Our man Raully Raul, my college roomie and one of my bestest pals, came to visit us this weekend. Raul is an active, crafty fellow: he climbs mountains, he climbs effing ICE, he surfs, etc and he works with his hands, from woodworking to photography. It all makes him a better architect, and an interesting guy, in my opinion. And he loves to try new things. So, on his arrival, I showed him and a few other friends the bikeBasement and my stable of excessive velocipedes. Later in the evening, he noted to me ‘hey, I’d love to try and ride one of your fixed-gears…’

Now, from someone else, that might have been the Akavit talking, but not Raul.
I was stoked. So, we made plans to check them out in the morning. The next day, I brought out wrongBike for him to try. I figured it was the most upright positioned build, with an easy posture, a light gearing, and was a good first try for fixie business. We headed down the hill and across the street to some flat area, went over the basics about fixed-gears: fixed drivetrain, no coasting, brake location, back pedaling, don’t lose concentration and try to stop pedaling, and so on. Soon, he was ready to go. And man, he took to it faster than I did by a MILE. Soon, we were up in the Scotts Valley side of MV, and off to the bike path. We took the bike path end to end a couple of times, and he grew stronger and more confident. We tried different pacing, so he could observe the relationship between pace and effort: too slow and it’s muscle work, too fast and it’s heart work, but 80rpm and it’s the perfect balance. Anyway, it was a colllle and windy day, so after awhile we headed back to the house. We saw a LOT of ALC training riders on the path as well, and I believe Cyclomania may have passed us or just missed us.

Once home, I gave him each of the other bikes in turn, so he could compare. Now that he had a sense of fixed riding in general, time to try different morphologies of the builds: different gearing, different bars, different ride positions. He liked the drops on Ghostal a lot, and got really jazzed by Crook.

In fact, he was the first person to ride Crook other than me, and thankfully, no deaths.

Anyway, I thought this was a GREAT spiritual mission for Fix-e. This was once my first single-speed and later fixed-gear and also my first build. Lung walked me through the entire bike. So the bike was decommissioned late last year when I gave Lung the wheels, and I had shelved it for a time, deciding what it wanted to be, now that I had more bikes to ride on a regular basis. But Raully Raul was now committed. He enjoys a car-free lifestyle in LA, living near the beach and walking or bussing everywhere. So he was pretty excited about getting a bike again for the first time in years. So, I thought, here’s Fix-e’s new home.

There were several things I loved about that night’s build:
- We got to work on it together, mirroring what Lung and I did on this same bike
- I was able to build a functional fixie entirely out of parts in the bikeBasement (a point of pride for lung and I both)
- Raul was stoked to do it, and man, he is crafty as I mentioned, so we were tearing apart the brake and effing with the wheels and so on like as if he’d been wrenching bikes for a year.

It was a great time!

Fix-e 3.0 consists of the original frame and cranks, which were still intact. In fact, that’s how we were able to assemble the bike in one late evening: the cranks and headset were still together and good to go. I used a Dimension arc bar, which Raul liked the position of, being a longer version of what he rode on wrongBike (though he may go old school drops eventually) and one of the Vista’s breaks I mean brakes, from before the wrongBike build, but with new modern rubber. We strung it to a chrome Odyssey lever, and this is perfect Raul right here: he solved Fix-e’s annoying cable hanger problem in like 3 seconds.

The cable hanger is OEM and has an open slot in the front so that the cable can be removed from the hanger, right, but it is designed for conventional 10-speed brakes and cable housing arrangement: with a BMX lever, the cable and it’s little cable stop still want to jump forward and out of the hanger if you really slam on the brake. This was a safety problem I struggled with throughout my riding this bike. I tried all sorts of things in the past: mangling a cable stop, adding a washer to the hanger, changing cable and brake lever positioning, etc. Raul? He proposed bending the shit out of the hanger at an upward angle. BOOOOOM. SOLVED. I was stupified. I never considered taking pliers to the damn thing.

I used my IRO wheelset from the rapidly bone-picked Villain build on Fix-e 3.0. Those are awesome wheels, and a large part of why this new build came out so well, I think. They’re smooth, clean and black. We used a 15t cog to compensate for the chainring’s relatively small size, trying to get close to wrongBike’s inchgear. The chain I had on hand JUST fit, but that was with the back axle just entering the dropouts, which are the old lateral kind that you enter from the BB side of the wheelstays. So I recommended he probably would want to get a longer chain and rechain it at home. I mean, I always like a fresh chain on a bike regardless.
Clip/platform spikey pedals (my ole AnkleBiters, in fact) and my trusty yellow seat that used to go with Toro, and the bike was ready to go. A final safety check, and we were done, at 12:03am. Not kidding.

Raul was excited.

