Rocky Gravol

There's some really nice bikes doing this challenge.

Rocky Gravol

Thanks.
It's hard to ride anywhere in Seattle without either climbing, descending or both.

On the ride, my front wheel was wobbling because the cones were loose.
So I pulled into a LBS and asked if he would tighten up my cones.
After I told him about The Clunker Challenge, he laughed, said what a great idea,
and no charge.

ollo_ollo

Wow! This challenge is shaping up as the best ever. Been off BF, busy with wife's care and missed the beginning completely. She's doing better now and I got caught up on the challenge this morning.

I picked up a potential entry last Fall, a 1995 Schwinn Moab. In Clunker territory at $80. But, the dreary, wet season was just beginning and I needed workshop time, Might be to busy in Summer for the challenge, so decided to go ahead and make it into a nice cruiser. This quickly put me over the $100 limit, but turned out nicer than expected. Shortly later, another candidate popped up on CL, 1991 Gary Fisher Montare for only $35. I went ahead with it also and when finished, rode them each for much more than the 100 km, so this will be a sort of prologue to the current challenge.

Need to take wife to supermarket right now, so more this evening.With Pics & a cost breakdown. Don

edit: First pics are the as found/before. Closeup shows their general condition before clean/lube/re-build. Will post current pics tomorrow.


Edit: Today the Schwinn is a good looking, comfortable Winter rider. Only negative is it turned out so pretty, I almost always ride the Montare when weather is really bad. Found a really bright LED tail light that fits the fender curve perfectly.

The Montare climbs like no other Mountain bike I've ridden. It handles well on trails, but I try to keep my speed down on descents, doesn't feel as stable as the Schwinn going fast down hill on city streets. The Vetta leather covered saddle was very comfortable. It looks like a stubby, overstuffed Turbo and I found one on e-Bay that was almost unused, so now only use the beat one in bad weather or on trails.

Cost breakdown: Schwinn cost $80 + Bar Tape scraps Free + Continental Sport Contact road tires $28 + co-op fenders $15 + co-op saddle $5 + (eBay)Spanninga taillight $21.24 = $149.24

Montare cost $35 + NOS Deore XT left shifter $9.99 + New Grips $11 + Used fenders from co-op Free + crummy, used clamp-nuts & bent fender stays from my junk drawer Free + used Vetta saddle from co-op $5 = $60.99 (later found same model Vetta in VG condition on eBay for $25.20 so will be $81.19 when it replaces the beat up one.) Don

Slightspeed

I've got two possibilities. I was thinking about a $20 '78 Super Course frame and bits, but it needs quite a lot of stuff. Then, on the way home from Eroica, I lucked into an "Italian deal I couldn't refuse". A nice BF member had contacted me about offering me a $50 Legnano Gran Premio. I stopped by on the way home, we pumped up the 20 year old tires, and I rode it down the block. Definitely worth $50. So far I've spent another $23 for a nearly new looking set of Balilla brakes. On my first neighborhood ride, after returning home, and trying to adjust fit on a frame that is a little small, something fell off two blocks from home. It was the rear brake frame mounting nut. The threaded shaft looks too short, and the threads are damaged, so I went for the nice shiny newish brake set. Everything else looks serviceable and seems to work, but needs a good cleaning and grease. Do used tires from my stash count, since I don't really trust the 20 year old clinchers?


$20 Super Course as found.

As it now sits with parts stash wheels tires, seat post and derailleurs + $35 for Crank, $10 brake levers. Still needs shifters and cables. $65 total so far.

$50 Legnano GP, as bought.

1st time to deal with a cottered crank.

Problem brake mounting.

Original brakes, top, and $23 Ebay shiny ones, below. $73 total investment, so far.

Campagnolo Gran Turismo, another new experience for me.

"Clunkers" can still be shiny.😎

Mr. 66

I found some wheels for the Kazama, Sunshine large flange round hole. Hubs like these were supplied on the Sekai 4000. The rims are Ukrainian.

Dont be fooled by the barnacles these are smooth rollers.

Slightspeed

I got the $50 Legnano out on the road today on a 13.5 mile post office run - the long way. I really enjoyed the ride. I also have a Roma Olympiade in a larger 56cm frame. The Gran Premio feels very quick and lively, where my Roma really hauls on the flats, but doesn't feel as quick to accelerate. Might be gearing, though they are geared pretty similar. Not a fan of down tube shifters. I've gone from zero to two this year. My other bikes are either bar cons, or integrated brifters. These seem a little tight, but I haven't touched them to clean or lube them.

