bikamper

This is where I'm stopping on the Everton build until after Christmas...unless I get bored or tired of family.


The rear fender looks whacko because I used the same mounting holes as on the donor bike. That will get changed. The seat post was an experience. I think the original seat post was shimmed just like the donor bike. There were burrs, burns, and seams to remove to fit the 26.0 post. I used a brake cylinder hone, a lot of WD-40, a 1/2" Dewalt drill, and lots of test fitting to get the post to fit. I had hoped that the frame used a 25.4 post but my nice aluminum one dropped straight to the BB shell.
I'll be doing some arky sparky to the rear rack to install some different upper mounts. Had to cut the original ones off to get the rack to sit level.

jamesj

I was working on my Felt New Belgium 2010.

RCMoeur 

As we reach the maximum depths of the holiday season and the local nonprofits that give bikes for Christmas have distributed their bounty, I finally got a spare moment to assess what ended up left over at my place that weren't able to be fixed up in time for this season.

Answer: looks like a lot. 24 bikes, none of them immediately rideable; however, all but 1-2 of them seem rebuildable.

How the heck did that happen? Almost all were kickouts from the aforementioned nonprofits, where the bike was assessed to take too much in time (gummed-up shifters) or money (rusted-solid drivetrains) to fix, or where the bike even after fixing couldn't be shined up purty enough to make a kid or teen happy without exceptional effort.

I can't complain, as overall the base quality is good - a classic Cannondale, some Specialized, a Giant or two, and a ton of older Treks. Plus some late-model BBB that are in salvageable shape.

Typically I'd pass these along promptly to the local co-op I volunteer at (Rusty Spoke), but they're also full to the gills with decent inventory at the moment.

So I'll store these out of the "weather" (in our case, sun is a bigger threat than rain) for now, strip the 1-2 hopeless ones for parts, and slowly fix up the rest once the rush of the holidays followed by meetings and travel in early 2024 abates. So don't be surprised if you're bored to tears by future tedious postings of two-wheel resurrection in this thread.

retlaw53 

Bob's Free Bikes is closing in on 1200 given away this year. We also have a huge inventory waiting to be rehabbed

RCMoeur 

Sometimes you look at the pile and despair at being buried in bikes, but then you realize all in all it's better than not having enough.

Hope you guys have a great holiday and an even better 2024.

Chuck M 

Is this typical or atypical? We don’t have a co-op around here and I’m not sure how they work. But I seem to recall someone else posting that if the bikes don’t move in a certain amount of time they get scrapped which I thought was sad.

VintageSteelEU

Since an injury a while ago I wasn't able to cycle, but having mostly recovered now, I decided to start preparing my daily rider to be used again. And because I was looking for bottom brackets that work with IRD Swiss cups, I realised that on that bicycle, I'm still using BB I bought to use with FC 6400, which requires 113mm spindle instead of 116mm the current FC 6207 needs. That was an "eureka" moment. That 3mm difference probably explains why indexed shifting was giving me such grief recently. It was still possible to get it adjusted, but it wasn't as fluid as I would have liked.
The only BB I found with that exact spindle length was BB-7420ST and it looked like it might just work with IRD cups, and I got it delivered today. Spoiler: it does work with IRD cups! That's another BB after Tifosi Carbon I tested with those, just for the people looking for BBs to use with their Motobecane frames. Took out the IRD BB I had sitting in the BB shell, installed the RPM one, cleaned the crankset and the chainrings and put everything back together. Lo and behold, indexing works perfectly now, only the front derailleur required some adjustments.
Interestingly, RPM bottom bracket weighs almost the same as IRD one. 305g vs 295g complete with bolts. We'll see how it holds up (IRD QB-55 is still fine and I was using it for about 3 years now), but if it lasts, it's 1/3 of the price. Tifosi one is still much lighter (hollow spindle and carbon fibre sleeve) at 250g
Few more things to do (another day though): replacing the cotton handlebar tape with faux "leather" one to increase the ride comfort on London's potholed roads, cleaning and lubricating the chain, restoring RD-6208 on the bicycle to check whether indexing works correctly with that one, and taking the wheels off and making sure they are round and true as I haven't done that since I've built the wheels few months back. Oh, and replace one pedal dust cap which has gone missing somehow. Good to have a few days off and a quiet Christmas
Happy holidays everyone!

browngw 

Been busy with a pair of 1971 Raleigh Superbe's, that at first glance, seemed too far gone to be bothered with. The diamond frame one was missing the oil filler cap and had water getting in the hub for years as it languished in a falling down shed. It was cleaned flushed and appears to be in good condition now.

Jay Turberville

If only some of the volunteers would show up and do some stinkin' work. ;^)

Jay Turberville

Every group is probably different. I volunteer at Bobs' Free Bikes and we get a fair number of bikes that just don't make sense to fix when you consider the amount of work needed and what you'd have when you are done. So that's the first group that goes to scrap. The second two groups are old road bikes and old vintage upright bikes. Unless they are in good condition, there are few situations where we can gift them since we mostly supply bikes to kids.

I rescued one Trek 560 that was going to the scrap pile. It was actually in pretty nice condition, but nobody wanted it, we can't store bikes we can't use, and selling it was unlikely. I took it home because I couldn't bear to see it scrapped. It cleaned up nicely. But I couldn't sell it on Craigslist and my wife was getting annoyed by the extra bike that wasn't going to be ridden. It ended giving it to a local bike shop that helps out BFB and they use it as a "wall hanger" . They are a Trek dealer and had a couple other vintage Treks on display.



And that brings me to the current project. This 1984 Trek 770 was heading to scrap. No wheels. Everything ugly and dirty. And a road bike that we have plenty of. But hey - it had a Campagnolo group set that appeared to be original and a Reynolds 531 frame. The frame was filthy and scraped to hell. But it seemed solid. So I towed it home and my wife has been charitable. Then I got Covid (very mild symptoms) and I've had to isolate. So why not isolate to the garage and get this thing rolling. I ultrasonically cleaned the brakes. Re-rigged the handlbars to a scheme I would actually ride. New cables and some secondary inline brake levers. Repacked the bottom bracket bearings. Determined the headset and neck are well frozen - hence solid enough to ride. Threw on some pedals. Cleaned the chain, driveline and derailleur. Surprisingly the rear triangle took a more modern rear wheel with a 9sp cassette no problem. And the derailleur surprised me and shifts fine with the 11-34 cassette. The seat looked terrible but the leather cover was intact so I cleaned it and have been feeding it neatsfoot oil. It's a Terry Buzz Off and seems to still have some life in it. If it rides OK, I'll keep it. The aged look fits the frame condition. Basically I got it in good enough shape to ride safely and evaluate. Our rain seems to have cleared up so I'll take it out for a ride tomorrow and decide if its a keeper or not. Anyway, that's what I've been working on.

Prowler 

^^^^^^^^. Where did you get that bottle cage sized for a champagne bottle? Can you pop the cork while riding no hands?

jamesdak 

Yesterday I got around to swapping out the new and instantly failing Vredestein latex inner tubes I had installed in the Pacenti with butyl ones. Both of these has splits on the inside of the inner tubes despite there being no problem with the rim tape.

retlaw53 

LOL- We appreciate that you're keeping the disease and pestilence to yourself

Dean51 

Built this wheel yesterday. Building wheels is one of my first-favorite things to do.

Dean

2569E593-3BF3-43B9-BA7E-5E6DEC868F23

RCMoeur 

Hey, Pestilence is only one of the Four Wheelmen of the Apocalypse. Probably rides a all-black Sikk with hi-rise bars.

Jay Turberville

I 3D printed it. I live in the Phoenix , AZ metro area (Fountain Hills), and our summers are hot. I don't like warm water. Freezing bottles is unreliable. Ice doesn't last. So I use double walled vacuum bottles of various types. They keep drinks nice and cold. That means that I need custom holders. They aren't stylish. But I got over worrying about style a while back. :^)

RCMoeur 

I fully understand where you're coming from. Most of my bikes have a minimum of 3 bottle cages for those blazing summer rides, with typically one or more sized for a 24 oz vacuum bottle. On my current ride, I'm using a two-place Tallac (as discussed elsewhere in BF) where the inside position handles that bottle type well.

Jay Turberville

Yeah. I started with the typical 17oz size that often do fit well in a standard water bottle cage. But for longer rides I wanted to carry more. So I went to the 25oz bottles. I may end up going back to 17oz bottles and conventional cages for this bike. They can look nice when painted to match the bike. I guess I car about style a little bit actually.

I also 3D print bottle toppers so that I can drink one handed. 3D printing isn't exactly food safe. So I'll soak these in hydrogen peroxide from time to time and eventually will toss them. They last longer with water only bottles.

.

ascherer 

Starting to build up the Schwinn Approved tubular wheels for my Paramount. Opinions vary as to who manufactured them, my take is that it’s likely they are Super Champion Arc en Ciels. In any event, wheel building is one of the most satisfying bicycle maintenance processes for me. I built my first wheel in 1972.

Bergz

My wife and I don't do any Christmas celebrations or observations and haven't done for over 40 years...




As it's a quiet day I usually go for a ride but the weather was cold, overcast and threatening rain. I built a couple of wheels instead. "New" back wheel from salvaged parts for this Rocky Mountain Blizzard, Reynolds steel frame, that I intend to resell shortly.
I used this home made dishing gauge. Very crudely made but works perfectly. Has a threaded rod epoxied into the center of the wood with a threaded sleeve with a center hole to accommodate different OLD. The threaded rod is Titanium! salvaged from a junk full suspension bike pivot.
Earlier I had cleaned and overhauled these 2 Suntour Cyclone derailleurs for sale. I drove out one of the roll pins on the RD to enable thorough cleaning and lubrication. A quick polish and listed. Already sold!