Next day, we waited for the rain to break, and wifebot(tm), who was pretty into the new build and wanted to see Raul ride it, kept watching for optimum weather, which never really came. So in the afternoon, we headed out and Raul took his inaugural ride. Here you can see he represents the Team lope and TRDL brands, and enjoyed TLTC SAG support.

Raul FLEW up the street. Wifebot(tm) even exclaimed ‘whoa he’s flying up that hill!’
I think the foot was good and everything worked out. It was so awesome to see Raul, who 24 hours prior had never ridden a fixed gear, now was riding around on his OWN fixie. SOLID.

We took the wheels off, crammed it into the trunk of his rental car, and they were off to LA.
He’s already changed out the chain, and next step?
SURF BOARD rack.

3 gets you 6 he learns to skid stop before I do.
In fact, he may already know how by the time of this writing.

Welcome to the Team Lope family, dude!

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: Villain 3.0 – Strippery!
2. Bike Build Process Log: Rapscallion – Live Load Test Ride
3. Bike Build Process Log: Crook Type 3 Conversion

So today was my first real ride on the Ghostal, in between rainstorms here in the Bay Area. Admittedly, it was still quite wet out. I just got impatient. I mean, the bike’s going to get dirty anyway, and so why not just get goin…

WHAT A DREAM!

The ride in was a little low and steady, as it was newly minted and not yet finely calibrated. The seat was too low, so I raised it. The bars remain very low for me, particularly, uh, pizzafied as I have been post-Z… but I did some tweaks to seat position and felt it out a bit more and took a ride at lunch, and I really got comfy in a hurry. Man, it’s an aggressive riding position. It was on Fix-e too, with those bars, ut because that frame was too small, I never FELT it the right way. This is great. In fact, it wants you to get out of the saddle.

One thing I may explore is the brake pad situation. These are non-machined rims, so I used sticky red compound pads. And predictably it is staining the rim red. I was down with that! But IF I can clean the rims up (and I doubt it) I might try gray pads, just to see. They’d still stain it, but less so, at a compromise of brake effectiveness, already hampered by the rim and the shot lever. Speaking of shot lever. I reversed it and it actually feels better.

Yeah, this is a FUN ride.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: Ghostal – Make it Stop!
2. Team Lope Ride Report: The Napa Ride Weekend of Destiny 07
3. Ghostal: Lever Righted

One of the things I’ve long envied about Lung’s work situation has been that since he lives and works in San Francisco, he can bike commute pretty much every day if he wants. I used to be able to do this, some six years and change ago, when I worked downtown, and made the most of it, though back then, social occasions and other relationship-related stuff would happen after work here and there and I’d ride whatever other days that I could. Given the relatively short distance of that commute, I would sprint it and get the most out of it I could. After that, however, these recent years I’ve been commuting into Mill Valley from SF, which has been AWESOME. What a great way to get saddle time in throughout the week, riding through the city, the Presidio, over the bridge, and into Marin. Solid! Except, funny thing, attrition sets in. Stacking a full workday onto that ride meant that if I did it more than three days a week in the best case scenario, I’d be too exhausted to really enjoy it. As it was, the ride in would be great, the day would drag and I’d be tired from lack of sleep and whatever, and then sort of dread climbing out of Sausalito to get home. This commute was merely part of any usual weekend distance ride, but suddenly, when you have to do it just to drag your tired ass home in order to make dinner and such, it feels a little more like a chore on certain days. Particularly late summer when the wind and wet on the bridge and the climb to it were pretty brutal. But still, even though it could be a mixed-bag, it was still an awesome ride, and a great opportunity to get on the bike for two hours each ride day.

Then I moved to Mill Valley.

Suddenly my long ride opportunities disappeared. We have a baby at home, so i don’t have the luxury of before- or after-work climbs up Tam. I’m on duty all the time. So now my riding is limited to work commuting and the occasional lunch ride. I lost those miles, that saddle time, and the journey I loved. HOWEVER, loss and gain can go hand in hand. While I lost some ride time, what I gained was a return to the bike commuting schedule I used to have, where I can ride, like Lung, as many days of the week I want to, and this has been a boon. Where 6 years ago I had one bike and one bike only in my possession (the Bianchi Veloce dubbed Toro, was the ride at the time) now I have upwards of 7 of my own in various stages of rideability. So while I have been changing out bikes every few days on my longer commutes in months and years past, it’s always been a strategic decision: which bike to take? What’s the weather going to be like, what’s my cargo, how tired am I? I’m happy to say that over the last 18 months I got very comfortable riding even my big-gear fixed-gear on that commute. But I still had to think about it.

