JaccoW

Cold set a tandem fork today. The threaded rod method wasn't strong enough (the rod buckled) but a reversible clamp worked a treat!

noglider 

Good work, @JaccoW!

abshipp 

Probably the most difficult fender installation I've done, I blame the French.

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billnuke1 

Using my new to me extreme clamp to work on my vacation bike...I built six bikes last year for our Pennsylvania trip, I ended taking this one...Fuji Explorer...older vacation MTB bike used for just three weeks then left for a bunch of years til I came along and was gifted it...rebuilt it today...cables stretched...had to tune the bike up again...
...anyhow, it does what it’s supposed to do, I’m not doing marathons...and I don’t mind it getting too scratched up!

J.Higgins 

Finally finished. Thoroughly cleaned and lubed. New jaw screws. I decided to leave the battle scars. Hey, I even used Phil Wood grease and Tenacious Oil!

noglider 

Now that's a vise!

merziac

Love the heavy duty precision instrument.

noglider 

I made a mount for a headlight on my fork. Here is the complete thread.

noglider 

My daughter lives in Denver and is staying with us for now. She brought her bike, and we've tuned it up. She didn't like the saddle it came with, so she tried this Specialized Riva. She doesn't like that, either, so I installed this antique Brooks Pro S women's saddle. She hasn't tried the Brooks yet.

bikingshearer 

What I have been wrenching on lately? This. Another old (1965ish) large (64cm x 61.5cm, both ctc) Cinelli Speciale Corsa. I had a too-small 1972ish SC, F/F/HS and bumped into a guy who had this one that was too big for him, so we traded. (His was built up, so he stripped it down to F/F/HS so we could trade straight across.) I was not looking for this or anything else. The other guy and I were both stopped at the same place and he commented on the Ron Cooper I was riding. As C&V folks will do, we got to talking about the bikes we have. It turned out we live about three blocks away from each other, so one thing led another and . . . .

I already have another one of these big old Cinelli unicorns. I had that one repainted (silver) and it runs Campy 10sp triple w/brifters, dual pivot brakes, etc. I built this one up with a motley assortment of components to be Eroica-compliant and Cino-friendly (when I swap out the pedals, that is) but not necessarily period-correct.. Drivetrain is 5sp with no consistency at all (Shimano old Deore RD; Suntour FD of some sort, Suntour ratchet barcons, Campy Nuovo Record-era crank with a Red Clover triplizer, new cheapo SunRace freewheel). The brakes are Universal 51s - - even with KoolStop pads, modern cables and aero levers (Campy Records that look and feel like their 10sp brifters with the shifting guts removed), they are no better than meh-adequate on any kind of descent. The wheels are mismatched: Campy NR hub w/a Mavic MA-2 rim up front, Campy Tipo (low flange) hub w/a "Gentleman" rim on the back. Nitto "Noodle' bar and Tallux stem. Velo Orange seat post. San Marco Rolls saddle. Continental 5000 tires, 700x32. Columbus SP tubing (they didn't differentiate between SL and SP back then, but I figured from some source or other that this tube set is what would soon be called SP).

Paint is rough. The decals are rough (worse on the non-drive side). The chrome cleaned up better than expected (Quick-Glo is great stuff) and is more than serviceable. The headbadge also cleaned up better than expected with judicious application of Quick-Glo to the unpainted brass parts with Q-tips. I cleaned up the frame and fork, polished them and waxed them. This bike won't win any beauty prizes, but I have no plans for a repaint.

Howzit ride? As wonderfully as the silver one does, and that one was/is the best riding bike I have been on. So now the silver one is tied with the blue on for the best I have ever been on. So one for when I want to be lazy and do click-shiftingand have good brakes, and the other one is for kickin' it friction-shiftin' old skool and don';t mind living a little dangerously brake-wise.

thumpism 

Not to brag, but mine is much more elegant. I used the metal loop from a Quix seatpost-mount rear bag with its bolt, a small piece of 1" PVC tubing cut straight at one end and shaped at the other to fit the fork blade, and an Aheadset top cap. I'll find a pic for you.

