Dean51 

Yesterday was gorgeous in the northwest corner of Washington State. 'Got out for 47 miles after a few chores in the AM. Pic shows me taking a coffee break while soaking up the sun.

Dean

IMG_3921

seypat

If that's the case you better stay home while you're sneezing. I remember these two Bards back in the 80's telling a horrible tale about nasty creatures that only come out at night. They're called maneaters. They'll chew you up. The Bards names were Hall and Oates. I actually heard them telling the tale again the other night on Stingray Quello. Scary!

JohnDThompson 

I did a similar modification of standard clips to fit Ofmega "Sintesi" pedals, which use a similar slotted clip. Free advice: use plastic toeclips rather than steel; they're much easier to modify.

scarlson 

Hehe, that's great. Yeah, my trusty fifteen-year-old Topeak Road Morph attached to the top tube with a toe strap. A temporary solution, it interfered with my knees, so I got a Lezyne micro floor drive to put in a seat pack.

Starting with the cable. The nub/nipple appeared to be brass or bronze. It is soldered onto a "bight" (a u-shaped crimp) in the cable. You could solder two cables' ends in there, so you wouldn't need a very long cable. I made a reproduction nub myself, but it is hard because it's so small and incorporates a round tube with a square flange so requires turning and milling on a super small scale. I used a very flexible bulk 20-strand 1mm cable I bought on Amazon. This cable is similar to Campagnolo cables from the NR era, lots of strands and super flexible, but smaller in diameter than those Campagnolo cables. The original is definitely stiffer, and may work better, but it is smaller diameter than even a standard bicycle shift cable. You should be able to buy bulk cable like this as well, or use a tandem shift cable or two single-bike shift cables. Some people use a nub with a set screw, instead of soldering on. You could also make one of these and it might even be simpler. I've never tried so I can't comment on the efficacy, but it looks like it might stick a ways up out of the drum on the derailleur and that might be a problem. It might introduce a beneficial eccentricity to the drum (see below) or it might make things worse.

The key to setting up a Le Cyclo is to know that the cable slack changes through the range of the derailleur. This is because as the derailleur slides sideways, it changes distance from the cable guide under the BB. That is, its cable drum is a tiny bit closer to the bottom bracket cable guide when the derailleur is closer to the centerline of the bike. This of course happens when you're in low gear. You can envision a triangle between the BB cable guide and the two extremes of the derailleur's travel. Since the rod should be parallel to the axle, the derailleur is moving farther away from the centerline of the frame, perpendicular to it, the distance to the derailleur is longer the closer it gets to high gear. Because of this, the cable will be a little loose when you're in low gear and a little tight when you're in high gear, and you can't do anything about this. René Herse was so annoyed by this that by the early '50s, he had fabricated an eccentric shifter to compensate for it.

You can, however, use this to give yourself some cable slack to set up the derailleur the way you want. Here I'll explain what I do stepwise.

1. Make sure the two nuts holding the derailleur shaft to the hanger are snug, but loose enough to turn the shaft. Push the derailleur all the way to the stop on the big cog, and adjust the nuts so that the pulley lines up with the big cog. Now rotate the shaft so that the cable is wound around the drum such that it can pull the derailleur the other way all the way to the low gear. This should give you a lot of slack in one end of the cable. Snug up the nuts.
2. Attach the cable to the mounting block in the lever. Leave the screw a little loose. The cable should go once around the lever drum. With the lever still mounted on the frame, move the lever to one extreme (depending on your preference, you might want the lever all the way back or all the way forward. I think Herse used forward as low gear, but I like forward as high gear). Pull the cable as tight as you can get it.
3. Take the lever off and pull the cable a little tighter. Snug up the screw that holds the cable in the block in the lever. Put the lever back on the frame. You should just barely be able to get it on. Try to shift through the range. If the cable seems too tight like it's binding up, take the lever off, loosen the screw, and give yourself a little more slack. Iterate this process until you've got an acceptable compromise in cable tension between low and high gear. It's not gonna be perfect. You're going to find that it's slightly too tight in low gear and slightly too loose in high gear, and that's just the way it is.

I don't run the cable through the spring. Some have had success doing this, but in my experience this forces it through a sharp angle and it grinds on the spring and binds things up. I don't like this. This may be exacerbated because mine is a 5-speed Le Cyclo and these have about an 8mm offset from the cable drum to the spring hook as opposed to the 4-speeds which have about a 3mm offset, and by the 20-strand non-slick cable I chose, but I can't imagine it would be much better even with a traditional slick cable. Drawings and photos of old René Herses and Jack Taylors with which I am familiar generally show the cable running under the spring and not through it. It is true that the spring is shorter in high gear, and this does provide some compensation, but this is only useful if you have a single front chainring. If you have a triple or double, the cable tension gets changed as you change chainrings. I tried it and it was pretty bad.

If you have any questions, I'm happy to help. It's hard to explain this without taking mine apart and taking pictures, but PM me if you want to talk on the phone or something.

+1 for Yojimbo! One of the few businesses that I'm super grateful for existing.

scarlson 

I've done this. Most metal toe clips are tempered steel, which is nigh-on impossible to drill into with normal twist drills, can't be touched with a file, and may crack when bent. Grinding it with a high speed abrasive (like a dremel or angle grinder, what can throw sparks) would be ok, but if you want to have more success in bending/drilling/grinding/filing, I recommend annealing the metal where you want to work it. Simply heat it to red hot (a propane torch or even a gas stove burner should accomplish this) and then let them air-cool. This should make the metal easier to drill into and bend without cracking.

Better yet, treat them right and get some MKS alu toe clips. These'll cut and bend like cheese.

TenGrainBread 

scarlson Thanks for the detailed info! I'm trying to get ahold of a copy of Bicycle Quarterly issue 14, which I'm told has an illustrated guide to the setup, but if I can't I'll just go ahead and try it with your instructions and the illustrations from Classic Lightweights and let you know if I have any issues.

Whit51 

On mandatory telework. Before starting time and on lunch breaks I’m finally building up this 1981 61x. The seat tube wrap is not oriiginal- the bike had the old school individual T R E K logo, but only on one side of the seat tube. Next challenge is finding an above the bb cable guide — there’s one somewhere in my workshop.

BFisher

Funny, that's when I wear my sunglasses. Never even see the Maneaters.

BFisher

seypat I hate when that happens. I've put orders in to online shops only to realize a few days later that they have another bit I need that I could have just tacked on.

BFisher

Hey, nice bike!

seypat

Is your first name Cory, by chance?

seypat

Who BTW, I always get confused with John Waite for some reason.

Dean51 

Thanks! This new-to-me bike is a '95 Trek 5500 in Campy 8-Speed Record / Record Ti trim. A bit unusual is the "SATURN" decals vs. "5500". Research, including here at BF, suggests it was a promotional model, not a Saturn team bike.

Dean

daviddavieboy

Thanks for the tips ! I'll try the metal ones first and move onto the plastic for temporary use. If I like the pedals I will get some aluminum ones to mod if all else fails.

JohnDThompson 

The only aluminum toeclips I've had that lasted more than a single season are the Campagnolo ones that you pay through the nose for these days. There's nothing wrong with plastic toeclips. They're light, they don't rust, and they don't break. The ones on those Sintesi pedals in my picture are over 30 years old and still going strong.

dweenk

I rode (in a truck) with a friend to purchase blue crab trotline materials. He plans to introduce his grand daughter to trotlining this summer. It's not bike related, but it is C&V. More info here:

https://fishtalkmag.com/blog/three-w...your-own-crabs

BFisher

Yeah, spelled B-r-i-a-n.

daviddavieboy

I don't doubt that as I have 3 bikes with them. For this bike I want the look of either steel or aluminum. It would just 'look' better IMO. It is being rebuilt with 80 super record parts along with the aero pedals. It probably won't shift as nice anymore though LOL.

rccardr 

I'm just riding every day and keeping this in mind:

BFisher

^ I like that attitude.

Deal4Fuji

^^^ re your bike stand, I just came into a lot of scrap lumber being thrown away in my neighborhood and salvaged the 2 x 4's - pulled the nails out, hit it with a axle grinder sand pad and made a similar stand. I'm making some for friends, but also have enough I might try to sell some on craigslist $10 each or 2 for $15 ???



^^^ 90's version

^^^ We're still doing small group rides of 4 or 5 out on low traffic country roads. Very therapeutic...but who else is having to deal with recently fertilized fields of turkey / chicken ****

-holiday76

I have moved my home office to my loft, which is also my bike area. In between meetings i swapped the saddle and cleaned the chain on my JT TOB.

Whit51 

Deal4 Fuji, your 2x4 craftsmanship is much better than mine!

Drillium Dude 

Every time I see this work/play space I get a warm fuzzy

DD

Drillium Dude 

Nice day for a ride:



DD