Show your bicycles, sans engines!

[Ulu]

I don’t have enough projects, so I bought this beater bike. It’s filthy but it’s not very old.

It’s a Manhattan “Green” and I paid way too much for it because it has a Sturmey archer AWC(mk2) three speed with coaster brake.

These hubs are not English-made Like the ones I have rebuilt in the past, but made in Taiwan. Anyhow the hub seems to be okay if just slightly gritty.

 

Otherwise I don’t really like anything else about this bike. It will be ok to ride when it’s finished, but nothing special.

 

There was mud in everything. It’s like somebody had thrown this bike in the lake and pulled it back out a week later and then left it sit in the weeds in the backyard for a year in the rain and sun.

 

I had to replace the bottom bracket or (what we used to call the lower set or crank set) And I got a modern sealed unit for $30. Of course the tool cost me $25, so I can adjust it. I had to buy a crank extractor as well because my little puller wouldn’t remove the steel cranks.

 

All the rest of the bearings were salvageable as well as the chain but it took a lot of cleaning.

 

The frame looks straight and all the welding looks good, but I didn’t care much for how the rear stays weld to the seat post clamp, and the seat post clamp is permanently attached to the bike.

 

I’ll have to recover the seat. It was slashed. The foam was moldy. Way too much foam! 

 

This one has aluminum wheels and is the first one I’ve ever had with aluminum wheels or metric wheels. They seem to be in pretty good shape with no corrosion & no dents. They are both still very true (!) so Color Me Happy.

 

The tires were rotten & the tubes each had two patches on them, so I bought new ones yesterday.
 

Unfortunately they have painted spokes and they have a little bit of rust on them so I am going to strip every spoke and clearcoat. Well maybe not today. Let’s get this thing together and see how it rides.

Edited February 9, 2023 by Ulu

[cheesy]

Decent rims and a Sturmey Archer coaster hub that will actually stop.

 

Sturmey Archer was run into the ground by Raleigh's parent company sometime in the early 2000s. Rumor has it that SunRace of Taiwan bought the whole kit and kaboodle for $1 and still managed to get screwed. They shipped all the machinery to Taiwan only to find it was all worn out junk. 

 

SunRace had some teething pains early on but now the quality is supposed to be equal to, or better, than the Sturmey Archer of the late forties, early fifties.

[Ulu]

This is a hardened 3/16” screw & skateboard nut, plus two sealed mini ball bearings & small flange, scavenged from an old hard drive.

Since replacing the plastic Chinese Sturmey chain roller and pin with these precision sealed balls, I am Shifty Mc Shift Face!

 

Well I’ve got the bike cleaned up and running nice except that I lost the master link clip, the shifter cable is way too long, and I need to recover the seat.

All the bearings were okay once I got them cleaned up, except for the crank set.

 

For 30 bucks I got a sealed bearing crankset, and for 25 bucks I got that tool to install it. The guy at the bike shop pulled my old crank arms off gratis, but I bought an extraction tool from him anyway.

 

I didn’t put the front brake back together. I’m not going to use it because it’s putting damage on that front rim. It’s probably past the normal wear limit.

 

I’d like to get a front disc brake hub and rim already assembled. I hope it’s not five times as much as I paid for the bike.

 

I bought some new tires and I bought new tubes but it turns out the tubes had Presta valves.

 

I had no idea. I never had anything to do with racing bikes. They were too delicate! 

 

Anyhow I patched the old Schrader valve tubes and put them in. They will be fine for now.

I flushed out that hub as well as I could. I put it upside down and sprayed oil up, under pressure, and let it run back out. I got quite a bit of dirt out of it. I blew it all out with an air hose and did it again. I blew it out again and let it drip-dry.  I spent quite a bit of time cleaning up the rusty little chain and everything seems to function quite nicely.

I used Deep Creep, which (unlike WD-40) has good lubricating qualities and is a good solvent too.

 

[cheesy]

Nice job resurrecting the bike. If you find yourself using the bike shop a bit more and more and they do some things gratis, a six pack of an adult beverage for the mechanic will make more things gratis. I used to wrench in a shop and can say it's true.

 

The shifter cable is too long because the Sturmey hub has the wrong nut on it. Sheldon Brown was a god of all things bicycle.

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/sturmey-archer/adj.html

 

A disk on the front would be way expensive. Besides the wheel, rotor, and caliper, you'd need a different front fork, beefy enough for a disk brake with the mounts for a caliper. Personally, I'd aim the current front brake pads towards the trash can and replace them with Kool-Stop salmon pink pads. Even with the side of the front rim worn, you'll be okay. To my knowledge, the wear limit with a rim brake is when you've worn completely through the rim sidewall.

