madpogue 

Or a seven-aught-six-and-a-half-er.....

Swampthing 

It looks like all the cable ties on Smella are the same color. At work I used to have a tube of assorted and high visibility colors that may suit this “better”.
The bar is low, but the Limbo is strong in this thread.

jdawginsc 

absolutely! I have to get my game moving.

Andy_K 

Yes, bringing in the road bike convention for tire size naming does seem appropriate in this case, and I like the way your suggestion just completely fails to roll off the tongue. Or perhaps, using the German notion of 28" wheels combined with the current mountain bike 27.5 thing, a 7.58er. I was never clear about which order the numbers were supposed to be in.

Andy_K 

Oh, you're right. What was I thinking! Well, I still have a brake cable to attach, and I have a few more colors of zip ties I can use.

Swampthing 

this just gave me a horrible idea.

Andy_K 

It's very good to hear from you, Narahy! I hadn't seen any posts from you in a while.

The Eagle rear derailleur on my Smella is the same model I used on my first entry in a Clunker 100 Challenge, so I was thinking about you even before the Google Lens match came up.

Andy_K 

Having now posted the Smella, I feel like I need to document this claim. I was looking through my photo archive for a picture I thought I had of a bike entirely wrapped in fur. I couldn't find it, but I did find these.


(from one of the bike shows we did at Velo Cult!)


(seen on the bike rack where I work)


(what was this guy thinking with that stem?)


(some people have no sense of aesthetics!)

I have to confess, those last two are mine. These still aren't as bad as some of what I've seen. While looking for instances of a 69er, I came across this truly horrific thing, which was apparently shown at the 2010 NAHBS.



When I see a thing like that, I'm reminded of a quote from Isaac Newton, "I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

zukahn1 

Not so great weather this morning cold in the low 30's windy with a bit of snow and some snow on the ground in places. So I was able to take the Jeunet Zombie bike out for a quick ride and get some more bad weather fall pics.



Some snow on the ground and fall leaves for some color.

Andy_K 

There's a Facebook page called "my bike leaning against stuff" or something like that. This picture would be perfect for that.

For the purposes of this thread, bonus points for the NDS photo.

Andy_K 

So, I get to work today and see this.



The Fred culture is strong here.

I intend to ride the Smella to work on Halloween, but I hope the owner of this bike doesn't confront me with the whole "my culture is not a costume" thing.

Speaking of which, do you think the Paramount welder was serious about that? I thought I understood him, but the "Pretty Fly" post has me questioning everything.

Mad Honk 

Heck Andy,
If I had a lowrider I could be Pretty Fly, but I am not sure, because I grew up in the Ghetto and folks might still recognize me. And I can't dance cause I'm a white guy with no sense of rhythm, so not even close to break dancing unless it means breaking a bone.
Smiles, Brother Dave

Narhay

Nice to be remembered. I've stopped in a few times but I've been working through a backlog of parts to be cleaned and catalogued instead of buying new projects and a backyard renovation that has consumed my spare mechanical time.

I've been riding a fair bit although I'll admit it is mostly on a 1993 Rockhopper and 2003 Norco Monterey hybrid to and from work these days with a dash of the occasional C&V road bike I'll likely rekindle the flame in the workshop once the months get colder and more time is spent indoors.

Mad Honk 

Dave # 2 is gonna get some competition for his Huffente likely next week. I have put MS. Guerciotti in a box for him. Here is how she got dressed for the trip:

Sporting her best Halloween outfit of Prison jump suit orange with black jewelry on all of her body parts.
I think she is gonna be festive enough for the trip. ( it is not covered in fur but just pool noodles) Smiles, MH

zukahn1 

Weather got worse this afternoon 30 degrees with a nice wind 30 mile or so at times and snow so 15 or so with the chill factor. Got some proper bad weather riding in on the Fuji coaster.


Yes actual snow on the ground.

Swampthing 

It seems like that Fuji is more fun than horrible.

zukahn1 

The Fuji looks a bit fun in some pics but is actually kinda horrible to ride especially on hills mountains. Don't really like the coaster for hills and the front safety brake screaches when applied hard but the bike really wouldn't be safe to ride without one IMHO. Also the handling while fine on flat land but is a bit sketchy on hills both going up and down. Then the 42/18 SS gearing with no freewheel back pedaling just kinda sucks in the mountains. I guess this is one bike that is much worse close up in person and ridden than in pics. So a bit of fail on the horror factor for this thread should look totally horrible insane and ride nice this one looks pretty nice fun but rides kinda horrible may just be I'm too used to riding bikes that are great riders.

Swampthing 

Good explanation.
I can understand the cool on the outside horrible on the inside experience.
I’m having a heck of a time getting used the coaster brake on my horrible chrome KHS build.
the two speed kickback sounded like a good idea, but if one is used to either a freewheel or fixed gear the coaster brake is awkward.
your pictures really do seem to indicate some pleasant rides.
that marketing effect ads another level of horror.

Andy_K 

That's kind of what I was hoping for with the Snella, but right now I don't know. I haven't put it on the road yet, but in the the stand it feels like the brakes will be good but the drivetrain will be atrocious. My big chainring is a 1/8" track ring, so I intended for that to just serve as a decorative chain guard. I've got an 8-speed cassette in the back, but the derailleur only has enough range to hit the six smallest cogs. I'm ok with that too. What I didn't expect is that I can't seem to find any position where the chain isn't try to jump out of gear in both the front and rear. Maybe I need a different chain. I don't know.

Mad Honk 

I am hoping that Kurt will have an entry soon. He claims a need for a special fork but why should that hold him back? Har! Dave # 2

zukahn1 

Looks like you have medium shorter RD from pics good chance a long cage with a bit of extra play and an extra axel washer on the drive side should help clear things up bit. I have faith you can find a really ugly long cage something like a modern mega range off a wally level bike might as well get the mega range crappy freewheel easy to paint the big cog.

zukahn1 

Yes the wrong side wrong way photo with some clutter in the background was intentional to up the subtle horror factor.

zukahn1 

Got a bit more work done on the Jeunet zombie bike some stickers and a mismatched dust cap to to ad to the clutter and horror factor and a bit of wrenching to get it riding silky smooth for a now close to 50lb bike that should be about 25. Got a bit of riding and some nice fall pics with my camera sorted out. I have pretty much written the Fuji off as a fail at this point as horror bike will likely get a few more pic's and a couple rides in clean it up touch up the paint and donate back to the thrift store were I got the bike and most of the parts they should be able to get $150 or so for it surprisingly a lot of the teens here in Fairplay like this style retro rebuild SS style and several ride stuff that is worse.

jdawginsc 

Interesting process that splatter paint. Wear a lot of the splatter.

As part of hideous-a-fying of the Toilet Bowlnago, I decided to start with John Deer paint (it was going over powder coat so it is not permanent by any means).

Then I thought I’d try my hand at splatter. Actually it was a blast but I dislocated twenty bones in my right arm whilst partaking of the dab and throw method.

i started on the chainstay but then it spread like mono in a college dorm...

Thinking about some other surprises but would like to get it mostly built first for when I take my trip up to Charlottesville this week.



Baking in the sun. Hopefully get in 2 hours before it rains.

“What the fork did you do to that thing?”

RCMoeur 

There are medications for that, but it may be contagious on contact...