Now, I have a wonderful embarrassment of riches in the bikeBasement, as you may have seen in other posts: I have a series of hooks in a beam so that all the bikes can hang like, as Lung put it, a sweet bike wardrobe closet. So in the new digs, I go down there in the morning with the luxury of not knowing which bike I’m even going to take on any particular day. I’m using the same pedal system on each bike, so I can just drop down there in my shoes and pluck a bike off the rack and ride it, whatever strikes my fancy for the day. It’s great. As wee Z gets a little older and has a schedule that will allow me some longer rides, i’ll get the exercise back in, but in the meantime, at LEAST I get to start each day the right way: on two wheels!

Currently, only four bikes are rideable: wrongBike, Villain, roadLook and redBike. The fifth, Fix-e, is currently partially decommissioned as I sold Lung her wheels. Nothing’s more pathetic than a bike with no wheels. So that carcass hangs on a hook like that scene in Good Fellas with Jimmy Two-Time, waiting for another ressurection. The sixth, Ye Blacke Death, is way early in the project, and has a ways to go. The seventh, Ghostal, is very near road-ready, just waiting for a few final hours in the bikeBasement to finish up the wheels.

Good stuff!

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: Villain- Commuting and Tweaks
2. u.s. news & world report, uh, reports on bike commuting!
3. Bike Build Process Log: Ghostal – Stoppers and Starters

I’ve snuck into the bikeBasement to work on the Ghostal project a few more times since last update. Most of the work down there has been archeological. I’ve gotten t the point where I have MOST of the bike shop guts laid out on a series of surfaces, enough so that the items that were still missing were apparent. It was clear that there was a box of missing bikery, buried somewhere in the boxes compressed for storage. Either that, or the box went on a walkabout. So I had to dig in there and find out which it would be. For this, I needed to wait until I had some time during the day, so as not to disturb any sleeping wee Z’s above. And I had that opportunity after a meeting last week, and dug away. As it turns out, I had TWO missing boxes of bikery: one had my panniers, hydropacks and one of the missing parts for the Ghostal project; the other, the box I was thinking of, with bars, seatposts, and assorted small gifts, including the remainder of the missing Ghostal parts. Success!

Update 001: Bars. I finally had the opportunity to get the bars sorted. I needed to wait for the proper grips on this, because the original set had hollow ends and the more I thought about it, the less I wanted this. I originally WANTED the exposed ends because I like to put blinkies on drop bar bar-ends. But in this instance, the concept overrode the safety factor (ssh)… I just didn’t want black blinkie tips on this bike. I looked for chrome silver, no luck. I penciled out a homebrew version, then decided it would suck to pull them out to turn them on and so on, and here we are. So, I got Kierin type solid grips and went to work putting them on. On the first go-round with these bars, on Fix-e’s last makeover, I had a hell of a time, because I tried to do this without the lube method. Strong arming these things doesn’t really bring pleasure to your tendons. So this time, i used the methods I ultimately used on Fix-e, but right out of the gate. I was unprepared for how easy it was this time. Couple of squirts of Windex on the bars, and zipppppp , the grips went right on. My last pair were very tight and I loosened them up with a hot water soak prior. But these were just right. The white grips on chrome bars? Yes, it’s very aesthetically pleasing.

Update 002: Make it Stop! The majority of the work done since last time involve the stopping system, hence the post title. Brake, Lever, Pedals (backpedaling) and connective tissues. Were I a wicked skid-stopper, I could have thrown tyres into this category, ha. That’s Lung’s department. Anyway, I like using salmon brake pads from Kool Stop. Actually, I really like the combo salmon and black pads I use on the Villain, as they are a great compromise between sticky for wet and durability for normal road conditions. But I planned on all salmon this time because I’m running non-machined sidewalls and I wanted extra sticky. As it turns out, this ended up being another source of delay. The brake caliper I ultimately chose to use is a Tiagra from Shimano, and it employs an integrated brake shoe and connection bolt to the pad itself, vs all my other brakes which use a shoe and a pad insert. So I had to source new shoes, and pads for them. I got these, slapped it up, flipped it, and rubbed it down, and here we are: salmon pads in new shoes, ready to go.

I also finally got to put my brake lever on one of the missing items from that lost box) and spent this morning, actually, working on the brake cabling. That should be a no-brainer, but there’s something a little different this time around. It’s intended to be a fun surprise, so I’m not going to discuss it further, yet, but it involves specialized hardware. And it’s not as cool as you no-doubt imagine. But cool all the same. And for my particular needs, VERY cool.

Update 003: Propah Seatpost: I had used a temp seatpost so far, just to see how the sweet, sweet honey Brooks Swallow would look, being one of the only color items on the build (yes, it looks Sweet As) which was the old post from Fix-e. Rusty, banged-up, with old bolt-pinned seatclamp, weighing 33 pounds. I finally received my proper post just before the weekend, which is aluminum and has the nice allen bolt seat attachment. Solid! Out with the old, in with the new. JoBlue will no doubt be disappointed at the seat angle.

