Spring Bicycle rebuild complete

[deathshadow]

I've been rebuilding my bicycle after two harsh winters of pounding it into the ground.

This is how it looked when I got it in june 2008.


Click for Larger View - Bike June 2008

It's been two harsh years of riding it in New England winters - road salt's a *** and the bike ended up pretty screwed up. My objective for this rebuild wasn't just to bring it back to new condition, but to make it BETTER than it was new.

The problem list I put together last month was such:

1. Bad bearings in bottom bracket - ashtabula one piece crank.

2. Four broken spokes on rear wheel

3. bent rear rim

4. never was happy with rear rim red - it was too orange and didn't 'pop'.

5. bad bearings in front hub

6. severe rust on chain, chainwheel, rear sprocket

7. stripped nut holding on internal gear hub cable mechanism. (rear end)

8. Extreme scratches and minor rust on fenders.

9. Torn grips on handlebars - they were cheap foamed vinyl.

10. cheap pedals constantly having the reflectors slide out jamming them - had cheap pedals on it as a stopgap to make up for bending the ones it came with.

11. Whitewalls visibly cracked, tread worn off rear and threads showing.

That's a lot of things wrong... I should have taken pictures of the beaten up rusted wreck - but in any case here's what I did.

I was originally going to have the rear wheel re-laced, because it's been two decades since I touched anything like that I was going to outsource it - but it was going to cost almost as much as the bike did once you added the cost per spoke for two wheels, a new front hub and new rims. Turns out the guy I ordered it from in Cali sells pre-built all on their own with better hubs and spokes than the factory ones for half what it was going to cost to have it rebuilt... So new rear hub, end of problem on front and rear. I didn't know he'd be sending them, but I was also sent a new shifter and shift mechanism with cable between them ALREADY PERFECTLY ADJUSTED - so shifter issues gone too, and I don't even have to sweat re-tapping the old shifter to fit a bigger bolt (which was my original plan)

I yanked the ashtabula crank and put in an adapter to let me use a 68x103mm BB cartridge. This let me order some reasonably priced alloy cranks from Eighthinch (a company that specializes in fixed speed and internal gear parts). This also upped the chainwheel from 46 tooth to 48 tooth, which let me space the tire further down the bottom brackets.

The chain is easy enough to clean up and salvage if you three step it. Degrease and clean in a pine-sol and water bath, remove the rust in a WD-40 bath, and then lubricate first with PB-50 to drive out any remaining moisture and to get a light oil in it, and then a bit of wet ride to give it lasting protection. As any GOOD mechanic will tell you, WD-40 is a water displacer, NOT a lubricant. PB-50 is a really good penetrating lubricant, but tends to flow off the chain long term hence the final touch with a real bike lube.

The fenders I took off and let sit in a feed trough (those are handy to get BTW for these types of projects) with that same pine-sol and water mix. As painters can attest, pine-sol is a nice saft less-caustic paint stripper. Again WD-40 to drive out the moisture and loosen all the rust spots allowed me to use the wire brush and some scotch-brite to get down to bare metal. Prime, paint, good as new...

The strapping to hold the fenders on though are still a bit rough - the chrome has worn down to the copper in some places, right past the copper in others, so I should consider replacing those next year... Which it will probably be cheaper to just order new fenders than to try and get just the strapping to hold them on.

For pedals I got a semi-cheap pair that light up when you pedal - they're powered by your pedaling. They're really quite comfortable and since it's a black bike and I ride at night, you can NEVER have too many lights.

Grips I lucked into a pair at a local Ski/bike shop for ten bucks. I like them because they match my color scheme perfectly.

.. and of course, a new set of whitewalls. I mostly do road riding, so I went with a simple brick pattern set of DURO brand. Not the greatest, but they'll last me a good two years.

So, here it is in 2010 after my overhaul and a good long test ride.


Click for Larger View - Bike March 2010

I really wish I had bothered taking pictures before I started work - it was a rusted disaster.

Here's a rear-angle.


Click for Larger View - Bike March 2010, Rear Angle

No, that's not a light on that bottom reflector, that's from the flash. Under the seat is the actual light, which contains a single Cree Q5 LED. If you know the Cree LED's, you know that bulb is as bright all by itself as most motorcycle HEADLIGHTS.

You are probably noticing the lighting system. In the front I've got three Cree Q5 LED's I wired myself. Individual drivers for each with VGA RAMSINKS to cool them. Three of them gives me almost the same, possibly more light than a car usually has. It's a radio shack flashlight I cut the handle off of, then cut out a round piece of plexiglass to epoxy to the back, tapped and set bolts into so it would mount on the existing reflector mount. Plexi ended up breaking last year so I just flooded the whole mount area with a layer of epoxy which is holding up a lot better.


Click for larger view - Bike March 2010, Headlight

The battery box which you can see in that pic - a heck, here's another pic:


Click for Larger View - Bike March 2010, Battery Box

Is a simple 79 cent Walmart fishing tackle box. Drilled holes front and rear for the cables, used hot-glue as a 'sealer' for waterproofing the cable holes, and have a piece of rubber in the lid to seal the top - not that it matters too much with the marine switch and battery packs being sealed in heat-shrink or packing tape. It will run off a 7.2 volt RC car battery which I use as my 'backup' should my primary battery die - though my primary batteries are home-built out of old laptop batteries. Laptops use a 3.7 volt 18650 NiMh cell typcially with a 2400-3500mah rating. The ones I'm using are from a toshiba and are rated 3200mah each, in testing they still deliver around 2800mah - with four cells that's 7.4 volts to the drivers at 5600mah - the drivers drop it to 3.2 volts and regulate it to 1AMP each, so do the math for three bulbs front and one rear, and I get over three hours runtime per charge per pack.

