Show your bicycles, sans engines!

[cheesy]

Latest acquisition. 1979/1980 trike called, wait for it, DeSoto.

 

It's missing the rear basket but that little platform where the basket was sure looks inviting for a small engine.

[Ulu]

I reshaped the frame stays and re-centered my lacing a bit. I swapped a couple jamb nuts, and it all finally fits!

 

Now I need to reshape the dropouts so I can tighten the chain. But I did get out and rideit, sloppy chain and all, and the gears were okay.

I used the old tourniquet method to bring the stays in a little closer together.

First ride with the new Sturmey Archer hub.

 

The chain is too sloppy.

 

She gleams!

[Ulu]

I decided to put the derailleur back on, and lock it in position to use as a chain tensioner and guide. It works pretty well but is really black & ugly. I do have a silver one somewhere that might work but it’s not in great shape in this one is like new.

 

 

 

I was really happy with the way the new hub works now that I got the chain to quit skipping. You can really stand on it in top gear with no hint of frailty whatsoever.

I had to lock the derailleur in place with a scrap of cable, so it acts as a chain guide and is always in line with the rear sprocket.

Edited January 13, 2023 by Ulu

[Ulu]

I couldn’t deal with that black monster very long. Yesterday I built a new tensioner from a used derailleur. I drilled the rivets away and removed this stuff.

I ripped up this funky little bracket to get the bushing out.

I turned the flange off of it, and then pressed it into this Shimano adapter arm.

I drilled that little hole for the spring to seat.

 

So here it is on the bench.

 

And here it is on the bike.

 

It needs some cleanup and adjustment, but it worked the first time!

I still don’t have a front derailleur, and I have to move the chain by hand, but I won’t change from high range to low range under normal circumstances.

 

Edited August 8, 2022 by Ulu

[cheesy]

You do nice work.

[Ulu]

Thank you @cheesy. It’s much easier when you’re working with nice parts.

 

I didn’t know if that was going to work or not. It was a total blind experiment but I was guessing that I could somehow get it.

 

It was a little bit tight to get a perfect adjustment where it didn’t growl, or skip, so I drilled out the other hole and chopped off the hook and thus moved it as far from the sprocket as possible. (It was hot enough out that I decided to work in the office.)

The chrome looks bad because that’s the backside of the original bracket hanger and never got polished before chroming.

It doesn’t matter that much because it’s going to rust where I ground it off anyway.

 

This is a much more satisfactory arrangement, And now that is quiet and there’s no skipping. That works well on high or low range.

 

BUT, I should TIG that bushing in place before it gets loose.

 

Edited August 9, 2022 by Ulu

[Ulu]

I finished lacing the little wheel that I stripped.

 

It needs some final buffing, decontamination and clear paint.

 

I’m still trying to come up with workable shifters for my Mongoose bike.

 

Edited August 11, 2022 by Ulu

[Ulu]

A banged-up alloy seat post clamp. I'm shaving off the scars.

 

A broken kickstand. I'm sanding it down...

 

That's a motor from a HP 80 GB HDD. I'm only using it for the bearing and the flash.

 

Shaved, shaped and drilled.

 

Ta Daaah!

 

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by Ulu

[Ulu]

It needs a mount, so Angle grinder + hard drive chassis:

 

Roughing out the mount.

 

First fitup

 

On the bar:

 

[Ulu]

I took a test ride into town today.

 

 

I love the new shifter, but the golf ball is temporary.

 

This bike is a tail sliding dreamboat, but it needs more rake. Also to be lowered.

That's next.

[pflaming]

Maybe you can get some ideas from these guys.

[Ulu]

I guess you got to work with whatever God gave you.

[Ulu]

You can get all kinds of dice: chrome plated dice, any color, down at the Lowrider store.

 

But nobody had any of these Dungeons and Dragons dice.

 

Edited August 20, 2022 by Ulu

[Roscoe Clyde]

The red on is a old Western Flyer and the black one is just something I put together with a bunch of my spare parts.

 

Roscoe Clyde

[cheesy]

What rear hub is on the black one?

[Ulu]

I set up a jig for my bike and cut the frame today. Tomorrow I weld.

 

Tonight I have to make the parts, first. Otherwise I have nothing to weld.

 

I had to cover up part of this because the jig is attached to my stock rack and it is extremely confusing to look at. Here you can see the bicycle is bolted to the jig upside down. I have some telescoping tubes as leverage to bend the frame.

 

I have dropped it about 1.5” there. I kept going until I dropped it 2.5”. In the next photograph you can see that I strung the jig out with monofilament, so I had site lines to keep everything straight as I was bending.

 

On the tail end, the lines spread apart to this frame which is centered on the jig.

On the head end, the lines come to this bolt. I did not have any machined cones to center the head stock in the jig, but I found a couple of large aircraft locknuts that fit in exactly right.

 

The frame is clamped down at the seat post.

 

I stabilized the whole assembly by bolting the crank arms to this stanchion.

 

 

It was all rocksolid and stable and the bending went very easy because I had plenty of leverage.

[Ulu]

Well no actual welding today. I did several mock ups with steel plates to try and decide how I wanted it to look. I think I’m going to do this.

 

 

 

[Ulu]

I painted this old tire with white Plasti-dip spray.  It says on the can you can use it on rubber, but I was amazed that it worked.

It smells just like Testors model paint. I tried to paint rubber with that one time and it turned to goo and never dried.

 

But this dried quickly, and I did a second coat, and it dried quickly as well. If I was trying to make blinding whitewalls on a black tire, this would probably work with a third coat.

 

I’m trying to make an antique looking whitewall to match my rear tire, and I’m going to start with a gumwall front tire and apply this in a hope to come out with something that looks like the rear tire.

 

Edited August 31, 2022 by Ulu

[Roscoe Clyde]

On 8/29/2022 at 2:37 PM, cheesy said:

What rear hub is on the black one?

It's off a late 60's Schwinn 3 speed. So is the sprocket and head light. I bought that bike strictly for the hub. It works great and shifts smooth.

[cheesy]

1 hour ago, Roscoe Clyde said:

It's off a late 60's Schwinn 3 speed. So is the sprocket and head light. I bought that bike strictly for the hub. It works great and shifts smooth.

Late 60's Schwinn 3 speed would be a Sturmey Archer AW with a 36 hole shell. Good choice.

[Ulu]

Still no welding. Life called and needed a push.

 

I did get some fillers shaped up and ready to drill and do the final fitting before welding.

I flipped that photo, so the derailleur lug appears to be on the wrong side.

 

[Ulu]

On 8/31/2022 at 5:40 AM, cheesy said:

Late 60's Schwinn 3 speed would be a Sturmey Archer AW with a 36 hole shell. Good choice.

I have the later AWC 36h which has the coaster brake inside.

 

Edited January 13, 2023 by Ulu

[Ulu]

And the mighty Sturmey SX-RK3, heavy duty, no internal brakes. Disk lugs.

[cheesy]

12 hours ago, Ulu said:

I have the later AWC 36h which has the coaster brake inside.

Be glad it is the AWC and not the TCW. To quote an old Ziggy cartoon, “Your brakes will slow you down a bit but I don’t know about out and out stopping.”

 

Out on the 1968 Raleigh Superbe yesterday.

[Ulu]

I got the filler plates shaped and drilled and I should be welding them in this morning. It was 110 Fahrenheit in the boat yard yesterday, and I couldn’t finish the welding.

 

 

I didn’t like the black stem, so I started sanding it down to shiny aluminum.