VintageSteelEU

Right... Just got a job lot of hubs today and... What the heck is this thing? Thread is not English, that much I could establish, but don't seem to be able to find any info on this. The flange is sort of middle size, but larger rathe than smaller and the freewheel thread section threads on the part of the axle combined with QR. Weird.

Chuck M 

Weather here stinks on ice and we got a good amount of ice last night and early this morning. So I put a bike I picked up in late October back on the stand to try to find a noise I experience when in the big cog. Unfortunately I cannot duplicate the noise on the stand, but it does look like the rear derailleur claw is bent just a wee bit so I'll address that and hopefully it solves the issue. Weather looks to be better Friday so I'll find out then.

Bianchigirll 

VintageSteelEU interesting. I know there were hubs like this way back in ‘40s or something but this looks recent. It reminds me of short lived hub Mavic had in the early ‘90s that would accept either a Campanutella or Shipmano freehub body.

this is Greek to me but. https://www.ebay.com/itm/19594123763...Bk9SR4CB7bOmYw

Chuck M I think we’re starting to get that ice here on the edge of the prairie.

Chuck M 

One of your pictures indicates you have some Jim Beam. I didn't make it to the liquor store for bourbon so I will say I had it a little rougher than you will.

Mad Honk 

BG,
I'm glad to see you back! Getting into a funk can really set you back a bit, but having a group of enablers around does help. I have been trying to contact you for a while and today I received a package from you that I am not sure about. Please contact me at 812-336-3283 or davehohnke@bluemarble.net . Good to see you posting again. Smiles, MH

Mad Honk 

This is an adapter that changes Ashtabula style bottom brackets to square taper bottom brackets. They were extremely popular with the BMX crowd in the late1970's and early 1908's. HTH, Smiles, MH

VintageSteelEU

It does have a bit of Mavic esthetic of the late 80's, when you look at the DS spacer, for example, the flanges, the shape of NDS protrusion. It seems the hub shell and the threaded bit as well are CNC machined. Cartridge bearings, both sides. It's all made of aluminium (including the axle), except for QR lever and the bolt on the drive side, bearing cages and one C-clip sitting on the axle on the NDS. And the seal on the NDS is a piece of plastic. OLD 122mm, weight 267g. I wish the threading was English and that I had the front one as well, because it's certainly an unusual one. But it seems like the freewheel threading could be easily swapped. What for, I'm not sure, though if English threading was also available, that would be great, because all of my freewheels have English thread.

The whole lot is a mixed bag. NOS Altenburger (possibly, with strange double hole cutouts) large flange hubs are interesting, heavy as all hells (600g with solid axles, so if there was a QR version, that would be 700g or so), but the axles seem to have rolled threads and cones are one piece with seals (sort of Pelissier Professionel style). Large flange Campy rear hub seems OK, except for the possibly Italian thread. And there's some Sunshine 5345 and Normandy with English thread, apart from that a few rear LF hubs with threads unknown, few front LF hubs. That will be a bit of cleaning for sure, but worst case scenario, I'll have some spare axles, skewers and cones to use for other things. I'm planning to build some wheels with large flange hubs, to use up some shorter spokes and spare rims I have and sell them to clear out the stash that's taking way too much space now. Probably keeping a wheelset with Sunshine hubs laced to Ambrosio 19 Extra Elite rims and maybe the "Altenburgers" laced to unknown chunky rims.

sbrudno

It is always good to learn a task by just diving in and getting your hands dirty. Below is a Roadmaster steel mountain bike that I got off eBay for $20 (probably overpaid). I only used parts that were in my inventory or swiped from an existing bike that did not need them. Grease extra.
I decided to put the twist shifters on the end of bullhorn handlebars. Really quite handy there. I learned a great deal about V-brakes and other bits without destroying the evidence...

browngw 

I built this old circa 1965 Dilecta Le Blanc from a single speed fixed hub bike seven or eight years ago. It has been ridden a fair amount in that time and has been my choice for the annual Tour de Norfolk. It is often the sole vintage bike on the ride. I am doing some work on it this winter. Changes include upgrading the Suntour GT rear derailleur to NOS All Alloy model and replacing the mudguards with some period Bluemels. Nothing wrong with the 80s Zefal MTL ones I had on it, but its time for a change in the look. The weight difference in the Suntour RDs is significant.

rols229

Very cool bike. And lovely maintenance and restoration work! I have just joined Bike Forums tonight. So I am going to get 10 posts made so I can post some pictures and try to get some input on a couple of things.

