VintageSteelEU

I can't even imagine buying ready-made wheels any more. Why would anyone sacrifice a few hours of peace and quiet when building the wheels themselves? Very relaxing.

Positron400

tbf, to me it was a daunting task building my own (and so far only) wheelset - lot's of things can go wrong and it's quite the initial investment.

ascherer 

A couple of hours with the PX10 this weekend but no action shots of me laboriously cleaning the triple, sorry. I pulled a 52 off my '71 PX to put on this one, and spent some time with 3000 sandpaper removing oxidation from the arms. Not going crazy because it's a rider. It's now clean and shiny but not mirror. Starting to put it back together, the cranks are back on the frame as is the rear derailleur. I expect to have it largely reassembled next weekend.

VintageSteelEU

Well, there is the cost of a stand, or, if you get a rubbish stand, you pay with the whole process taking more time. I'm lucky to have a good supplier for quality spokes and nipples, so a wheelset costs me about £37 ($44) plus the hub and rim. So all depends on how much you want to splash on that. Typically I don't splash much.

tcs

I'm fond (SWMBO says overly fond) of quality tools. That said, many of us trued our first wheels 'in the dropouts', aligning with the brake blocks.



Chapeau!

VintageSteelEU

Quality tools are much cheaper in the long run.I needed something light and portable and it's fine for the time being, but I know I will have to spend money again or build another stand myself.

VtwinVince

Here are my latest projects, a '92 DB Axis Pro that I picked up as a parts bike but decided to salvage as the frame was so nice, and an '85 Rocky Mountain Giro.

capnjonny 

Here is a little something I just finished.
It started out as an early 70's Raleigh Record that had been donated to the bike Exchange. At first glance it looked like just another tired old workhorse bicycle but on closer inspection was fitted out with Campagnolo Record hardware. I stripped off all the good stuf and was about to throw it into a pile of old frames in the back room for probable disposal later. lying there on the floor was another old Raleigh ladies frame the same color. Instead of tossing my frame I picked up the other one too and brought them back to my place. As I was working in the garage building up another bike I got the inspiration for this one.

Originally I planned to mask off the original decals mounted on a black panel and paint the rest of the bike black to match. Then I was going to clear coat everything, hopefully blending in the decal background. Unfortunately, when I pulled off the masking tape from the decal a good portion of the lettering came with it so I changed plans, sanded off the rest of the lettering, and painted the entire frame Rustoleum Automotive Black enamel.

A unique feature on this bike is the drop down adaptors for the caliper brakes which lower them enough to work with 700 c rims. This made possible the fitting of the 622 x 23 yellow stripe tires which I had just waiting for rhe right build. The 1x7 indexed gearing is a good fit for an urban commuter and saves weight and complexity .

Everything for this build came from my parts stash. I wasn't trying to build a weight weenie but when everything was complete and I put it on my hanging scale it only weighed 24.6 lbs. It should make some Techie hipster, Male, Female, or Other, the perfect townie. If nothing else, at that weight it should make carrying it upstairs easy.

VintageSteelEU

Nice bicycle and a nice part stash to rely on. I think I will have to find some bicycle co-ops for the future.

Arent's the pads on the rear caliper backwards though?

merziac

Pretty cool in a one by, hipster, dipster sort of way.

Wish I had cool wheelsets like that in my stash, pretty sure I would find some more "expendable" ones for a project that was going to get moved along.

mrv 

Getting some lighting installed on the camper tourer commuter

dyno on the way!



SuperNova

VintageSteelEU

I'm preparing Spring clearance. After a bit of deliberation I decided I don't actually want to build up an early 90's bicycle. I have two projects going on and sadly no room for infinite fleet of bicycles or components. So I decided to pull out all the Ultegra 6400 components I was preparing for it, check everything, clean the items that were used and prepare it all for sale. Miche Primato seatpost is obviously not a part of the Ultegra 6400 group. I got it because it was long and its colour is similar to Shimano anodising on those components. Now back to photographing each item and trawling through my other parts boxes.

jamesdak 

A different kind of "wrenching" yesterday. With over 4 ft. of snow on the roof and two days of rain coming I had to get it off. Plan was to cut as much off as I could with some paracord. But luckily I live in Utah. Neighbors rallied and came over to help this hobbled up old soldier. I was out there about 7 hours yesterday and had help for at least 3 of them. Knees were screaming and at the end each foot step was about 6" long. Man, I can't wait for the new knees that are coming finally!! Anyway it was a ton of work mostly done by my neighbors, that snow was so wet and heavy. When we got done I still had to climb up on one pile in front to shovel it off the window it was covering. As luck would have it one leg broke through and left the other one twisted behind me. Needless to say I took off work today because I can't even bend the one knee.

Anyway to keep 'er bike related here's a shot from this morning out of the bike cave. This is my first floor and my basement is only halfway submerged. So yeah, this is high, LOL!


Looking out of the bike cave

Same pile from outside last night after we "finished".

I've still got to go out there today and clear about 3 ft. of this wet stuff from my front sidewalk and door. I need them to be able to deliver the final parts I need for the Krapf bike today. That's more important than resting the old body, LOL!

jdawginsc 

Thats such a cool bike room James. And lots of snow there!

jim dandy

Finished The Winter Build.