One thing, this frame is a little smaller than I'm used to. I don't see any minimum insertion marks on either the Campy alloy seat post, or the Ambrosio stem. Is there a general rule of thumb as to how much to leave in the frame as you raise them?

I added a set of $10 SPD pedals from a co-op, so I'm up to $83 total now and 13.5 miles toward the 100Km. Money well spent. I love this bike.

At the post office - never let the bike out of my sight. Too much invested in it now,

Checking out how it handles dirt.

How do you price a used pair of 28 Gators from the used parts bin? If its more than $5 a piece I'm nearly done.

ollo_ollo

Good thinking to pass on that Raleigh as it might be hard to stay under $100. We've been counting replacement tires, but I can sometimes get NOS tires for $5 at our co-op, so if yours are used, but still good, probably $2? Grease (elbow & from a can) isn't counted. Some free scraps of bar foam plus a clean/lube adjust and your in business Don

Slightspeed

Thanks. I'm not a bar spongy foam guy, but I left in on till I'm finished with the greasy cleaning part. I saved a couple rolls of faded red cloth tape. It was used on two other bikes, so I think I've amortized the $5 swap meet price over the years. Closing in on $90 Total, and pretty much done spending. This Legnano was a lucky find ... almost too easy. It's also a great riding bike. Wish the frame was a little larger. Still dealing with fit issues. Maybe a big pillow on the saddle so I can fully extend my legs. 😀

Rocky Gravol

When I first started to ride my dirty rusty clunker, it was kind of cool, that I could
just leave it, without locking it up. Even the tweekers left it alone.
but now, even with minimum money but blood and sweat invested.

I'm locking it up now.

GrainBrain

It's a cold and rainy weekend here, and I snagged a baby sitter for my kiddo. It's off to the co-op I go for some clunker wrenching!

Started pulling everything off and cleaning it up. Popped the chain and tossed it away. It wasn't in terrible shape, marked "D.I.D". Still wondering if I should just give it a WD-40 bath, it's just gummed up with ancient oil more then rust. Then again for $10 the shop has brand new SRAM chains with quick links. Hmm.



Pulled apart the Suntour V-GT Lux RD and wiped it down. Figured out how to remove the lower jockey wheel, but couldn't remove the upper. I got the cage separated from the body but the pivot shaft wasn't coming off and I nearly wrecked it in a vice. So I stepped away from the vice and managed to clean it up well enough. A good dose of WD-40 and TriFlow had it spinning smooth and I got it all back together. I feel like I set the spring tension correctly on the cage, there's good tension, I hope not too much. We'll see.
I then moved to the bottom bracket. Removal of the crank went very smooth. This Sugino Maxy crankset is sooooo light! Lighter than my Shimano tricolor crankset was for sure! At first I thought it was me but a few other people came up and commented on it as well. The manager quipped "The small ring is bigger then any of my largest rings on my bikes" A ridiculous 54/48. There's absolutely no wear on the small ring!(!?) The bottom bracket came off smoothly, I couldn't get the adjustable side to turn at first, so I removed the fixed cup and then the adjustable cup came out with just my fingers. The spindle was just marked 5S (a date stamp?) and there was hardly any wear. Cleaned and relubed, I reinstalled and adjusted my first bottom bracket. I reinstalled the drive side crank arm as well, so that I could find that sweet spot of just-no-play in the spindle. Nice and smooth. Nothing tough, but for my OCD sanity I'll stick with cartridge BB's for my daily riders!
On to the wheelset, I had no trouble removing the freewheel. It was smooth running and freewheeled like new, smartly clicking away. A Suntour Perfect. I moved on to repacking the hubs. I picked away the old grease that was like ear wax, wiped clean and relubed. I was disappointed and confused to see a little more wear then I expected on the cones. No pitting or brinelling but some scoring. It seems maybe this was ridden briefly at some point midway in its life (like the 90s!!??). Another moment of confusion came when I realized the front hub was missing a ball on one side. No way it fell out on me, it had to have been like this from the factory. Or maybe this was maintenanced once in its life? Either way the co-op had plenty of stock to grab another.
Speaking of plenty of stock, I swapped my Suntour dork disk for another, mint Suntour dork disk. The co-op had a WHOLE box of them, and I wasn't charged a cent. Imagine that
Wheels repacked I checked them for trueness. The front was fine, but oddly the rim had one spot where both sides bumped in slightly - like maybe Andre the Giant squeezed the heck out of the front brakes? The rear was slightly out of tru. Having successfully trued a wheel once in my life over a year ago, I asked Tim the co-op tech how it's done. He gave great advice and briefly showed me the method. I spent ten minutes and had a wheel just slightly worse then when I started. Exasperated I called out for help, and with a blur of motion Tim had the wheel spinning perfectly smooth in literally 20 seconds. I swear he did nothing different then me, but I digress.
On to the headset, and a little surprise. A Tange fork! Marked 5E. Then more disappointment as the headset races were heavily worn it seems. At least the wear was even, and the headset felt smooth before I pulled it apart. Consistent with the excess wear on the wheel cones, perhaps this was just adjusted too tight from the shop new?
So now it's the end of day one at the shop. I'll be back again today to finish the build. Initially I was going to put on the Tektro levers I got from a box of bike parts, but looking at my budget and the disappointing wear on the bike I may just lop off the suicide levers and reuse the original levers. I'll also probably reuse the original Suntour metal shift cable housing as it's in great shape!(!?) Still will put on new tires - maybe new tubes? I should do new but the old tubes also look really great.

