curbtender

Have a 2004 Element. I have put a refrigerator in it before. I pull the rear seats and put a masonry tub in it to haul dirt and rock, lol.

merziac

Please take that MegaBillboard to the wirewheel while you have it off, plz.

capnjonny 

Started work on this 1985 Pinarello Montello last year. Finally took it to the Bike Exchange for sale this week.

Cthulhulord

I’ve been working on a vintage (supposedly Italian) track frame, finally found a good compatible BB, the first cheap one had a wrong cup diameter by 0,5mm on the left side.
Finally gonna complete this build and ride it!

VintageSteelEU

It looks like a completely different bike. I really like ridges on the lugs on the bottom bracket shell. What did you use to clean it down to chrome so nicely?

VintageSteelEU

Yeah, that design is really weird. What's wrong with all sprockets being one colour? I don't know what Shimano thought at the drawing board stage. Got two casettes with the same kind of thing, completely unnecessary. All works well enough, but design is a bit ghastly.
Looks like I might be able to just put this freewheel away as a backup. Got a MF- 6208 today. Unfortunately 13-21, not 13-24 I wanted, but might be just alright and start using the front derailleur and 42T chainring more. It always feels good to bring something back to life though, even something as ugly as these newer Shimano freewheels.

Positron400

Absolutely agree - they look awful. I am actually looking (different thread) for a 14-28 freewheel with HG w/o the gaudy "MEGARANGE" or otherwise marked largest sprocket . Prefferably black, to match (6/7sp).

merziac

I always buzz it off with the wire wheel on the bench grinder when I have them off, get the right angle and lean in to get it all and never had one rust after either.

And you are both being kind, these are fugly to the nth degree IMO.

They scream cheap, budget which they are but seem to work and last just fine despite that, crappy freewheels will advertise themselves by azzploding.

RCMoeur 

You mean like... this one?



Normally I hoard curate a collection of backup 13 or 14-28 7 speed freewheels, but fate has been generous to me and I suppose I could part with one of my newer ones.

Of course, after posting this, I see you said "black". Oops. Back into the bin to rummage...

Updated update: Dagnabbit - all I have in 7-speed Freewheels of Darkness is a trio of "Shima-nots".

RCMoeur 

Over the past few days, I've been rebuilding bikes that have been cluttering my back porch. Need the shade back before hell summer hits.

This one is a 1991ish Trek 750 hybrid. Looked like heck when I got it, but it cleaned up nicely. Full Suntour XCE, except it came to me with a set of thoroughly trashed Grip-Shifts. The cleanup & rebuild went fine until selecting replacement shifters - the Accushift cassette would not play well with the Rapidfire or GripShifts I tried on it, and I had to break into my Emergency Strategic Component Reserve and commit a set of XC Pro thumbies to it in order to get decent shifting.



After all that, I've decided to keep it as a spare bike, with the prior Spare Bike donated to Recycle Your Bicycle to make a foster kid happy.

RCMoeur 

Next up is a pair of his 'n hers 1994ish Nishiki Manitobas (Manitobae?). These were nearly pristine cosmetically but had seriously gummed-up shifters. After many passes in the ol' ultrasonic, the shifters click freely again (and should stay that way), and the bikes will eventually end up donated to either RYB or RS.

capnjonny 

If you look carefully those ridges are the Pinarello logo. As for stripping paint I used paint stripper bought at Home depot. One trick I use to make it work better is to paint on the stripper then cover the tubes tightly with Aluminum foil. This keeps the stripper from drying out and makes it work much better at softening the paint. I then use a disposable retractable razor blade knife they sell for about a dollar to scrape off the paint.

VintageSteelEU

They did go to town with the design of the bottom bracket shell then. Nice touch
Thanks for the tips on paint stripping from chrome. The frame I'm working on right now has chrome underneath the chipped paint on the chainstays. The paint is most likely original, but I was thinking about giving it chrome socks instead of touching these sections up. I guess we'll see if I manage to get some paint for touchups mixed up.
I used crafts knife blades for the last paint stripping I did and it did work very well indeed. I guess if I'm carefull with the chrome, it should be fine. And, still have some paint stripper left, so thanks for the advice about wrapping it up. Might go for cling film when I get to that stage.

merziac

Heat and especially sunlight can really accelerate the stripper, outside with a black/dark background, I use a large garbage bag, scuff with 100 grit then use a welding wood handled brush once it starts to lift the paint, 70-90% bubbles and scrubs right off after 2-3 slatherings.

JaccoW

While waiting for the rest of the parts for a wheelbuild for the 1965 Gazelle A I overhauled the Sturmey Archer GH6 dynohub.
While it wasn't feeling all that bad, it has definitely improved in both looks and feel now. The bearings were not pitted and looked like new once cleaned so I just lubricated everything and put it back together.

