3 of the 7 cassette cogs to an early doom due to excess wearfrom the undiscovered worn chain. So into the Deck of Cassettes, find a gently-used 13-28, swap the 28 for a 32 bailout gear, and now the Friday is happy on a Thursday.

At least the chain looks spiffy.

Nemosengineer 

I found a wheel builder and dropped the rims and hubs off, a nice shop, no bike sales service only, I will report back when the job is done.
Brakes showed up and I came to the realization I have no way to adjust them ) : Sometimes the old ways are best, Mafac levers to the rescue.

Untitled by nemosengineer, on Flickr

Untitled by nemosengineer, on Flickr

: Mike

mrv 

new SKS Bluemethuels fenders from RivBike

apparently these are one size fits all.



New ones

The busted one 😕

RCMoeur 

Today's completed creation: a 1990 Trek 930. It came to me in rough shape but with a full Suntour/Dia-Compe X-1 group, which has been carefully removed for future cleaning and use (see post 6249). Shined up the frame and rebuilt with a mostly Shimano 7-speed drivetrain, odd-brand twist shifter, and anonymous-brand V brakes. The rear rack came with the bike, but I added the front Wald basket, as this bike's first assignment in a week or so (after I remember to jnstall the bottle cages) will be for the first leg of a trip to DC and I'll need a place to hold my backpack*, as the carry-on will be bungeed to the rack. The plan is to ride it downtown with my weekly group breakfast ride, donate it at the Rusty Spoke, then take transit to the airport.




*yes, I suppose I could actually wear the backpack on my back, but I don't want a sweaty spot on my back, especially as I'll be in public and in a narrow flying tube much of the rest of the day.

Positron400

Amazing brakes! would totally love to try those - if they werent so danged expensive.

jdawginsc 

You could also use in-line adjusters I think. But Mafac levers are good as well.!

RCMoeur 

To needlessly deface a Fleetwood Mac song, today was
"And if you don't love the bike
you may never love it again
I can still hear you sayin'
you would never clean the chains..."

Well, this afternoon I dug out all the salvaged chains from more than a year of tearing down old bikes. Before the hard dirty work, I measured them for wear, and nearly half of them immediately went to the "someone else's art project" pile due to wear well beyond 1/16" per foot. The rest of them got the scrub treatment in a strong citrus cleaner solution, including both sides and both sides of the innards too. Removing the crud on a couple of them revealed some rust, so once clean those chains got a bonus bath in the Rust 911 solution. After processing and rinsing they were blown out with an air gun and left to completely dry in the desert sunshine. Once that's done, they'll be re-checked, bagged, and labeled for future use.

Nemosengineer 

I did the first full torque fit up of the bottom bracket and crank, everything clears but just barely. I have 2.5mm of crankarm to chain stay clearance on both sides, but I guess that is to be expected when you cold set a frame 15mm. The good news is I can rework the radius on the back side of the crank arms and get that number up to above 4mm with out removing a lot of material. Dimpling the stays is not an option. I will sleep on it and come up with a plan in the morning.

Untitled by nemosengineer, on Flickr

Untitled by nemosengineer, on Flickr

Untitled by nemosengineer, on Flickr

Tools to bend frames with...
Untitled by nemosengineer, on Flickr

Untitled by nemosengineer, on Flickr

Untitled by nemosengineer, on Flicker

This Post Has Been Approved By Ruby The Bike Dog
Untitled by nemosengineer, on Flickr

: Mike

jdawginsc 

Does that fork took adjust rake, or just offset for the blades compared to the steering tube? You have all of the fun tools!

As an engineer, your dropout spreader is more complex than my simpler nut and bolt job thingy.

jamesdak 

Sorta wrenching but mostly researching. Sorting out the new to me Powertap wheel that looks pretty much brand new. Managed to open the hub up without the proprietary tool to replace both dead batteries. As I research this properly it appears this is a wireless hub but not Ant+. So now I'll research the computer options for what should work with this and then hit Ebay or whatever to see if I can find one. Worse case this rear wheel matches up to an orphan front I had to give me another matching wheelset.

Oh and I did clean up and wax up a couple of bikes yesterday as a buyer was coming by. He never got past the test ride on the Kuwahara and took that old beauty home with him.

merziac

Just for checking, you have to bust out the hamfist after that.

merziac

Mr. 66

Shogun 500 got cleansing and a front rack

52telecaster

I love those early front racks that encircle the fork. Some brakes don't work with them unfortunately.

Positron400

Very nice! Is this one of them elusive touring frames from the 80ties?

Mr. 66

Yes just that, I found out the hard way last week, I had a ride setup with side pulls. Not even close to working out.

Mr. 66

I think it's a 1986, yes, but it is one with 27" wheels.

Rides real nice, I took it down "The Lighthouse"

Nemosengineer 

It was a long weekend, yardwork, a bit of painting and getting called into work on Sunday . All was not lost, I soaked the dropouts in Evapo-Rust for about two days and they came out very nice with no labor on my part. Some where in the next two weeks I need to strip the paint off of the frame and forks for braze prep.
Some parts showed up, the rear cable hanger with adjuster a nice Nitto piece. The front hanger is sitting in customs so I should be seeing it in about a week, also the tires showed up. That's About all the news that is worth printing so here's the photos.

Untitled by nemosengineer, on Flickr

Untitled by nemosengineer, on Flickr

: Mike

Positron400

nice looking rear cable hanger! And tyres too
what's the whole frame look like?

Positron400

Done a wheelbuild for a 79' Puch Royal Force:

A319 Mavic rims - 36 Sapim Race spokes - Shimano Unigilde Hub 124 mm spacing - Panaracer 32 Gravelkings:


Built up wheel

Nemosengineer 

Here you go, a 2006 53cm Stratos NJS track frame. It's a refugee of the Keirin circuits of Japan and survived being professionally raced for quite a while. I call this the Monty Python build, "And Now for Something Completely Different" As gear hub track bikes don't exist and neither do old time trial bikes from England yet that was the general inspiration for this build. The end result should be a interesting around town bike with razor sharp handling and gears. Its fun to brake all the rules...


Untitled by nemosengineer, on Flickr

: Mike