AeroGut

Kurt,
Here are pics of chainrings. Let me know if they'll work for you. First one is 38t, other two are 40t. All are 110BCD, but middle one has smaller bolt holes than normal. All three could use some cleaning up.

cudak888 

Quick update: Thanks to AeroGut, uncleivan, and unworthy1, I now have more chainrings than I know what to do with and two seatposts - including an American Classic that fits like butter!

Took these pictures Friday evening after a fair amount of wrenching:



Chainrings are 38, 39, and 40t now, though I've discovered that the super short track drops on these bikes are going to require me to install a half link in every chain in order for the axle not to interfere with the chain tensioner Oh well.







That leaves one 26.8 seatpost, two sets of pedals, three sets of half links, and one set of 650C tubes left to get these completed. That, and I need to figure out a kickstand too.

Wish I could adapt the dual-leg kickstands I have here from SPIN, but there's no kickstand plate, and not even a chainstay bridge. Was thinking of the Pletscher chainstay sandwich with plastic inserts - might actually do the trick without ruining the tubing: https://www.rivbike.com/products/ple...nt=23336090241 - anyone have experience with these inserts?




Pretty pleased with the progress - though now that I have five retired JUMP e-bikes here, I've got to get the Velo-Yellows done and back to the office - shed is at max capacity now

-Kurt

cudak888 

I haven't done much on these due to the pandemic, but finally worked out a kickstand solution that wouldn't break the bank.



The experiment was done on bike #3 - the roughest of the lot, cosmetically, which is why I chose it for the test.

It's still missing a saddle, pedals, and tubes, but @RobertUI recently hooked me up with a seatpost for it. I also put on some Dura-Ace 7800 brakes on it from the parts bin.



Since the Pletscher kickstand plate would have NEVER fit between the BB and the wheel, an axle mounted kickstand was the only option (I tried a few chainstay clamp types and was not impressed with any of them). Unfortunately, every single modern design I came across in my travels was designed for vertical dropouts, with a few exceptions in the stamped-steel junk category, which wouldn't do. There was Wald's boat anchor (that long ago had the all-important chainstay centering tabs deleted from its design), and the pricey Hebie AX, but neither were a good fit.

I wound up testing and modifying a fairly basic generic, quick-release style axle kickstand from Amazon. I could have drilled it to fit the nutted axle, but I didn't want the lower bolt's position to be dependent on the axle position - so I drilled two holes ahead of the axle on the dropout/rear facing end.





The kickstand was clearanced at the back so the axle could be slid as far forward in the dropout as possible, if necessary. This is what it looked like before I hacked into it:




These drops aren't soft steel, incidentally - they're a pain to drill.



I also discovered that there's no way the chain will work with this ring combo without putting a half-link in it though. Those rear facing ends are on the short side and give precious little room for adjustment.

As it is now, the axle washer contacts the side of the chain tensioner. This is with the chain quite slack (refer to the first photo), so the actual tensioned position of the axle is further back than what you see here.



-Kurt

RobertUI 

So happy I could contribute to this! I wasn't aware of this thread until after our trade, but now I'm totally enthralled. BTW, I have a fairly ugly set of brakes that may work for this build, they are yours (freebie) if you want them. I believe they are Shimano Exage (were on a Trek road bike that had been mostly dismanted) and were painted poorly prior to me. The black comes off with a well applied fingernail, so they'd likely clean up pretty well. I've also (supposedly) got another set of chrome calipers coming to me (105 knock-offs I think) that I'd be happy to pass along as well.

cudak888 

That's very kind of you, but there's a pair of those exact calipers on bike #2, meaning all three bikes have calipers now.

Admittedly, I've yet to get them to perform well. If I can find a pair of cheap dual pivots along the way, I'll probably swap them.

However, if you come across any folding pedals or kid's-sized saddles, let me know. Ditto for half-links.

-Kurt

RobertUI 

In theory, these will be coming to me, and aren't of use to me (I didn't think I'd win the auction, and bought what I needed first). The tracking seems to be stuck at the seller's home post office, and the seller's unresponsive, so I'm a little leary. Anyway, if they arrive, I will gladly send them along! I'm not holding my breath, as the seller created a listing the following day with the same pictures.

cudak888 

Thread tangent: I picked up twoStowabike V2 folding bikes out of a neighbor's trash a few days ago for parts. These things had never been ridden and were as crappy as Wal-Mart bikes get - but they each donated one exceptionally redeeming part: Their seatpost quick release levers.