Though I did manage to snap one of the tiny screws in half while tightening them.

No clue on whether it even delivers power anymore, if a previous owner disassembled the magnet it will have lost its magnetism and be useless. Still feels notchy so I think we're fine.
I should have 1-2 pairs of the brass hooks used to connect the wires but I will have to dig a bit in my parts boxes in the shed.





The rest of the GH6 hubs I have: 28, 32 and 36H
I'll probably cannibalize the screw from the 28H one.

Trakhak

My guess at the time of release was that an engineer figured that their derailleurs and shifters would work well with a big jump to the largest sprocket, enabling a double-chainwheel bike to approach the low range of a bike with a triple. It was an unorthodox idea for a stock cluster at the time and was arguably an ancestor of the now-fashionable 1X setups.

Someone in marketing must have thought that all that billboard space on the sprocket should be used to advertise the added low-gear capability. Without the "Shimano" shout-out, you'd have had to look closely to notice the then-unique big sprocket. With it, there's no mistaking it for a conventional, comparatively close-ratio range.

Mixed feelings about the look myself. Still---kudos to Shimano for having come up with the mega-range idea.

Mr. 66

A Trek 500 gets refreshed and some time in the sun.

VintageSteelEU

Oh, I'm sure it has its uses, just like long cage derailleurs. For my riding, at this point, I absolutely don't need anything more than 24T at the back because there aren't too many steep hills where I usually ride. For the few I have on my regular route I'm usually on 52 & 21 (5th cog). Which means I still have option of either going into 42 at the front or 24 and 28 at the back or a combination, if needed. The way I configured the chainline on my bicycle I can do 52 & 28 without chain rub on the FD, at least on my daily ride (the BB spindle is 3mm shorter than specified for Shimano FC-6207, mostly because I couldn't get the correct Swiss threaded one at the time, so it stayed this way). Not so much on my other bicycle, which does require trimming the front and shifting between 52 and 42 as you go through the range.
Visually, I would definitely prefer just one colour, silver or black. But I'm not overly bothered At the moment I'm using a pretty standard Tourney 7sp casette, which also has black biggest 28t sprocket. So not exactly a Megarange one. Also, I've just got MF-6208 for the wheel I'm going to use at the back when I switch the wheel to one that takes freewheels. No esthetic problems with that one

Speaking of freewheels. I was soaking one in penetrating oil recently (well, soaking the thread on the Superbe hub it was sitting on) for quite a while and today decided to try removing it again. It came off beautifully, like it was never stuck, so I'm very pleased with that. I'm a bit less pleased to see that half of the spokes underneath it are deformed (and one is gone, but I knew about it before). So obviously, these will have to be replaced with the immediate plan to take the wheel apart, measure the spokes and see if I have the correct lenght ones to replace them. Luckily I didn't order spokes for another wheel I'm going to be building, so worst case scenario I can just add some more to the order. The new tyres are on the way already and I went with Panaracer Race C Evo 4, since it's a Japanese made bike (inner tubes are going to be Michelin AirComp though for now, Panaracer's R'Air seem to have dissapeared from the UK shops).
The hub is beautiful. In mechanical terms, at least. It looks like it definitely needs no overhaul, spins just as smooth as the front one I've built up a wheel whith recently. I still can't quite believe how good these hubs are.
The freewheel is in a pretty decent condition. It might not look like that in the photos, but the sprockets don't have much wear. It's a Suntour New Winner with 13-14-15-17-19-21 gearing. Of course now, because it's been getting blasted with penetrating oil, it will require full overhaul. Which will be interesting. I have Suntour tool for that, but I think I will have to do more research into how one actually is supposed to use it. As well as figure out how to remove individual cogs from these freewheels, because I never succeeded with that so far. Thankfully I have other Suntour freewheels, so there's no rush with this one.
Now let's hope the penetrating oil will work just as well on the stuck stem and BB fixed cup.

Hajo

Just finished my latest project, stripping my custom paint Gazelle AB 1986 and changing all components from Shimano 600EX to Campagnolo Chorus C-Record. Unfortunately it is pooring with rain over here so pictures of the finished bike will have to wait till after the weekend. But to remember what is was like I have a before-picture.

non-fixie 

Well, it sure was pretty.

Hajo

It will look even better, no worries! 😃

curbtender

Had to replace this bushing after experiencing wobble that was causing shifting issues. Good product.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Qty-2-Mavic...edirect=mobile

alexihnen 

Picked up a neglected Doug Fattic frame. I’m hoping to get it up to Niles, MI sometime to have Doug set it right.

merziac

Fantastic, good work and good on ya for going to get it back where it belongs.

2cam16

Finished rebuilding the Santa Cruz.Changed a few bits here and there from the oem parts to make the bike fit me better. Hope to get it's first ride next week.
IMG_3189 by 2cam16, on Flickr