 

Most, not all, of my bikes have presta valves. The benefit is that they are easier to inflate with a hand pump, with the correct head, on the side of the road. There is an adapter that screws on the valve to use a schraeder, or standard, pump. Without the adapter or a presta pump, the valve is just a funny looking thing you can't do anything with.

[cheesy]

6 hours ago, cheesy said:

 

 

The shifter cable is too long because the Sturmey hub has the wrong nut on it. Sheldon Brown was a god of all things bicycle.

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/sturmey-archer/adj.html

 

 

I take the above back. I didn't pay a heck of a lot of attention to the previous pics. When I saw the last pic without the long nut, pre-SunRace, I kind of did a WTF. Brownie was a god, tho.

As you were.

[Ulu]

I got the bike all together recovered the seat and took it out for a ride today.

 

My 1950’s Sturmy-archer had the long nut with a window in it so you could look in and adjust the cable. This one not does not look like a hardened bicycle nut. It looks like a cad-plated grade 5 for a lawnmower.

 

I cut about 8 inches off of that shifter cable last night because it was just waving in the breeze. I think it originally had to negotiate around a basket up front.

 

I did not have a tiny brass ferrule to crimp back on the cable, and so I did a little field expedient.

 

You bend back the strands of the cable 180°, about 5mm long. You bend them all carefully, one at a time, until all are facing the wrong way.

You don’t have to bend them so tight that the hard wires snap off. . . just tight enough that you can gather all the ends together with your left hand & stuff the threaded sleeve on with the right hand.

 

You will not get them all exactly the same length and it really doesn’t matter. The long ones going first and then work your way around to get the short ones in last.

 

When the last short end goes into the tube, you just start screwing it on to the cable until it bottoms out.

 

It turns out this is a very strong method, & you can do it in the field with a small pliers. In a pinch you can do it with your fingernails, but your fingers are gonna hurt afterwards. I used needle nose pliers.

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by Ulu

[Ulu]

Wow! I almost forgot the purpose of this thread: “show us your bike”

 

 

 

 

[Ulu]

I posted this picture in here, on the shot gun club, and on the bicycle club, and I got quite a few comments.

 

But there’s something nobody noticed and I didn’t notice it either when I went for the first ride.

 

Near the bottom of the front wheel there’s an oddly shaped magnet stuck to the spoke and it is from an old computer hard drive. I knocked it off the workbench and I never did find it, but now I know where it ended up.

 

I didn’t notice the bike feeling out of balance as I was riding, it but I’m gonna go ride the bike with and without that magnet on, to see if I can notice the difference.

 

It went about 3 miles so far and I never noticed it on there.

[Ulu]

Thar she be boys…..

 

[Ulu]

1.433 Oz on the Hornaday scale.

 

[Ulu]

I’ve been working on the bikes a bit and I bought this used park bike vice off of craigslist for about half price. This is a serious heavy duty stand. It was well worth the money.

 

I have been riding the Manhattan bike every day now. I’m going to build a larger and more comfortable bike. This one is very speedy and I like to ride it, but it just seems small and girly to me.

 

 

Anyhow I want to build a custom bike & I have been looking for fat bike parts all over town. I have not even been able to buy a complete new bike with fat tires. 
 

So, I stumbled across this unused 2014 Mongoose Malus on craigslist, and I picked it up today. This bike still had the tickets and the owners manual with it.  It was bought and just put away in the garage, and here it is eight years later. I guess the guy didn’t like it but it is like new.

 

 

I hopped it over some curbs, but it hasn’t been in the dirt yet. It’s still has the nubs on the tires.

 

Now I have to explain to my wife why I’m going to take apart another pretty bicycle for parts. See, I just bought this lightly used Schwinn bicycle for parts as well.

 

 

I already stripped out everything except the headset.

 

There on the ground is the mock up for my new bike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cheesy]

Can't beat a Park repair stand. I've had mine for about 35 years.

[Ulu]

I didn’t think this one would be as good because it doesn’t bolt to the floor but it is so heavy, this thing will never fall over. 

The thing that amazed me is that it goes up so tall.

 

What sold me is the giant vice grip clamp. That thing is indestructible.

 

I paid $220 including the tool tray. I’ve seen these online for $430 + Tax and shipping, without the tool tray. There weren’t many signs of wear on it. The decals were ruined there were a few paint scrapes.

 

The guy I bought it from was an amateur would gotten hit by a car while bicycling & suffered a spinal injury. He had a steel ladder screwed into his spine when he was launched 70 feet through the air into a pile of garbage cans. He had to give up wrenching and riding. 