Found this today on a dumped Raleigh I brought home to give to the co-op, a bent Schrader valve stem. I have worked on a lot of bikes, cars and motorcycles with such valves and have NEVER seen a bent valve stem. The rest of the bike is weathered but undamaged so how the hell did this happen?


*Later*

Here you go. I had this on my old RB-T and will probably put it on the Nishiki Cresta GT when it gets modded.



I guess I really need a Nishiki Alien to install this on.

noglider 

Ooh, good idea, @thumpism. Maybe I could use the strap from a brake lever.

mechanicmatt

I love this build in every way.

Lattz

Trying to put an end on the chain skipping on my (Franken)Rossin triathlon, first by randomly changing sprockets, wheels, derailleurs, then by noticing that the RD hanger is badly bent
Having no access to an adjuster tool it will be an RJ the bike guy approach, if it doesn't work out, I might have my first single speed build ahead of me, but if yes, I replace the Shimano 105/ultegra mix with a full Campagnolo Mirage gruppo.
" "

Mr. 66

We want the the world, and we want it - now



Refreshing the wheels and gathering parts for the Voyager


The front hub needed a new cone, I pull one from a tricolor 600 orfaned from the bin and took the bearings too. Wow! With the updated Sugino bb the World will roll very cleanly smooth.
Phil Who? I added a 1mm spacer to push the chainline over and prevent ring rub. In turn I scavenged the bins and found a very thick nds bb cup that gave me enough for full thread engagement.

scozim 

Anxiously waiting subcontractors to finish the shop so I can actually start wrenching again - several projects are patiently waiting. This last year has been a test of patience when it comes to bikes, riding and how much work I can do on one with limited space. Haven't been in that situation for awhile.

rccardr 

Wow, nice space. I know you’ve been planning it for a while...

amillhench

I’ve had these pedals sitting around for a while making rude comments at me every time I walk by. I thought Hercules had overtightened the spindles, but no.

I can only assume someone used glue as grease so many decades ago. 10 minutes of WD-40 and a pick got me to this point.

pcb 

I drove all the way to CT and all I got was this stupid bike....

Friday road trip landed me a '98 Custom Rivendell Road frameset, built by Joe Starck, from a very nice fella on RBW. He bought it from the original owner, but then never managed to build it up. Doesn't look like Art M., the original owner, rode it much before selling it. I did manage to build it up, but haven't managed to ride it yet. Maybe tomorrow?

I mulled over the build while reeling it in, decided on this first go-round to do a period-correct-ish Riv quasi-tribute, all silver components, nothing insanely current. The frame came with Silver dt shifters, so they had to stay. Very few silver-rimmed wheelsets under my roof, at least ones that are modern-enough to have a 130mm rear OLN. All I had was a clean set of Ultegra tri-color hubs on Mavic Reflex SUP rims. 'Sup? Heh-heh.

Then I found a decent amount of Dura-Ace 7x00-series silver stuff, so rder/brakes/cranks/stem are D-A. I got the rder some time back with the cable anchor threads stripped and crappily done helicoil job, so I recently got a helicoil kit and fixed it better. Lost the original cable anchor bolt in the process, because me, so the replacement bolt is a bit fuglier than the original.

The top tube is a little on the long side for me, 60.5cm, so the D-A stem is only 90mm. Tried a D-A post, but there's not a lot of post showing, and the bottom of the flutes on the D-A post sat below the lugline, providing a possible water incursion route, so a cut-short Thomson Elite works for now. Been saving the green Brooks B-17 Champion standard for something, turns out it was this.

I wanted non-aero brake cable routing, but I'm no longer thrilled with those smaller vintage lever bodies. Then I remembered a pair of Campy C-Record dual-routing levers were....somewhere...and they turned up. Pairing them with the D-A 7800 dual-pivots is a little weird, I'm wishing the caliper spring tension was higher, but it oughta work OK.

