Dirt Road Blues

During the great purge of early 2022, I sadly liquidated just about every bike specific tool I had in my possession. Now that life is rolling along again, it's time to replace what is long gone.

While I lucked upon a few basics items at a nearby thrift shop a fews days back, I'm also pleased to receive this gently used cable puller in the mail today.

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fabiofarelli

Went to the vintage bicycle stock market in Geel, Belgium and came home with Colnago Master vinyl stickers, a cap and vintage rain jacket (both for free) and this stuff, Gipiemme grease and a lot Galli.



Excuse me for the reflecting flash light.

non-fixie 

Ha! I was over at the competing event, in Berlicum.

Today's harvest: NOS Sanyo Dynapower, some Campy and Huret spares and a couple of tiny front racks. And I am hoping on a follow-up call about a Groene Leeuw headbadge ...

fabiofarelli

We are privileged.

Brad L 

One more piece for the Vitus build.

streetsurfer

Delta AxleRodz

52telecaster

I love hex skewers

non-fixie 

A set of TRP Eurox brakes. Basically a 21st century version of the much loved - by me, anyway - MAFAC Criterium brakes. A 1946 design with carbon plates and titanium hardware. 218 grams in all. I fell in love with the idea and emptied my piggy bank.

chiefkurtz

SunTour Command Shifters, for my next rebuild, mid 80s Schwinn Traveler.

Kabuki12

Another shipment of short stem presta tubes. It’s been a bad year for goatheads , some of my tubes are up to 5 patches. Waiting on the decals from Velo Cals for those Super Champion Gentleman 81 wheels I bought last weekend. They should be here today! Yay

fabiofarelli

And they make me think of the follow up from Mafac, the Froglegs/Spooky brakes. Nice!

non-fixie 

I was actually looking for a set of Empella Froglegs, when these popped up.

And yes, they are nice. The red anodizing is a little bling-y and the straddle cable hangers seem unnecessarily over-engineered and heavy (I may actually decide to use MAFAC originals), but they are beautifully made. What I really like are the adjusters for the straddle cables and that the pads themselves are adjustable in two directions.

Bianchigirll 

I got a fabulous new mug today.

Bianchigirll 

Well I probably shouldn’t have but…… Someone posted a tire sale advertisement last week for one of those fancy pants tires you guys like. Well I spotted Vittoria Rally tires on sale at under $20 each! So I figured I’d get a lifetime supply. I know a lot of you don’t care too much for them, but I’ve good luck with them especially after they’ve aged a year or two.

non-fixie 

After getting the TRP carbon brakes (see post 7758) last week, I decided I needed a set of carbon levers to go with them.

I found a set of unused Campagnolo Athena levers that look the part on a local classifieds site. 11-speed , but with a Shimano 9-speed cassette shortened to 8 speeds, I should be able to get them to work.

I think.

52telecaster

23.8 porteur bars from VO for the Raleigh pro. Managed to get a set of weinmann city style levers to fit. Now barcons and a nitto dirt drop will get me rolling.

noobinsf 

I love NPR schwag. I have a t-shirt from Minnesota Public Radio that says "It's 7:01 and the news is next" with no context or branding. I have my sights on a shirt from my local KALW, which has a cartoonish line drawing of a school lunch tray. KALW was established as a service of the San Francisco Unified School District, and they have been announcing the daily lunch menu since the early 20th century.

smontanaro 

A bunch of stuff "arrived" over the past few weeks, almost all with a Portland connection. My son picked this up for me from Portland CL (it's still in Portland, I've not yet laid eyes on it), probably a '71 Fuji The Finest:


Veloce 9s rear derailleur for the new frame:


Dual pivot Campagnolo brake calipers (no model name on them – what are they?)


Nuovo Record 27.2 seatpost:


Dia Compe N500 brake calipers (snagged these from my son's box o' parts):


I suffered a bunch of flats in Portland, so bought ten inner tubes, used a couple while there, left a few behind, and brought five home:


Finally, not something I bought, but a Hozan truing stand I saw at a garage sale, then outed over on iBoB. One of the BoBs ran over and snagged it:

P!N20

BR-04RE from 1993/1994: https://www.disraeligears.co.uk/site...e_page_26.html

Velo Mule

While putting my crank back on the Schwinn Super Sport, I realized that I didn't have the right tool. I checked all my adjustable wrenches and none of them open wide enough for the drive side race on a Schwinn Ashtabula one piece crank. It is threaded and has two flat on it. I remember it came off with a pipe wrench. Not my best work, but it was going to come off today. Going back on, I used Channel-Loc pliers. Ok, but still primitive Pete style. The thing is that both the non-drive side race and the nut on the drive side are kind-of odd sizes. At least that is the way they measured up for me.

Getting a big 12" cle anglaise (adjustable wrench) was more money than I wanted to spend. Going to a specific open end wrench size, new was too much as well. So, I tried an online laser cutting shop. I designed the wrenches in AutoCAD 12. Yea, I'm behind the times, but I see no reason to update. I am in the C&V section so, I should be in safe company. In order to meet their minimum order amount of $29, I added a wrench for a Sturmey-Archer axle nut. And sent .dwg's to Send Cut Send. One week later I got my wrenches cut from 0.190" [5mm] chrome-moly and vacuum packed on cardboard to prevent damage.

I should have taken a picture as delivered, but I was too excited and went ahead and cleaned up the edges and top and bottom surfaces.

Bianchigirll 

Nice wrenches. No bottle opener notch? Just out of curiosity what size is the nut anyway? It’s probably xx years since I worked on an Ashtabula crank.

Velo Mule

Good question @bianchigirl . The drive side race is 1.683", which works out 42.75mm between the flats. And 1.195" or 30.35mm for the non-drive side nut. This size also fits Schwinn headset nuts.

Could it be that the drive side race is 1-19/32"? That would be 1.693" in digital inches. Perhaps. But how common would a 1-19/32" wrench be? And that is 10 thousandths over the flat to flat dimension. I would think a better fit would be required.

And for the non-drive side nut, the closest fractional size is 1-13/64" or 1.203" in digital inches. Or 30.56mm. This is 8 thousandths bigger than the size of the nut. So, perhaps. Usually when making nuts you start with hex stock. Then all you have to do is drill the proper size hole, thread it and part it off. There is no need to machine the outside hex surfaces. This seems to be an odd size for hex stock as well, but perhaps it was more available at some time. Or it was a Schwinn specific size.
Anyway, odd sizes. Neither metric or a standard inch size.

The Sturmey Archer axle nut wrench came in with a perfect fit from Send Cut Send, but the Ashtabula crank wrench was just undersize. That lasered surface is tuff and the file skated right across it. I had to use sandpaper to open it up for the proper fit.

I am already making modifications to the drawing for a revision B, just so that if I ever need to make another it is the right fit. I also made a couple of minor tweaks while I was at it.

So far, I'm glad that no one has replied that I could have gotten a Park tool instead of designing my own.

The bottle opener has been done so often, but now that you bring it up.... No, it doesn't work as a bottle opener except if I put the wrench under the cap an hit upward on the wrench.

smontanaro 

Can't comment on your need for a wrench, though yours looks great. I will point out that Bianchigirll has two "L"s though. You kind of growl when you say it.

Bianchigirll 

Aardwolf

Just collected: Mavic Monthlery Pro tubular rims for £31 on Ebay.
Complete with Shimano 600 high flange hub + Sunshine high flange hub + Sunrace 14-28 5 speed freewheel.
They were staring at me and I couldn't say no.

It's for a new project, now I just need an early 60s Holdsworth Cyclone frame (and a few other parts).

They will look a lot better when I've cleaned them up: