Dawes-man

Ah, thanks for reminding me! I'd completely forgotten...

I have some black Club Special Bluemels and some alloy Bluemels which will clean up very nicely and I was thinking of using one or the other. I also have some Club Specials in red and white but I don't think they would look right.

Whaddya think?

auchencrow

Either the black or alloy Bluemels would look killer, IMO.

Elev12k

Thanks for covering this fantastic story on a very nice bike I hadn't heard of before.

Lenton58 

Thanks so much Dawes-man! I relished the photo-illustrated essay of Mr. Sugiyama's work. He must be a fascinating man to talk to. Your Japanese must be better than mine to manage such a technical discussion. From the pictures, he seems essentially characteristic of the consummate artisanship that is part and parcel of Japan — at least of people that age. I hope that the youth are taking up the tradition.

BTW: years ago I worked in Hachioji once every week — not far from the train station. And to think .... sigh!

I was wondering where to get OA here, and you answered the question. What do I ask for in Japanese? How do I say oxalyic acid? The same thing but in 'katakana' sound system? And did you buy the wax rust inhibiter here? If so where? Yellow Hat? ... Autobacs?

Mr Matsumoto of Matsumoto Jitenshaya builds steel frames to order here in Sendai. They carry the name "Amvna". He has done much the same thing to a couple of my frames, although I'm afraid that I might have missed asking him to check the fork drop alignment. Anyway, the salient point is that I too was a bit surprised at the muscle and sort of blacksmithing power was part of the process of servicing a frame.

Dawes-man

Thanks Lenton. You didn't miss Mr S then because he only opened his shop there last year. Before that he was a 10 ride from where I live... sigh!

Oxalic acid is called shuusan (しゅう酸) and no, I'm afraid I got the WaxOyl in the UK. AFAIK, there is nothing like Framesaver or WaxOyl available here, at least, not in a handy spray can or that I've seen.

theschwinnman

Wow, I have nothing useful to add, but I have to tell you how much I've enjoyed this thread. Thank you Dawes-Man!

Lenton58 

Thanks — can't go wrong with the kana/kanji.

Dawes-man

Thank you! I'm glad you and the other people who've expressed similar sentiments enjoyed it.

DCycle

Oh man, are the red & white bluemels in good condition? Would you be willing to part with them? I've been looking for a pair of red bluemels for my all-chrome city bike but haven't had any luck...

Dawes-man

The red ones are NOS, never fitted to a bike but have a dent next to the logo, about 4" above the reflector. I would simply apply heat carefully and push it back into shape but it might leave a white stress mark. I don't know how they got dented.

That said, they are part of my collection of stuff I've bought to use one day and were quite hard to find, as you seem to have found out. If I do decide to part with them, I'll give you first shout.

For reference, the metal fittings have superficial spots of rust here and there.

[IMG]
IMG_5586 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

Captain Blight

That looks like a job for a big thumb. Bluemels are very thin, soft alloy, or at least my Airweights are.

I've really enjoyed this thread, as well. I could almost see doing a bicycle tour of the Home Islands.

Lenton58 

Planishing:
1) Get a sandbag ...
2) Buy some of their largest diameter dowel. Dai-shin sells it.
3) Shape the end to a rounded oblong thingy-puffer ...
4) ... larger size rubber hammer ...
5) Bang-bang lightly with big hammer ... tap-tap with smaller hammer and a corrective smaller dowel-tool and Bob's yer uncle.

If your bag has a fine weave, or you have a softer cover over it, you should not damage the paint very much, if at all.

Many years ago, I saw superlative work done by a guy who restored '60's Ducatis. He made replicas of small bore factory racers for which he made his own fairings and stuff out of aluminum sheet. I was shocked after I asked him to show me his tools. Sand bags and various hammers. That was it!

Years ago I pounded out just a bit of stuff — nothing serious, but enough to get a feel and find out that if you pre-form the bag and use judicious power, you can form and or reform metal. The formula I can never remember is:

a) What went in first comes out first ... OR ...
b) What went in first comes out last.

... and other permutations which add up to the same thing. I should remember, but I've always been challenged to remember my own phone number. Special planishing "spoons" are used for this, but a cheap piece of dowel will do for this one-off deal.

Just my 2-cents worth, but I would not use heat. For one thing, I don't think that there is a need — but you may have more of a tab on this than I do.

Dawes-man

Glad ya like it!

