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05-06-02, 01:04 PM
Rainbabe REFUSED to let me buy her a decent bike or spend any money, instead asking me to "fix up" my daughter's 10 year old Sears "mountain bike". Yesterday I finally had some time to take a shot at it. Stripped off the cables and chain. Stared for a long time at the 26" wheels and wide knobby tires then took them off, too.
Slapped a 700c wheel on to see if there was enough vertical adjusment in the brakes to make them work. Nope. So I took the Weinmann road brakes off the Trek 10-speed I found in somebody's trash pile. Hmmm. The pads can be adjusted to fit, but the mounting bolt was too long. Solution? Strip the original caliper type brakes from the mtb and reassemble the Weinmann brakes on the old mounting bolt which, as luck would have it, was the same diameter. Worked like a charm. Cleaned all the parts up real nice and smeared a litttle grease on the pivot points before reassembling the brake on the new bolt. Rear wheel done, check out the front. Hallelujah! the brake fit as is. Cleaned it up a little and stuck it on.
Install new cable, housing, and chain (all spares on hand, no additional money spent). Put on tubes and tires (used only a few miles, but used, no additional money spent). Adjust derailleurs and brakes. Voila. Mtb frame with road tires! I would have replaced the funky old bar, click shifters and brake levers with the nice bar I took off my Giant Cypress as well as practically new shifter/brake levers. Unfortunately the steerer tube diameter on the mtb is a little less than 1", maybe 7/8". Since I didn't have time to stip the bar to make that swap it will have to wait.
All in all, not a bad result. The new configuration rolls MUCH easier. Shifting is fairly clean though right now only 4 usable gears, but that is plenty since Rainbabe won't shift anyway. As long as there is an easy one, she is happy. The main thing was to get something easier to pedal. And it doesn't look too bad, either. Kind of a roll your own hybrid that fits her pretty well. We have a date to ride this weekend and THAT, my friends, is the most important thing.
Regards,
Rainman
Slapped a 700c wheel on to see if there was enough vertical adjusment in the brakes to make them work. Nope. So I took the Weinmann road brakes off the Trek 10-speed I found in somebody's trash pile. Hmmm. The pads can be adjusted to fit, but the mounting bolt was too long. Solution? Strip the original caliper type brakes from the mtb and reassemble the Weinmann brakes on the old mounting bolt which, as luck would have it, was the same diameter. Worked like a charm. Cleaned all the parts up real nice and smeared a litttle grease on the pivot points before reassembling the brake on the new bolt. Rear wheel done, check out the front. Hallelujah! the brake fit as is. Cleaned it up a little and stuck it on.
Install new cable, housing, and chain (all spares on hand, no additional money spent). Put on tubes and tires (used only a few miles, but used, no additional money spent). Adjust derailleurs and brakes. Voila. Mtb frame with road tires! I would have replaced the funky old bar, click shifters and brake levers with the nice bar I took off my Giant Cypress as well as practically new shifter/brake levers. Unfortunately the steerer tube diameter on the mtb is a little less than 1", maybe 7/8". Since I didn't have time to stip the bar to make that swap it will have to wait.
All in all, not a bad result. The new configuration rolls MUCH easier. Shifting is fairly clean though right now only 4 usable gears, but that is plenty since Rainbabe won't shift anyway. As long as there is an easy one, she is happy. The main thing was to get something easier to pedal. And it doesn't look too bad, either. Kind of a roll your own hybrid that fits her pretty well. We have a date to ride this weekend and THAT, my friends, is the most important thing.
Regards,
Rainman