Team Lope Tyre Clubbe » ye blacke death

Bike Build Process Log: Ye Blacke Death – Natural Twenty

wrongrobot — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:34:48 +0000

Show me a [Self-Generated] problem
yo I’ll solve it

Here we have the big 20 tooth cog on there finally (well, again) thanks to a fresh chain, and after an admittedly unloaded ride test (that means different things, depending on where, and when, in the Team Lope enterprise, we’re talking) and yes, it is reassuring to have the 70.7 inchgear as intended.

Wish I was well enough to actually ride as planed today, but these are still the problems to have…

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I’m OK, You’re OK, Villain’s Very OK

wrongrobot — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 04:46:50 +0000

So today I finally had the opportunity to do what I’ve been wanting to do for a few weeks now: get Villain back into rotation. Ghostal is now for sale, so I’m not riding it, lest it explodes in irony, and my riding time has been split between Crook and Ye Blacke Death. But I built up the new Villain 3.0 in anticipation of the Tour de Lung road ride Team lope is hosting, now hopefully set for October. But I need some saddle time to iron out any kinks in what was my first road bike build.

So far so good! MAYBE seat comes down a hair. Shifting and braking are solid. Feels great.

Tell you what I forget about road bikes after a lot of continuous fixie riding: they’re FAST. I was flying today, both directions of m commute. Just flying.

Anyway, that is all. Just good times, with gears=gasp!=I=said=gears!

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Bike Build Process Log: Ye Blacke Death – Over the Moon

wrongrobot — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:54:19 +0000

So, Ye Blacke Death has been ride-able for 24 hours now. I mean, it goes and it stops, both reliably.

So, while it’s not yet complete, I do have thoughts.

Test Ride 1 was the coffee run last weekend that saw most of my coffee land in and over the front rack, being unsecured, plus was the ride I learned I had both a high-gearing issue AND a baby seat clearance issue. Subsequently, I swapped out the Nitto moustache bars for big-ass moon bars. This provides the necessary clearance to ride with the baby up ON there. I also swapped out the vintage hood lever for a BMX lever and restrung the brake cable 33 more times.

Test Ride 2: Wraps Run

So the bars are on, the brake strung, seemed to be in order, so i headed out. First thing I noticed was that despite cinchin’ it, the bars still moved in the stem clamp. So I was carrying all my tools in me pockets as I do on test rides, so I was able to really muscle it more and get it tighter. Good. Second thing I noticed was that the brakes were still just a bit too soft. It’s hard to finesse center-pulls like this. You under-do it and they slip, and over-do it and the cable get s smashed and frayed. So I stopped and adjusted again. Little better, not perfect.

I also noticed that riding with moon bars is kind of awkward. It’s fun, but when you’re used to the drops or the bulls, pitched forward, this position is kind of strange. You’re pushing pedals differently too, with your body geometry changing in that position. But as far as the first real RAHHHDE of any distance, it worked. It’s smooth, cushy. LAID BACK.

I brought back some wraps and a salad using the front basket, and used my webbing to hold it down. Worked AWESOME.

Test Ride 3: Commute

So after the ride last night, this morning I was able to do some more brake adjustment (still not perfect) and a few other things, and I was good to go.

Lung warned that my gearing was still likely too high. He’s right. I came down from my accidental 300 inchgear or whatever, but my chain was broken too small now, so i couldn’t get it back up to the bigger ‘pie plate cogs’ because I don’t have enough chain. So I installed the biggest I could fit, which was an 18. That’s still a 78 inchgear. Not terribly comfortable int he upright. Doable certainly in drops, but this is different. Add the short hills to get to my house. Add 20+ pounds of Wee Z! So yep, need a new chain.

I also found that man, it’s hard to adjust to those wide hand-positions. I kept instinctively slipping down to the stem to ride more comfortably as I do on Crook, but of course with a baby seat installed that wouldn’t be possible, so I tried to force myself to stay in position. Overall, fun ride, but need to do more adjustments. Possibly a drainpipe post, as I’m feeling a little forward from where I want to be, just like with Fix-e back in the day. I just happen to have Fix-e’s old one, so we’ll see.

