jeremyb

Took a Centurion Lemans RS that I got off Craigslist for $5 because it had a stuck seatpost. And used my Oxy-acetylene torch to add a bunch of braze ons: cantilever mounts, rack mounts, water bottle, cable stops, front derailleur braze ons, etc.

I got the stuck seatpost out by fabricating a handy little tool to extract it.

Then went to town sanding, priming, and spray painting. Had some custom decals made. Then clear coated over them.

Now it's time to start hanging my parts on it...I'm going to make it into a retro-esque cyclocross race bike.

RobbieTunes 

I salute you. Great bike, great idea.

Rock it man.

Fahrenheit531 

Should be fun! Make sure to post the "afters."

clasher

I'm curious about your seatpost removal tool.

gomango 

Agreed.

After riding with a guy this morning that had a $4,000 Santa Cruz "gravel" bike, I find this approach refreshing.

Nothing against owning expensive bikes, but yours rocks!

jeremyb

Thanks for the kind words, I really wish I took a better before pic but here's a glimpse of what it looked like:

djkashuba 

Very cool. What will your maximum tire clearance be?

-D

gomango 

Quite an upgrade.

You took one back from the grave and made it viable.

Keep the pics coming please.

gugie 

Great job! Love the decals, where'd you have them made?

jeremyb

700 x 30 fits great in the rear and just fits (height wise) in the front.

jeremyb

What I do for decals is go to DaFont - Download fonts and plug what I want it to say, then their website gives me a preview of what it'll look like. I pick a few I like as I'm scrolling through, then settle on one. Download the font and email the guys at BikeNames | Bicycle Mountain Bike Decals Stickers | Custom Personalized Bike Lettering | Road Bike Cycling Decal Sticker

They take the font and die cut it for me. The two pairs of decals for this project was $18 shipped.

mountaindave 

+1

mountaindave 

Now if you're going all the way, you could have gone 650b and really opened up your tire-width choices!

It is gorgeous btw.

gugie 

Good to know. I used something very similar using DIYlettering.com

puckett129

Really cool. Nice save!

smoothness 

pictures of the tool....PLEASE. currently trying to get a stuck seatpost out of a tange 1 novara frame. i've already bent one bench vice, set it on fire, covered it in CO2, and took a few chips out of my beloved baseball bat tool of freedom.

3speedslow

I would not have known you did all that if you hadn't of told me, nice bit of knowledge and workmanship you have. That frame was a good choice for it too!

yes, pics of the tool. And the finished work.

jeremyb

I picked up an old pair of Shimano 600 STI's but could not for the love of god get them to shift perfectly without ticking in one gear or another. Have I said I hate index shifting?!

So put the shifters aside, pulled out a pair of Tektro aero brake levers and some friction barcons. And blammo no ticking.

tarwheel 

Very impressive restoration, although the clearances are rather tight for a dirt bike.

jmeb

Sacrifice your seatpost. Get a hacksaw, hack off the top part. The cut longways down the inside of the seatpost until you're through the seatpost. Grab edge of cut seatpost with vice grips and pull it out.

At least this is how I had success after PB blaster soaks, bench vicing, CO2, cheater bar + pipe wrench, etc etc.


As to the OP...what a great project. Gorgeous restoration. Looking forward to seeing the full build.

squirtdad

If you look at the OP's sig he has Seatpost Extractor - Home listed I looked at the site and am still not quite sure how it works

smoothness 

thanks squirt; i don't really click on links in sigs. as far as i can tell, he's using the wood as a sacrificial washer, the tube above as a brace, and the rest of it is probably two washers on a piece of threaded rod with some sort of stepped plug or series of of concentric washers lock nutted to the bottom. it functions like a bearing puller; by pressing at the top of the washer with the threaded spacer, it seems the objective is to overcome the friction of the galling, and draw the seat post up and out. because the wood is sitting on the connection between the seat stays and the top tube, there's nothing to oppose the extraction of the seat post when turning the threaded spacer.

the only issues i can see are as follows:
i: whether or not you can achieve enough of a purchase on the bottom of the seat tube
ii: overcome the friction on the seat post against the inside of the seat tube.

i'm also sure that op is going to be angry about how i figured it out. i'm pretty sure i'm off a little bit about the seat tube plug, but i'll mock up something to see which one works. i'll probably start with a cinelli conical stem bolt, if i can find some metric threaded rod for cheap.

in other news, another way that i'm going to try it is to mount a hacksaw blade into a broom handle that fits the ID of the seat post, so i can get enough leverage to cut all the way down on the post that i'm working on. 1' of seized seat tube = no bueno.

himespau 

awesome.

cyclotoine

yeah pretty simple and smart. I don't see why a couple lock nuts and a good washer, or couple can't get enough purchase on the bottom of the post. It's the overcoming the friction thing. but this is a slow process so there will be very little heat generated. it should work pretty well.

mountaindave 

I'm not an engineer for a reason, I only sorta followed that. I am definitely a Sheldon Brown disciple; if I can do it myself or make a tool to do it myself, I will. I have made a fixed cup remover and a dropout aligner from hardware store supplies on the cheap. If one can make a seatpost removal tool from hardware store supplies, I would share it. If a guy is machining up some tools, I'm happy to buy them and more power to him.