J.Higgins 

I'll post them in C&V or CABE and give you a holler!

J.Higgins 

Had some time today to work in the shop. The Kolumbia Klunker is starting to take shape.

Pressing in the headset.



I later took that headset out and installed a chrome headset.



Lucky 7 sprocket



No headbadge yet. Waiting for the correct-size U-Drive pins to arrive. Maybe tomorrow.



Waiting for my spokes to come in, and then I'll build the wheels.

SquidPuppet

Uh oh. I think I'm feeling a wave of sadness. Where did the original fork go?

J.Higgins 

I still have it, SP. Its been powdercoated. One mustn't use the stock fork on a real klunker, right? That just wouldn't be klunker korrectness!

SquidPuppet

I suppose.

Is that the VO handlebar?

J.Higgins 

Its the Emgo Scrambler bar from Dennis Kirk. W-I-D-E!

J.Higgins 

I stumbled upon it, and I just HAD to have it.

https://www.denniskirk.com/599848.sk...ad=45713337637



I like how wide it is.

J.Higgins 

Got the bigger size U-drive screws today. Found a nice NOS badge on the Bay of e.

Rollfast

AS a CABER, no, please don't


We have enough parts over there to do whatever they need

Rollfast

Please go ahead, No Control, this is an excellent build thread.

SquidPuppet

January 9th, 2018.

I'm waiting......

J.Higgins 

Ah!

I was hoping to produce something today, but I made a serious goof ordering spokes and got the wrong size. I'm working on them right now, cutting and rethreading.

J.Higgins 

What's the old adage? One photo is worth a thousand excuses? Maybe I just made that up.


...maybe I didn't!

Its been hell here ever since Christmas. The storms have wreaked havoc on my property. Lightning struck my well, and fried the pump, wiring and controller. I had the well company here on Christmas Eve day to install new pump and gear. The bill came to $5800. Merry effin Christmas!

The heavy snows caved in my barn. An unspeakable loss, especially the two-dozen or so bikes I had in there. I've been clearing the rubble and pulling what I can out of the wreckage. Good thing my homeowners insurance is paid up. Twenty-five years we've lived here and never made a claim. The time is nigh.

Well as I mentioned before, the spokes I got in were too long. My bad. Poor calculating on my part, plus having these distractions, its a mess. So I've been cutting spokes and rolling new threads with the Hozan. Its not a Moritomi or a Phil Wood machine, but it does the job.



Here is my layout, ready to spoke up the front wheel... again.



I have to do it this way now or I forget what I'm doing. The results of traumatic brain injury from a motorcycle wreck 10 years ago. I have to develop OCD habits in order to keep things straight. I used to be able to lace up a wheel in 10 minutes. Not now.

J.Higgins 

Thats fascinating, actually. Its very interesting what the brain decides it can do or cannot do, and how it compensates for any shortcomings. Its a remarkable thing, really. My long-term memory is spot on. I'll yank something out of the past that will amuse and amaze my wife, but I cant remember your name 5 minutes after you tell me.

SquidPuppet

That is really weird. And yes, fascinating.

J.Higgins 

Here's the Shimano CB-E110 hub, all shiny and new. I did the brake-pads chamfer and the extra ball-bearings mod, along with hi-temp grease. Chances are I'll be doing more kruzin' than klunkin' on this Kolumbia, but it'll be knice to know I kan.



DT spoke washers. Its a good idea if you want the CB-E110 hub to be strong and last long.





Laced up and tensioning it properly. I dropped my old tensiometer on the floor so I decided to buy one from Park.

SquidPuppet

Cool. We're moving along.

You converted the hub to loose balls? How did you determine the correct number of balls? There is a reason I ask.

J.Higgins 

Hey, Squid.

There's only a need to upgrade the drive-side bearings, since there's relatively less stress and heat-buildup on the non-drive side. There are seven (7) 1/4" balls, and nine (9) 7/32" balls on the drive side, and you can add (3) and (6) balls to these respectively. Obviously, the cage has to go. I just removed the caged assembly and inserted fresh balls in both spots.

I followed the advice from this guy: :: COASTER CULTURE :: COASTER BRAKE BIKES CULTURE

Seriously though, I've replaced ball bearings in hundreds of bike hubs not to mention blow bearings in industrial machinery, all my life. After a while, you don't even think about it and just do it. If you need to make this mod to a different coaster brake, or even replace loose bearings in a hub, its all a matter of feel. You want the balls evenly-pressed into the race, and evenly-spaced apart - not too tight - no big gaps. You get the feel for what will work after a bit.

SquidPuppet

OK, I suspected you might have followed his gig. Open up the drive side when you have a chance. Look real close. He uses too many balls in both sets. In order for them to not be bunched tightly together, you have to position them too high in the cup. The gaps between the balls looks right, but they are now too high, and aren't rolling in the track they are supposed to be in, in the cup or on the cone. You can check this by placing a retainer set in the cup and measure the outer diameter of the circle that the balls form. Make a note of how deeply they rest in the cup. Now smear some grease on a piece of cardboard and make a circle using 15 balls. Measure that circle to compare.

When I did it his way the hub parts went together OK, and it felt OK in my hands, which is odd. But on the bike it wouldn't hold an adjustment for more than a mile. Anyway, it's worth looking at to satisfy yourself that you've got it right and that Squid is a loon, or that fewer makes a better fit.

J.Higgins 

So do you think 14 balls would be acceptable without too much space between them?

SquidPuppet

For sure! And one less under the driver as well.

If you pull one ball out and use a pick or whatever your favorite tool is for arranging loose balls, you'll see how they all just kinda relax and say "Ahhh" and fall into their happy place. Did you notice that when you were placing the balls it took some gymnastics to get them all into position, and stay put? I sure did. And that's what caused me to investigate. I think I read in Sheldon's writings that when replacing caged ball with loose balls that the minimum total leftover gap (what would remain if you pushed all the balls into contact with one another) would be a space equal to the size of a ball.

The rule that I was taught is "One too few is always better than one too many. Full minus one." Or, "If you can only fit one more, don't, it's already perfect. If you can't fit another in, take one out, it's already too full."

As you know, it's best if the balls are separated by grease and don't roll against each other because they roll in opposite directions where they would touch each other. Gap is GOOD.

.

J.Higgins 

Being a man, I always thought that the loss of a ball would be too traumatic to bear.

Seriously, Brother, I'll try it. Thanks for your advice.

J.Higgins 

This takes me back. My very first after-school job was working in an old Raleigh shop up in Maine (1972). There was an old geezer there who was the mechanic. He had some old ways, which being just a kid; I thought were crazy at the time. Now I still practice some of his old methods.

SquidPuppet

Do an experiment. Remove one testicle, push all the remaining testicles together, leaving a gap at one area, put the cone in place, and see if it will rock.

J.Higgins 

Did it. Worked excellent!

Here's the bike so far. I finished the wheels this morning. I've been fiddling about with the Park Tool wheel tension app, and I'm convinced that its fluff and a waste of time. I say that because if you use the a tension gauge then you already know the status of the wheel, and how well it'll perform. Fluff. The only way to use it properly is to use a P&K Lie stand, which is so awesome you'll never need the app anyway. Okay, sorry for the rant. /rant







The pics are rather dark, and for that I apologize. I need a better camera and the skills to use it. Or... maybe Austin Powers to take the pics for me? "Yeah! Yeah Yeah, Baby! Aaaaaand I'm spent." *tosses the camera*

Next up is making a seatpost. I buggered the old one pretty bad just taking it out. I've got some precision-ground rod that will do very nicely.