I headed over to the stoe to get some groceries, and to Peet’s to get my coffee. Again with the webbing, this time pushing more of the limits of the reach of the net. Worked great. My bag was about 20 pounds too, and the bike handled well. That’s a good sign. Coffee in there too, nice and snug.

Test Ride 4: Afternoon Coffee Run

Yes, that’s a lot of coffee, i know.
Anyway, this time I webbed the coffee cup vertically close to the stem-side of the basket, and it worked like a dream. Even better than my modified gimbal on wrongBike. Narry a drip spilled.
Little more used to the bars now.

Please note the sweet, sweet sticker I through on here, courtesy of TRDL R3 Lieutenant Akua!

All in all, good rides. I’m heading over to get yet another chain tonight and replacement grips. Don’t be fooled by that red wrap. That’s just the under-wrap to the cork grips. I had to break one off to get the moustache bars off, which was crumbling from some cracks anyway. So more to come.

Onward! Next ride, lower gear, proper grips, bell and BABY! If all goes well…

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Bike Build Process Log: Ye Blacke Death – Laid back

wrongrobot — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:28:26 +0000

Last time I mentioned a few logistical details prevented YBD from working as a Z transportation vehicle: brakes, gearing and ride position (you know, little details)…

I’ve been hard at work solving the brake issue, with experiments in alternate brake levers and re-stringing the brakes 33 times.

I changed the gearing. Posts to follow on those efforts.

Today my handlebar alternate arrived. While by no means as FUN as sweet, sweet moustache bars, I think this will let me sit up and out of the way of Z’s seat. Experiment tonight forthcoming!

Look at that pic. wrongbike shown for scale.

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Bike Build Process Log: Ye Blacke Death – Rubber Hits Road

wrongrobot — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:38:58 +0000

Well, Ye Blacke Death is finally finished! Finished in the since, of course, that it rolls and pedals and steers and mostly stops, not that there’s not much more to do. But this was the day that I was able to get it rolling and do some tests. Any build, I’m secretly relieved when it doesn’t explode on it’s maiden voyage. Weirder frames and pieces parts and I wonder a little more about that result. I wasn’t going to throw wee Z on here and hurtle down the hill, but I did want to get out and see what needed adjustment and how it held up.

As you can see, it came together pretty nicely. The bobike fits on a a bracket that seats on the quill, and is removable in under 7 seconds. You can pull the clamp off as well and it’s like it was never there, or leave the clamp on and use the cotter pin to remove the seat. Even on the bike, there’s no interference with the front rack.

The combination of matte black, laquered wood, leather and chrome work well together. It has an old timey vibe, but some new school details. More interestingly to me, it’s the most frankenbike build I’ve done, even more than Fix-e was, and it doesn’t LOOK like it. I think it looks like it rolled new off the assembly line of one of your vintagy commuter bike shops.
Most importantly, it came together how I envisioned it, with the black rims and knobbies, the little gleams on the chrome, the general geometry…

Wee Z even helped with spoke tension inspection. Not at speed.

So, what’s left: well, a lot. Some adjustments are required before it can really do what it was intended to do. See, I tried to hop on it and almost became a eunuch. The Bobike is low and back, so you cradle your precious cargo in your arms as you ride. But for most bikes, that means interference with your riding position. I could get between the seat and the Bobike, but I couldn’t get UP onto my seat. Absolutely no-go if there was a child up in there.

I was sort of resigned to the idea that maybe the seat wouldn’t work out (it was designed for upright commuters in Denmark with adjustable stems and that vertical clearance) and that I’d be putting the rear rack on. But I did some research last night and was reminded, thanks to www.longleafbicycles.com why i got my long quill stem in the first place. I was going about this the wrong way: I thought the clearance problem would be the seat being too much in my face, so I was pushing it farther and farther down the stem, to no avail. As it turns out, it needs to be HIGHER, which is counter-intuitive, I have to admit. That’s where the ginormous stem came in. So this morning, I raised the seat high on the stem (didn’t yet actually increase stem height) and equally-as-important, lowered the SEAT. It made all the difference, and it worked. AWESOME.