Potential budget shake down at this point:
$30 - new tires
$6 - new tubes
$10 - new chain
$15 - new brake housing/shift and brake cables
---
$61 plus the $33 for the bike and bar tape have me close to the allowed budget at $94. With Iowa's 7% sales tax this figure is actually $98.27 so maybe I'll put used tires on or reuse the tubes. I kind of want to try flipping this for $100 though so new is a good selling point.

GrainBrain

That's awesome! You'll probably have more climbing footage in 30 kilometers then I'll do in 100! Nice job showing MM who's in charge

Mr. 66

In full hobo as purchased
This looks like it could be fun to tangle with, or untangle if you're looking at the cobwebs.

Wienman, AVA, Campy, Nervar, Lyotard, Maillard, all the usual suspects

ryansu

Full Hobo good one @Mr. 66 nice find and very appropriate for this challenge.

dweenk

I managed 26km this week, so I am at 94km. Tomorrow looks like a good day to ride, so I should be able to complete the challenge, but I would like to find a taller Suntour Supurbe seat post. I have been stretching the limits of what is safe on this 250mm post.

RandolphCarter

OK, jumping back in to this thread after getting ready for vacation, then 10 days of vacation, then unpacking.

Bikes are still sitting untouched where I left them, but the generous amounts of rain washed lots of crud off of them:








The red bike in front is a Guide Series Lakota, the pink bike is a Kent Starlite, and the black\dark green one in the back is a Techtra Sports Durango.

I grabbed the pink 20 inch bike for parts and will probably scrap the frame and fork.

So, are the two mountain bikes beater challenge eligible? Let's get out the checklist!

Guide Series Lakota:
source\cost - pulled out of roadside trash pile, only cost was my time.
steel frame? Check. Possibly cast iron.
steel rims? Check.
steel hubs? Check. Bonus of solid axles for extra road-holding weight.
steel seat post? Check.
steel stem? Check.
steel handlebars? Check. decomposing foam grips add that special touch.
steel brake set? Check. No brand either.
steel square tapered cranks? Check.
Also has Shimano SIS 3 ring front \ 5 cog rear gearing. Haven't scraped away the goop yet to reveal what freewheel is on this thing. This is the most low-end set of Shimano components I've ever seen.

Style bonus: plastic clip on holders for an old-school style frame pump.

All cables work, looks like it just needs some general cleaning and adjustment to get back in service. But dear lord is this thing a boat anchor. Heavy, soulless, and unresponsive. I humbly submit that it is feasible to petition for a negative fair market value if this gets ridden for 100km.

Techtra Sports Durango:
source\cost - pulled out of roadside trash pile, only cost was my time.
frame - Main tubes are 4130 CrMo.
Alloy hubs and rims, several spokes rusted to failure. QR front, solid rear.
stuck alloy seat post? Check.
steel stem? Check.
steel handlebars? Check. Includes completely seized up GripShift controllers.
Also has Shimano Deore brakes and derailleurs. 3 ring front \ ?? cog rear gearing. (forgot to count). Also don't know if it is a cassette or freewheel.

Bonus: No cables work.

Added bonus: bottom bracket completely seized up also.

So, fair market value for the Durango, let's say $20.

Good thing beer is budget-exempt, the amount required to persuade me either of these heaps is a good idea would easily put me over the top.

mrv 

“Can I be a LowSide, please?
$20 donation to the church youth heading to ASP - Appalachia Service Project - this 48lb Ross.
Tires seem to hold air.
Gonna strip it down to the bare minimum for 100km of riding.
Long term I’m envisioning a Surly LowSide.
I think the seat is broken....