Update 004: Finally, I recovered the OTHER missing items from the lost box, my Shimano halfsies A530 pedals, which I threw on with a spot of grease. And for the first time, I didn’t spend valuable minutes threading them backwards and being annoyed about it.

So, we’re down to tyres, rims and drivetrain, which, if all goes well, will be the final step. Ihave everything I need, and the only thing stopping me from completion is that one of the rims got jacked up in shipping and I ave to dremel and sand the clincher a bit so as to avoid the flats!

One last note: guess who was effing lurking in my Ghostal parts bin. THATS RIGHT!

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: Ghostal – Stoppers and Starters
2. Bike Build Process Log: Ghostal – Front Endery
3. Bike Build Process Log: Ghostal by the Horns

After I fiddle-faddled with the headset cups with one Lung, I didn’t get to touch the bike for a few days. We had made enough progress in the bikeBasement that I could maneuver and get the bikes in and out, and that meant repairing each of them, as nearly all my bikes fell out of commission during the move. The road Look flatted out for the 33rd time and I promised myself I wouldn’t change the tyre again without replacing the Gatorskins. The Villain suffered a mysterious and increasingly dangerous bottom bracket creep, pulling the chainring into the frame. WrongBike had a rear tyre flat, and I decommissioned Fix-e in preparation for Ghostal. All that remained functional in the days after the move was ole trusty RedBike (the Wobbly Goblin) and I rode it a number of days until we sorted the basement out properly.

Anyway, the really annoying thing about it is that after I managed to perform the necessary service work on those other bikes and return to Ghostal, I could only make incremental progress each night. I’d sneak in there either briefly after work but before wifeBot got home, or after she and wee Z had retired. But each time? I’d get a little ways in but have to stop because either a part was still missing, a tool was still missing or I’d run out of time and have to walk away for the night. This half-unpacked business is stymiying. More on that later.

My next task after the headset cups was the bottom bracket. This was a sealed cartridge Sugno BB, 107mm, and I lubed and threaded on these cups and mounted it straight away. I mounted the drive crank and then discovered… you guessed it… missing parts: the crank bolts. The Sugino BB is apparently either one that does NOT ship with bolts, or this one was missing them. ReGARTless, I like to swap out for hex bolts, but I thought I could at least mount the cranks with the stock bolts while I looked for the cool ones. At any rate, no bolts of any kind, so I stopped that task.

Next up was the seat and post. I’m using the broken in honey Brooks Swallow from the road Look because I didn’t feel like forking out for yet another Brooks until I pay down some of the move-related debt. Of the three seatposts I had around (and two more that are still packed somewhere) none were the required size, save the one from Fix-e, so I used that for now, while waiting for the new one to arrive that i got for a song online. It gave me a nice taste of what the bike will look like, the saddle being one of the only color elements on the bike.

The rest of that week was dedicated to sorting out the remaining missing items from inventory. I had gone through every inch of this project in my mind, making sure I had everything I needed before starting. However, with things missing in the move, and a few small items unaccounted for, I needed to re-plan the project and see what needed finding and what needed replacing. Interestingly, while sorting through the part bins I HAVE unpacked, I found enough spare parts to make Lung quite proud. I could almost build another bike, and probably build Fix-e back up anew. So, I ordered a few more items, made a hit list of things to find, and closed the project down until the following week, as the weekends are packed with post-move business…

Onward!

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: Ghostal – Make it Stop!
2. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Effing Crank Bolts!
3. Bike Build Process Log: Ghostal – Front Endery

Today was a HUGE day int he evolution of the wrongBike(tm).

It went from looking like bike parts… to looking like a bike.

I started by utilizing the new allen head 5/16" bolt and nut I got at the hardware store as a replacement stem clamp bolt, and it worked. I finally got the bars on, and could really see how these crazy arcs look on the bike. Granted, we won’t know how they RIDE just yet, but they look AWESOME.

I was still unable to get the cog off the Eno hub, and the front fork problem remained, and my seatpost issue was not resolved, so I spent a little time working on some of this other stuff. I mounted the brake calipers in front, for example. I mounted the front brake lever, and the bell (went with the silver) and also prepared my brake cable and housing for install, though I didn’t finalize it until the wheel would be on there. I should mention, on all clamping parts, I’m including a swatch of rubber cut to fit, as a gasket, which I think is a nice touch.

At this point, the inability to proceed was killing me. I wanted to use the car for my next exploratory mission, because I didn’t have a ton of time to work today and I needed flexibility to make multiple stops. Fortunately, wifebot(tm) got back from the gym, so I hopped in and went to Performance to solve the first issue: the cog. He had quite a bit of trouble with it too. He said, at one point, something that chilled my blood: "is this green stuff LocTite on here?"
I almost croaked. MAN. I hadn’t considered that. I thought the green was old lube of some sort. Eventually though, by switching to a different chain wrench, he popped it off. His first wrench was the same as mine, the Park one, and it wasn’t quite working. The second was longer. So, success! Off to Philz for sustenance and coffee, and home to proceed.