Another issue is the brake. I’m a mile from where I started: I have sticky salmon pads, a new center-pull caliper, and I spent a LOT of time stringing and restringing it, which is made more aggravating with this vintage of equipment because of having to use double- wrenches on the hanger nuts. I was too weak in stopping power on my test ride, which was after about three stringings already… and then I adjusted it and am now too tight, so i need to let out about 3mm of cable. But I’m close.

The cork handles, which were kind of an experiment anyway, were 50/50. One went on great, and one shredded like you’d expect thin, true cork to do. Wifebot(tm) suggested glue but i don’t think it’ll hold together very long, so if I keep using these, I’ll be replacing one.

The bars, which LOOK rad, once again may not work, just as has happened on my other rides.

The sweep brings you too far forward, and I think I’ll interfere with comfortable positioning when Z is on there. So i may have to switch to sway, or boulevard, bars. I’ll be looking at that tonight.

Lastly, when I set out on the test ride, I was like DAMN this is a bitch. What is UP. The gearing was higher than I anticipated. I discovered the culprit. Remember how I was messing around with different combinations of cranks and chainrings? I ended up going with a 53, not the 39 I started with. Makes a teeeny bit of difference.

I calculated the inchgear at a gruesome 101. GAH.

I’m putting a 20 on the back tonight, getting it back down to my comfortable low-70s.

All in all though, very exciting and satisfying day.

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Bike Build Process Log: Ye Blacke Death – Rack it Up

wrongrobot — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:41:58 +0000

So while I didn’t get YBD completed this weekend, a last minute opportunity let me to get SOMETHING done, in a weekend where I didn’t imagine to get anything done on anything at all. So win win win!

The main thing that’s been holding up YBD is the front brake situation: getting a brake and bolt that would work, then figuring out how to string all this stuff together. The brake I was trying to use was an old rear brake, and I had hoped to put the longer bolt on it and use it, but that was proving elusive AND it was shorter reach than desired. So I got the long-reach center-pull Dia Compe brake caliper, and this was the chance to finally get int there and make it work.

The tricky thing wasn’t so much that all this stuff strings onto the same bolt, but the sequence and fitting them together that made it challenging. It’s about access. The fender gets partially hung by an L bracket that fits on that bolt. The bracket has to be attached to the fender first, making it nearly impossible to hold the brake, the brake bolt, the fender bracket, AND the rack bracket, in place, thread the teeeeeeny nut from the back, and allen that sucker down without things slipping. But practice makes perfect, let me tell you, because I did it several times: once, the bolt was too long and I required spacers. Once, the rack bracket wasn’t optimized in location and needed to be moved back in the stack. Once, the fender bracket needed to be moved forward so it could be elevated. Anyway, I finally got it all dialed in.

Part of the problem is that each of these disparate elements is just part of a larger bracketing system, so you don’t know what adjustments need to be made after you get it set up. The adjustments to one throw off the next. I would calibrate the rack positioning and the fender would be off, so I’d correct the fender and the brake would hang weird… it was very much like trying to get good at golf.

Anyway, the fender is held by that center L-bracket to the brake bolt, which allows you to raise and lower it relative to the tyre for clearance ( needed more clearance, since I’m using knobbies)… the it’s stabilized by two rods then come down to the anchor eyelets at the tips of the forks. These not only stabilize it but influence it in axis, so there’s lots of tweaking to try and keep the fender roughly aligned on the wheel.

The rack is also supported by an L-bracket. It has legs that bolt to the underside of the rack, and then down to the same eyelets at the fork. The parts aren’t labeled, are symmetrical, and there’s a host of helpful bolts and washers in the package. And no instructions. I mean, it’s not rocket science, but it’s always nice to know what the options are, or the proper positioning prior to experimentation, when you’re juggling so much other stuff. But my dear friends at SOMA Fab seem too busy to answer a three week old request for a PDF of the instructions, so I gave up and proceeded, and it was fine.

The rack comes with a number of pieces of attachment hardware, like I mentioned, and one set were long screws that were perfectly sized to get through the rack legs, the fender rails, and the fork eyelets just so. Took extra hands I didn’t have to get it all lined up and in tension, but it worked.