VintageSteelEU

Shifters day. I have a pair of Suntour LD-4850 (Suntour Sprint / Superbe ratcheting shifters) on their way. They were more pricey than the modern copy I was planning originally (Dia Compe Silver levers), but since I'll be using Superbe derailleurs for the build, I thought I'd rather stick with Suntour shifters if I can find a pair. Unfortunately, the ones I found are top mounted and the frame doesn't have braze-on shifter bosses, so the options I had was to get some top mounted shifters with a clamp and cannibalise the clamp, or look for normal *****rs with a standard clamp and put the shifters on that. I do actually have a Shimano clamp I could probably use, some Huret ones, that are not compatible and Suntour Power shifters, which I'd rather keep intact (and also the clamp might not be compatible). So I found a pair of Zeus shifters, which might work (remains to be seen) and Suntour Vx Road ones, which could also be used. The only problem is that the cable guides / lever limiting washers, are non-removable, so I will likely have to get another set of Cyclone level shifters with clamp. Nevertheless, Zeus and Vx ones had to be cleaned. I might yet use them someday or perhaps trade them for something else.



Before

After. Still need a bit of cleaning around the Zeus logo

Before

A bit cleaner, waiting for the rotary tool battery to charg to finish the job

Aardwolf

Packed my new tool kit in the saddle bag this week and found it was rattling, decided shrink wrap was almost certainly the answer.
Think it worked rather well:


micro driver handle + Flat 7mm / JIS #2 / Hex 4mm / Hex 6mm

30mm shrink wrap: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07DZ9D9...roduct_details
Laser Power bits set (includes JIS and allen key): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Laser-8316-...5RZ/ref=sr_1_3
Sealey micro driver handle: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sealey-AK69...52/ref=sr_1_58

BTinNYC 

UO-8 for The Princess got painted in the basement then upstairs for a few weeks of curing while we're away, hiding from the nasty weather. 2K gloss white and primer.

VintageSteelEU

I got my new rims last week. 1 set of Excellence, 36H, one set of Excellight 36H and one set of Excellight 32H. The whole bunch of Sapim D-Light spokes also arrived, so I thought I might as well lace some hubs and relax a bit before the grind starts at work tomorrow again My wallet doesn't like me right now, but after trying to find decent vintage rims over the past couple of years and facing a choice to pay an arm and a leg for such, or going with used ones with unknown usage and accident history, I thought it's time to ditch the idea of using vintage rims, even if they are seemingly in a good condition. Or, in fact NOS. If I can have excellent rims like these Ambrosio, cheaper, lighter and stronger than any vintage ones, then it really makes little sense to be looking for rims from the 80's. Especially, that these new rims have profiles very similar to vintage rims. Also, building on new rims tends to be much quicker as well.
I decided to start with the set of Specialized hubs. The idea is to replace the QR axles with solid ones at some point, so I thought I will clean them a bit and take a better look inside to see whether they use a standard axle, or something more unusual. And, surprise, surprise, after opening the front one, I saw Suntour cartridge bearings. I wonder if that's because they've been replaced or perhaps Sunshine were putting fairly random cartridge bearings inside, sometimes from the box destined for a different brand? I guess we'll never know. But after going through some Suntour catalogs it would seem that these hubs are identical or very similar to Suntour Sprint ones. And very smooth too. The good news is that the axles are standard.

The first wheelset is for communting (or, a bit fancier commuting) and I decided that Excellence rims will do nicely for that. It's a shame they don't do them in polished finish, I would have preferred that, but I think silver hub, silver spokes and black rims look pretty decent together.



Hub shells after a short treatment with a dab of polishing paste.

Specialized hub... Suntour cartridge bearing. Smooth as new!

Now, which spokes were for these hubs...

merziac

Not enough.

But I did get some other repairs/maintenance done on storm/power outage gear for the freezing crap we had.

Small Honda generator serviced so it fires right up like it should, drained, inspected and flushed the fuel tank and carburetor.

Serviced the small indoor/outdoor, propane Mr. Heater so it fires right up too.

Coleman 2 burner that had had broken pot metal control rods.

Rounded up, checked and charged numerous battery packs and lighting.

