rustystrings61 

I've learned how simple it really is to just bend stuff back into shape thanks to several years of participation in this challenge! So far I've bent derailleur claws, stamped dropouts and gaspipe frames. Before the lawyers took over, it used to be routine to bend stuff back into shape, like my old Batavus the time I dropped it and the rear triangle wound up way out of plane - the LBS just shoved it back into alignment, boom!

On the Cannondale front, I've tentatively identified it as a 1986 ST400 that's had a long hard life! The front fork and headset are replacements, it has mismatched front and rear 700C wheels in lieu of the original 36-spoke 27-in units, SR bars and stem instead of the Belleri/Nitto it had when new, Shimano 600 levers and headset with a SunTour front and who knows what rear - basically, the only stock bits left are the brake calipers and perhaps the seatpost.

Yesterday morning in that block of time between when I am dressed and ready and when everyone else wakes up in my household, I attacked the stuck seatpost. I removed the Origin8 saddle that came on the bike and fitted a junk unit and tried to turn the post in the frame through use of the good old yard-long steel pipe. Nope. Then I tried a couple of different crowbars, but again, no dice. This method, btw, worked wonders when I had a stuck seatpost on my Allegro, but that was an alloy Zeus post in a steel frame, and this is a FLUTED SR alloy post in an aluminum frame. I wound up giving up for the morning.

Throughout the day yesterday I pondered it. Perhaps as much as 1/3 of the flutes are in the seat tube, which permitted moisture to get in there and bond things really well, and there's probably a good bit of non-fluted post below that. I'm thinking I may want to try some Corrosion Block to see if that will de-bond the aluminum. The other stuff I already have is great for rust and iron oxide, but I honestly don't think Liquid Wrench or Power Blaster will work with an aluminum-to-aluminum issue. Fortunately, the LBS with the back room that coughed this up has an understanding owner and a big honking bench vise, and the SR seatpost appears to have a top that is an integral casting with the shaft. At some point, Corrosion Block or some other soaking or not, we'll be using that.

With all that in mind, this morning I went out again and started tearing it down. First order of business was the pedals, and it took Liquid Wrench, a long Eldi 15 mm pedal wrench and a 2-lb hammer to break the right pedal free. The left just needed to be sprayed and forcefully unscrewed and all was well. The wheels popped off as they should, and again I was struck by how smooth the Normandy Luxe Competition hub feels, and how much the generic rear needs service. The rear brake caliper was resistant enough that I decided to simply spray both brake center bolts, the stem where it enters the headset, the front derailleur mount screw and the rear derailleur mounting bolt and leave the rest of the bike as-is until later. I took another minute or two to removed the rusted-through T.A. bottle cage from the downtube and discard it - nothing to salvage there!

nlerner

Had some time this morning to finish up the Claridge for now. Non-original parts are wheelset (w/ really cheap Shimano coaster-brake rear hub), pretty horrible 27" Specialized tires that a friend unloaded on me, crankset (I used the existing spindle by flipped it around), chain, bars, grips. Brake lever is from the BOC. I think the bars and crankset came from @clubman in a trade. The only thing new among those bits are the rear hub and grips.


I took it for a quick spin around the block. Quiet and smooth! Seat isn't exactly comfortable and has a tear on one rear edge, but I don't think I have a cheap substitute that isn't a mattress saddle. Might need to tilt it down a bit, too, before amassing the requisite mileage.

BFisher

This whole challenge is awesome. Love the barber pole approach on that Claridge. Just the right degree of whimsy for this pursuit.

Unca_Sam

rustystrings61 I'd be looking to use boiling water and dry ice or canned air to try and cause enough differential expansion between the frame and the post. If you can chill the post, and then heat the seat tube while twisting and or lubricating the post, you might be able to get just enough separation of the interface to break it loose or wick a penetrating lubricant in there. Luckily, aluminum and its commercial alloys have the highest thermal coefficient of expansion of any metal, listed as about .00025 per degree C. Dry ice is around -70 to-80 Celsius, and boiling water is approaching 100 Celsius. Multiplying the change in temperature with the coefficient yields a total change in a single dimensions of about 0.4%. Using 26.2mm as the seatpost diameter, I calculated a maximum difference in dimensions (from -70C to 100C) of slightly more than 0.1mm. That should be more than enough to break the seatpost-seat tube interface.

I know locally, Jeni's Ice Cream sells (or used to sell) dry ice with purchases of ice cream if you asked, so your quart of ice cream wouldn't melt if you weren't going straight home. A quick google search shows that there's lots of places to buy the stuff local to me. If you were able to drop a few pellets of the stuff into the seat post through the BB and wait for frost to show on the seat tube, then pour a kettle of very hot water over the section containing the seat post, I bet you'd hear some pinging and popping as the seat tube expands away from the seatpost!