[My new desktop btw]

One tricky part is that the rack was apparently designed for use with side pull brake levers only. The L-bracket comes off of the brake bolt, same as the fender, but it’s wider and obstructs the passing of the brake cable from the calipers. Initially, I had just naturally assumed that this bracket (more of a fillet than an L) would be the opposite orientation, ie. come DOWN from the bolt, angle out, and then go horizontal. However, doing that throws the positioning of the rack’s legs way off. It’s possible there’s a way to reverse the legs and possibly, with a different eyelet position, make that connection still work, but it seems to jut it way forward. Anyway, I solved this issue by bending the bracket at a sharper angle away from the brake bolt, making the rise more shallow, and then looping the center-pull brake’s arc cable OVER it.

The brake will always be in a mid-closed position anyway, giving the cable ample clearance OVER the bracket to host the cable ‘clothes hanger’ thing. I hope!

So, by the end of this, I had the rack, fender, brake, replacement salmon sticky brake pads, and wheel all together and tight. With another 90-120 minutes or so, I could have been largely done, but this was all happening out on the back deck and once the baby had had enough, she had had enough. She’s been sick, and so my time was borrowed anyway. So i lucked out, overall!

Next step, drilling the rear fender for L-bracket mounting….

Note: these blurry pics are the result of quickly retaking them down in the bikeBasement after discovering all of my afternoon pics up on the deck, surrounded by flora and fauna and microbrew and BBQ, occurred sans SD CARD. Oh brother.

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Bike Build Process Log: Ye Blacke Death – Stop It!

wrongrobot — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 23:46:01 +0000

So the YBD project stalled a bit for a few weeks, not for lack of progress to be made, because I have several things underway. But when I saw I was going to have to go to a Plan B on a critical part, I shifted my focus to other non-bikery projects until the part arrived. I had been trying to utilize an old rear brake caliper from the Vista that became wrongBike(tm) int he spirit of reuse. I tried to flim-flam an internal retaining bolt inside the fork, but just like with those meddling kids, I couldn’t get away with it: My retainer wasn’t the right size, and the reach was untoward, and I had a fender AND another part to connect with the same brake bolt. I went to three LBS’ and had no luck sourcing a longer bolt or a different sized retainer. Eventually, I found this Dia Compe old school brake for about a third of what most places wanted for it, so you know that got my attention for more than one reason. Long reach, chrome, perfect. Funny part: I ordered a cable hangar but there was already one in the box, unadvertised. Good thing the one I ordered was on sale for 85% off, at $2.00. ha (seems a little high originally but why the face.)

I’m excited. I want to finish this build and get ridin with me Wee Z!

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Bike Build Process Log: Ye Blacke Death – Rings and Things

wrongrobot — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:36:09 +0000

In this brief installment of the Ye Blacke Death build logs, I messed with rings, and installed other things.

My challenge, as I showed Lung over the weekend, was that the bottom bracket spindle that I have on this build is too short. I COULD just get a longer spindle, but what fun is THAT. So I frankenbuilt the drivetrain. I spent a lot of time, too much time, playing with chainrings. I started by pulling the middle and small rings off of the crankset that came ont he old Vista that became wrongBike(tm) but this led to the discovery that the chainring bolts were too long, even with a huge amount of spacers. And, additionally, one was stripped and took some effort to get it out. Then I went after the Campy cranks I had in the shop, pulled the two rings off of those to get at the shorter bolts, to use on the Vista cranks… but once I did so, and installed the assembly on the frame, I discovered the short spindle. So, off came the ring for the third time, and the Campy crank was reassembled, with a single 53 chainring. This went on fine, but the corresponding non-drive crank arm hit the frame. Through experimentation, I found that the Vista’s crank arm didn’t, so now i have a Campy right side and a Vista (Suntour) left side. Done!

i sure know my way around quickly pulling chainrings, between the Miche cranks and now these.

This is the Bobike seat that’s going on the front of Ye Blacke Death, right above the back of the front rack. It’s a trick little system. I MAY get a windshield for it, but we’ll see how that pans out. I set out this past weekend, on a Daddy/Wee Z day, to get some installation done on the project, and my intention was to get fenders, rack and seat up on there. Each gave me problems but I saw what needed to be done to solve them. The seat clamps to the stem, necessitating that tall Nitoo Techntronic stem, but I need to get the rack on first. The rack wants to go on after fenders, of course, so that made fenders the next in line.