It's geared for now with a 38/24 compact double, using a Peter White-sourced TA Zephyr ALIZE!!! K 130/74bcd tripelizer ring, mounted on the inside position. 11-28t 8spd cassette in the rear, so I still get a decent low gear and can use the med-cage bodge-job D-A rder. The Shimano CX-70 fder sits a little high over the outer ring, can't get it any lower without scraping the top of the chainstay, but it shifts fine in the stand. I didn't have a BBG bashguard small enough to use in the outer position, I'd have to raise the fder even higher for that, so there's a weird BBG spacer thingie there. Coulda just used track chainring bolts, but I guess I was looking for more silvery bling, and an unused outer chainring ledge just looks a little lonely.

The frame's built around 49mm-reach brakes, and the 33mm Soma Supple Vitesse SLs at about 30mm on the narrow Mavic rims are close to max. Pinch point is under the calipers, as it should be on a well-designed 49mm-reach frame, so wider would work OK, but taller would get too tight.

Having never shifted an 8spd cog range in friction mode before, I'm looking forward to a nice ride with a fair amount of cussing.

Flickr album here:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmQTkD5A

Steel Charlie

Just took the Nuova Strada out to do an on the road saddle adjustment. That worked out OK.
Tomorrow I start the Merckx clean-up and touch-up then on to the build. Not actually my idea of a good time but I do sorta want to see it back together so ............. Still have to get a cable set for it but time is not a factor in anything I do these days.

Prowler 

Very good looking build. I assume friction shifted 8 will do just fine. Delicate touch, though.

I'm curious - what is the purpose of the wrap of black tape on the TT and on the DT, just behind the HT? Ima noob.

J.Higgins 

Jealous!

pcb 

Thanks! Shifting in the stand doesn't seem all that touchy, but the road ain't the stand. Hopefully it's tolerable.

The top-/downtube tape is to provide extra protection from handlebar hits to the top tube, and brake caliper hits to the down tube.

Top tubes are especially vulnerable. Top tube dents from handlebar hits are pretty common, especially on track bikes that don't usually have front calipers that might prevent the handlebar from hitting the top tube. A pretty high percentage of FS ads I see for used track frames have handlebar top tube dents. Sometimes road bikes, too. Thinner tubing is more easily dented than thicker tubing, fwiw.

There were higher-end shops back in the day that routinely did top tube tape wraps, and there are currently aftermarket bumpers/cushions made specifically for top tube protection. The Kashimax Five Gold top tube protector was the standard, now evidently out of production. Just google "track bike top tube protector" and you'll find tons of hits.

I can't recall seeing any down tube dents from caliper hits on road bikes, but I've seen plenty of scrapes and damaged paint there. With your typical sidepull or dual-pivot, the problem is on the drive side, because the drive-side arm is the one that sticks up high. Sometimes with centerpulls there's an issue on the underside of the down tube.

Much more of a problem with dt shifters, which leaves the drive side unprotected when the lever is pulled back. With bar-cons or brifters, depending on the size/shape of the brake arm, the shifter casing can often be enough of a buffer.

I use self-sealing teflon tape, a couple/few wraps. Easy to apply, pretty cushiony, leaves no residue when removed.

Note that if you raise/lower your bars, even by just a little bit, the top tube hit point can change, so using something that's easy to remove/reapply is a plus.

noglider 

Today, I began the final touches on my 1971 Raleigh Super Course. No pictures today.
- I got the dynamo headlight working.
- I installed the front fender.
- I installed the Minoura bottle cage mount for bikes with no bosses. It's a very nice thing but tricky to install.

Still left:
- Install rear fender.
- Install rear rack.
- Wrap bars.
- Other stuff I can't think of.

Pictures later.

merziac

pcb

That Riv is gorgeous!

Nice work, green too.