I say we can offer a Clunker Challenge Scientific Grant if you choose to pursue this important research! By grant, I mean that we'll all agree that the cost of the dry ice (or safe handling equipment) is not included for the purposes of the challenge.

Edited to add: You might not even need the hot water. Simply chilling the aluminum should cause all of the aluminum to shrink towards its respective center, away from the interface. Thankfully, dry ice is cheap, and a pound of the stuff would provide much more than you'd need for the experiment.

rustystrings61 

The dry ice idea is interesting - but I can't find anyone in town that sells the stuff, and the one store in a neighboring town that does sell it is out and they have no clue when they will get more. I'll keep looking and thinking about this, though - it's an interesting idea and maybe I'll find a source!

jdawginsc 

I was able to break a alloy alloy mind meld using WD40 several times, then working 3/1 oil into spaces where I could.

I like the ice cream idea though.

Mr. 66

Weighing in at 9 lbs 5 oz is the the KHS frame fork and headset, pre bottom bracket.

The fork has pitting on the Chrome the headset and bottom bracket pulled easily and cleaned up with good tracks

Mr. 66

I will add, the driveside bb is a 37mm cup, I use the Trimo. On the non drive side I used an adjusting pivot hook wrench on both the lock ring and cup.

Andy_K 

Andy_K 

Patience is not my strong suit, which is why I should never attempt to paint a bike. Nevertheless, as I've said earlier, learning new skills is one of the things I like about this challenge. Refreshing your memory, here is my frame after painting.



I brought it in from the garage to hang behind my home office desk because (a) it's warmer in here, (b) it makes me happy, and (c) it gives me a lot of time to look at it and see what needs work. Although I was pretty happy with how it looked above, on closer inspection it had some texture issues.



So, I grabbed some water and some 600 and 800 grit sandpaper and gently caressed the surface. That left it looking terrible (as expected), but I got it feeling decently smooth. I think the appearance of texture here is mostly just the negative image of what I sanded off.



Now you might think the next step is to polish that back to a nice shine. That's what I thought, but I needed to order more polish and it won't be here until Sunday. This where my lack of patience comes in. Instead of just waiting, I decided to put on another coat of paint. What's the worst that could happen? I don't know. The worst that did happen is I introduced some new drips and probably reintroduced the texture problems. I can live with that. I'm really anxious to have something to do, but at the same time I'm putting off cleaning up the wheels. I took the bike out into the light of day to get a better idea of where things stood. All things considered, it's not too bad. There's plenty of work left for me to screw up on this, but if I had to quit now I wouldn't be entirely ashamed of this.

Mr. 66

I found a front wheel in the stash, a very nice Weinman on Schwinn approved dlux hub. Not bad the OLD is only big a mm to the fork, spins smoothly gave it a try. To my bother, I find misaligned forks. Off they come and the crown race too. I give them a measure, the non drive side is 1.5mm longer, and off plane about the same.




I'm ok with trying to adjust that should be fine, I clean more and look closer.



its junk, Shazbot! As one from Ork would phrase. This takes the KHS out of the challenge .

Oh well I have fresh 27-1 1/4" tires.

jdawginsc 

Duct tape..I’m sure it’ll be just fine!

Narhay

No, unless you want to count it.

BFisher

Three kilometers today on the Rampar as I took it on a post office run, bringing my distance up to 40.8km.

As far as total cost goes, I'm already in for the initial investment of $15. After careish (midway between careful and careless) consideration of jdawg's valuations I figure:
Used pads = $1
Used brake cable = $.25
Used shift cable = $.25
Used Kenda 27" tires = $5
Used inner tubes = $1.50
This bring the grand total up to $23.
My calculations are a pretty even mix of inflation/parts availability in our current market climate, and arbitrary. Give or take.

jdawginsc 

Honestly, I wouldn't have listened to me either...besides, I am at a standstill building the Nishiki, feeling guilty that it is "too good" for this challenge (though the rust is helping alleviate some concerns about that), or deciding to embrace the "best bike I can build and survive riding under $100."

rustystrings61 

Busy day today with time stolen to work on the Cannondale. I stripped off the brakes, cables, housings, bars, stem and brake levers as a unit, and they'll probably go back on the same way. Next I pulled the SunTour XCE front derailleur, which may get an Evaporust bath, followed by the no-longer-marked rear derailleur which absolutely needs a good soak. The chain came off without drama, and fortunately so did both cranks. The left is DEFINITELY cracked at the spindle, with the crack running about 3/4 of the way through. I was surprised to discover these are SR and not Sugino cranks, and even more surprised to find I have a left 170 SR crank that is more than close enough for the Clunker Challenge.





