pastorbobnlnh 

"H" is for "HONK"! Jus' sayin'

RB1-luvr

"LeBlande" lol

this thread always delivers.

cudak888 

Honda? Your little Honda?

I dare AdventureManCO to make a "Little Huffy" music video.

"First gear, it's all spite,
Second gear, I turn white,
Third gear, it takes flight,
Slower, what a fright...

My Huffy's built like a matchbook,
but even then it's not really light.
I pray in the turns, all the parts,
they stay on tight.
Cause if the wheels fall off
it'll be posted in this thread tonight!"

No, no, that title belongs (or used to belong to) USAZorro of Mechanicsville

Let's not miss the opportunity to shave some pounds off this beast, Honk-o!

-Kurt

AdventureManCO 

Satisfaction guaranteed!

(or your money back!)

cudak888 

Or double your Huffy back.

-Kurt

AdventureManCO 

This...THIS right here is the energy this thread needs.


Also, may I kindly point out to both you and to sbarner that comparing this fantastic beast of a bike to a $99 lawnmower...is perfectly acceptable, since that's more than double what I paid for the LeGrande. I'm all for the free status upgrades here.

sbarner 

Yes, my analogy was a bit unfair--to the lawnmower that is. I was impressed that anyone could make an IC engine cheaply enough to slap on a lawnmower frame to be sold for under a hundred bucks and it actually served very well for over five years, which is far longer than the average life expectancy of a Huffy in the hands of an American youth. Both the lawnmower and the vast majority of Huffys suffered a similar demise: that of being left outdoors to rust into oblivion. I think it may still be buried in the leaves somewhere.

AdventureManCO 

See if you can dig it up and find some way to attach Campagnolo to it - I know only crazy ppl do that, and it destroys your reputation of being an actual human being, but there is some sort of deranged enjoyment that comes from it. So a friend tells me.

Actually, this reminds me of a photo I’ve seen on this very sub forum…maybe 52telecaster knows what I’m talking about…

dddd

This bike's very design hails from an era when mowers and bikes were sold out of the same sort of "specialty" hardware store or "garden center". Some of the mowers were branded Murray or Sears.

Good design is good design. My fleet of mowers have proved durable over the last exactly ten years, handling acres of terrain that goes beyond what mowers were made for. And their steel has proven very real during this time, even as all of them were procured used, and either free or for perhaps $20-40 at a thrift store or garage sale.
Wheel/tires and blades of course being mere consumables, the tires wear bald, their plastic gears strip, and their blades develop cracks after many rock-strikes and straightenings.

I haven't yet gussied up any of my mowers with Campagnolo parts, but have used my NiteRider headlight for evening work, freewheel hub axle spacers to shim a handle pivot, and even have a generic V-brake lever as an analog walking-speed controller replacing one mower's complex, broken (and unavailable) plastic lever control mechanism.

The Huffy's construction bests the mower's carriage-bolt handle assemblage and sleeve bearing axles by a good margin.

Hondo6

Needs some appropriate musical accompaniment.


Unfortunately, owner has disabled embedded play on other sites - so you'll have to follow the link. Sorry.

AdventureManCO 

No need to…I know exactly what song it is and listened to it this morning as I was reminded where the quote I thought of came from.

to everyone else, please YouTube ‘Dare to be Stupid’ by Weird Al and enjoy the musical embodiment of my work on the Huffy

EDIT: or just click on the link above (D’oh!)

I would try to find some obscure lyric video of the same song, but the song really needs to be enjoyed with the music video. The video was meant to parody Devo, but they did such a good job that even Devo was astounded by it 'out-Devoing' Devo. A brilliant piece of the 1980s.

AdventureManCO 

Today was a super day. I got to inspect units for mice damage (all the nasty stuff) and of course found some. (Actually, not a bad day at all, outside was nice!)

And THEN I get to come home to the Le Grande, the project that seems to always be waiting for me.


Nothing like wasting my life away over here at Le Grande HQ...






I might start drilling on that tomorrow, BUT...more important matters lay afoot...

The punch list keeps growing and growing. Here is what the weekend looks like:

1. Finish grinding down the inside of the BB shell, then install adapter cups to play around w/ different BB spindle lengths. Will report findings. There may be some surprises here.
1.5 Possible start drilling and filing on this dumb fork crown cap and further make poor use of my time on frivolous cosmetics
2. Clean rim surfaces to prepare for mounting tubulars. I hope tomorrow is a nice enough day to mount and let them sit on there for a day.

I have a guy I know that is an expert at this going to help me...

pastorbobnlnh 

DD for the win!

cudak888 

I told you to stop posting that in here, you might get banned...for that obscene content

Will he drill the frame too? You know you want to...

-Kurt

AdventureManCO 

Wife: Hey hun what's your plan for today?

Me: To waste my life away working on my dumb bike

Wife: Well, at least you've got a plan

cudak888 

I think that's called "marriage after kids."



-Kurt

AdventureManCO 

Okay, tube excess ground away. I'm sad though because my 2nd dremel is sounding bad...sounds like the bearings are going, and it started slowing down. I was careful not to let too much heat build up, but the Huffy may have destroyed 2 dremels now.

Fortunately I basically finished right as this started happening, so I think we are still in good shape, but I do want to de-burr before I throw any cups in. But it also means we are in bad shape for cleaning up the Super Record rims, since I was planning to use the dremel w/ a brass brush to clean up. We'll see in just a little bit.

Also have tubulars now dry-mounted for a day and basking in the sun.

Pics to follow.

jdawginsc 

Hey! I suggested Drillium in the frame around page 5. I don’t think there will much of a drop in performance...just leaks if you repurpose the Huffy to fix plumbing.

AdventureManCO 

Okay, so...

I grabbed my corded dremel and thought "The Le Grande will not kill you!"

I wanted to figure out what was going on with it. A few weeks back, I was polishing that shim and the dremel was getting pretty hot, and then just all of the sudden quit working. The dremel does not have an auto overload switch that I know of, so I wanted to take it apart to see if I could find what was going on.



Busted out the meter and found an open winding - whoopsie!


So, found some wire that was around the same gauge, made some loops for a mechanical connection, then used some acetone and the heat of the soldering iron to burn off the varnish.



Whala!



Putting it back together...



And she works! So I'll just need to be more mindful of heat dissipation on this little unit. Also, holding it right over the vent holes probably doesn't help things


In other news, I have the tubs stretching and baking...

AdventureManCO 

w00t w00t!

Macguyver909




This might even get here today!!



If it does...................................................

cudak888 

"Bartender!"
"Yes sir!"
"More beer - I'm running out."

-Kurt

cudak888 

Two words:

Die grinder.

-Kurt

Pompiere

Why do they always put the vent holes right where your hand wants to go? My drill is the same when I put a second hand on to steady it.

I took my Dremel apart recently after it got especially noisy during a rust removal session. Cleaning and lubing the little bearings helped, but I'm afraid its days are numbered.

stoneageyosh

For AMC’s purpose, make it three words:
Foredom Flexshaft Grinder

AdventureManCO