Author Topic: Current Projects  (Read 15566 times)

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Current Projects
« on: 02 May, 2017, 08:23:55 pm »
I think we need a thread for current bike builds or conversions, although Wobbly John will embarrass us all.

What's taking shape in your shed/kitchen?
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Current Projects
« Reply #1 on: 02 May, 2017, 10:14:54 pm »
I don't think I've finished a bike project for over 3 years.  :-[

There is a part built up Dawes Galaxy in the garage, and all the parts to go on a new time trial frame I bought - I don't think I'll ever get the fitness back to time-trial again, ever...   :facepalm:
If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is...

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Current Projects
« Reply #2 on: 03 May, 2017, 09:45:22 pm »
I have two builds on the go, for accidental reasons, and one small modification:

1. 1951 Holdsworth Tornado, which will use a Sturmey-Archer AM medium-ratio rear wheel.  The rest of the kit will be modern-ish as I'm not faffing around with cottered cranks and brake cables that get broken if you flip the bike on its back.  Frameset currently at Argos being painted and with an SA roller and cable stop added - the clamp-on ones are horrid.  The idea behind this, as well as using a nice rear wheel that has been hanging up for years, is to build a fast bike that can make the most of the hub; it's much nicer than a derailleur and, although it only has three speeds, they're exactly the right three speeds (16.6% up or 14.3% down, compared to the common AW 33% up or 25% down).  Will be geared at 42 x 18; I already run one of these on the clubman at 41 x 18 and it could do with a slightly higher ratio on a stripped-down bike.

2. Mystery (very light) late 1940s frame, possibly an Ellis-Briggs, which will use a 1960s Sachs Duomatic kickback-to-change hub.  This will have short straight bars with just a front brake lever on them (the Duomatic has a coaster brake built in).  Will gear it unconventionally at 42 x 20, so normal gear is the cruising gear and high gear is an overdrive for downhills.  Most people seem to gear them so high gear is for cruising and low gear is for starting, but on a 3-speed with normal gear at 55-60", I use the low gear a lot less than I do the high gear.  Also, there is less wear and more efficiency if you use direct drive as the cruising gear.

3. Refit the original crankset to the Raleigh Twenty.  The chainline is problematic with the short cranks I got for Miss Z's legs and I'm sure she can cope with 165mm cranks.  One problem is that the original owner (who wrote off the fork) also cross-threaded the pedal, but it didn't go in very far and the crank will probably be OK, even if it needs a 9/16" tap running through it.  I have managed to find some nice "R" cotter pins.  There is absolutely no front chainline adjustment possible with a Twenty as it uses an super-wide BB shell* which nothing fits apart from the original 26TPI Raleigh BB.

*probably to accommodate the twin struts between the main tube and BB shell - it's a cross frame design.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Chris N

Re: Current Projects
« Reply #3 on: 11 May, 2017, 08:24:39 am »
All of my bikes are current projects.  I can't leave anything alone - I suppose it's a distraction from actually riding them. :-[

Anyway, I'm in the middle of a complicated 3-way drivetrain reshuffle:

1) the ti bike (ex-fixed) is getting gears (1x10 with a bar end shifter, MTB rear mech and an 11-36 cassette), using the cranks from the commuter fix and the rear wheel and 40T narrow/wide chainring from my Cannondale.  I've got new stem, bars, tape and saddle to go on it too.

2) the commuter gets the cranks and BB off the ti bike and a new chainring, chain and sprocket.  I'll probably put some moustache bars on it along with the stem from the ti bike at some point.

3) the Cannondale goes back to a double from 1x11 - it's donating the front ring to the ti bike.  I need to refit the front mech, cable (cranks need to come out for this - bloody internal routing) and LH shifter, and rebuild the original rear wheel.

The MTB needs a new rear dropout after the rear mech got dragged into the spokes a couple of weeks ago and snapped the mech, bent the dropout and damaged the chain.  I'll probably fit a SS kit to while I'm at it rather than refitting a rear mech and gears.

zigzag

  • unfuckwithable
Re: Current Projects
« Reply #4 on: 11 May, 2017, 02:36:14 pm »
one of the projects that needs to be resurrected is to turn my stock folding bike into a fast(er) one. need to build two wheels, improvise a rear brake attachment and somehow lower the handlebars.

also have a vague idea of stripping/respraying my audax bike (still deciding on what colour and graphics i actually want)

all bikes are running nice and smooth and how i like them

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Current Projects
« Reply #5 on: 12 May, 2017, 07:58:27 am »
Change of plan on the mystery frame (no longer such a mystery: I'm 90% sure it's an Ernie Clements, since the rear fork-ends are very much his own design and he had a shop in Wednesbury in 1949).  The Duomatic brake will probably be too much for the rear chainstay, especially the way the rear fork-end is brazed, so it's going to roll on old Campagnolo Record hubs and be a singlespeed.  I'll reduce the Record spacing and make the rear wheel dishless, provided I can get the right chainline.  It should be a sub-18lb bike as the frame is only 4lb 2oz and the wheels will be 28h, with folding bead tyres.

