Mad Honk 

Working on a mobile repair stand. I had the accountant at my co-op give me a piece that looked like a display item of some sort. So I think it might work for repair stand to use away from the shop. So I pulled the part out of the truck front seat and dug out an old Pro-line speaker tripod to mash the parts together. The result looks promising, I need to make a few small tweeks and it should be ready for a test. Smiles, MH

I don't know anything about this company but I think it is going to work.

Old Pro-line speaker tripod

The display part sez adjustable arms.

The test before final mounting of the display piece. I think it is gonna work.

Bianchigirll 

Been tinkering on Samantha a bit today. You can see the gory details on the thread.

merziac

It's always funny how "regular folk" can't imagine a thing that is genius practical sense to us.

Those who fail to think outside the box may never get out, of it.

ascherer 

I have a Shogun 500 mid-range tourer that I bought from a member along with my Falcon. It was nicely configured although not fully to my preferences, 3x6 with bar end shifters, 27" wheels being the more significant items for me. It's a very nice ride that I want to like, so I put on a 7-speed freewheel, got some Swift Sand Canyon tires for more width and swapped out a few other bits, intending to use it on the local rail trails. However, I didn't find it to be more compelling to ride compared to my Mk I which I set up for "all roads" rides so the Shogun's been collecting dust. I thought of selling it but given the soft market an it being a lesser-know marque I don't think it'll fetch much. I've been thinking about how I might make better use of it and I decided to make it a more stripped-down gravel bike. The Mk. I is loaded with fenders, dynamo and lights, big rando bag but the Shogun will be leaner, and I won't be as concerned as I sometimes feel when bouncing my 54-year old Raleigh Pro over rougher terrain.

First step is getting a modern drivetrain on it. I believe the Shogun was set up for 27" wheels. I put 700s on it and I feel confident that I can adjust the brakes to make it work, and I think there's room for 42s. I have rims and a rear hub, and a front on the way. So until I build those I decided to use a similar wheelset to get a jump on the conversion. I pulled out a long cage Ultegra rear and a set of MicroNew brifters and set to it.

I recently bolted a truck fork mount onto my bench which is a nice alternative to my stand for some work.


Ultegra in place, works fine.


Cockpit view with wide VO Randonneur bars and the MicroNew brifters I got from from Soma.


Here's the triple along with the ARX derailluer that came with the bike. It worked fine with the bar controls but isn't playing well with the brifter. I tried an Ultegra triple but that didn't seem happy either. I'm considering switching to a double. I found my missing Stronglight 49 crank arm and I have 46/30 rings which should get me pretty much anywhere. Then I won't need a long cage rear, I have some Microshift R10s available. I think I have a suitable BB on hand.

I enjoy this process of trying different approaches and finding solutions to challenges. This may be the first time I've done parts of it in advance, since I don't have the wheels built yet. More to come, comments and suggestions are encouraged!

bikamper

No pics but today I used a 'sewer jetter' for the first time in my life and the thing is the catsass for clearing out the French drains on my property. That was this afternoon. Now, I'm working on one of Mrs.bikamper's homemade cinnamon rolls. Dirty thankless job but someone's gotta do it.

Chombi1 

Ibera is a company that does make bike stands. They pop up on Google and one of their stands look exactly like that, except for the ends of the arms that hold the bikes top tube. They show hooks instead of spindles on product pics. Maybe they changed the design to the hooks or vice versa, to make it easier to mount ajd remove the bike from the stand.

bikemig 

I'm fixing up a very clean 1980s Miyata 310 for my neighbor's high school son. He likes the idea of riding a bike that is a lot older than he is. The bike was a garage queen. It's been overhauled and the consumables have been replaced. The bike came to me with "safety" brake levers that I replaced with new Tektro aero brake levers for safety reasons. The one issue I'm having is that the pinch bolt in the front caliper is stripped. I'll either hunt around for a replacement pinch bolt or replacement brakes. I suspect I'll just pick up a Tektro R539 and call it a day. Those are nice brake calipers.

jdawginsc 

Nicely done!

ascherer 

I remember trying many approaches to a triple-with-brifters on my wife's bikes before I got them working. I feel like there's some special mojo needed...the levers just don't seem to have enough pull for the older triple crankset. Ring spacing? Anyway, like I said above it doesn't really need a triple, it was just easier to leave everything in place. So next up is to swap out the crankset, BB, and long cage rear derailleur, and see which of my FDs will be happy with it. Ever onward!

Steel Charlie

So I got this thing a week ago. Tig'd 853. 2004 from the original owner. Must be from way close to when Haro took over. The first thing that I had to do was remove Two Pounds (on the digital scale) of thorn proof tubes. Performance improved massively! All Ultegra 3x9. Shifting was screwed in every way so trimmed housing, new cables, hosed out and lubed brifters fixed that. Mavic Cosmos wheels. Needs some serious deblacking but that'll take a while. I'm thinking matching blue fork will work out well.
This becomes the third bike in my Blue Period



Do you like curvey stays?