We only lost power over 1 night for about 6 hours.

mrv 

an alleged "Friend" dumped this on me last fall to keep it out of the dump. I says - "self!, we'll donate it!"
here in S.E. Lion's Territory we got lots of ice after the New Year - so i says - "self! let's put the studded tires and go ride the iced over dirt roads!"
but with gummed grease and rusted frozen cables, I had to re-pack everything. Not wanting to spend any ca$h money, I soaked the chain in PB Plaster, pulled the deraileurs - derailleurs and scrubbed. Filled the 7spd shifter pods with WD-40. bought some shifter & brake cables (now I'm in for $20.... dang it...)
anyway - everything thawed, so there's not ice - just mud slush roads or pavement. but at least I'm ready to go!

ok. that's it.
Post Script: anybody wanna buy and old ATB? maybe i'll post it for sale.
cheers.

cjefferds 

My weekend project…an unusual (possibly a Canadian model) Raleigh Sports 10. Almost certainly a 1971 based on the date stamp on the dynohub of Dec 1970. Most of the components were donated by Sprite of similar vintage. I purchased the Sports yesterday and got er done in time for a quick test drive in the chilly rain today. The only real challenge was persuading a couple of stuck cotters to come out. I sacrificed a few drill bits to one of them.

VintageSteelEU

That's a nice mixte frame. I'm always hoping to find some nice French mixte to build up, but always too busy with other stuff. Oh well, perhaps one day Good chance for getting it in white and mix that with gold and black.

RiddleOfSteel

Amidst a few other to-do's, I renovated an early-'00s Specialized road triple crankset that uses an Octalink BB, specifically an Octalink road/V1 triple (5503/6503/7703) with the 118.5mm spindle. Not content with wide q-factor cranks (thanks, knees), and armed with a 7700 double BB along with some spacers, I set about seeing if and how I could make this work.

The end result was using a 3mm spacer and tightening the crank bolts to "pretty darn good" but not "fully tight" (these Octalinks have a pretty definitive "that's enough" point they reach as you tighten them). Q-factor was sub-149mm or sub-148mm. Why is it on my Trek 560 and not my 620 or another tourer? Well, they already have their triples! So, obviously, I'll need to get a frame to put this on, right?

Specialized spec'd three different styles and 'colors' of chain rings for these cranksets, which is baffling to me. Thankfully, I was able to correct this error. And yes, that is a Dura-Ace 7700 double front derailleur working that triple. Without issue! This entire setup is bonkers. Will need to replicate on a different frame.


3mm spacer hiding out...


Less than 1mm between the chain ring bolt (small ring) and the chain stay. The NDS crank arm gets reeeeal close to the bottom bracket face, so it's safe to say I've maxed out this possibility. Not entirely recommended for someone who doesn't want to do a lot of fiddling, but it works here, so I suppose it's a plenty valid idea. Right?

bikamper

No bicycle stuff at the moment. Being locked in during the 10 day 'Ice Age' and getting Mrs.B back on her feet (doing fine,btw) produced much boredom. So, as a cure, I broke out a Russian model kit of a 1/35 scale WWII Russian sidecar motorcycle(idiot).


I didn't realize how small 1/35 scale was and how inept my sausage fingers are with teeny bits. I'm having 60 year old flashbacks of being 8 years old with strings of glue in the air and gooky fingerprints all over the plastic of a 1964 Dodge.

I don't believe doing mechanical watch repair as a post retirement gig is in my future.

Trav1s

Bouncing back and forth between the 730 Multitrack and 800 Sport. Cleaned up a set of shifter/brake setups from an organ donor and installed them on the 800Sport. I also swapped the Conti smoothies for the Specialized Crossroads and the new freewheel and chain are on the way.

Bikedued

Not so much wrenching as it was stretching, 😂. I guess an Allen wrench for the brake cables and brifter removal counts?

CO_Hoya 

The patient, a 1976-ish Centurion Pro-Tour:




Where it stands as of this weekend:


That R7000 front derailleur is giving me fits - seems to rub when in the large ring on both the smallest cogs and when more that halfway up the cassette.

nlerner

That's interesting. I just gave up trying to get that FD to work on my touring bike. Seemed like I just couldn't get enough travel in the cage or with the lever. Not what sure what kind of crankset it was designed for!

CO_Hoya 

I found that raising it to ~4mm above the outer chainring, and v. slightly angled out at the back, gave best results. I can avoid the rubbing in larger cogs by clicking once on the left brifter to slacken the cable a touch.

I first tried with a different crankset with the chainline further outboard and it was a complete no-go. Switching back to the orig crankset and getting the rings in much closer and I was able to get all the travel I needed.

I just wish Shimano had a micro-ratchet for the FD shifting, rather than indexed.