cheesy

Sturmey Archer made several 2 and 3 speed fixed gear hubs in the late 40s to about 1960. The ASC was the 3 speed, AF(I think) and TF were 2 speed. Very rare now, which translates to very expensive. Being a cheap Norwegian farmer, I built my own hubs by doing internal magic. I've converted several Sturmey Archer AW 3 speed hubs into fixed 2 speeds. One 4 speed FW became a 3 speed fixed gear. The overdrive, or high gear, is lost in the conversion. I also converted two Bendix manually shifted, not the kickbacks, to 2 speed fixed gear. Those are low and direct so there is no overdrive to lose. The Bendix hubs are really easy to do, but I won't convert one unless the plating is bad. Too rare. Where the British 2 speed TF is considered a jewel and does things with grace, the converted Bendix can be considered the 'Uncouth American Cousin' that does things with brute force. After Sturmey Archers sale to SunRace several years ago, they came out with a new 3 speed fixed gear hub called the S3X. It didn't live up to the fanfare due to many failures. I have one, still in the box. One of these days... As an aside, I was really into fixed gear bikes in my 50s. Everyone had a nickname and mine was 'Cheesy' because I hailed from Wisconsin and usually had double cheese on a burger. I did a lot of Alley Cat races and track races against kids half my age. Usually I had my ass handed to me but I had a blast. I built my first hub because I'm a lousy climber and I wanted a lower gear. As happened with the AW hub, there is a neutral position between low and direct. I use it for a long gentle downhill or setting my pedals at a stop sign. Some of my friends saw that and started calling it the "Cheesy Hub".

The 13ga spokes MAY be a benefit with the bike being a fixed gear as resistance, aka backpedaling, is used to slow down and in some cases, stopping. That's a bit of torque applied to the hub flanges. I've not seen a spoke break with backpedaling but I have seen broken aluminum hub flanges. Those were either a poorly built wheel or a hub with a casting defect. Either way, scary to watch happen and must be terrifying to the rider. I have at least a front brake on all my fixed gears because I had my first design multi speed fixed gear hub fail the first time I tried to slow down by back pedaling. The hub made a hell of noise. So did I as I lived at the top of a hill at the time. With no way to stop.😁

This got finished on Monday. It's a Fuji Flair frame and fork I picked up where I got the 1970 Raleigh from. I paid a whopping five bucks for it. The parts from the bent Robin Hood went on here. I had to buy a seat post, crank set, and spokes for the rear wheel. I built the rear wheel with 13ga spokes instead of the usual 14ga spoke. The 13 ga spokes are very overkill for a wheel like this. It's been a while since I bought spokes and things have changed a bit. I used to be able to buy a box of 100 spokes and they came with the nipples. Now, a lot of places sell spokes in groups of ten and the nipples are extra. I found the 13ga spokes selling as a group of 36, with the nipples, for cheap and snagged them. I had plenty of 14ga spokes on hand, but they were either too long or too short. I have the ability to cut and thread spokes but I'd rather slam my hand in a car door, repeatedly, than cut and thread 36 spokes again.

On interventions. My family was going to have an intervention for me 15 years ago. I was 54 years old and looking at a 1991 Corvette, black, 350, 5 speed. 40k miles on it. The asking price was $10K. To me, it was a smoking deal. The family thought I was going to cruise for chicks. I was the only male in the household, so why would I put myself through more torture. My thought was a nice looking black 'vette for ten grand. And I figured red or yellow was for chick cruising. Turned out that no intervention was needed as I had a hard time getting into it and an even harder time getting out. I'm not a big guy but I'm as flexible as two year old concrete. I bought a black 05 Wrangler instead for more money and I still have it. I can't speak for the current Jags as they do absolutely nothing for me. But I have experience with British cars and it hasn't been great.

I can only suggest that you lie down and wait until the feeling passes.

Happy Thanksgiving guys. As we are an hour behind beautiful Maine, we have just started moving about. I still have a second cuppa waiting for me, then a light solo breakfast and a quick walk of Buster dog while she who must be obeyed gets things going. I'll then be spending my time messing with an over torqued and damaged lug nut on my pickup until dinner time. It's also just us and the dog this year. We need to steel ourselves for the upcoming Christmas holidays as we are hosting the Mainer branch of the family this year.

Not a great day at Chez Fromage yesterday. I was rearranging seasonal stuff in the garage when I backed the mower into the Honda CX500, which started a cascade of bicycles, mo-peds, almost motorcycles, and other bits of garage type junk. I was mostly concerned about the almost a motorcycle falling against the DeSoto, Luckily, the throttle grip of the bike and the front bumper shook hands and that was all. Once the four letter words subsided, I enlisted my other half, a 3 ton floor jack, and a 6' piece of pipe to get the Honda back upright and the mess cleaned up. This isn't the first time the Honda has been on its side in the garage this year. Our grandson knocked it down with his adventure on an ATV with a stuck throttle over the summer.

Just the opposite for me, and anything over 500 miles because it was every week. I would head to O'hare a 4 am on Monday and if I pulled back into my driveway before midnight on Friday, I got home early.

In my work truck, Elgin, IL to Spokane, WA and back. In 1978, pre kids, we drove our 1974 Opel Manta from Chicago to Arizona via old 66 and returned via Utah and Colorado. We drive to Union, ME every other year to visit our oldest and her family. The longest trip in the Desoto has just been to Kenosha, WI from Elburn, IL and back, about 170 miles. We're hooking up the trailer to the pickup after next week and doing the 66 route again for our 50th. SWMBO wants to go to the end of 66. I'd rather slam my hand in a car door, but happy wife, happy life. I was so glad that my work truck sprouted wings in 1999. But I traded windshield time for airline delays.

I know the feeling. My wife has her Renegade. I have my Wrangler. We share an F150 diesel and then there's the 48 DeSoto.

New to me bike day. It's 1970 or 71 Raleigh Sports with the not too common 23" frame. I paid the princely sum of $10 for it. I'd have given $50 just for the saddle, a Brooks B72. It still has the original Dunlop White Stripe tires on it. I'm just going to grease and clean this one up. I scored a few other things, too. The wheel leaning against the garage is for the bent Robin Hood. I also got two 27" aluminum wheels for the just as old red and chrome bike in the background.

That is one tall bike on a short car. I've seen some 911s with roof racks.

I found out the hard, and expensive, way. I think Phil Wood makes 26tpi cups for Raleighs, but unless it's something like a 531 Lenton Sport, they are not worth the expense.

Well, 'eck. I had a mostly original 1974 Raleigh Grand Prix sitting for sale at my favorite bike shop for about 18 months. It sold yesterday for $175. I thought that was pretty good, seeing as I paid a hundred for it a few years back. The shop gets a 20% commission, so that leaves me with $140. I just had them set that up as a tab for parts instead of cutting me a check. That should be good for a rim, some good tires, and some tubes.

Close. Raleigh was 26 tpi with a 70mm or 73mm BB shell, depending on the model. The rest of the Brits were 24tpi and 68mm, which is BSC/ISO. Raleigh got their head out in the mid 80's and went with 24tp and 68mm. Italians are also ISO now but were 36mmx24tpi, and a 70mm BB shell, with both cups being RH thread. The French also got on the ISO bandwagon, maybe late 70s, early 80s. Prior to that, the French threading was 35mm x 1mm, again, with both cups being RH thread. I have every variation in my herd. Thank God I don't have Swiss, which is French with a LH fixed cup. I had to look the above up because I couldn't remember all of it. There was a time when I could.