It would be a thumb if it was alloy but it's plastic and easy enough to mould if heated with a hairdryer but really hard to get the lines right. I've been turning over how to make a form to use, maybe papier-mache made from further along the mudguard, or playdough or something. Then it would just be a case of pressing the softened plastic into the form. The solution is still at the thinking stage...

Dawes-man

You'll have gathered from my last post that these mudguards are plastic...

However, I've been wondering how to make alluminium cases for some modern, plastic LED lights that I use on all my bikes and that info is very interesting for that project - thanks!

Dawes-man

Developments, photos to follow later:

The gear cable guides that Mr S gave me have polished up really well.

I've at last found a use for the 'Problem Solvers' that Sheldon Brown designed, and sold at Harris Cyclery, to enable the fitting of mudguards to bikes with recessed brake drillings. They make it simple to fit and remove guards and I bought them about 2 years ago without realising they didn't work with nutted brake fitting. That was when I knew even less than I do now and wasn't aware that recessed fittings for brakes existed.

I've decided to take the Silk outside tomorrow or the next day and photograph it with the alloy and white, black and red plastic guards fitted and then post the photos for people's comments. Might be fun...

auchencrow

It will be fun! Hope the Tokyo weather cooperates!

Dawes-man

The weather, cloudy, looks good! I'd look for shade if it was sunny... the pimples stand out

southpawboston

No Kidding! What a great story. The bike got to meet its maker decades later after traveling around the globe, and get a completely new lease on life. Awesome.

Dawes-man

Praise indeed! If you like this, then you'll like the thread that has most recently inspired me (I know you'll have seen it, but for those who haven't): rhm's My winter project: 1940's Fothergill

Dawes-man

Hi DCycle,

These are on eBay UK - they're Sprint Veloce and a kind of flamboyant red. I imagine the shipping could be a killer, though...
https://cgi.ebay.com/Bluemels-Sprint-...#ht_500wt_1156

Dawes-man

Lovely day in Tokyo! I've just been out and taken some photos of the Silk.

This 1st is one I posted earlier in this thread of the gear cable guides as Mr S gave them to me:

[IMG]
Mr Sugiyama very kindly gave me these... by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

Then this, hopefully, shows how nicely they have polished up:

[IMG]
IMG_5595 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

I hope these next 2 will show the sheen and colour of the Mavic Argent 10s and why I think they suit the chrome frame so well:

[IMG]
IMG_5611 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]
IMG_5614 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

Lenton58 

Looking very tasty Dawes-man. Nice in Tokyo you say? It is trying to snow here in Sendai. Sorry ... my blunder. Too much trawling in CV instead of getting Z's. Glad you might use the blah blah though.

DCycle

Thanks! Yeah, I saw those late last night, but I just put in a max bid and was outbid - so I guess there's considerable demand. Why oh why can't any of the modern fender makers create a classically styled red fender!?

Dawes-man

And now for the mudguard-matching. The 4 entrants are from the 50s to the 70s and were Made in England by Bluemels. They've since been bought up by STK, a German company who make a very good modern mudguard...

As you will see from the pics, the FD is set very high. This is because I'm thinking of going very fast at considerable cost to my health, both physical and mental And now for the truth - this FD gets in the way of all 4 of the mudguards so I'm going to have to find something a little less chunky behind the seat post. A pity as this RD, a SunTour COMPE-V, is the same period as the RD I'm using and came on my Dawes... it would have been really cool to find a use for it. Ah well...

What do you folks think of these colours?

In order of appearance in this post:
Club Specials - black (the difference between these and the Popular model is the Specials have a reflector and the Populars don't)
Tour de France - alluminium (rather than an eye for the caliper bolt to pass thru to fix it to the rear brake bridge it has a pair of clips)
Lightweights - white (these pre-date the Club Specials and are a bit wider)
Club Specials - red (I think these pre-date the black Club Specials)

Black Club Specials
[IMG]
IMG_5607_2 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]
IMG_5608 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

Alluminium Tour de France
[IMG]
IMG_5602 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]
IMG_5603 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

White Lightweights
[IMG]
IMG_5598 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]


IMG_5599 by Dawes-man, on Flickr

Red Club Specials
[IMG]
IMG_5594 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]
IMG_5596 by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

Dawes-man

I know what you mean. STK are excellent guards but only in black or silver and I prefer the old style stays over the new, safer, style. Actually, I wouldn't mind the STK stays if they didn't use plastic where they attach to the front eyelets. Surely they could design something in alloy or chrome which would release on impact.

I had a look at your chrome machine on the thread where you introduced it - very nice, indeed! How important is condition for the mudguards?