ryansu

Not a big deal @Murray Missile, I think this town is big enough for two Barneys, but thank you. I guess in retrospect Barney was the obvious choice I could have gone with something more subtle like Welches or Concord....

Murray Missile 

My Grandfather had a 1918 issue of Popular Mechanics (mine now) and the editorial in that issue was how the US must convert to the metric system within the next 5 years if it was to remain competitive in the world market. 100 years later and we're about halfway there LOL. I'm in QC, have been for 40 years and it sucks having to be fluent in both. The dual system can be frustrating, especially when you get engineers giving drawing dimensions in English but the default tolerances in the title block are in Metric.

Murray Missile 

Of all the bikes I have owned I have only named one other and that's Big Bird from last year's challenge. Something that tall and that yellow couldn't be called anything else! "Moby" seemed worthy of a name just because it's so goofy looking now and "the Citicross" just doesn't roll of the tongue LOL. I thought briefly about calling it Sour Grapes because of the way it looks but considering how nicely it rides it didn't seem appropriate, The orange and red cable housing against the purple frame gives it a remotely "pyschedelic" look ( if you REALLY stretch your imagination ) so I revisited my distant youth for inspiration and came up with Moby Grape after the 60's rock band.

grayEZrider

I hope it works. The U.S.A. is the ONLY country left on the planet that isn't metric. It is also the only one hanging onto the AM/PM 12 hour clock instead of the 2400 system! And most people are clueless as to how much trouble that caused the early computers! Damn, I'm glad I'm a retired geek.

Murray Missile 

MoBarney...... Love it! I'm only halfway to 100Km on bike #1 , the Fuji Royale II, believe it or not Moby rides better than the Fuji! I may do the 100Km on Moby first then finish up with the Fuji if I have time.

rustystrings61 

It was a weekend full of time spent in the workshop. I went round and round grappling with the bottom bracket, to the extent that I swapped out spindles and bearings trying to get it all dialed in to where it worked but wasn't rattly loose or grindy binding. In the end I used the original bearings and spindle and carefully smacked the cotters home with the 2 lb hammer to seat them. It all worked, amazingly. I decided to go with the SunTour AR front derailleur that came with the bike and added a set of SunTour shifters and a V-GT Luxe rear (based on starting condition before Evapo-Rust and lube, $5 for the set). Then I polished the remaining gunk off the once-painted Weinmann alloy rim and made it as shiny as I could get it and laced it up to the rear hub and trued it. This one is out of round somewhat, where the front went perfectly. I'll keep tweaking it to get it to work better, but it's okay and manageable for now. I fitted a set of those grommet things that permit using Presta valves in Schrader-drilled rims ($1.99) and used some scavenged and patched presta tubes ($0) instead of the heavy ones that came with the bike. I replaced the uncomfortable-for-me Avocet Touring WII with a scavenged Selle Italia Grand Prix Professional ($1) Alas, I'm still running those ghastly Cheng Shins, which if my scale is correct weigh 1 1/4 lb each, so I may re-figure my budget and see if I can swing the value of some used Kendas I have lying around. So I got to this point -


- and I had my first parts breakage of the project when I tried unsuccessfully to fit a set of French CTA ($5) handlebars into the Belleri stem that came with the bike. In trying to free bars from where they were sticking halfway on, the stem quill broke -

- and, well, oh SNAP, as it were. Pity, 'cause it was a cool looking stem, but better it break in the workshop than when I'm riding and relying on it. So over to the parts bin I went to find the original stem for last year's contender no. 1 the Diamond Back Venture, so I can swap that back onto that bike and retrieve the scarred Nitto Technomic I was given by a friend maybe a decade ago, which has already been sanded down to fit French steerers (now $1), and it all fits and I can get on with it. The original MAFAC levers went back on, I squirted some Tri-Flow down the front cable housing and worked it a few times and put the whole cable/housing/ferrules/yoke assembly back on and tweak the front pads and it works beautifully. I fitted a new rear brake cable ($3), greased it in the appropriate places and fed it through the old housing bits after giving them some Tri-Flow love as well. I re-wrapped what is probably its original plastic bar wrap from 1972 that had been covered with the foam bar tape, wrapping up from the bottom and capping it with some red electrician's tape to accent the head tube. Aesthetics matter, even in the Clunker Challenge 100, right? The bell, bottle cage and mount were freebies taken from dead bikes ($0).

So I took it out for a quick spin Sunday morning, long enough to figure out I wanted to tweak the rear rim some more, and to adjust the front derailleur and tighten up the saddle tension bolt and stuff like that. Then I rode it this morning to accompany the boy as he ran his laps for cross country training. Between the two excursions I got 15 km, which combined with the rides on vacation takes me to 38 km so far.

Anyway, here t'is -


This last one is included just because in this light the bike simply looks better - kinda like a soft-focus lens is kinder to an aging French beauty ...


So I'm sitting at $89.49 and pondering tires ...

ollo_ollo

Lovely bike, good job.

What's your assessment of the Mafac half-hoods on your brake levers? I have some on my Stella and I'm still a bit ambivalent. They're unique for sure and you don't often see them. Similar to the "Pleather" fake leather bar wrap on my Motobecane Grand Jubile, which I kind of like but don't know how it could ever be replaced when it inevitably deteriorates. Don

rustystrings61 

MAFAC half-hoods are so danged evocative of the whole French bike thing. You put them alongside the "pleather" bar wrap Motobecane used for years and the infamous Simplex Prestige derailleur set and the little Delrin bits that used to go on the ends of Simplex and some Atom/Maillard skewers and you get a serious French fascination with fantastic plastic. I think the Mafac half-hoods are probably the most durable of the things on that list, and there are replica replacements of them available. I'm accustomed to them from owning and monkeying around with three (!) PX-10s, a couple of Gitane TdFs, and assorted U-08s through the years. I'm sticking with this set on this Liberia because they're part of the experience of riding an old French bike, but I will cheerfully note that the Weinmann levers from the same time frame are vastly more comfortable and ergonomic, especially when swaddled in Cane Creek hoods, which are available cheaply.

I rationalize that I am not being inconsistent by keeping the Mafac stuff while running the SunTour freewheel and front derailleur a previous owner fitted and adding SunTour rear derailleur and shifters, because that was what we did with any bike fitted with Simplex Prestige derailleurs - though if I get really crazy and figure out a way to repair the damaged front mech in my parts bin, I might switch this bike back to Simplex just for giggles.

ollo_ollo

I put Kool Stop pads on the Gitane's front caliper on the previous weekend & did a quick run to the grocery store. Blessed quietness when stopping now, but actually don't brake quite as well as the old pads when dry. Probably be past the deadline before I can test them in wet weather.

Been restoring a bargain Brooks "Team Pro" saddle. It turned out well, so rode it on my Bianchi. Then had no success over several days in finding a parasitic battery drain on my station wagon. Grrrr! Have to trickle charge it when not in use now. Gypsy girl sat in my garage unridden all week. Here's a pic of the saddle, can't use it on Gypsy girl or I'd be over our limit. Don

ollo_ollo

My PKN10 has conventional Mafac full rubber hoods & I will probably go that route for replacement. Don

rocks in head 

New plan. I may be back in this challenge. Not with the Guerciotti, that is going to be over budget, but I've found something almost as nice for less dollars.

I recently came across a pair of Team Fuji frames / bits, done up with wacky '90's tri bars. I have from the parts stash mis-matched wheels that I traded the scrapper for, that I can put on it, trash bin tires, and patched tubes, for which I'll need a valuation. is $10 fair? To make this ride-able, I'll need to work on the chain and all cables. If I make 3 one-way commutes (yes, I leave the car at work when I commute) I'll have completed the challenge! If I can keep each bike under $50 I can do a double challenge.
Then I'm going to spend a fair bit.

These are the ones. I have a thread about how would you build a Flamingo Team Fuji, before I knew there were two. Now one is going modern, and the other as original as I can get it without buying more than just consumables.


Since Challenge bikes get named, the original one (foreground) will be Wafna, since that was the name of my Glee Club mascot in college, who was a (pretty beat up) pink flamingo lawn ornament. The back one will obviously have to be Jim Wright, as it came pre-named, in nice script. As it sits, Wafna sports 600 tricolor cranks, Dura Ace RD, Suntour Superbe FD, Dura Ace ratcheting DT shifters, New Grand Compe brakes and levers, original seatpost, some cushy Vette gel seat, short Nitto stem, and weird Profile noodle tri bars. Jim Wright has the Superbe Pro top-mount shifters/fd/rd and crank, no seatpost, Technomic stem, NGC brakes and levers, and another strange tri bar. If I can scrounge another basically free wheelset I can do both for the challenge limit, if I can fix them and ride enough, in time. Early September, right?

ollo_ollo

If 1st day was July 3rd, then day # 100 is October 10th, still some time left. But some comments sound like you get 100 days from 1st day you start on the Clunker. Do we have an ongoing contest?? Don

Murray Missile 

No, 100 days from July 3rd. I did almost all of my miles in the last 3 weeks last year. Doing 2 bikes this year, not sure what I was thinking......

tiredhands 

Put in another hot and heavy 15k on the Varsity. That brings my total to 40k, as I had to (hilariously) rely on this bike to get to work twice last week when my commuter needed some repairs.



I found an installation manual for the Positron system, which directed me to set the indexing on the 3rd gear, not the smallest gear like you would for a traditional tension-and-spring derailleur. Now it will shift (almost) reliably, which will be crucial for finishing out the 60k. I can't put any sort of torque down without the chain slipping from the front chainrings. I blame the slop in the front freewheel system, and the stiff chain. But there's probably a myriad of other reasons. It's got the flexiest bottom bracket I've ever ridden, too. But now it can shift!

rocks in head 

D'OH! I meant early October, not September. There was a problem between brain and keyboard.

ollo_ollo

My bad, thought we were beginning July 3rd. Don

gilesa

I took my Scott MTB for a ride yesterday: 35km on river path, lanes and footpaths, now over halfway. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera. I came back with a list of changes to try, including sorting the FD. Lowered 1cm and rotated, it shifts much better and the ticking noise has gone. FD was rubbing on crank.

About Narhay's plan to metricate the US: here in UK, road distances are miles and timber is still sold in traditional imperial sizes, but designated in mm. Draught beer in pints. Almost everything else is metric. Please help! As a child, science was metric (but CGS!), while woodwork shop used inches, and there was a fiendish arithmetic procedure called "practice" for calculating the prices (pounds/shillings/pence/farthings) of goods sold by weight (tons/hundredweight/stones/pounds/ounces) or length (yards/feet/inches). Ugh!

fleslider 

Update on the 88 Schwinn LeTour

Added the bike to Strava and Rode it to work today. its a 8.5 mile round trip, but long enough to see how well she goes. its a comfortable bike i have to admit. the Accushift is working great nice and crisp shifts. i just need to finalize brake lever position and then i can tape up the bars, i picked up some white bar tape for it so it can match the Mundialita saddle. By going from the command shifters to standard down tube shifters i was able to use the cables that were on it

So since this bike was a rider from the previous owner , the chain and cable/housings i was able to reuse, although the housings are the best looking they work fine. here is some pics of the cranks being cleaned up, and then two of the bike today with the commute duties



final items after cleaning




Sitting in the racks at work




On the way home!

zammykoo

I will call this done for now because I'm itching for a ride. City/town handlebar conversion is complete, and I finished it off with home-made custom leather grips.

shipwreck

I use one of these as my main mountain bike. Got mine in Sarasota FL because I did not want to ride the bike I brought on the beach, and it was just as cheap as renting one, after I chewed the bike shop owner down because a shifter was stuck. Right after buying it, I wacked the top of the shifter a couple of times, and circled the lot running through the gears. The guy was pissed. Ghosted it back to my friends house, then proceded to ride all week on the sugar sand beaches. Brought it home and de-salted it, as I may have ridden out into the water a bit farther than I should have.


It has different cages, tires, bar, and saddle now, and no rack. The dogs older now, and not as cute.

Murray Missile 

Took the Fuji out this morning and had to make a decision on it's participation in the Challenge. I've been having a flare up of tendinitis in my right elbow the past few weeks and it has gradually gotten worse, the riding position on the Fuji with the drop bars and the DT shifters is really aggravating it so I'm pulling the Fuji out of the Challenge. I still have Moby and riding it with the flat bars and more upright position hasn't bothered my elbow so far. I'll move the computer, handlebar bag and bottle cage from the Fuji over to Moby and reset the odometer to zero even though I do have about 1.5 miles on it in test rides. Eventually I'll finish detailing the Fuji and servicing the headset, BB and hubs then put it up for adoption. I think Moby will be sticking around after the Challenge, getting a new paint job, 700c wheels, 3 X 7 RSX drivetrain with brifters and drop bars. It has similar frame geometry to some of my mountain bikes and I think the drop bar conversion would work really well on it. In the meantime I'll be racking up the kilometers on it.

ollo_ollo

Rode other bikes this week but managed a few errands on Gypsy Girl to add 25 km for the week. This was out on West side of town. Still Lots of smoke in the air, even after a day of light wind. Don

rustystrings61 

The rear wheel sounded noisy, so I pulled the axle so that I could then pull the freewheel (R.F.G. locknuts are oversized with only two flats, which makes for good gripping purchase on the insides of the dropouts but makes using freewheel pullers challenging). Once inside, I cleaned everything out super aggressively, down to running pistol patches through the bore of the hub, then carefully skimming the excess grease after packing in all the bearings. Much quieter and smoother afterwards. I tweaked the rear rim some more, but there is still a low spot I need to figure out how to pull or drive outwards to get the wheel properly round. The tires are still ridiculously clunky and heavy, not fat and puffy like Paselas but just fat and sluggish like I'm riding on garden hose. Somehow the geometry just works, though, and I continue to be amazed at how stable this bike feels when ridden no-hands and yet nimble enough to be noticeable. I only had time to ride laps this week on mornings my son was running and training, but I still wound up with 18.3 miles, which takes me to 67.6 km overall, so I am now a little more than two-thirds through the ride portion. Then I can start looking for deals on Paselas, and perhaps a different crankset. I still need to weigh this bike, but I know good tires and alloy cranks would knock a couple of pounds off immediately.

michael k

Very Nice Don!

Might just be me but is anyone else still waiting for the *CLUNKER part of this challenge to begin?

ollo_ollo

My 2018 entriy is classy compared to last year. When offered last year's mixte, my grand daughter had me fix the brakes/shifting on her Magna mt. bike for campus use. Don