ryansu

Nice find, one of my first resto's was a blue Takara I got for $25 at a garage sale. Oh and btw the Go Beavs! (I lived in Eugene as a Kid before moving to PDX and then went to undergrad in Corvallis)

deux jambes

shipwreck

Thanks. I look at craigslist in other cities and get sort of sad about the local offerings sometimes. There is a burgeoning bike culture here in Northwest Arkansas, with the razorback greenway trail system, and lots of mountainbike trails, but not enough cycling history to provide a deep core of bike supply.
The search has sort of been at the "keeping my eye out" level really. I think that this one should do nicely, its a 20" frame, a little smaller than my other bikes, but it seems to fit well enough. I like the standover height.

ryansu

I liked my Takara and it cleaned up well but at 25" the frame was a size too big for me so it was always going to get sold on, the clunker challenge seems like an ideal way to test out a bike you might want to keep, that is what I am doing with the Bianchi Ibex I found, in fact its just about time to get some miles in riding to the pub

michael k

The rear derailer Valentino Extra aka the roller-coaster of emotions.
Some of the damage from being eaten by the spokes and thought easily fixable.


37622696_1639212752856734_5735784328223260672_o by K Farm, on Flickr

Discovered its also bent at 90 degrees just below the drop-out anchor bolt which almost explains why it stuck out to the side like curb feelers on 1950's Cadillacs.I had this sinking feeling. Holding it in my hand it felt light-weight and the finish resemble aluminum. I thought it's not repairable.

37607841_1639212159523460_7915278998840541184_o by K Farm, on Flickr
With nothing to lose at this point I gave it a go at straightening it and it broke my bench vice. I was like What!?No way!?Well Duh! it's not aluminum it's steel!? lol
Still could used some tweaking here and there but good enough for now and besides, with the Whiiiirrrrrtickticktick of the freewheel and the Clankankankank of the chain thru the cage it's like a safety feature to alert pedestrians of my presence.

37625700_1639210966190246_8135553814024421376_n by K Farm, on Flickr

37598929_1639210662856943_7384394120199929856_o by K Farm, on Flickr

uncle uncle

That's crusty/rusty bicycles 2, bench vises 0, for those keeping track. Low end Italian 70's crustastic bike finds are like unicorns around here (e.g. only found in legendary bicycle questing yarns from a magic realm of time long before I started my searching). I would not have been able to leave this one un-adopted either.

shipwreck

That is a really cool bike. I would love to tool around town on something like that, but then look out the window and see all the 10+% grades on dirt roads to get to said town, and sigh.

non-fixie 

I finally got around to doing some work on the frame today. Cleaned up the rust that had formed under the pieces of tape that had held the rear brake cable.



And made a couple of discoveries. One was that probably the fork ends haven't been replaced after all, but that "just" the eyelets were removed:



Far more interesting was finding a "VH" mark on the steerer.



This frame set would have been made and painted by a Belgian factory for a customer to brand. Since the final branding apparently never took place, I'd given up hope of finding out anything more about the maker or the intended customer. But, "VH" rings a bell. We've had a "VH" in our midst a few years ago.

Murray Missile 

Solved my tire dilemma, I forgot I bought new tires for my Fuji Del Rey because it had really cheap CST tires on it. I checked over the old tires and tubes and they were in great shape so I threw them on the Royale II. They're 27 X 1-1/8 blackwalls and although not age cracked they are hard as a rock but they're still a major improvement over the rotted carcasses that were on it. I'm still claiming a $15 value if everyone is good with that, the narrower tires ride a bit rougher and a different saddle is quickly becoming a priority, I'm going to try a different one a little later today and see how it feels.

Not silly to me, those old 800 series Antelope and Mountain Track bikes don't get the respect they deserve, they are very comfortable frames. I've said more than once if I had to get rid of all my bikes except one I'd keep my old 820.

ryansu

I've decided to incorporate brewery rides in my clunker challenge, no reason it can't be fun right? With today's 8.6 mile round trip ride to Schooner Exact brewing I am nearly 40% of the way to 100kms. Barney the Bianchi has done an admirable job considering how little I have done for/to him. (forgive the non drive side shot)

ollo_ollo

Got several rides in this past week, even did 9.5 mi/15k on one. Total for the week was 33.7km. Brings my 3 week total to 81.7 km, but I only thought to take 1 pic outside our local Roth's grocery, so di-d a couple more when I returned home today. Gypsy Lady rests against my workbench now, always ready take me to & fro when I need a break. Don

gilesa

That Gitane is a cracker!

I found some more clunkiness when servicing the wheels of my Vindec. It was not simple to get the air out of the rear tyre, and it took a pair of pliers to remove the Woods valve core. The rubber sleeve of the valve had hardened and stuck the metal core to the inside of the valve stem. In spite of that, the tyre inflated and held air. Once that was dealt with I found the inner tube was too large, and has an overlapped joint next to the valve. I have never seen that before. It had been repaired by a very stingy previous owner who fixed two punctures with pieces of a cut-up patch.

The front wheel had its own surprise: six spokes had one or both halves of the nipple head broken off. I never saw that either.

