Classtime 

The Schwinn Impact was Boring. This Peugeot PA10E is sure to be more interesting. A local found it at the curb thinking he’d use the wheels but sold the whole package to me for $30.



Candidate for an acid bath

Hooked Weinmans.

Classtime 

I lucked out. Clunkerism would have had me riding 100mi with this stem, bars, and OG tape.

jdawginsc 

Another teacher asked for a bike since she was jealous of the other...so getting one from the porta-storage, I decided to start the process of breaking down the Fujisimo!



Yep. A bit o’rust

“I’m meltttiiiinnngggg”

I’m also melting

Wheels are decent little guys.

Powershifters, baybee!!

I am going to assume this no longer is operational

MKS Sylvans seals are cracked. Not sure how to rectify that one.


Sugino RT crankset in good shape.

Mr. 66

I agree with that statement.

rustystrings61 

I had Friday off as well as the weekend, but events conspire … so today I actually got out and rode, finally. I left from the Y again and rolled out the usual way to Dixie Drive and thence to Hodges. After a brief rest stop in the shade, I decided to push on through to Blue Jay Road, a personal favorite.



Turning off 185 onto Blue Jay is always welcoming

The view in front of the grand gentleman farmer’s place ….

… and looking the other way.

I turned left on Klugh Road, had words with a pursuing dog, then bombed down the hill. The climb up to Flat Wood Road is THE nastiest around, short but brutally steep. Even blown from that endeavor I still was grateful the climb along Flatwood to Dixie was more of a gentle slope. I survived Calhoun Road’s ever-increasing traffic and made my way back to the Y. I got in 19.6 miles/31.5 km today, bringing my total to 99.1 km - and had I realized that, I woulda worked in that little bit more!

Andy_K 

I'm starting to feel like these should be the official shifters of the Clunker Challenge. They turn up on a lot of candidate bikes.

You've got your work cut out for you cleaning up that Fuji, but it'll be worth the effort, I think.

Andy_K 

Bonus points if you get that bottle generator and tail light working and use them!

jdawginsc 

Yep. I agree. Official shifters of the CC.

I’ve been working on a few other peoples bikes (4) and then the Trek Mad Honk traded me, so I didn’t get to do a run down.

Might do a straight bar conversion if it works. The levers are obviously toast, but the derailleurs, crank, wheels, maybe tires but they are 27x 1” which might work for road, but not if I make it more of a hybrid.

Frame is not terrible, and sort of light. My first Fuji and it is Valite. Saddle is...interesting.

Thoughts on a straight bar? I’d keep the DT shifter location. It is a bit small so though that might be a good route to go.

The Nitto Olympiade bars are an odd 40cm size...which is even. Usually they were 37,39,41 if I recall? So they could be reused.

It is not a keeper.

Mr. 66

Oh freaking heck! It's supposed to be Memorial Day, it's 53' and full cloud cover. I replaced the 14-32 freewheel with a 14-28, the sickle of the rd was interfering with gear #2 28 tooth of the former. Some black posts pedals MKS have been installed, and a suede saddle of 1988 is now part of the mix.

Classtime 

the generator feels good in the hand 🤞
I’m putting the wood bleach and baking soda off budget (12 bucks for a little box of arm and hammer? Wtf?) The OA bath worked wonders on the cranks, pedals seat post, and FF.


Touch up or wax only?

Nasry

Wood bleach still only 5 bucks.

Steel is real.

Really shiny.

HazMat?

rgvg

Can I do a guest entry? I don't own this clunker. It is my brother's who I'm visiting for a few days. It scares me a little. No time to do anything to it, other than turn the handlebars down a little and adjust the rear brake so it does actually brake, and the front derailleur to get to the small ring. No way this thing is worth $108USD.



This is my home town. It is hot here right now.



There is nothing special about this spot other than this is where my dad found me after I ran away from home (on a bike naturally) after my brothers were mean to me. I must have been 6 to 10 years old at the time.


Local museum. Was my great great grandfather's house. Unfortunately the apple has fallen far from the tree and I only live in a small apartment.


Farmhand working with a water buffalo.


I did 10km this morning. Chances of catching a heatstroke are quite high, I would say.

Mr. 66

30 miles on the Schwinn
At the fort
Just above the "Corn Maze"
Completely cloudy but still a big sky day

Positron400

This is amazing! I wish I had an entry myself, as I have started to dabble in amateur bike repairs and recently built up a NOS 35+ yo PUCH Mistral frame and fork with Ultegra 2x11 and tubeless . Everytime i pass a rusty bike in my neighbourhood now, i try'n suss out it's clunker potential. Some great laughs in this thread too! thanks you lot!