The Duomatic, when I get the right part for it, will be better on the Raleigh Twenty, which has the right spacing already and is sorely in need of an effective rear brake.  Since the conversion to BMX size 20" wheels (originally it had larger British size 20" wheels), it's needed a 100mm drop rear caliper and frankly this is for ornamental and legal purposes only, since there is so much flex that it barely slows the bike at all.  The Duomatic will give it an effective brake and the Twenty chainstays can easily cope with the reaction arm.  Front braking isn't an issue on the Twenty because I had to replace the bent fork, and I got one with V-brake bosses  :)
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Current Projects
« Reply #6 on: 06 June, 2017, 06:34:07 pm »
Update on the Ernie Clements: dropouts now filed out to take modern hub axles and wheels built.  Put the f&f together with the wheels and it is really going to be a looker when it's done, with slack angles and a tight fork curl (you have to ignore the crappy blue powdercoat - it will be orange with white bands).  Must have been built with sprint rims in mind because the tyre clearance "crimps" are exactly right for 700c; a 27" tyre would almost certainly foul the chainstays.  The seat tube is 22.5" which is just about right for me; the bars tend to end up a bit too low on 21.5" or 22".

Chainline should be about right; it's going to depend how far the crank slides onto the BB spindle.  I have 45mm at the back and on paper it's going to be 46mm at the front but this isn't totally predictable with square taper.  I might need a 1mm spacer under the freewheel for perfection, because I can't remove anything else from the RH side of the axle.

It is going to be super-light without the use of any particularly lightweight components.  I'm expecting 17lb without pedals.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Current Projects
« Reply #7 on: 06 June, 2017, 07:59:40 pm »
Ooh, projects. At Christmas I finally assembled a Kinesis Aithein and Genesis Volare.

In the few days leading up to Deano's fabulous 'Don't Keep to the Roads' I built up the yellow peril - Chinese carbon drop bar gravelly thing. Finished bar the rear brake cable at 0220 the night before the event. Amazingly, there was a bike workshop open on the way to the start, where I bought a cable inner and fitted it before starting.

Last week I removed the guards, rack and dynamo wheels and lights from a Kinesis GF Ti and then, having ridden it up and down the road, gave it a quick clean and also removed it from the auction site.

Not sure what to do next. A mate sort of wants a proper bike and I have a Kinesis 5T that would fit, and enough bits apart from shifters, to make it work. Also thinking of getting the, now venerable, Spa Steel Audax sprayed and rebuilding. Would also work for mate or brother.

Then there's some other stuff of which more later.

Re: Current Projects
« Reply #8 on: 11 June, 2017, 10:34:07 pm »
Currently rebuilding a 70's-80's Vitus 888 tubed Peugeot as my tourer with bits from the scrap bin. So far it is wearing a Spa triple and a Sachs-Huret Rival transmission with 7sp Sachs dt levers. I want something more comfy than the 700x28 wheels that were the biggest this frame would take so I am using the 650 rims off the tandem (Rigida ones for rim brakes, not the modern mtb offering) with a set of Schwalb tyres that I can't recall the name of (HS something or other, 38 or 40 section IIRC). Old double-pivot brakes seem to work (Weinmann on the front, GB on the back). Freewheel will probably be the 6sp 13-34 Shimano Megarange from the tandem (hope it comes off the hub!!). Saddle is a Brooks of course. Probably use the humongous chromoplastics and certainly a set of Blackburn lo-loaders that have already been tried and found to work on this frame. It might end up with an Alfine front dynohub, otherwise an old Maillard, and a Sachs nutted rear (in 126mm of course). Can't remember what the bars and stem are.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Current Projects
« Reply #9 on: 12 June, 2017, 08:26:33 am »
Good luck with that freewheel!  My mate Jeff was in the biz many years ago and said the word "futility" was redefined as trying to get a Sun Tour AG (5-speed, 14-38) block off a tandem wheel :D
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: Current Projects
« Reply #10 on: 12 June, 2017, 11:31:48 am »
I stuck my Peugeot 653 bike onto the turbo (needed a certain amount of turbo fettling so as it was possible to have it in any resistance setting other than 10! I'll post in Bodge it for this at some point).
I need to finish off my trike (at least to make it work - the minimum it needs are the front cable run sorting, a shifter adding, and the headsets sorting) - thread here: https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=94895.0
I have all the bits to build a 2 wheel recumbent, but I'm not doing it until the trike is done.
I also want to strip my fixie down, get it blasted and painted/powder coated and hen build it back up again.
And I need to get around to selling my BMX (rebuilt and resprayed early last year - never used since!).