Some more pics... New cranks with freshly stripped, de-rusted, lead gap-filled and repainted chainguard - and the new light-up pedals.


Click for Larger View - Bike March 2010, Right Crank

I was a little surprised the crank bolts didn't have covers, but I was looking at how the rubber grommet expands when you put them in waterproofing the seal and kind-of holding them in place so they don't unscrew from the vibration. Usually bolt-covers are there to make sure you don't lose your screws if they unseat - on these the rubber holds them in place and dampens the vibration. Naturally, I put loc-tite on them just to be sure. Likewise with pretty much EVERYTHING on the ashtabula shell to 68mm adapter and bottom bracket cartridge it all got a good coat of X-Tra heavy duty marine grade wheel bearing grease.


Click for Larger View - Bike March 2010, Left Crank

Even the crappy old kick-stand cleaned up kinda-nice... Though I hadn't notice the head fell off the adjusting bolt. I'm probably gonna replace that tomorrow.


Click for Larger View - Bike March 2010, Right Crank

Here's my new 3 speed shifter. Not all that different from the old one, though the old one was a solid color, this one appears to have metal flake in the plastic giving it a bit of shimmer. New grips are really nice - I like small diameter grips in rubber. I hate how many new grips have a giant pattern like the tread on a car, so the nice-tight little pattern of these was a real find, espeically given the price. The rubber is nice too since it's extra-tacky; Kind of the same stuff as those old whacky-wall-walker toys.

I did NOT cut it down to fit the shifter like most builders do. I like having the full grip, not half a grip where I'm constantly rubbing up against the shifter accidentally. Thankfully there was JUST enough room before the curve started to get the grip on the whole way...


Click for Larger View - Bike March 2010, rear hub

One ride and it's dirty already (and excuse the greasy fingerprints on the strapping). The rust cleaned up pretty good off the chain and fender strapping - much less the bolts. That new shift mechanism seems to fit nicer than the old one too, sitting on the nut a lot better. (wonder if that was the wrong nut on the old one? Oh wait, it's always the wrong nut riding that bike...)

Some of you are probably wondering 'what gears?!?" - Old technology that's been given a new life the past decade or so - internal gear hub. All my 'gears' are inside that larger diameter hub - so none of that derailer jumping a chain from gear to gear in mid-air nonsense. I've got an engineering background and frankly, the entire derailer system goes so complete against my idea of a common sense design that I refuse to ride them anymore. It's a BAD system that is used for only TWO reasons - cheap, and low weight for competitive riders. Anyone else - I say why have all the headaches?

Gives you the clean lines of a fixed gear, the reliability of a fixed gear, while still having multiple gears. Shimano makes them in 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9 speed, SRAM makes them in 3, 4, 5 and 7, and of course Sturmey-Archer is the king of 3 speed internals. This one's a shimano 3 - I don't need more than 3 gearings if my high is as high as the highest on a ten-speed, and my low is as low as the lowest ratio on same - and middle is, well, in the middle.

That you can shift gears at a dead stop is just icing on the cake.

So... came out really nice - I'm happy with it... problem is, now what do I do for a project?

I'm playing with the idea of doing a ground-up build over the summer "for fun". I'm thinking on making a true 'alt bike' - taking a classic cantilever frame like from a Schwinn, increasing the rake, putting a springer fork on the front with ape-hangers, 20 narrow front, 26 balloon rear, go for the velour seat with matching sissy-bar and back-rest - basically a fair weather rider "Show bike" since this one is my daily rider.

Could do purple and gold - I love purple and gold together... Lord knows I know who to get the cranks from. and I know I can get the neck and bars in the same color - so that leaves spokes and rims... It's all about the rims. Maybe toss on gold fringe hanging from the seat and upper tube and one of those gold crown air fresheners somewhere... Wonder if I can get a nice purple metal-flake 70's style paint.

Basically I'm thinking a "pimping ain't easy" bike. (and if you hear the Godfathers music "Get abord the Ho' Train" - you're thinking what I'm thinking.) Yes, I am THAT crazy.

So now you know why I've been a bit quiet the past week and a half or so...

[Alex]

Good job man, it looks like a brand new bike. I need to come up with a little project like that for myself.

[Ryku650]

The bike looks cool. Mine has it's manufacturing stuff
I don't customize my bikes.

Deathy why not show a picture of how sexy it is you riding it?

[Sue]

Wow, you did a really nice job! If you enjoy doing such things you might be able to make some money while enjoying yourself by customizing them for others for a profit.

[stanleyj]

You know what? I just just love that Bicycle ..after or before the rebuilding,cool bike.

[Alex]

(Mar-28-2010 09:40 PM)stanleyj Wrote:  You know what? I just just love that Bicycle ..after or before the rebuilding,cool bike.

Agreed. I love beach cruisers, and you just can't get much cooler than the black and red.

[Ryan]

(Mar-27-2010 03:11 PM)Sue Wrote:  Wow, you did a really nice job! If you enjoy doing such things you might be able to make some money while enjoying yourself by customizing them for others for a profit.

Yes, great idea Sue. DS should customize them for others, he's retired, but, y'know...

And this is a great thread - blog like.