sloar 

I use a company out of Anderson, about 20 miles from me. I had them sandblast and coat a frameset last year for $80. They do outstanding work and really great prices.

sloar 

Looking forward to getting this on the road. Ran shift cables today to make sure it’s all going to line up.



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smd4

I've been enjoying swapping out every steel bolt/nut/screw on my Dura Ace 7700 group that I can with a titanium equivalent. From the rear derailleur pulley bolts to the seatpost bolt. It's been fun to try and locate correctly-sized or shaped bolts in Ti.

Bianchigirll 

A counterfeit Ugly Betty?





So this wheel has been awaiting some sort of repair way too long. I was embarrassed at the bike shop a few weeks ago for them to discover a cracked rim I missed. I didn’t think to snap any action pics but I took a few….. well a lot of minutes to cross the hub over to another rim. I have a used Campanutella Omicron Persei 8 silver rim, that hopefully I just unlaced to sell a HF hub or something like that.

If it can’t be trued I’m back to square one to either break down a good front wheel and sell the 7spd 600 hubs 36h or use a dark anodized rim and have mismatched wheels. Well they’ll be mismatched anyway if this works but they’ll both be silver.

Bianchigirll 

Which bike came with 600? Celeste looks to be an ‘88 Sport SX that came wif Exage Sport. The Squadra had a nice mix of Italian goodies like that Ofmega crank [ I got the wrong line looking at the catalog earlier]those Universal ‘Squadra’ brakes (but with hideous levers) Ofmega derailleurs…….

jamesdak 

Well after spending half the day working in the yard I decided to finally work on the wheels that came with the Kuwahara when I got it. Wolber Gentleman GTA 27" rims on Shimano 600 hubs with a Suntour freewheel. The hubs didn't feel good when I got the bike so I swapped them right out. I don't know who did the work on this bike a couple of years ago but whomever touched the wheels did things wrong. Lots of older, dry grease with some fresher stuff mixed in. Hub adjustments were off too. Like someone opened them, squirted in some grease and just put them back together. Spent a few hours on them today but they now feel brand new. Cleaned every bit of old grease out, new loose bearings, fresh grease, and then properly adjusted hubs. Also took metal polish to the hubs and skewers, and steel wool to the spokes to dress things up a bit. Freewheel cogs were also degreased and then I've got some triflow soaking into the freewheel for good measure.




Only thing left is to straighten out a couple of crooked valve stems and then decide if I am going to put these back on the Count or leave on the 700c wheels I've been using on it.

DQRider 

That's a catalog I couldn't find on the interwebs. Sure would have helped... the information I did find was wrong. Apologies to both you and @SurferRosa, - Marine Logic® doesn't play well in polite conversation.

So now I'm going to have to take a couple steps back. My assumption on the crankset was faulty. It doesn't say Ofmega anywhere on there that I could find. But it does say "Bianchi". So I can assume it has an Italian taper BB. But it sure seemed to fit fine... weird. Now I'm going to have to find some way to measure that taper. I assume checking it with a caliper at the base and tip would probably do it, no? I'll keep you posted.
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VintageSteelEU

It's too nice of a frame for powder coating. I think it deserves proper paint

VintageSteelEU

These would look great on my 600EX equipped Motobecane! You might have nudged me towards building another wheel set for it (currently using silver Exage hubs, silver spokes, black Rigida DP17 hubs and 7 speed Hyperglide casette). Got to search Evil Bay and see if I have already enough on my plate or if I should go for it Especially that I have a nice Suntour Perfect freewheel in the parts box.

Bianchigirll 

For some reason Bianchi and Ofmega left only the chainwheel stamping as evidence of manufacturer.

Are you confusing spindle taper with bottom bracket (BB) threading? Again I’ll recommend Sheldon’s pages and VeloBase. BB threading came in various types, I’m assuming because of various country of origin standards ‘back in the day’ Italian, English, French sort of became the dominant threading, so Italian bikes had Italian threads etc. I believe most French manufacturers switched to English in the mid ‘80s, probably for cost savings and to make their bikes more appealing to US snobs.

Taper is another matter indeed and has nothing to do with threading. ISO and JIS were the “standard” with most Europeans using ISO and Japanese using JIS. Then of course there a few others who had their own. Mixing ISO/JIS can cause issues, as stated, like cranks working loose and inconvenient moments. https://www.sheldonbrown.com/bbtaper.html

Then we also throw in spindle length and offset and it’s enough to make you want to take up jogging! Different manufacturers of course had their own spindle length and many were offset to drive side to allow for ‘dish’ caused by the crank spider and chainwheels.

Now of course a lot of this all changed in the very late ‘80s and early ‘90s. In ‘88 with the introduction of the beautiful spellbinding and mesmerizing Chorus group and that beautiful low profile crankset Campanutella introduced their first symmetrical bottom bracket spindle. And even more shocking in ‘90 Bianchi switched to English threaded bottom bracket shells, at least on their North American market bikes.

It’s just frustrating enough to make you want to drink but never ever when installing a bottom bracket!

hope this helps. If it confuses you even more that’s great too! LOL.

BTW I spent 10 years in Marine Aviation and there is no such thing as logic there because they run by Navy, NAVAIR, rules.