Andy_K 

I've got some updates on my Centurion Elite paint project, After letting the paint dry for a week, I was finally able to do a bit of wet sanding today. I did a better job than I have before in the initial paint step, but I still had a bit of orange peel texture and a couple of runs. Here are some before and after pictures.

Chain stay before:


Chain stay after:


Top tube before:


Top tube after:


Paint run before:


Paint run after:


For most of the frame, I started with 1500 grit, followed by 2000 and 3000. For the paint runs, I went down to 600 to get the blob out, then 800, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 3000. I could probably get this even more perfect looking, but I've got limited quantities of patience, so for today at least I'm going to leave it at this.

Here's a glamor shot of the frame basking in the sunlight.



Hopefully, I'll be able to finish putting it back together by the end of the week and do some actual riding.

nlerner

Well, I sold my clunker challenge Peugeot this evening with only about 21 miles on it. My approach of life is too short to ride crappy bikes got in the way of the contest (I have ridden 323 miles in the last 7 days, just not on this bike!). But last week I did get this beat up Bridgestone MB-3 for free from a friend. Hmm.

Mr. 66

5.2 miles on the Paramount to the county court house to pick up truck tabs. I'm at 35 miles for the Schwinn.


I've also given the Bottecchia attention, I stripped the paint, which came off literally faster than the chemical application. I addressed the rust with steel wool on the areas of former paint. The frame has been placed on a set of 126 spaced wheels. Alignment has been checked, I had a very minor issue in trying to set at 120, the NDS side was pulling the brake bridge out in getting to point.



It did cold set very friendly to 126

Andy_K 

And apparently the Boston bike market is too good to keep functional bikes sitting around! My clunker from 2020 sat in my garage almost two years without being ridden until I finally came across someone asking for a free and functional bike who was willing to come get it. I had meant to find a new home for it that entire time, I just hadn't found the motivation to put in the effort.

nlerner

It’s mostly that my basement is very crowded with bikes right now (and a new frameset project arrived today!). I also figured that if this bike didn’t sell this week, I’d give it away to a tall grad student. That’ll be the next project.

rgvg

40km this morning on my brother's bike.

Sun's up.


Passed this motorcycle modified with a sidecar. That is an lpg tank on the front, and in the sidecar is an ovenlike contraption used to bake bread. Nice warm bread.




This is the view where I had breakfast.


What I ate. I would say it's a typical breakfast.


On a bridge at my turn around point.


I leave in a couple of days but I hope to get in a little more distance before I go.

Mr. 66

Starts with a rainbow.The Corn Maze grounds

The southern view from the top of Five Mile Rd


Way off is the Waulla point, and the Columbia River Gorge is below

Riding just on the edge of the cloudline.

For another 32 miles on the Paramount.

Classtime 

Reading about the jettisoned Peugeot worries me some. I plan on doing some serious commuting on my post challenge Clunker. Any Peugeot with a fork like this cannot ride crappy.


Pretty Curvaceous

rustystrings61 

I've never had a PA-10, but I've had a PR-10 and multiple PX-10s. I am interested in seeing how yours turns out - the combo of generic Peugeot tubing with forged Simplex ends and the tighter, more upright geometry could make for a fun bike. I especially like the use of Bocama model 14 type II lugs, which various makers used at different points in their product line. Peugeot used it for their cheapest semi-racer, the PA-10; Allegro used it for their full-531 tubed bikes c.1961-1974; Raleigh used them on select small number of Super Courses, mostly in 25 1/2-in, for a year or two ....

hazetguy 

I officially withdraw from this year's challenge.

Andy_K 

This was a new one to me. I went to bolt the Cyclone rear derailleur on last night, and I found that it didn't want to pivot on the mounting bolt. The bolt would turn but with a lot of resistance. So, I figured out how to remove the mounting bolt so I could check it out. I thought maybe it was missing the washer that lets it pivot smoothly (part 3 in the diagram below) or maybe it was just gunked up and needed cleaning.



When I opened it, I found that the washer was there, so I pulled it off to wipe it clean and I found another one below it. So I pulled that one off to clean it and I found another one below it. And so on. There were five of these washers in there. I don't know what the history of this was. Maybe somebody needed to replace the washer and the replacements they had were a different thickness so they used extra? The bolt did have a bit of gunk on it, but when I cleaned everything and put all the washers back it was still just as stiff as when I started. With just one washer, it pivoted easily but it felt like there was a bit of play (though maybe I just didn't get the mounting bushing -- part 4 -- tight enough). With two washers it moves freely without play.

My question is, why didn't the person who put the extra washers in there notice that it wasn't working?

zukahn1

You got it right there's supposed to be two washers a standard washer and bushing extra smooth type washer on the inside.