Classtime 

I have a few more kilometers to do on my Clunker Alpina S7.5 and I've been riding my Alpina Team on some scary-for-me-trails while frequenting the Mtbr.com and this pops up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofrW...ature=youtu.be
It is a bike shops version of the clunker challenge. 50 dollar CL MTBs and they race them up a MTB trail and down another one. Fast forward through it and see what they can do on the downhill sections. Pretty amazing on 50 dollar bikes instead of 50 hundred dollar bikes. Warning!!! The bikes are abused.

Mr. 66

A night rider!

Rocky Gravol

Tonight my friends were laughing at my crappy tires.

Then in all seriousness, said "dude, don't ride to fast on those".

Schreck83 

I wasn't following this thread until I found a $10 frame on CL a few days ago. Then I thought, no way can I fit it out for $90.



The first challenge is French threading and the missing adjustable BB cup. The LBS that parted this out may still have the BB, seatpost and stem, but...
The second challenge is my inability to drive (or pedal) due to a recent knee replacement. I'm going to need all 100 days for this challenge!
After a few minutes poking around my shop, I think I see a path forward.

Random Tandem

1978 Raleigh Tourist DL-1 Update:

I wrangled the rod brakes and found used 40-635 tires, so we are go for launch!

It seems that front rod brakes are all but universally incorrectly installed as noted in this "before" photo:
First, perhaps you are not aware that rod brakes are terribad; at least if you are interested in stopping. Apparently, the great innovation of front rod brakes was the short linkage that moves the brake shoe away from the harness that is pulled up when the brake levers are pulled. You can see it in the photo above, where it is installed to extend the brake shoe forward from the fork, which results in the unusual "benefit" of increasing the stopping power when traveling in reverse (this bike does not have a reverse gear). No doubt this common, yet stupid, installation was done because installing it under the fork is a hassle (I had to remove the fender, and curse a little).

However, it was designed to be installed so that the brake shoe was extended toward the rear of the bike (therefore, under the fork). The benefit of this design is that when you apply the brake the forward movement of the top of the rim forces the brake shoe into the rim and increases braking power. I corrected the installation, as shown below:
If you are concerned that a braking system that mechanically increases the braking force with speed of riding could have unhappy results, to which I just need to tell you that rod brakes are terribad and the bike weighs at least 38lbs - no increase in mechanical advantage (other than a stick through the front spokes) will cause the rear tire to leave the pavement. With the rod brakes corrected and adjusted so that stopping was possible, if unlikely, I continued on my quest.

Happily, I found a pair of used, Chinese manufactured 40-635 tires and tubes at US$7 for the pair, and I installed a vintage sprung leather saddle (purchased last fall for US$4), rubber block pedals (made in West Germany, bought used for US$4), and a genuine Britainium pump (unable to get tires fully to pressure, but only US$2). Resulting in this beautiful result:

The Sturmey Archer AW IGH, trigger shifter and its original cable all still function without complaint. So I am off and rolling toward my 100km goal. Over the weekend I rode 71.25km. Not great on hills - 38lbs and very tall gearing on the uphill and a faith-based braking system on the way down, but that what does not kill me makes me stronger (I think I might have repeated that more this weekend than most).

The total investment is US$92:
Bike US$75
Tires and Tubes: US$7
Saddle: US$4
Pedals: US$4
Frame pump: US$2
Getting rod brakes to stop you before you roll through a major intersection at the bottom of the hill: Priceless

-Will

rustystrings61 

That just may be the best description of the rod brake experience I have ever read. My sole cycling collision in a near 50 year career involved a 1978 Raleigh Tourist DL-1. For future reference, when your rod brake bike has been locked up in the outdoor rack and a wintry mix weather attempt occurs, it is amazing just how much ice can accumulate on your rims. Rod brakes and iced-over rims and stopping power do not belong in the same sentence. Fortunately, I was going slowly when I struck the bumper of the car in front of me that was waiting for the light, and the only result was a fiercely dirty look from somebody's grandma.

Mr. 66

Cleaning up nicely the Headset is intact, the stem is not cracked at the stress riser. The forks needed a smudge of adjustment. Going good!

fleslider 

Very nice late Pro Tour! looks to be a 1983 Model

Random Tandem

Oh no! I thought that 1978 was a good year! I am pretty sure that I would not consider any rod-brake bike anything other than a fair weather rider. I would rather ride with coaster brakes in the rain. I heard that Raleigh only stopped making the DL-1 after complaints from grumpy grandmas.

-Will