VintageSteelEU

Nice and peaceful day, but I'd like to go for a photo ride tomorrow, first time since the beginning of November, so had to carry on with the maintenance. Took the wheels off, cleaned them and put on the truing stand. They were actually surprisingly OK and didn't need much attention. In all fairness, I could probably spend more time with them, but decided they are good enough. Mavic MA40 rims are holding up surprisingly well for their age.
Changing the bottom bracket to one with a correct spindle length did sort out indexing. At least with the Acera derailleur. After putting RD-6208 back on the bicycle again it became obvious that unfortunately, that one is too worn out.There's significant play in the upper pivot bolt and a bit in the lower one, so until I manage to find one that's in a good mechanical shape, I decided to put on an RD-6500 I had in the parts bin. Not much of a looker and only component on the bicycle that's not from the mid-80's, but shifts well and gets the bicycle back on the road.
Found out my front mudguard mounting system went loose, so had to get it mounted behind the fork crown. I use to put them inside the steerer with small modifications, Gilles Berthoud mudguard-style as it allows for the mudguard to wrap nicely around the tyre without leaving big gaps, but need to figure out some more robust mudguard mounting system. Let's hope the weather is OK tomorrow, will be nice to get back on the bicycle after 2 months.
I think I will sent the frame to be fixed (it's missing one of the BB shell cable guides), perhaps add some rack mounting points and get it repainted in a few months. As much as I like the original paint, time and previous owners didn't treat it kindly and I think I'd rather the frame surived the next 40 years with new paintjob than perish to rust.

Homemade and crude mudguard mounting system

Should have polished this thing

Jay Turberville

^^^^^^^------ There's something about plain polished bike parts that I've always enjoyed aesthetically.

VintageSteelEU

The derailleur above was quite scuffed, so it got some sandpaper treatment to sort the scuff marks out a bit. I think originally they were clear anodised. I didn't finish polishing it, because I consider it to be disposable and have no use and interest in anything newer than late 80's. All the drivetrain components (and the brakes) on this bicycle are Shimano 600EX, so eventually it will get replaced by RD-6208. If I ever find a little used one at a price I'm willing to pay
Anodising looks good when it's new, but give it a couple of years (at best) in the rain, salt, grime and frost and it will always ends up looking like rubbish and can't really be touched up. Personally I prefer older parts without anodising, because you can polish them and they will look fantastic. Sure, you might have to do it every now and then, but I'm totally up for that. Not always easy with derailleurs, because most of them can't be taken apart. One thing to love about Huret Success: it can be dismantled (though it's titanium, so doesn't require polishing, but at least all the gunk can be cleaned out properly). I think it was also possible to dismantle some model of late Superbe. Something I wish more manufacturers were doing.
Anyhow, many parts I have on the bicycles were purchased pre-owned and not necessarily pre-loved. And when it's not always possible to make them look "like new", it's amazing to see how some proper cleaning and a bit of polishing / buffing paste can make a lot of difference. Whereas I'm not hell-bent on having everything shiny, I still like the bicycle to function and look like a bicycle, not something dragged out from landfill

BTinNYC 

Reamed a Peugeot UO-8 ~22mm oval seat tube to 22.2mm and round. I chamfered the binder slot so the cutters don't catch, chapeau to Andrew R Stewart for that tip.

VintageSteelEU

Finally took the old girl for a ride today. Immediately found out that mounting the mudguard behind the fork crown is no good. Firstly, the mounting plate was touching the bottom headset cup and turning was nigh on impossible. Had to bend the plate back. And then I heard the clunking noise from the mudguard. So that's something to revisit when I have a moment to manufacture some better solution to put it back into steerer tube. Derailleur got a once over with a rotary tool and abrasive brush end and looks a bit better. One day I'll have to take it down and actually polish it properly. But it works great, after some adjustments on the road indexing works as it should both ways under load. I tried to avoid changing the bar tape, because I do like cotton one, but after the ride decided to bite the bullet finally. All is ready for return to service. One conclusion I came to is that I should probably look for slightly bigger frames or switch to longer, non-vintage seatposts. This is 56.5 cm, my other bicycle is 59 (measured to the top edge of the seat lug) and 59 feels better. Sure thing, the frame geometry is slightly different, but if I have the seatpost and stem extended to maximum, I guess I should just use a frame with a longer seat tube instead. Well, something to condsider when buying another frame.
On the bright side, first ride since the injury went well and that means I can safely go back to daily cycling.