I removed the vintage Shimano 600 dt levers, which are not holding at all, and set them aside. I was recently given a bike I had built up for a friend many years ago so that I could build it up for my 13 year old to ride. He's getting his MicroNew brifters transferred over from his current bike, and I will take the lovely Shimano friction bar ends for this bike. I thought I had some plastic housing stops from when I got Eli's brifters, but had to settle for a scruffy set of metal units scavenged off a dead bike. Of course I needed to file them down to fit the mounts on the C'dale's oversized downtube. Is it perfect? No. Is this a clunker? Oh, yes.





I broke out the Meguiar's and a rag and shined it up, removing lots of crud and old grease. Then I got brave and decided to tackle the bottom bracket. The whole project almost got scuttled right there. Some previous owner had done lots of heavy-handed red touch-up work with a spray can. Some of that work was done down near the BB, and some of that red paint had wicked through into the adjustable cup's threads. It was just like a window that's been painted shut. I studied it a while, then got out the low VOC paint stripper and a model paint brush and worked some of the product into the threads. A few minutes later I came back, and because nothing exceeds like excess I sprayed it again with some Liquid Wrench. Still not quite there yet, so I got my daughter's hair dryer and went to work, thinking the aluminum frame would heat and expand faster than the steel adjustable cup. And I was right, and it did, but it still wasn't easy. I finally got it out to find petrified greasy dirt and threads full of pasty anti-seize that had seized. I eventually got it all cleaned out and put back together, but there are enough pits in the spindle to convince me that this bottom bracket is a very temporary thing.




Next was the headset, which was surprisingly easy even with the massive stack of keyed headset washers and the funky Shimano 600 wrench surfaces. For now it's all finger tight - which is how it was when I started, actually! Because the front wheel is very smooth and I don't feel like fixing what ain't broke, what remains at this point is the rear wheel. I may do an axle and spacers swap with a hub I have kicking around in the parts bin, as the bike is spaced about 129 and the rear wheel currently appears to be a 135.

The seatpost is still very, very stuck. For giggles I put it in the not so substantial vise on my workbench and got to watch the vise flex alarmingly. I heated the seat tube up with the hair dryer and tried again, with the same results. Sometime next week I should be receiving a 4 oz pump spray bottle of Corrosion Block, and we'll see if it makes a difference. I still think I'll be carting it all over to the LBS' big bench vise before it's all done. I have considered that if nothing budges this seat post, I may just see if I can fabricate a 2 cm or so spacer to allow me to get the saddle at the required 78 cm from the center of the crank spindle. It would be pretty clunktastic, but I think it would work.

rustystrings61 

If you're even considering entering this exercise in misplaced priorities but lack a suitable frame, I may be able to enable ... I mean, help. Sitting in my workshop as I speak are three framesets with varying amounts of hardware associated with them. One is a 58x58 cm Bottechia that takes a 26.4 mm seatpost, frame, fork, headset, cottered BB, Carnielli bars and stem with Shimano aero brake levers shoehorned into Dia Compe hoods. There is also a Gitane Grand Sport 54x54, frame, fork, headset. Finally, in the event the person I have already offered it to doesn't claim it, I have a 25-in Schwinn World Sport, one of the ones with at least some chro-moly in the main tubes and an integral derailleur mount, which is frame, fork, headset, seatpost, binder bolt, bars, stem, brake levers, stem shifters and Shimano light action derailleurs. All I would want is shipping on these from 29649 to your zip code.

BFisher

Looking at my clunker here after I cleaned up the dropout adjuster holes on my Colnago, I couldn't help but think that it was missing something. I had a bike with a headbadge and no decals. No name.

Taking the cue, I decided that I should name it according to the use I am putting it to - the great clunker challenge. No doubt this bike and countless others that have graced this contest either came from the dump or were destined for it. So, I settled on something fitting, yet nice enough that it rolls off the tongue: Giro Discarica (Dump Tour). Paint pen was on hand, so I'm calling freebie unless there are any objections.

Oldsledz

Here is a update on my Araya. I have now put over 100 miles on the bike. spent 2.00 for the bike , 1.50 for the seat at a thrift store, I didn't have a seat post that fit so I shimmed one that was close with part of a aluminum tea can to save money on the challenge. I put on a clamp on bottle cage that I had. So I will say I spent 3.50 plus 5.00 for the used seat post and bottle cage from my parts stash. making the bike cost 8.50. I greased the crank and wheel bearings and will do the headset some time. I like the bike and it fits so I will find a seat post that fits and put a better seat on it now that I have completed the challenge.