As received

The fun part

Satisfactory results
The two photos are Before and After. It was a well cared for bike to begin with, so, cosmetically wasn’t difficult. The Project was to convert the set of antlers to drop bars. Internal cable routing made me rather nervous as I had never done that process before. Some over budget purchases on eBay, an hour on YouTube, and six feet of thin tubing from Richardson Bike Mart, and I was ready to go. Three hours later and Done!

JD, Dallas

nick_a

Overhauled this seemingly NOS RX100 front hub tonight. Lots of old crusty grease to clean out, but I think it'll run very smoothly now (and hopefully for another 30+years)

sbrudno

Just
Just finished this Motobecane Super Mirage. Either Motobecane or Compagnolo components. It has been a labor of love.

SJX426 

In January I reported getting a Park 2.2 truing stand.
I broke down and bought the base. My rational was that the stand was such a good price that overpaying for some plastic and a couple of parts was worth it.

Today the broken, stuck adjustment screw was finally removed with some heat and lube. It was in the corner.

VintageSteelEU

I'm still stuck with the Superbe Pro frame. Well, the stem is stuck, so patiently soaking it in oil and WD40. Don't really want to mess up $200 stem for sure. So I'm taking the long route here. No rush. Also drive side BB cup is stuck, but the obstacle here is lack of spring washers of correct size in my local hardware store. And then the freewheel still resists, so again, WD40 and oil soaking until I can get it off. I feel like my life would be much easier if everyone gresed stuff and maintained it properly, but these are the charms of working with vintage components.
So, whilst I'm waiting for oil and WD40 to soak into seized threads, I decided to make a start on the Superbe components. Today it was the pedals. Whilst I'm not able to take the cages off fully (again, stuck / seized screws), I did my best at cleaning them. I resigned myself to accepting they won't be visually perfect. Still, mechanically, they are fantastic. Smotth like butter. I was also todays' years old when I found out that using steel brush bit on the rotary tool is much better when working on chromed parts than using the brass brush bit. Clears out surface rust like a charm. Now I'm going to put these pedals on my daily commuting bike (replacing current Lyotard 460D which need some adjustment) to get used to them. Heck, to be honest, I'm really tempted to put all the Superbe components on it and thake them for a spin.

merziac

IMO, you may not get there with WD and oil, you need a far more robust penetrant, PB Blaster, Kroil, ATF and acetone, Marvel Mystery oil or the like.

I really do hope you get there, I have a couple of stuck stems that I refuse to destruct including one that has the wedge completely pulled up inside the stem.

They both got soaked and manhandled a bunch to no avail so far, I need to get back after them.

RCMoeur 

Today's wrenching wasn't on an actual bicycle, but adding additional bicycle carrying capacity to my ol' pickup. Recently I've had to repeatedly carry 10+ bikes at a time, so I figure space for two more up front should prove useful soon.



Just need to check the curb clearance, and we should be set.

Drillium Dude 

Drat! I must've hit my "Like Limit" for this 24-hour period once again!

This is gettin' redonkulous...

DD

VintageSteelEU

That's what I have at hand at the moment, so it probably won't hurt. Got a bottle of acetone somewhere though, thanks for reminding me
The wedge here is of the conical variety. I was trying to shine some light down the stem yesterday and it does seem to be inside the stem still. Not actually sure if the wedge is steel, though difficult to say looking through a 6mm hole. The next stage will be blocking the head tube from below and spraying stuff inside the bolt hole of the stem. And then probably looking for more effective penetrants.
The bicycle was generally in an okay-ish condition, it probably was stored somewhere indoors and perhaps ridden sometime over the last decade. So I'm hoping the stem isn't stuck too bad. If it doesn't come out, I will probably build the bike up anyway and ride it for some time (and regulary spray the stem / inside of it with penetrants). Perhaps this will help to get it unstuck.

merziac

So did you tap on the stem bolt when it was loose to knock the wedge loose?

If the wedge is still engaged, that may be why it is still stuck or whats keeping it stuck.

Then if you get the wedge out and the stem is still stuck, you can attack it from the bottom and or plug the top to fill with juice if need be.

Strip it down as much as you can to manipulate and wrestle with it.

VintageSteelEU

Yes. I'll repeat that exercise after applying penetrants and letting them work for a bit. On the bright side, I found some flat, steel handlebar that fits the stem, so at least now I have something I can grip properly. When I remove the wedge, that is

Today I've made a start with the dropbars. I don't think I've ever seen dropbars with so many deep wounds. Someone in the history of this bicycle wasn't that great with bicycle mechanics. Whereas I'm not bothered with bits that will be underneath the tape, the central portion has some really deep scratches too. And they are here to stay, I can only make them slightly less visible. It went from this:


to this:



Of course, it's not over yet, I expect several more sessions with 1k grit sand paper and some water, alternating with sessions with polishing paste. They will look alright in the end, though battle scars are sadly here to say. I might use a shim for the central bit and camouflage bits sticking out of the stem.
I'd happily replace the bars, but Kusuki Medallion handlebars seem to be rather rare. No info on Velobase, for example, and these don't show up on fleabay too often. For now, I'm not sure if like the bend and width yet. These are 390mm and I'm used to wider handlebars, but I'll reserve my judgement until I'm able to take them for a spin. I might go for the other Kusuki model eventually.