obrentharris 

The serial number has revealed that my Clunker is a 1955 Schwinn Traveler.




My first task was to attempt to straighten the seriously bent forks: If they wouldn't come back to a reasonable shape the whole project would be in serious jeopardy.



The deed was accomplished utilizing the BAM Method. (Big-ass Mallet)






This bike is, to put it kindly, "patinated." It has collected a lot of rust in its 62 years and lost most of its decals. I like the remaining little islands of decal.




In an effort to avoid the "Ugliest Bike" award I went to work on the finish. First I wet sanded the frame and fork with 600 grit paper. I first tried 320 grit but it took off too much of the decals. 800 grit and 1500 grit followed, then I rubbed it with cutting compound followed by swirl remover then polishing compound. Finally I waxed it. I have never polished and waxed rust before but the results are pretty nice.




The biggest challenge of this build is to source all of the missing parts within the $100 budget. My local co-op closed its doors over a year ago and the local used bike shop has almost nothing for 3-speeds. I was able to find a front 26 x1 3/8" wheel at a shop in San Jose while visiting my daughter there. The local used bike shop had a single 26 x 1 3/8" tire. I picked up one scrap of 1/8 inch chain from each shop and was able to put together a complete chain as you can see from the photo above.

It turns out that mountain bikes were this bike's salvation. I couldn't find a brake lever to match the one remaining Weinmann. But, for $8, I was able to pick up a pair of old MTB levers and for $2 a pair of lightly-used grips.




I have a small stash of old MTB parts given to me by friends who switched to disc brakes and 29" tires. From this stash I was able to pull a pair of used 26 x 1.50 tubes and some still serviceable v-brake pads and holders.




I finally found a home for the bell that I rescued from the trash in 1978 at my last bike shop job.



To be continued

Brent

fleslider 

They are Sakae CR cranks with the original chainrings i do like how they look.

Narhay

Henceforth, the rule outlaid shall be known as the accessory edict.

If thou wisheth to remain true to thine $100 then count thine accessories.

If though wisheth to ride with them but present thy final bike without then ye shall not be smote.

Aka I don't care. If you're riding your $100 bike and want a bag or water bottle then so be it.

Murray Missile 

Thank you. I promise, no more questions.

Murray Missile 

My Normandy freewheel tool made it from Sofia, Italy to USPS in Queens, Ny in 4 days. 5 days later it is in San Francisco...... It's final destination is Illinois. I know I promised no more questions but can I count the mileage on the tool towards the 100km LOL? J/K

Update: It has left San Francisco, next stop should be Hazelwood, Mo. but I'm not holding my breath.

bikemig 

My progress has been slow on my UE 8 because I had too many other projects to finish up first. Last night I made real progress and installed a cotterless crank (relying on the old cups that came with the cottered crank!) and alloy wheels. The dang bike cost me $100 to begin with. The parts came on various bikes that have come through my shop where I've sold the bikes and kept that parts I wanted. So the cost to me remains at $100 but I realize that this is not exactly kosher under the rules. Go ahead and flame my bike, I still like the way it is coming out, with an ideale saddle and lots of French goodness like a simplex RD, mafac brakes, the dreaded helicomatic rear hub.

ryansu

@obrentharris oh those forks! In the words of the late great John Candy "That ought buff right out"

ryansu

GTK I always strive to not be smote in my day to day life

leftthread

Yeah, I hate it when I get smoted.

Rule inquiry:
"but what if we cross the international date line?"

mapleleafs-13 

This thread is somewhat entertaining but it will give me nightmares as well.

zammykoo

Well, I've had no luck in my search for a 26.0mm seatpost. It has proven to be a very unusual size. Before I sand this one down to fit, last call to see if anyone has one they would part with.

rustystrings61 

When I return home tomorrow I will look at the seat post shim I have kicking around my work shop - I think it's a 25.4 to 26.0 but I am not certain....

zammykoo

Thank you - although I don't have a 25.4 seatpost either. I'm sure those are much more common so I might just go that route. There's an upcoming local bike swap meet in a couple of weeks so I'll try to be optimistic about that.

A new 26.0 Kalloy seatpost would set me back $15 but i would hate to do that - trying to keep new part purchases to only the consumables.

jetboy 

threw a chain on and took her out for her first ride today... with no brakes as I don't have a cable.. got to wait till i go into work and grab one. so I using foot brakes I rode about 200meters. heh. got a bit more to go.

But, she seems fairly solid and straight... it will never be a racer, but for a single speed cruise about town bike, its a working concept. ill get that cable then see if I can bear riding 100km on it!

Kevindale

Throwing my hat in the ring. I've been wanting to build up a decent road bike for my 15 y/o nephew, and finally found a good candidate. I got it cheap enough that I figure I might be able to build it up for less than $100, though I may end up going over that after the challenge is over and I'm ready to deliver it to him. I had to drive 90 minutes yesterday to get it, but I justified that because the seller was close to a nice set of Tricolor hub/Mavic rim wheels I'd been wanting to pick up from a guy who's been holding them for me.

Kevindale

Asking price was $140. I negotiated it to $80 before I drove out. I hate to bargain over the phone, or at least hate it when someone wants to do it to me, but I wasn’t driving out to pay full price, given the rust issues (all cable guides fully rusted, and some parts that were rubbed by the frame pump) and the clear signs that it had been left outside for a time (rusty chain, rotted saddle, tinges of rust on bolts, etc). Plus it had that hose clamp on the seat tube, and no tire/rotted tire.

When I got there, I found that indeed the seat post was split at the top, the wheels were mismatched, and the FD had been crushed into the seat tube. The FD worked, but it pushed out at a very skewed angle. I haven’t tried bending it straight yet - it seems the cage is bent in multiple places. I’m hoping the metal has a good memory for where it’s supposed to be. Based on the FD and split in the seat post, I got it for $70 after confirming seat post and stem weren’t stuck.

Kevindale

The front wheel is the original Wolber GTX. The rear is a Matrix ISO C-11. The Wolber has a lot of marks on the edge of the rims from being moved around without a tire, but it shouldn't affect braking. Both with 105 hubs, and both seem fairly true. Lots of surface rust on the hub nuts. The 6-s freewheel has a hint of rust, but looks barely used. The chain has a dusting of rust which looks like it'll clean up easily, and in my measurement with a metal ruler appears to have virtually no wear. All photos are from the CL ad. I haven't had a chance to take any photos yet. I'll have to get a photo of the Matrix rim. Oh, and the tube inside the rotted rear tire holds air and looks good to use - bonus!

Oh, and I was confused by the colors in the photo. Seen up close, I can see now that the blue is very slightly faded, and someone crudely took a Sharpie marker to every spot of pink on the decals! The decals are also the obnoxious type with thick edges, and they have some cracking and fading. I will take these off, I guess with a heat gun (alt. suggestions for removing decals welcomed).

Kevindale

Now a question for the judge. I have 3 sets of tires I can use. One set is the schwalbe lugano tires that came on my 2012 CAAD 10. I rode them for about 3.5 years (obviously I wasn't doing a ton of miles then), and took them off when I read how much better Conti GP4000s are. They have a fair amount of tread on them, certainly enough for the challenge. I figure they're worth $10 as a pair, but I'm not sure. I have the well worn gumwalls I took off the Panasonic I got last year - some dry rot, lots of fuzzy threads, but no rips or tears (see photo). I figure they're worth exactly nothing, and I might use them if I blow most of my remaining $30 on seatpost and FD. I think they'll last 100 km on the flats. And I have a set of cheap CST slicks I took off a set of used wheels I bought last year. I have no idea what they cost new, and what their value might be.

Oh, and for the second inner tube I'm going to use one I've patched 5 times and then threw in the "only in an emergency" bin. I figure it's worth pretty much zero, also. Is that fair?

treebound 

I'll play:

Raleigh Sports
Frame measures approximately 21"/53cm center to top on the seat tube, and approximately 22"/55cm center to center on the top tube.
Rear hub dates to 1974.

Paid $5.00 for the bike at an auction.

Replaced torn leather saddle for a parts bin mattress saddle, $5.00 on a good day.

Replaced the tires with two thrift shop found tires, tires were $3.99 each so $7.98

Need to replace the crank cotters, gave Ben's cycle $5.00 for two of them.

Grand total $22.98

Now I just need to tear it down and clean and regrease the bearings and hope I don't find any hidden issues, then put it back together and put some miles on it.

When is the deadline to finish the clean and re-lube and get my miles in?


Pedals were removed during disassembly in the rain at the auction site in order to fit it into the car along with every else's auction finds.




And here it is with the parts bin saddle and thrift store tires.

leftthread

I have a 25.8 SR post sitting around, gratis, if you want to try it.

zammykoo

I appreciate it! I happen to have located a 26.0 one on a local listing an hour ago so I'm waiting for a response. If they fall through I will let you know.

rustystrings61 

ONE - DONE!

I had been putting my riding time in with the Mercier of late, but that was primarily because I had already selected the Diamond Back Venture as my mount for Beach Week 2017 at lovely Edisto Beach, SC. I did a last minute ride in town on a Saturday morning, accompanying my son and his teammates as they ran laps around the Connie Maxwell home, and I was glad I did - the left crank began creaking and flopping. When I got home I pulled it and found it thoroughly rounded out and utterly useless. Fortunately, I had a bin that included a couple of orphan 170 mm left cranks, and there was an old silver-finished SR with a similar enough contour to work, so I fitted it, smacked it on further with a rubber mallet and cranked it on down until it was solidly in place. I decided the mismatched black and silver cranks only added to the bike's charm, and remembering that these were from a pile of stuff I got for free when the LBS was cleaning out junk bins a dozen years ago, I awarded it a value of $0.