After cleaning.

Seat post shim.




1.50 thrift store seat.

I done a few miles of gravel road riding.

rustystrings61 

I'm watching this adventure closely, as this could become Plan B. Allegedly I will be receiving a 4 oz. spray bottle of Corrosion Block tomorrow, and I will be spraying it liberally into the juncture of seatpost and seat tube in hopes of separating the two later in the week. It occurs to me that if I can't get the seatpost to budge, I could laminate sections of schedule 40 4-in PVC pipe into a 2 cm or so thick shim to go between the top of the post itself and the underside of the lower cradle. Drill a hole and run a longer bolt through post top, shim, cradles and top nut and Bob's yer uncle.

ollo_ollo

After meeting my daily yard cleanup and honey do responsibilities, I found time Friday evening and Saturday afternoon to work on my Follis Clunker: Took apart the rear hub and found it was in slightly better shape than the front with remnants of dark, but still a bit of clean, red grease. Re-did everything with marine bearing grease which I favor for NW riding conditions. Unlike the front, rear wheel was out of true, but was able to improve it some. Rim got the same Brasso polish as the front and looks pretty good now. Tires both in good shape with no cracks or damage showing. Bike seems to have had some maintenance over the years as Headset, BB and Pedals all spin freely so I decided to leave them undisturbed for now and moved on to cleaning what remains.

Bike was filthy with years of caked on grime and lots of damaged paint with multiple places showing samples of things it had scraped against over the years. What to use? I settled on some Lysol Kitchen Cleaner I found under the kitchen sink. Label brags "Cuts Grease and Grime". Stuff did the job, although typical "Old Man Work" with a few missed spots.. Paint looks good, metal bits shine and sparkle.

For all the places where paint was missing and surface rust showed through, I found a couple nearly empty spray cans of paint, 1 labeled White and 1 Navajo White. The Navajo White has a Standard Brands price sticker of $1.99, so pretty old, but still squirts. A mix of 1 long squirt of Navajo White + 4 squirts of White gave a fair match to Follis White. Results were, good except for the a few I overlooked. Bike really needs new cables and sheaths, but no $ for that in my budget, so just going to fiddle with them til they work better then, I'm ready to ride 100 km. Don

Flyer for Follis 072GL

Rear wheel innards, grease wasn't fresh, but still a bit red, maybe Sta-Lube axle grease?


Sparkling Clean with touched up paint

Before Cleanup

After Cleanup

After Cleanup

Shabby but Functional Cable Sheaths

ollo_ollo

Good Work on the ARAYA @Oldsledz! With its forged rear dropouts, looks to be a cut above my FOLLIS. Don

rustystrings61 

This looks soooo much like my c.1972 Liberia that I rode in the 2018 challenge! Same fork crown, same Bocama 18/I lugs, same Nervex cable stops and stamped dropouts ... what is the seat post measurement? Mine was 25.8 mm. These bikes ride so very much better than they should!

darnet

Thank you Narhay. I’m not sure how, but I somehow discovered the first COVID edition, and thought it was a fantastic idea, but it was already over. I was thrilled to see the second, so I will try to honor its spirit.

I went on a spree during COVID, picking up a senseless number of C&V bikes from CL, FB, and dumpster. I sheepishly admit I have 6 bikes more than pre-COVID . The week before my work office shutdown, on March 11, 2020, I bought a Green 1970 Raleigh International (not a clunker, >$100; grail bike) on Facebook Market (FB). Fast forward to about one year later, March 13, 2021, the week of my first vaccination, when I bought a Green 1973 Raleigh Super Course ($45) from Craigslist (CL). Because both were green Raleigh’s, and because they were bookends to my spree, I felt like the $45 SC marked the demise of COVID, so should be my candidate for a COVID Clunker ride.

I had already begun disassembling this one, but luckily I had saved pics from the original CL ad. But, this is my first ever post on this Forum, and apparently I can not upload pictures until I've done 10 posts. So will upload pictures later when I may.

Pics from the original CL listing, in as-bought condition

darnet

Noteworthy details of the $45 SC: wide-flange rear wheel hub, 27x1-1/4, but 700c front wheel; both tires look new; not-original saddle (sadly, or maybe luckily, already discarded pre-challenge); piece broken off from front shifter (downtube) (oh, well, who cares?); original plastic Simplex derailleurs, badly faded but intact; lovely rear bike rack and kick stand (to be removed); brake hoods missing (oh, well, not essential) ; cottered steel cranks, 52/42, peeling chrome and has pedals; enough rust and faded paint to be a clunker, which includes rust on chrome tips of forks and rear stays; I particularly liked the front fork duct tape, and I imagine it had some purpose at some time.