My Latest Project: "Yellow Fever"
08-17-11, 07:43 AM
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My Latest Project: "Yellow Fever"
Whether it was the unusually dark and dreary spring or just a natural predisposition, for some reason I suddenly craved a yellow bike. So, when I picked up an incomplete Fuji Espress this spring I decided to take a shot at building my own bike. I took down the frame to the bare structure and gave it a good sanding. The poor condition of the decals and a number of scratches gave me license to do so as I never would willingly destroy an older bike in fair condition. A few coats of undercoat and bright yellow enamel and an overhaul of the wheel bearings, headset, bottom bracket and a truing of the wheels along with an overhaul of the freewheel and I am feeling pretty good about it. Plan to buy a black and yellow saddle and black yellow sidewall tires; also yellow bar tape. So far this is what I have:
08-17-11, 08:24 AM
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Ok, maybe this is a stupid question, but why the all thread with the nuts/washers? Is this how you spread the forks to accept a wider then stock rim? Or were the forks bent and you are bringing them back to the factory width?
08-17-11, 08:51 AM
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I love the homemade dropout gauge! Is the all-thread strong enough to stay totally straight even when you use them to bend the dropouts into alignment? (obviously, its value as a gauge goes right away as soon as it bends even a little)
08-17-11, 06:19 PM
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The threaded rod(s) in the front fork are used to check the alignment, in this case pretty good. In a past project I went to quite a bit of work and when I tested the bike for the first time it had a tendency to turn left. That was corrected by a bit of leverage with a rod through the forks. I did not use the threaded rod itself for cold setting the fork. It's a pretty cheap tool for solving the problem of checking the alignment. Understand there is a more substantial tool that actually can be used to do the cold setting. This one cost practically nothing.
08-17-11, 06:30 PM
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As junkfoodjunkie would say, "you almost can't have enough yellow on a bike."
I tend to agree. For some reason, you can load up the yellow and it's usually fine.
Load up the red the same way, and it looks kind of wacky.
I tend to agree. For some reason, you can load up the yellow and it's usually fine.
Load up the red the same way, and it looks kind of wacky.