The DB and my son's Trek MT 400 made the trip easily enough on a rack on the back of the family car, and for the next three days Eli and I fell into a pattern of him running 2 or 3 miles per day with me pacing and using the cycle computer to measure distance, followed by his mounting up on the Trek and our riding a leisurely-paced partial loop of the island. A few days of that took me up to 91 km or so, near the minimum for the challenge. Along the way we surprised a doe and her fawn in a wooded lot on Myrtle Street near White Cap

[IMG]The deer near downtown Edisto Beach by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]

and caught a particularly good rainbow with a nice horizontal section clearly visible against the clouds.

[IMG]Rainbow in the clouds by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]

The arrival Thursday of my main riding buddy and his family Thursday afternoon ramped things up dramatically. Friday morning I took Eli out for a two-mile run, brought him back, and then I got to sit on the wheel of Ainsley's fixed-gear as we burned around the Island a few times. It had been a while since I sat on a wheel, and since we have a long-standing understanding - I'm the older guy, he's the younger and fitter and faster one better suited to take long pulls - we rode together as well as always. Initially I considered blaming the 35 mm cyclocross tires for my difficulty staying with him - but no, I'm just old and slow and out of shape. Still, at 24.4 miles, it was my longest single ride in a couple of years, and I was most grateful for it. Saturday we reversed our direction when the winds were just right, getting in 21.9 miles with a perfect tailwind down the length of the main drag. I was handed the perfect place - being paced and having the wind push me along - and when Ainsley started hearing Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" in his head and locked into a pedaling rhythm, I geared up and hung on. We stopped for a breather at one point and watched the Breakfast Club tucking into their blue plate special -

[IMG]The Breakfast Club by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]

because nothing encourages a cyclist to move along faster more than buzzards, circling or otherwise. Though, in this case, we realized we were also the object of scrutiny by vultures -

Cyclists with buzzards by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr

so with a quick look at the sun rising over Edisto Beach State Park -

[IMG]Dawn over Edisto State Park by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]

- we headed out. Finally, the morning we left we got out early enough to grab another 16 miles before packing up. As of Sunday I have 191 km on the DBV, which should satisfy the mileage requirement nicely. This bike is a definite keeper, having been cheap to acquire, cheap to recondition, having surprisingly good handling, decent parts, and a reasonably good fit. It rides much, much better than its place in the Diamond Back lineup would suggest, and structurally and functionally it is most definitely NOT a clunker.

Then there's -

THREE

My son decided he preferred running on the asphalt around our neighborhood to the lovely track at Grace Street Park, which I took as an opportunity to put some mileage on Straightened Raymond. We developed a routine where I would ride his first lap at his running pace, then see how many times I could lap him while his did his second or third mile. It worked reasonably well, and over the course of a week I got used to the bike and became comfortable enough with the ancient Mercier that it started disappearing under me in proper bike-like fashion. I straightened the rear derailleur claw and the dropout and dialed in the angle of the mech. All of my miles on this one have been on the neighborhood loop, partially because I don't have a frame pump that fits Schrader valves, and partly because I am not entirely comfortable in trusting this bike too much. That may change with time.

[IMG]Original and real chrome at the rear by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]

I rode Straightened Raymond today after more than a week off, and immediately was struck by how narrow the bars are, how pronounced the bend in the left pedal spindle, how finicky the front derailleur setting must be to avoid rubbing and grating ... but I figure by the week's end, I'll have re-learned how to compensate for all of that again, and with 71 km done I'll have crossed that line as well.

Murray Missile 

It appears my Normandy freewheel tool has been sucked into the Black Hole of the USPS. It left San Francisco 5 days ago and has dropped off the radar. Closest LBS is 30 miles away but the World Sport has a nearly identical wheel with a Shimano freewheel that I DO have a tool for , it also has a decent tire that matches the front tire on Big Bird. If the tool doesn't show up by next weekend I'll pull the wheel off the WS. Paid $25 for the bike so would claiming a $12.50 value for the wheel and tire be fair? If I do that I wouldn't be putting the $17.95/pr new tires on it so that would back it down to just under $85 total investment. Of course it's all meaningless if I don't get out and ride the thing........

rustystrings61 

$25 World Sport, complete = $5 frameset, $5 drivetrain, $5 brakeset, $5 bars/stem/saddle combo & $5 wheelset, which includes a $2.50 rear wheel. Nothing like bike junkie math.

Murray Missile 

I like your formula better. Still no tool, contacted the seller, we'll see what develops.