Kabuki12

With the two most common tapers the only difference is the distance across the flats(ATF) , the taper itself is the same. I had a bike that had a Sugino BB and I wanted to change from the Apex crank to Campagnolo NR crank and it wouldn’t go on far enough for the chain line. I did some measurements off my optical comparator(I have a precision tool grind shop) that has a coordinate measuring machine . I had to take .002” off each flat once I calculated the actual taper. While I had the BB spindle in the machine , I polished the bearing surfaces lightly . It works perfectly. Thus, if you have a Campy or similar crank and try to put a Sugino or SR crank on the bike without changing the BB spindle, it may bottom out on the shoulder before fully locking on the taper.

Bianchigirll 

You guys never fail to amaze me. I can barely handle drilling a few holes let alone something like this. I really wish I could have gone to gunsmithing school and at least learnt the basics of operating a lathe and milling machine. They’re kind of useless skills in today’s firearms world but still great stuff yo know.

alexihnen 

I’ve been working on a few English bikes lately, but this may be my new favorite.

Kabuki12

^^^ gorgeous bike. I’ve never heard of this builder, is this early sixties? I would love to see a photo of the entire bike.

Kabuki12

yea most of my gun customers are CNC shops for production. Most of us old school manual folks are getting into little niche industries. I’ve made a lot of tooling for the slides on the Glock’s and some dovetail cutters for the sight mounts. The beauty of making cutting tools is I can still make stuff manually and make money, not so much in general manufacturing. I had CNC grinding machines and employees but when I hit my sixties I decided to go back to working alone ( with my wife) and doing everything on universal tool grinding machines. More flexibility for small runs …which is more my style.

alexihnen 

Strangely, I don’t have a photo of the whole bike. Here’s a long history of Johnny Berry: https://www.classiclightweights.co.u.../berry-johnny/

Bianchigirll 

Beautiful bike


Interesting reading, although I’m not quite done. It’s interesting that he opened a shop in 1946 and even more amazing that there was a bicycle show in Paris in 1946! From all books, movies, and documentaries I’ve seen I always imagined Europe and Britain in ruins and citizenry living in utter poverty. The idea of bicycle show seems at odd with this image, and, although a business adventure, traveling across the channel to visit it almost decadent.

Bianchigirll 

Do our bikes really appreciate all we do for them or do they just suck up our time and resources like an ungrateful teenager?

For the most part these racks (from a place called Discount Ramps.com in 2009) are pretty nice but there’s one small problem, lack of adjustment. They only give you one spot on the top and two on the bottom. The problem is when you have a tall frame and use tall stems like I do there isn’t quite enough room for the bottom bike.




Moving the top hooks is kind of easy, just drop the crossbar down and enlarge the top set of holes.


Of course when you need your S.A.E. wrenches all that’s around are metric!


Thankfully my sawhorses were just the right height for this job.


Things were going well until I decided to drop the bottom set of hooks 3” instead of 2. Of course they were bound to uneven I expected that, but I put them too low and now the bottom bike scrapes the carpet, so they went back to factory holes. I tried to use some old shower curtain magnets to minimize chips. It worked pretty well but I still needed a little sweeping compound to clean up the floor.


Another issue is the Harbor Freight “titanium nitrate” step less drill bit I was planning to use for this job just wasn’t up to the task. I’ll have to check Do It Yourself this week for a better one. Oh yeah the battery on the Ryobi died too

VintageSteelEU

There was a lot of destruction in Europe after WW2, but life goes on. I don't think Paris was particularly heavily damaged.
Anyhow, I found the photo on top of the article particularly interesting. The one with a whole shelf unit with Humbrol enamel paints. I wonder how different these are today. Might try them on the bike I'm putting together now.

curbtender

Stuck seatpost...Tried the trans fluid/thinner mix and some patience. Long pipe and large crescent wrench worked after soaking for two weeks. I was able to mount piece of unistrut to the seatpost and lift/twist it out. Followed with a hone and it's good to go. I may even be able to cleanup and use the post.

jamesdak 

Well most of today's "wrenching" involved leaves in the yard, LOL! When I finished I decided to finally do some tweaks to the Azor. Adjusted the IGH which had starting being funky in the 2 and 3 position under load. Then I dropped the stem down a bit for hopefully more comfort on longer rides. Also also lubed the roller brakes which seems like such a strange thing to do, grease brakes, LOL! Finally I moved the bell and put on a rear view mirror I had originally bought for my Polaris ATV. Since this bike is mainly ridden on the local bike path I like being able to see someone coming up behind me I tend to just ramble along on this and so many folks don't call out when they come in fast from the rear.

It's totally geeked out now!

leftthread

Picked up a beater Trek mtb which had the crank rattling around in the bottom bracket.
The fixed cup is cross-threaded.
Ground off the connecting pin on the inside of the bb shell for the cable guide so I could get the socket on the Sheldon tool.
So far it’s not budging, even with the cheater bar extension, so the cup has an appt. tomorrow with multiple impacts from the shop hammer.

norcalmike

I've had this sitting in the project queue for a few years. I volunteered for a trail trim and ride and this is the only mountain bike I have so i did a full refresh on it. Everyone had newer full suspension bikes but me. I had a great time though.

mrv 

spent too much time puzzling over the left brake
i think I got it.








I found an old post about these. I may revive it.

Kdogbikes

So I’m working on reassembly of a bike that I took my time over the summer repainting. Looking at before pics to mock up where things go. Then I realize that I painted right over the chrome fork tips! Crap. Would be easy fix as this paint didn’t stick real well. ( even after primer and 3 coats. Think I’ll leave as is for now and chalk up another reason to just enjoy patina instead of repainting.