cudak888 

It's still stuck on the stem like that last pic?

-Kurt

polymorphself 

This is what I've got now. Can't get it to rotate to get it off.

cudak888 

Put the front wheel in, a rag around the upper raceway (the thing that won't come off), and gently rotate with channel locks.

-Kurt

polymorphself 

Thanks I'll give it a shot and report back later.

polymorphself 

It worked! Thank you.

cudak888 

Glad to help...make sure to post pics of the finished bike!

-Kurt

J.Higgins 

Agreed, but if you make it too pretty, she'll run the risk of having it stolen!

polymorphself 

Don't worry. It won't be pretty. Other than a new stem and handlebar grips it'll all look the same minus a wipe down

As it's coming together I have some concerns. Mainly the bottom bracket. We took the bearings out, they looked good. Cleaned out the cages and added new grease and put it all back together. It's an extremely simple setup compared to the Fuji and Miyata I did prior, not much can go wrong here. However, now that it's back together, when I turn the crank arms there is a slight resistance and it's not a totally smooth rotation. If I rotate them slowly I can feel some hiccups along the way. If I put them at 12 and 6 they don't swing back around on their own. Is this to be expected with this setup? I imagine this isn't the original crankset and I'm not sure if the conversion to single speed and this crankset have anything to do with this. Here are some quick pics...




Here is how the headset came together with the new stem. I am a little worried that not much thread was showing for the bolt on the top (what's this called?), but maybe it's ok.




Lastly, this washer was in a bag with the headset pieces...it's notched, and the fork fits a notched washer...but this one is too small. Am I crazy? Theres no way this will slide on, but I can't imagine where it came from!

cudak888 

Headset washer is a bit tall; that's a modern threadless spacer rather than one of the older keyed washers. If you really don't feel good about it, go to any shop and they should have a proper replacement washer that's about 1/2 the thickness.

The washer is for the bottom bracket. Goes in between the non-drive-side bearing race and the nut so they don't bind on each other. Install it, and see if you can adjust everything so there's no play or binding. Might do the trick.

-Kurt

repechage

From reading, I am assuming the stem is off the bike. The headset spacer may have a tooth that keys into a slot in the fork steerer, if it is rotated one way or another a "pipe" wrench type pliers may be needed to align the tooth with the slot and slide it off before the top race can unscrew.

should be caged bearings.

madpogue 

That's probably the original crankset. I see holes in the chainring, likely for mounting a second ring. It's possible you just tightened the bearing race a bit too much when you put it back together.

polymorphself 

I put that washer on the BB and loosened the cup a little and it spins pretty dang smoothly now. Thanks. The whole bike is together now and rides well enough but there is a major concern. These wheels clearly should not have been chosen for this frame. When I put the front wheel back on I had to spread the forks slightly for them to fit onto the axle, and when I put the back wheel on and tightened the nuts on either side there was so much extra space that they ended up having to push the dropouts inwards slightly to make it tight. So we've got the forks pushed out in the front and the frame pushed in on the back. Whoever had this bike before my friend seems to have ridden it with no problem, but it seems to me that the tension on the frame like this with someones weight on it over long periods of time could be a problem? This has also made it difficult to center either wheel appropriately, but I was able to get them more or less centered.

Also, the hubs are slightly lose on the axle, if that makes sense. There is a little jiggle back and forth on each wheel. Not sure how to fix that.

Thoughts on all of this? Does this sound terribly unsafe for causal riding? Anyways, heres a pic of it back together. Doesn't look much different, just a little neater and slightly cleaner in some areas. Saddle and bars aren't adjusted for her yet.

Thanks to everyone who has helped so far in this thread.

TenGrainBread 

What is the width of the rear hub, from locknut to locknut? Look up "over-locknut-dimension" to see what I mean. It's possible the person who made it a single speed put a track wheel on the back with a hub width of 110mm, whereas the frame dropouts would be somewhere around 120mm (for a derailleur and freewheel hub).

Regarding the hubs being loose, you can adjust them pretty easily with some cone wrenches. You have to take the wheel out, loosen the outer locknut on one side, and then there should be an inner nut that is actually preloading (pushing against) the bearings. Simply tighten this nut and then lock it with the locknut. Might take a few tries. There are videos on YouTube for this.

polymorphself 

Last update to wrap this up. Ran by my LBS and they concluded that the slight bend in the forks and dropouts to accommodate these hubs was insignificant for steel. However, they added spacers to the back for good measure. I don't have a cone wrench handy and asked if they could tighten up the hubs for me real quick, they went the extra mile and regreased them for me for $10 and did it in about 20 minutes. Saved me some work that I wasn't planning on doing anyways. They also did a quick once over of everything I had done myself and concluded that this bike is now safe and good to go!

Thanks for all of the help here. A great success and my friend is very happy with it. Here's one more pic. Now back to the Peugeot mixte project!