This is where I discovered a missing link, nearly literally: I mentioned before, possibly, that my rear eno hub was going to require stretching the chainstays to fit, too, and that troubled me a bit. It was the same with Fix-e back in the day. Anyway, I figured I’d deal when the time came, much like the front. So I set out to put the new 18-tooth cog on the Eno hub, now that the old cog was loosened. It turned out to be a 15 by the way, so that would have been a beast had I attempted to use it. Anyway, I was mildly annoyed that this silver hub had a black lockring, since I went out of my way to get a silver cog. I checked my other eno hub on the wall, and it had a silver lockring. Aha! So I decided to cannabalize that one for this bike. I pulled it down, pulled the lockring, and then installed it on the wrongBike(tm) hub. Gold!

Funny thing, though. While I was holding the other hub, I noticed that the spacing of the wrench seats was asymmetrical, whereas on the wrongBike(tm) hub it’s symmetrical. These are the flat sort of ledges that make the Eno work: you install the wheel, then use a wrench to turn these shelves, which pivot the wheel farther back, allowing you to get dynamic adjustment despite the vertical drops. It’s a brilliant invention for frames like this one. Anyway, hm. SO I decided to caliper them both. Sure enough, the other Eno was a narrower dim, shorter on the non drive side. Question marks haloing my head became exclamation points! So I seated THIS rim as a test fit, and the hub fit perfectly. WHOA. So I quickly switched cogs to this other hub, stripped the tyre off and mounted it here, and in the fastest tyre change of my life to date, I had the other hub installed in minutes, ready to go. Sure it’s got a dark rim technically violating my no black rule… but then again, it was already violated by brake housings, so eff it I say! SUCCESS.

Boom boom boom, like clockwork, the new chain was broken to fit, smart link in place, pivoted the hub into taut chain position, and locked down. Suddenly, I had a complete drivetrain for the first time!

SO STOKED.

Next up, called around the local shops that actually carry track parts, and actually struck gold: American Cyclery, which replaced Freewheel as the shop of choice thanks to superior staff attitude, had a single chrome seatpost in 26.6mm which I theorize will work on my approximately 27mm seat tube. AWESOME. Since I had to go back there to get a replacement brake pad, I was happy about this convergence of errandry.

Last task: what to do about this front form problem. I muscled it for a while now that I could use the bike’s weight and gravity a bit for leverage, but to no avail. There’s NO way I could stretch theme myself, and still doubt that I could get it stretched feasibly with three dudes, due to reach and grip limitations. What I really wanted was some sort of spreader contraption. I had inquired at the bike shops to blank stares. So, I decided to fiddle faddle with parts on hand, as Lung likes to do.

Here we have a vice, with a crank arm as a block. It obviously didn’t work, as it just compresses the left fork blade, but I was working out the physics of the leverage needed. It was clear it needed to be spread from within. Additionally, it would have to be stretched over time so that when you removed the spreader, it wouldn’t just snap back to the old position. In theory. So I went over to Ace up the street, and described my conceived spreader contraption, involving threaded rod, washers and bolts and a makesshift winder handle. The first person was dumbfounded and passed me to the ‘problem solver’. He listened patiently, then exclaimed: "what you need is a REVERSE CLAMP!"… why yes, my friend, that’s what I’m conceiving of… and lo, he HAD them. DUDE. I picked up two types to be safe: a wood block type for woodworking, and a pipe clamp.

3.3 minutes with the wood reverse clamp and I had the forks wider than they need to be. YEEE! So I left them spread overnight, and we’ll see what’s what in the AM.

But man, it’s looking like a bike.

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Effing Forks, Seatposts!
2. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Whither the Rattlecan?
3. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Small Gifts and Large

today’s update: more wrongRoom(tm) wrongery!

So last night, I snuck out to the wrongRoom(tm) to do some more fiddle-faddling with the bike, now that I was able to get some assists with some of the issues that stalled me yesterday. I had taken the frame to a buddy’s bike shop in Mill Valley, and they let me use their sweet, expensive headset cup press. I imagine that this thing is probably overkill for old timey bike projects, where the threaded rod/bolt DIY press Lung uses would work just fine. I’m sure it’s so massive because it’s designed for modern bikes and all sorts of other applications. Who knows. All I know is, those cups went on like BUTTEH. Also, I showed them my wrongForks(tm) and the wheel and how they are so off, and more on that later. Lastly, since my lockring wrench for the cog is just ever so slightly too large, I can’t get great purchase on the tooth that holds the wrench on, and I was having no luck, and many near-knucklesmash moments theother night trying to get my cog off the Eno hub. I used these guys’ wrench, and it was just the ticket. Lockring off!