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Current Projects
« Reply #11 on: 13 June, 2017, 07:23:37 pm »
The Ernie Clements project is off.  Top tube has a crumple in it.  It was hard to be sure under the lumpy powdercoat but it is definitely a crumple, although the forks are fine (the old 531DB didn't have sacrificial forks like later tubesets did).  Will look for another frame  :(
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Current Projects
« Reply #12 on: 13 June, 2017, 10:02:12 pm »
I must rebuild my Dawes Imperial, my preferred Audax bike. I've had the frame since 1990, and finally got Mercian to respray it this winter.


rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Current Projects
« Reply #13 on: 18 June, 2017, 08:25:22 pm »
By coincidence, the replacement frame will be a Dawes Mirage.  531DB, Oscar Egg-style lugs and, curiously, a rear centre-pull brake hanger.  The chrome on the fork is pretty shot and will just have to be painted over but it ticks all the boxes.  Just so long as there's no structural rust.

The Mirage of the early 1970s was quite a high-specification clubman bike, what would be considered an audax bike these days.  Basically a race bike with clearance for mudguards.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

fruitcake

  • some kind of fruitcake
Re: Current Projects
« Reply #14 on: 19 June, 2017, 11:53:50 am »
I must rebuild my Dawes Imperial, my preferred Audax bike. I've had the frame since 1990, and finally got Mercian to respray it this winter.



Wow! That looks stunning.

Re: Current Projects
« Reply #15 on: 19 June, 2017, 09:24:56 pm »
Would look even better if I built it...

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Current Projects
« Reply #16 on: 19 June, 2017, 09:33:23 pm »
What head badge is it - flaming torch or the even older one with a "D"?  The 1970s one is boring so I've got a flaming torch one instead.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Current Projects
« Reply #17 on: 19 June, 2017, 10:03:18 pm »
The original was the plain Dawes name, like the left-hand image here:


It's a bit battered, and I don't have the steady hand to repaint it, so I contacted Dawes. They didn't have any like that, but offered me this:


I suppose it's a bit of an anachronism, but this is a bike to use, not a restoration project, and I think it looks OK. After some thought, I also ordered one of these from the States to go on the seat tube:


Here's the bike as it was originally:

Re: Current Projects
« Reply #18 on: 22 June, 2017, 03:01:17 pm »
I have a 1984 Brian Rourke which I have had from new and had it renovated by Mercian Cycles in 2015 and they did a very nice job on it with extra white panels on the seat and down tubes.  However, the equipment was old and worn so mostly got thrown away and finding suitable equipment for it now is getting harder and more expensive than I am prepared to pay. 

I should have had the rear ends re-set to 130mm so that I could have re-built it with a modern groupset and at the moment cant decide whether to do this or simply give in and sell the frameset which looks like new.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Current Projects
« Reply #19 on: 26 June, 2017, 07:15:36 pm »
I've reset quite a few rear ends.  It's usually easy unless one side is much stiffer than the other (e.g. because of a clearance dimple for the chainring).
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Current Projects
« Reply #20 on: 22 August, 2017, 08:50:33 pm »
Update on the tourer project: the transmission doesn't work. The front mech wouldn't go over the three rings. This has been replaced by an Acera triple which works just fine. The rear mech doesn't index (I thought it had been marked ARIS) and drags the cage on the big sprockets with the granny ring. No B screw to adjust and I think the heart of the problem is that the top spring is too weak compared to the cage spring - old age! It worked on the tandem but the tandem's hanger was ground up and brazed on by me and is further forward (or back perhaps) than the proper position. I will have to get to the next bike jumble and see what I can pick up in the way of rear mechs. The freewheel came off the tandem hub without a horrendous amount of difficulty (good thing too since I needed to recover the rim).

As discussed in another thread I have decided to use the tandem's front wheel with Sachs 700 drum brake hub. It is just too solid and round to strip down. The wheel is now installed and working with a generic Weinmann style drop lever (which was more of a bitch than I remember to install the cable). The calipers will be the next to be cabled with special cables already made up for the Weinmann twin cable lever.

The rear wheel is provisionally built but will need to be rebuilt with the correct spokes for X3. At present it is X2 and the drive side spokes need to be about 4mm shorter - just need to get round to ordering the right ones. It will do for testing. A new small flange Maillard hub slightly respaced to reduce the dish (bought as remaindered stock for 50FF so I have had it for a while) with 6sp freewheels.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Current Projects
« Reply #21 on: 22 August, 2017, 09:02:00 pm »
I have all the parts to build up a 1994 Kona Kilauea MTB but the frame is going to get a repaint first.  The forks were acquired separately and, although they are the exact spec that would have been originally supplied for this frame (triple butted Project Two, 163mm steerer, 410mm blades) someone has helpfully had them powdercoated in an immaculate black, which is what I wanted anyway.

These bikes ride a lot better than modern Konas; the BB isn't as stupidly high, they don't have front suspension mucking up the handling and pogoing on climbs, and they don't have sodding riser bars.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Current Projects
« Reply #22 on: 23 August, 2017, 03:16:27 pm »
It's nice to to so many of you renovating your old bikes and rejecting this through away mass produced ideology we seem to have inherited.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Current Projects
« Reply #23 on: 23 August, 2017, 08:29:49 pm »
We're just old and nostalgic!
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Current Projects
« Reply #24 on: 23 August, 2017, 09:05:20 pm »
We're just old and nostalgic!

And, in my case, skint