I was installing in the carport, as an experiment while the cat was away. I put wee Z in the pack and Tole, and she was good for about an hour, so that was actually pretty AWESOME. It’s not the first time I’ve wrenched with her hanging out: I’ve done a number of projects upstairs on the back desk with her in the sandbox. That requires bringing the stand, the bike parts and all the tools upstairs, which is kind of a pain, so I wanted to try the carport this time.

You can see I got the fenders out, there. These are from Woody’s Fenders. Amazing build quality, hand-crafted goodness. I subsequently got them on the bike. Not complete, though. The rear needs to have an L-bracket drilled into the wood, and the front has a bigger issue: seating a front brake securely on the fork, on which the fender also hangs. I need a longer bolt. So there’s that. But progress all the same. You can kind of see, from this shot, some of how it’s coming together. Lung saw it a little farther along and up close.

Getting closer!

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Bike Build Process Log: Ye Blacke Death – Rubber Side Down

wrongrobot — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:10:30 +0000

OK, I lied. I thought drivetrain would be next, and at the time of this writing I DO have stuff to post about that, but before I do, what I managed to finish yesterday were the wheels. My wee Z got her first bee sting and was high maintenance the rest of the weekend (crying, unhappy, swollen, etc) so I stayed low-key, doing household chores and hanging out with her. I brought the wheels upstairs from the bikeBasemtn(tm) and assembled them in the house while she battered my iPad.

These are Velocity A23 rims, laced to All City fixed/free. The hubs were chosen based on a darker metal finish, in keeping with the look of the build, and the free is on there in case I want to throw it on so wifebot(tm) can ride it. The tyres chosen are an old story made new again. These are Forte knobbies that were purchased and used on Fix-e 1.0 before I pulled them off on that rebuild and gave em to Lung, who had them in the shop for what, years now? I don’t remember if he mounted them, but when I was shopping for fatty, old-timey tread tyres, he remembered them and gave them back to me, in the Lung-Wrongrobot tradition of sharing our pieces parts. Allmost all modern tyres have sophisticated tread patterns, and I wanted something a little retro looking. I was looking at slicks but fat slicks are a rare breed. Anyway, these are absolutely perfect (except for the gross Forte branding, but one must check one’s snobbery sometimes)…

The original concept was to go for that oily black of iron, but after flirting with the idea of using Nightshade and a sealant, I decided it wasn’t likely to last on there. I didn’t want to be painting these parts, so I decided that they could just be what they are. The cranks are silver anyway. So the hubs are a dark anthracite to black color.

The knobbies are perfect! I’m going for that old-school utilitarian bike look, like one might find breezing through sunflower fields, with a front basket filled with cheese and wine and bike grease.

The A23 section is a short, trapezoidal shape. I wanted the rims to be decidedly NOT deep, and look very utilitarian. These came out even better than I expected, thanks to the handy craftsmanship of Joe at 718c.com.

It’s still hard to get a sense of what it will look like completed, with the seatpost and stem so far up and out of the frame, but you can at least see the knobbies in relation to the frame. It’s starting to come together.

Next up: drivetrain. Promise.

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Bike Build Process Log: Ye Blacke Death – Bars and Saddles

wrongrobot — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 02:05:55 +0000

Oh, the TEASE of this build. I keep trying to get down there and hammer it out, and something comes up. My time has been pretty scarce so I do what I can in little chunks. This is what I managed to accomplish in the last few sneaks down there: stem, bars, seatpost and saddle. Cumulatively 5 minutes of work, but really, three days. HA

The stem isn’t in very far. I’m waiting on this and the seatpost until the wheels are ready so I can size it. But it’s no illusion that the stem is long. It’s a rad Nitto longneck I got in order to support both the front rack and the stem-mounted baby seat. It’s definitely going to add to the old-timey look to this build, because it looks random and old.

I’m using a vintage B-17 Brooks saddle on this one. It’ll be easier with the front loading of the bike than my usual Swallows, and anyway, it’s old, which fits. Nice and soft.

Next up: drivetrain. I’ve already spent a few hours on it this weekend and have no photos to show for it. But there have been problems, and I think solutions…

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