So last night, progress! First, I successfully (I think, barring further evidence or critical structural failure) installed my headset and fork. I test fitted it all together greaseless first, and then committed with some Phil’s grease to seal the deal. I was having some doubts, because of some vague illustrations in my Zinn book, and even more perplexing inconsistencies in other online discussions about same, about the direction of the bearings. On the one hand, common sense (?) and instinct, and memory, such as that’s worth anyway, tole me that the bearings had to go against the cups themselves, which exist AS bearing surfaces. However, my illustration was iffy, and further, there’s discussion in my book how certain years and manufacturers actually invert that, and make bearings go to the outside, rather than aiming at the cups, and how it’s easy to get it wrong, and trash the retainers. You know it’s wrong if it doesn’t turn well. Well, what’s ‘well?’ I proceeded wth bearings oriented as I figured they should, and as Lung confirmed via text, but man, I still had the doubts, because I could hear and feel just a hint of binding in the turning of the fork in the completed assembly. If I eased back on the locking cup just a hair from hand tight, it runs smooth. If I hand tight, it binds… again, just a hair… like, quit room, hand on it, you perceive a touch of vibration. So, to be safe, I pulled it apart and gave the bearing retainers more lube. I fear I under-lube things, frankly.

Once that was done, I flipped the frame over and installed the stem. It looks amazing completed, along with my fly little brake cable worrier thing with the rubber tipped thumb lever. My headset wrenches didn’t fit these headset nuts, but I bought that wrench to be used as a bottom bracket wrench anyway. I just used pliers. So, by about 1030pm, i got the front of the bike completeds. Rejoice to R’yleh!

Next up, handlebar, just for kicks! I wanted to see these arc bars in action. However, I discovered, to my chagrin, that while I had my stem clamp bolt, the nut had disappeared in all my crap. I looked everywhere. And I have a ton of nuts that should be the right size, but are a hair too tight. Ultimately, I was unable to find a suitable nut, so I had to give up on this install, while waiting to replace the nut at the hardware store today. Dammit, tole!

You can see the completed stem and headset install, along with that lever, above…

So I moved on to the pedals, and installed these sweet shell-shaped platforms from Shimano. They look GREAT, if a little high tech for this bike. But I like em. You can see a blurry, non-useful close-up here:

I next proceeded to attempt to remove my 16-tooth black cog from the fixed side of my eno hub, in order to put on my fly silver 18-tooth cog. However, that sucker will not budge. Much near-death action ensued as I worked with my chain tool over and over and over. Will not budge, I say. So I think I need some assistance on this too, as it is binding. I’m hoping a shop vice will assist. Dammit, tole!

Lastly, i examined further my hub/form problem. Lung measured the old wheel that came from this bike, and it had a flange to flange dim of:

vistawheel…
81mm, bearings to bearings
97mm, inside forkblade to inside forkblade, WHEEL MOUNTED

My forks measure 65mm blade to blade, so with some stretch, maybe that makes sense. But the problem I’ve had is that my new wheel, which, mind you, was on Fix-e before it was pulled off to make room for those deep dish rims, comes nowhere CLOSE to fitting in these forks. We’ve been working under the assumption that something must have caused these forks to get narrower, in some process we couldn’t logically parse, OR it was just a major stretch to get a wheel on. It’s always a bit of work to get them on these old bike forks, being generally mutilated over time as they are. But I didn’t remember it being a huge issue.

Well, I measured my Dura-Ace hub this morning.

116mm! WTF!

So now I’m looking into if, unlike every bike person I’ve talked to, they DID in fact move to a wider hub width in the modern period. I’m not sure we can safely get 65mm spread forks to reach 116mm without damaging them. Dammit, tole!

Lastly, I thought, this morning, what the hells, I’ll put the seatpost on! Easy cheezy! But no, not in the wrongRoom(tm). This post, which was purchased because it was a) chrome, hard to find, and 2) vintage in size, and d) was labeled 27.2mm (seems perfect, right) DOES NOT FIT. At all. I checked, again with the handy calipers. My seat tube hole inside diameter is approximately 30-31mm. The seatpost here, it’s outside diameter is about 33mm. WTF! I looked online for the 3,333th time, and all these posts are listed at 26mm, 27mm range, but so was mine! Something doesn’t jive.

So, we’ll just have to see about that.

But overall, huge progress. Forward!~

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Effing Forks, Trois!
2. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Effing Crank Bolts!
3. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Forks, Part Deux, Dammit

So, I’ve been struggling with tyres.
Lung has heard some of this, in fact more than he probably ever cares to again, but yes, you paint a bike Nuclear Trigger Orange, and you get tyre issues. What tyres to use?!?