Unlike most of these el-cheapo external-cam Q/Rs with 1/8" shafts, these have 1/4" shafts which fit the seatlug ears of the Velo-Yellows perfectly. I'm not usually a fan of external cam Q/R's, but these won't damage the seatstay caps - which are already pretty hammered from the internal-cam Q/Rs that were on it before. Plus, they work really well. If I could find one more, that'd be this issue solved.



Given what you say about the seller creating another listing, I don't think they'll ever get to you - but if you're offering them, they'd happen to work really well. Let me know!

-Kurt

cudak888 

I'm waiting on a Kalloy post to arrive for the third bike, but these three are otherwise done.

I've named them after three staff members - past and present - who've been influential leaders within our programs. A nice touch for Womens' History Month, I think.





I also designed a C&V-style seattube panel sticker to give thanks to the fellow forum members who made these possible.







Tagging everyone who helped contribute. Will do it twice as I'm not sure which method still works with the current forum glitches:

unworthy1 @unworthy1
AeroGut @AeroGut
xiaoman1 @xiaoman1
Mad Honk @Mad Honk
uncleivan @uncleivan
Iowegian @Iowegian
tricky @tricky
cooperryder @cooperryder
rhm @rhm
RobertUI @RobertUI
ThermionicScott @ThermionicScott
TimmyT @TimmyT
chainwhip @chainwhip

-Kurt


-Kurt

xiaoman1 

cudak888 Kurt,
Paying forward as much as you do, will bring you large dividends,....I know that is never your intent but your unselfishness is a rarity that few others have......good karma begets good karma!
Best, Ben

cudak888 

Oh, I just enjoyed building these. Bring some lugged steel into our program

If we had the room, I'd spam the entire program with Raleigh Space Riders. Now that'd be an interesting bike fleet in 2022.

-Kurt

xiaoman1 

That's what I mean......I don't know who said this but I think it applies...."We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give"
Best, Ben

uncleivan 

Very cool!

unworthy1

I'm honored to be honored! Good on ya, Kurt for doing the good work!

ThermionicScott 

Oh wow, that's really cool! I'm happy to have helped.

(This reminds me, I was going to send you something else, and then I got distracted. Keep an eye out.)

cooperryder

Outstanding and well done Kurt!

Here's hoping the riders of these bikes enjoy many great miles with smiles.

tricky 

Quite an honor to be on that list, but top honors go to you Kurt. Thanks a ton for getting these bikes that might have been scrapped into some kids hands instead.

cudak888 

Thank you, all. It would have been absolutely impossible to do this without the support of C&V.

The final seatpost looks like its on track to arrive tomorrow, which will see them finally complete after all this time. I'll do the final checks on all of them before storing them in our bike room.

With any luck, these will be deployed at some safe and outdoor events in 2022

-Kurt

cudak888 

Oh, I don't think these were going to get scrapped. Jeff at Recyclable Bicycle Exchange (where these came from) is too responsible a co-op operator to let the remaining 15 or so bikes go to the tip. He'll figure something out.

The only difficulty is that the others all have track crowns. I'm pretty sure the framebuilder of these just threw them together from spares when the lugs or crowns ran out, which is why these three happened to have the road crowns on them. Just lucky.

-Kurt

cudak888 

The seatpost arrived - bolted it in, waited for the end of the day, and took them to the local park for a few beauty shots:













-Kurt

jdawginsc 

That is so awesome! Great job sir!

cudak888 

Happy to say that these had their first event last March! They show up in the video of the event in this Twitter post YouTube link.


They turned out to be ideal for shorter adults as balance bikes (though I really felt that we could have used a camelback too - a retrofitted Raleigh Space Rider would have been perrrrfect), and our program manager and myself were delighted to see that using a lugged steel frame with 650C's actually worked really well from the standpoint of weight. The balance bike technique works best when the bike's weight isn't part of the struggle, and the lithe Velo Yellows eliminated that hurdle entirely.

However, it turns out the almost straight-back North Roads present a bit of an issue with knee clearance for older riders using these as balance bikes, so we may retrofit them with a different North Road bend that has less rearwards sweep.

-Kurt

clubman 

Nice work Kurt. Changing the world, two wheels at a time.