 

The guy that sold me the mongoose the next day didn’t seem to like the bike much, but he wasn’t riding because he too had suffered a back injury and has had his spine fused.

 

I was going to buy a more expensive version of this bike for the parts, and a guy bought it right as I was walking into the bicycle shop. It was the last one in town in the bicycle shops, so I ended up with a much less expensive used one.

 

Anyhow I’m thinking about staking myself outside the orthopedic office with a sign that says “bicycles and motorcycles wanted, any condition considered, cash paid on the spot.”

 

 

 

[cheesy]

The earlier Park stands have an open square base made of solid 1.25 bar stock. So, yeah, heavy like they need to be when breaking loose a BB lock ring that hasn't been moved in 50 years or a stubborn pedal. I have a good stock of Park bike tools; cone wrenches, pedal wrenches, brake tools, and a wheel truing stand. I'd really like to have Parks' top o' the line TS-2 truing stand but I can't justify the cost, so I have the harder to find lower cost model. I can still build a good wheel on the stand I have, it just takes longer.

 

I can sympathize with with the guy you got the stand from. I got hit from behind in 2007. I was lucky in the fact that I had no broken bones but ended up with a lifetime's worth of road rash, concussion, two dozen stitches, and a month on crutches. It took ten years before I was pain free. So my riding has changed from getting from Point A to Point B, while dressed as a MAMIL(Middle Aged Male In Lycra), as quickly as possible, to taking my sweet time as a Grey Beard* or Fossil**, on a old English 3 speed, possibly wearing a tweed jacket and flat cap.

 

*Usually a term of endearment and respect. An occasional insult hoisted by youngsters that soon get their asses handed them on a platter by said Grey Beards.

 

**An insult, usually mouthed by a MAMIL.

 

[Ulu]

You’re giving me the urge to get off the beaten path.

[cheesy]

That pic was taken in May 2008, nine months after getting whacked. West side of the Mississippi bluffs in Minnesota during my first Lake Pepin 3 Speed Tour. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy the ride but it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable I'd ever been on. I've ridden it over a dozen times since then. Folks come from all over the US and Canada to ride it.

https://3speedtour.com/

 

The last few times, I've thrown the bike(s) on the back of my Russian mini tractor and taken the back roads through Illannoy and Wisconsin to Red Wing. It makes for a memorable, if sometimes damp trip.

 

[Young Ed]

That redwing area is so great. For anyone coming to the area Elmer's toy and auto museum is a great site to see and apparently this is their last season. I heard late 2022 all the contents are being auctioned off. 

[cheesy]

1 hour ago, Young Ed said:

That redwing area is so great. For anyone coming to the area Elmer's toy and auto museum is a great site to see and apparently this is their last season. I heard late 2022 all the contents are being auctioned off. 

Isn't Elmer's right across US 61 from Wabasha?

[Young Ed]

30 minutes ago, cheesy said:

Isn't Elmer's right across US 61 from Wabasha?

That sounds right. I think it's in the country by fountain city wi

[Ulu]

Good Lord! I haven’t seen the land of Wisconsin in 50 years!

 

I bought some more bike tools and another new bicycle just for parts. I actually bought a whole bicycle just to get the front wheel tire and tube.

It had a minor defect and I got it new for half price. The whole aluminum wheel bike for less than the cost of a single bare steel wheel at the bike shop: $75!

 

The cassette and the shifter are better than the one on the mongoose and I will probably be swapping them.

I’m working on a steel rack and trying to clean up my work areas some more so I can be efficient instead of stumbling over stuff.

 

My youngest daughter turned 40 and she bought her second house this year.

My eldest daughter just sold a house in Fresno that she bought six years ago and she got 2 1/2 times what she originally paid for it, in cash. Two days after open house started. Fresno California has the hottest real estate market I’ve ever seen in 45 years here.

 

WhooHoo!

[Ulu]

Building a frame jig to weld bikes:

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2022 by Ulu

[Ulu]

The Mongoose with different seat, kickstand gone and all the ugly decals and badge stripped off. Looks almost too good to cut up.

 

The Huffy frame has some tapered & hydroformed tubing in the frame. 

 

 

 

 

[cheesy]

Doing a Tweed ride tomorrow with like minded old farts. I have the Anglo-American all tuned(put air in the tires)and hung off the back of the sidecar rig for the run to Oak Park, IL.

 

[Ulu]

Biggs and Littles, as they say.

 

 

I still gotta ditch that knobby, or shave it.

 

 

[cheesy]

My Fattie, a Framed Minnesota 2.0, doesn't get ridden in the snow free months. Those knobbies sound like a semi rolling down the road.