For those keeping score, I started with a set of nice, savvy gumwalls with a subtle red stripe. That was when I pictured this bike to be very funky utilitarian with body-color racks and such. Then, when I decided to go with a lean fixie style, I started rethinking how I would approach the tyres as they relate to the bike. I started thinking about how much surface area the tyre has int he overall bike’s composition, and whether some tyres could make the frame punch, and others not. Also, with the use of silver chrome wheels with shallow rims, instead of flyer deep rims or black rims or what have you.

Anyway, I have done the experiments. Mocked, as I was, by wifebot(tm) who found me in the wrongRoom(tm) doing mock-ups, I have created a study. In tryptich, of course. Looking at these images, I ask you: which does your eye enjoy? I know the chrome is missing here, and know that the bike is three finishes: orange/yellow paint, chrome, and warm brown leather.

Option 1: the burnt orange tyre: This was an idea I got from sole old archived bike forum posts talking about color matches. I noted that users of this particular tyre noted that it looks weird and burnt by itself, but narrow, on a rim, against paint, it gets vibrant. And knowing that the tyres will dirty up as they get used, I thought this might cause the frame to punch in a cool way.

Option 2: whitewall stripe: There are thicker, largely white whitewalls out there as well, but I’m using the thin line whitewall that I use on Fix-e for this study. I think the white can bring out the chrome and silver, potentially.

Option 3: the gumwall: these are the original tyres, which looked one way when envisioned ona utility bike, and look another way when held against the naked frame. The red stripe is subtle, but you can see it.

Let it be known!
I have a gut feeling, but I won’t influence your review….

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Whither the Rattlecan?
2. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Melon Like a Felon
3. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Successes Approach

So, when Lung works on a bike project, he assembles as he goes, to see the evidence of his fohhhwahd progress, and to stoke his enthusiasms (and to test proofs of concept on some of his schemes) but on this bike, I’m attempting to NOT assemble until everything is ready. It’s hard. I was in there last night, and I wanted to assemble. It even said to me: "Do assemble!" but I didn’t.

So, instead, I have to be satisfied with laying out newly arrived parts next to previously acquired parts, and staring at them, like a child might stare under the Xmas tree, or similar.

Here’s the most recent stuff. We’ve got the frame, which is getting more of the sexytime everytime I look at it. We have the Toshi leather tape, which is an alternative to the Brooks tape I’ve used on previous projects, having a different texture and a slightly nuttier color.
We have my new Sugino cranks, with crank bolts, my seat post, my bottle cage mounts, the pedals, brakes.

The Sugino cranks came yesterday. They really are gorgeous, a significant step up in quality from the generics I have on Fix-e. I was pleased to discover it shipped with ALLEN crank bolts. How about that! You can see the color of the tape in this pic, and it’s a little warmer than the Brooks honey.

Nothing too exciting. Those pedals have been previously discussed, in their illery, as have the levers, still bagged in case they don’t fit the bars. The seat post is a nice clean aluminum, and those weird angles comprise the bottle cage holder system that hangs off the seat post. It’s similar to the dual cage tri bottle holder I gave Lung previous (which I could not use, as it was black. No black!) except it’s a little more compact and you can mount your own cages.

Here’s me drawer of delights. Most of the parts are tucked gingerly in there, and back in the drawer system that hangs off the wrongRoom(tm) wall. You can see my brake calipers in there too.

What’s left:
-seat, ordered and two to three weeks out.
-bars, back ordered to 8 August
-bottle cages
-rear brake cable and housing
-replacement brake pads
-tyres

soooo close.

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Successes Approach
2. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Whither the Rattlecan?
3. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Effing Forks, Seatposts!

Another big project report! A day fraught with failures and successes, decisions and redecisions. I’m the decider. And overall, VERY satisfying, even if i’m currently left with some challenges

The frame was bead blasted for me by a buddy near my work, so all my violent scrapery marks were smoothed out and the thing looked gorgeous, all steel except for the brazing scars.

The mission for the day was to get the frame primered. To do this, I needed to strip the forks, which I forgot last week when I was doing all that Jascoing and frame stripping and the like. So I was in for another round of that business before I could get to the actual painting.

The day started with some morning fixie noodling and coffee and [brand-aware] donuts with the one Lung, who had the occasion to visit the wrongRoom(tm) to inspect progress and analyze my wall-hung goods and services. We rode to Performance and picked up some pieces parts, which, for me included a number of tools I technically needed when I took the bike apart, and certainly preferred to have to put it back together properly, such as a bottom bracket pin spanner, a headset wrench (which will double as a bottom bracket wrench) and what else… oh yes, brake cabling and tubery in triplicate. On the way back, I stopped off and got the brush-on form of Jasco, for extra powah, and some brushes, WD-40, and the like.