The bike is mostly back together and I have been riding - to the shops, naturally. I have added some pictures taken on a small detour from my usual route to the supermarket. If anyone is interested in a small, additional, off-topic challenge: something more than closeness links the four locations shown; what is it?

michael k

Random musings update: Removed the pedals. I actually remembered which direction they unthreaded on the first try. Gave them a spin in my hand, they are so quiet I hit myself in the head attempting to bring it closer to my ear. I now have a lump above the left eyebrow.
Guessing these are a normal size? Or do they make an adult size too?

37622668_1639211842856825_735711795972407296_n by K Farm, on Flickr
The cotter pins for the crank arms literally fell out. Actually with a little help of a mallet they Flew-out and spent the next 20 minutes searching. Using Aluminum foil and dish soap the cleaned up ok. my hand looked like it had came down with a case of the measles afterwards.

37574432_1639211409523535_2845174125725483008_n by K Farm, on Flickr

rustystrings61 

ollo_ollo

"Random musings update: Removed the pedals. I actually remembered which direction they unthreaded on the first try. Gave them a spin in my hand, they are so quiet I hit myself in the head attempting to bring it closer to my ear. I now have a lump above the left eyebrow. Guessing these are a normal size? Or do they make an adult size too?"

Michael: Those pedals must be the petite ladies size, get on down to a local co-op & find some hurking, huge, steelies like the "Éclair" labeled ones on my Gitane. Schwinn & others put them on everything, so should be lots. Mine measure 4" from crank arm to outside edge of dust cap. Don

ollo_ollo

gilesa: thanks for the compliment. Gypsy Lady is an atypical Clunker find but there seem to be many similar & better this year. Fun to ride and almost done with 100k, so think I will try another 100k with the original saddle plus the new tires she came with mounted on the alloy wheels I originally planned for the Challenge. That way I do at least some wrenching. Also, I don't see the pics for your riddle. Don

gilesa

> Also, I don't see the pics for your riddle.

ollo_ollo,

I naively assumed that a sub-folder of a shared dropbox folder would be shared. Doh!
Please try putting dropbox.com in front of this: /sh/doyapavs5no6qmy/AAA26PPLOnqxERQeFavLKb7ma?dl=0
As a newbie, I am pictorially challenged, and probably should not be posting picture riddles.

gilesa

> That is a really cool bike. I would love to tool around town on something like that, ...

Thanks, shipwreck. I am enjoying riding it, very lively, but the seat post is too short for hills and the saddle is a real AH. Fortunately, my town is mostly flat.

Murray Missile 

OK, I decided I'm doing the BCA too, not sure if I'll get the distance in but I want to see how cheaply I can do this one. Bought it for $20 to get the wheels, I'm going to pull the Panaracers off my Fuji Espree like I was originally going to do for the Royale II and I'm still claiming a value of $15 on those. Needs cables for sure, I'm going to see what I have in the salvage and leftovers pile for those. Anybody ever tried splicing cable housing LOL? Saddle on it is OK, in fact I almost robbed it for the Fuji. I'm going to try soaking the chain and freewheel and saving them, derailleurs appear to be intact but I won't know about the shifters until I disconnect the frozen cables but I'm hoping they are usable. The bottom bracket is an unknown also. My goal is to bring this one in under $75.



UPDATE: Other than needing cleaned and lubed the chain, freewheel, BB and headset seem fine. Once the cables were cut both derailleurs and shifters moved freely but I think the LH needs flushed out with WD-40, the pawls appear to be stuck so it doesn't ratchet it just moves freely. Amazingly the seat post is NOT stuck and it's a fairly long one.

zammykoo

Splicing cable housings sound so sketchy! Better to be safe than sorry.

Murray Missile 

I was joking, hence the "LOL" at the end. But, if the 2 ends were cut square and epoxied into a stiff snug fitting sleeve why would it be any different than using one of those inline tension adjusters? I've never had an issue with those. If I had access to a small lathe I'd turn a couple out of some 6061. As it is some high pressure vinyl tubing with the correct I.D. and Permabond should work. Maybe a section of shrink tubing for good measure..... You've talked me into it! Actually I don't need to on this one but I may try it just to see how it works.

zammykoo

I know I know. Just wanted to mention that I've seen it before on a previously purchased vintage bike where the PO had 3 sections of housing on one cable. It felt really spongy when I pressed the lever (because the cables were old and the ends were rough). If they are cut clean you should be able to get away with it for this challenge (maybe even longer). But housings are so cheap, it's a good insurance to replace.

Anyway, experimentation is fun though. A good thick shrink tubing would probably work in combination with a heavy glue. Good luck!

shipwreck

I realize my entry makes me pack fill at best, but after last years failure with the un-rideable John Deere, got to finish.
About fifteen more miles to go, or twenty four km.

Can we spend more than the limit if the parts don't go on till after its been ridden 100km?
Was going to ride it for a while before making my mind up on what to do with this, but have decided that this one is going to get ridden a lot. Ordered some new tires for it, and a new cassette with a low of 32 teeth to replace the 28. Its doable with what its got, but only the top third of those trees are showing in the back ground, its pretty hilly here, and there are thirty pounds of groceries in those bags.

michael k

* There is plenty of co-ops here to go around, The plan is to keep her as found (mostly) and also the frame is way to small anyway. The ride part of the challenge, might be fun.

*

machinist42

Double ended housing connectors.

(Using one now, but it's buried under bar tape so no pictures.)