I'm not sure just where in Italy you find Taiwan




Milano? Really?


The hidden logo

bikamper

I can stop wrenching on my knee. I was medically cleared to start doing any and all activities, save for roller blading. They'd prefer I'd wait on that. No argument from me on that. Yet. So I pedaled the Ol' Phart Lefsa Special once around the 'hood. That was 3.5 miles with hills and wind. There was a time that wasn't even a warm up. Today it was a work out. I still have a month of PT left to work through, but I think we can call that polishing and buffing.

noglider 

@ascherer, I could not get brifters to work with a triple chainring until I used chainrings with pins and ramps.

I now have a triple crankset on my Lemond but can't use the small ring. I'll probably put a down tube shifter on the left. I won't be the first person to do this.

bikamper

I had to do some more wrenching on the Ol' Phart Lefsa Special today. More like an adjustment. It has an older Sachs H3111 speed hub w/coaster brake on it. I can do just about anything to an AW with my eyes closed. The F&S/Sachs/SRAM 3 speeds, not so much because I've never had a bike with one. It's also spooky quiet.

Anyway, I only had 2 speeds, 2nd and 3rd. I had all three when the bike was on the stand. My weakened skinny bird legs weren't liking the hills in 2nd. I dug through some old manuals for adjusting a Sachs 3 speed. "Whaddaya mean I need a gauge!? Whose freaking bright idea was that!? Where am I going to find one of those?" I was almost in a mechanic choking an engineer mode, when I decided to try setting it like I would an AW, zero slack in low gear. And it worked. It only worked because I had to move the fulcrum point 1/4" farther from the hub. That was all it took. My skinny bird legs sure appreciated the lower gear.

BTinNYC 

This is nearly the last piece and my neatest braze so far. The messy ones just take longer to clean up. This is my first try at brazing and the frame got 2 bottle cage sets, shifter bosses, cable ports and tomorrow I'll move the cable stop on the chainstay from the top to the bottom.

ascherer 

The rings I plan to use are new. Big one's a VO and the small's a Sun XCD. Fingers crossed.

Prowler 

My 20 bikes are all fine and working nicely. But for the past 6 months it’s the other stuff that’s been twisting my brain. First the Pfaff 1069 internals, then the ShopSmith main drive belt, then the Honda tracked snowblower won’t even turnover. Now it’s the transmission on the Toro ProLine walk behind (parts scattered all over but I now have the new parts I need) and, yesterday, discovered a mouse nest in the Deere 1025r with 3 chewed wires. Why do I get all this major surgery?

I’m going for a nice long ride on my Ersatz Gran Prix. The weather is just good enough.

May 28th: The Toro is now mowing again, AOK. And I’ve replaced the chewed wires on the 1025r and “Oscar” is back in service. And I had a very nice long adventure on the Ersatz.

bikamper

As a retired railroad equipment mechanic, you have my sympathies. The soy based wire insulation used now is a nightmare for field guys.

PromptCritical 

20 Bikes! Now there's a nice quiver! I've got 15, but only if we count the three that make loud noises

BTinNYC 

The braze-ons are done. Next is cleaning up the notoriously messy work of the Crescent gents and paint prep; a bit of bondo on the seatstay caps, that sort of thing.

Mr.Toolbox

You should make a project thread for this instead.

ehcoplex 

Bar tape, a little additional chain-stay dimpling, water-bottle cage.... I'd really like to go with Campy on this one, but tried the GS RD and it can't handle the 32t rear cog (might work with a hanger extension..). Ran out of steam when it came to re-radiusing some black 700c fenders I've got on hand.

SoCaled 

Getting ready to wrench, needed a box to pack up a bike to ship to a friend, stopped by the local shop and they hooked me up with a nice one (baked goods will be headed there way as a thank you)
Loaded it on the trailer (quick check to make sure nothing was rubbing) and off we go, next step, dis-assemble and pack

ascherer 

I arrived at my upstate house tonight after a few days of corporate firefighting and wanted to do something with my hands, so I went back to the Shogun. Swapped the crankset, bottom bracket and rear derailleurs and got the second front derailleur I tried is playing nicely with brifter. Happy about that, I’ll check it out very briefly tomorrow if it’s not rainy and I have a break.

Au revoir, vis française…


46-30. I was mistaken when I thought the small ring was a Sun, they’re both Velo Orange. When I build the wheel for this I hope to use an 11-36 cassette.

BTinNYC 

Ooooo, nice! I tried to do this but didn't find the right pairing.

ascherer 

I'm guessing it's dumb luck. The second derailleur I tried was good enough. It is a triple shifter, which may give me some trim leeway. I may swap in a shorter stem and if I do, I may try the matching double brifter just to see if that'll work.