I decided to do the fork strippery upstairs on my loft’s deck, so as to minimize the potential negative impact on my garage neighbors who are sensitive to chemicals. But who isn’t. So I set up the Jasco station on the left side of the deck, and misc. small gifts management station on the right side, separated by a metal french cafe table we have out there. I endeavored to not spray toxins into the house, kill the plants, leave residue on the deck for cat deaths, and so on. So it was a methodical process once again, as I tried to keep poison off anything except for the forks. The brush on Jasco is EXCELLENT. Never again with the spray. The bottom third of the fork paint bubbled up and wiped off after 15 minutes of setting time, and the top two thirds, and the fork tube part, all came off with some steel brushery and three more brush on applications of Jasco. This is amazing, how different from last week’s spray and grind and scrape and poison party.

In between applications of Jasco, during these 15 – 30 minute settings, I switched to the other station, and worked on my small gifts, which were coated with gunk and grease from the bike’s previous life in Texas. This involved liberal use of WD-40 and an old sock (the Lung technique not just on bike projects, either!) and I have to say, I was reminded again how small gifts management is the most satisfying part of the whole process… these rusty, dusty, gunky parts become shiny, gorgeous, as new chromey bits in no time. I ended up making a pool of WD-40 on a paper bag, so I could dip the bearing rings and similar parts in, shake em around a bit to get the oil up in there, and then hand clean from there. The results were gorgeous. I was on cloud nine! So much so, that after my rigorous cleaning of my bottom bracket cup, it slipped right out of my hand and launched… over the edge of the deck, into the bowels of the gardens below. Scheisse!

Back to the frame, because I wasn’t going to let the probable loss of half of my bottom bracket slow my progresses! I washed down the fork (with water, not paint thinner this time) and took it down to the garage to get to business. I rigged a hanging system for the frame with a broom handle clamped to the bike stand, at a 45 degree angle, from which to hang the frame from the bottom bracket hole. Nice technical term there, I know. Anyway, I got out there and of course, by now, in the afternoon, it’s blowing like stink. I shot a good amount of primer, a reasonable amount… and then then gusts picked the frame up with this unearthly howl through the tubes like a wrongHorn and it shifted around. I managed to keep it from striking the stand, but it rode up the broom handle and I overshot and glommed a bit of paint here and there, which will require more sanding. Just finishing the primering on the frame and the fork, I was primering my own self from the wind gusts. It was pretty wasteful, but I wanted to get the job done. At the end of this process, I had a nicely primered frame and fork (coat one) and I was good to go, letting it sit for an hour before being touchable.

While I waited for it to touch-cure, I took care of some other tasks in the wrongRoom(tm) including replacing the other tire and tube on the red bike, and mounting tires and tubes on this project bike’s wheels. Cleaned up, etc. It was a fine afternoon.

:::

Considerations: As I told Lung earlier, my vision for this bike simplified a lot in the last few days, as I slowly came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to minic the utilitarian approach of the inspiration bike that I have been fetishinzing for so long. Now that I have an upright coaster (the red bike) I realize that this one wants to be that sort of ride. The fixed gear project wants to be light, fast, and simple, and the more I work on it, the simpler I want it. While racks and stuff may be used on it from time to time, since it will be the only fixed gear at the house after I transition fix-e to work, I want it to be able to be my sprightly dasher when i need it to. In fact, it may end up BEING the Sprightly Dasher. We just don’t know, yet. But what we do know, is less is more. I have moved away from using the moustache bars on this one, opting instead for arc bars with wrapped ends only, with BMX levers up at the center. But the exciting thing is that i have the remaining parts picked out and ready to go, and I have almost everything I need already. Next order is cranks, pedals, another brake cable, brake levers and the bar. I also may change out these tires, despite having just put them on. I may want all red tires. We have to see what looks best against the finished frame.

However, here’s the kicker. I’ve put a LOT of work into this one. Unlike Fix-e, this one’s all me, except for the bead blasting. It’s even more of a labor of love than the last one. So as I’m spraying into the wind, and being slammed around by my sensitive neighbors about smells of chemicals and such… I’m starting to wonder if I’m actually going to paint the frame myself. I have the color picked out, etc but if I get it powder coated by a body shop, with a nice luscious top coat, i’ll have a finish that doesn’t flake off any time I scratch it, unlike Fix-e. I’m starting to think about having it done so it has staying powah. We’ll see.

But I’m SO stoked to see all the pieces coming together. Between the primered frame and the shiny serviced small gifts, and the wheels assembled, I see the bike coming together. I’m close to doing my assembly extrusion photo!

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Effing Forks, Seatposts!
2. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Stoppers and Polishings
3. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Successes Approach

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