Dig these photos of a BLK MRKT NSF as shot by Nick Brandreth.
This was the model for what almost became Ghostal, before Ghostal stayed white and became Ghostal in the first place, let alone the future Rapscallion, which will actually be a lot closer to this then you’d think, in the end. But what a gorgeous build.

http://blackmarketbikes.blogspot.com/20 … ersey.html

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So, if you’ve been following along, I made a baby and cargo carrier out of an old Mixte frame, and called it Ye Blacke Death. The combination of fixie riding and a small frame was hurting the knees every time I took the Wee Z out, so i decided to do something somewhat sensible and move to a more traditional frame in my size. Thus, YBD was retired and Rapscallion was born.

Over the weekend, I completed initial assembly of the Rapscallion prototype, using an Origin 8 El Pasado frame that was once Ghostal, much of the YBD pieces parts, and a Sugino Messenger crankset and bottom bracket. I found, along the way, that the fork clearance, using the beefy 35c tyres, didn’t allow for the fenders, so i moved the fenders over to Wrongbike’s rebuild, and proceeded. I was able to fit the Gamoh front rack on there, and eventually took it out for a test ride. One significant problem unsolved: the brake. The centerpulls I was working so hard to retain were conflicting too severely with the mounting assembly of the front rack’s center tange. On YBD, the layout was such that i could squeeze that tange up IN there, under the transverse cable of the brake, stringing the brake cable above it. But on Rapscallion the stack is compressed but the stem is long, so it didn’t work out. I pulled the centerpulls and added a side pull… I thought, you know what, self? It’s less old timey now so who cares. And so, wrongbike gets MORE old timey, and Rapscallion less. Frankly, with the modern track frame at it’s core, it makes sense.

Heres Rapscallion during the dead load test ride. I was cautious, not having a functional brake. See, the side-pull brake I put on there was short reach, so it didnt clear the brake calipers… I could have waited, put a longer reach brake on it, but I wanted to work with what I had. Those big tyres were juuuuuuust barely clearing both fore and aft, so I thought I’d try something new next. The important part was the fit was better, the ride much smoother (modern steel, even entry level, is so much smoother than 40-year old cheap stuff) and I managed to squeeze that crazy baby seat up onto a threadless steerer. The big questions were answered. Now, time to finesse it.

Here’s the bike on the second dead load test. I replaced the knobby in front with a trusty Soma Everwear (I always have one on hand, it seems) and dropping down to 23c from 35c? Huge difference, not only in clearance but friction, as you can imagine. Since I don’t do much off-roading for fear of losing my precious cargo, I didn’t mind the loss. I loved the look of those knobbies on YBD, but on the track frame it looked uncomfortably too FGFS for my tastes.
I restrung the brake a bit (more on this to come as I test a new theory later) and took it up the hill. By Jove, I could accelerate, climb (a bit) and stop! Yay! Note the deer in the background, judging the lack of new paint.

On the 4th of July, we went into San Anselmo for a little Q and Giants action, equally apportioned before and after pool time. I brought Rapscallion in order to do my first Live Load test.

One nice thing about the frame change, the bike easily fits in the bike rack now without special padding, as the fenders are off and the tyres are smaller.

In order to prepare for the test, we needed to properly affix the first sticker to Wee Z’s new helmet. My bebe upgraded to a larger size. Oh time flies. Of course, it was a Team Lope sticker.

The Live Load test: We were ready for action, despite me leaving both my SHOES and the little foot strap thingies for her seat, back at the house. Sleepy Hollow is pretty mellow so I was willing to risk destroying my arches. By the cried of ‘bike-sickle!!!!’ Zoe was good to go with the revised design just fine, though she seemed incredulous that I hadn’t mounted the bell yet.

It went well. Smooth ride, lighter than the last build, and easier to move around too, since I changed chainrings. I was using a road bike chainring on YBD and had fitted a fat 20 tooth cog in back. Now, I was using a 46 tooth chainring, so I went down from 70.7 to 61.4. It’s now by far my smallest inchgear fixie, but let me tole you what: carry a 25 pound kid AND groceries in front of you? The loading is hard to push around, so I’m down.

We rode all the way up to my wifebot’s old school, San Domenico, and back, stopping to admire an old timey car that sparked my daughter’s interest. Overall, a great test ride and a fun way to spend the holiday.

Thoughts:

-no getting around it, baby seat and cargo rack in front, even without cargo, is a heavy load for a fixed gear. At some point she’s going to get too heavy and I’ll have to transition to a rear rack.

-the new frame geometry helped my knees quite a bit. Not PERFECT mind you but much better. The frame is sized for me at least. The problem remains that you are riding very upright which messes up your triangle of powah. It’s a weird feeling, even on my old townie bike Redcoat. Anyway, I may experiment with changing to bars that, while still clearing the baby seat, are a little less upright and far back from the stem. I think I can get a little bit better riding posture that way.

-I’m striking the underside of the seat just a hair. Not enough to be a problem for ME thus far, but Wee Z snuck her hand back there and got it pinched between the seat and my massively powerful thigh, so I need to experiment there. I’m playing around with ways to get the seat even higher. Will advise.

All in all, a ton of successes, and very close to calling it a done deal and proceeding with repaint. More as it happens…

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1. Bike Build Process Log- Rapscallion: Minding the Gap
2. Bike Build Process Log- Rapscallion: Get On Up
3. Bike Build Process Log- Rapscallion: The Hanging

Rest in piece

So I’ve been remiss in reporting on this, but I’ve been doing major surgery to Ye Blacke Death, my funky baby porter slash cargo bike. It was a great build, comprised of an old Mixte frame powdercoated matte black, with lots of old and new stock, a frankendrivetrain, custom chunky wheels by Joe’s shop, 718c in Brooklyn, custom handmade wood fenders, a front portage rack, and a Bobike stem-mounted baby seat. The only problem: the same thing that plagued the original owner of this frame, it’s a little too small. So, add to that the upright riding position for a baby carrier, and the fixed gear drivetrain? My knees were feeling it. I can’t afford that, not just for those rides, but all my other riding. So, I was forced to retire Ye Blacke Death.

RIP Ye Blacke Death. Long live Rapscallion*!

So the new project involves converting a modern track frame into my new baby carrier. I had an Origin8 El Pasado available, which was once Ghostal’s frame. I initially wanted to use it as a test model just to see if I could make the angles work (the bobike baby seat requires a tall stem in order to give you knee clearance, so the riding position is important, the size of the frame, the stem height, etc) and discovered, at least it seems so anyway, that I could make it work, with a seat adapter and some other changes. So, based on that initial test, I decided to continue with the Ghostal frame, build a rideable prototype, and if THAT stands the test of a field expedition, then I could get it repainted and boom.

So today’s report id all about the gap. Specifically fork clearance.

Here’s an example of the great fork clearance of older ten speed frames designed to use centerpull caliper brakes. Spacious! I didn’t even KNOW how good I had it. This is a shot of Wrongbike’s fork but if you look at that pic of Ye Blacke Death up top, you’ll see that I shoehorned a fender, a portage rack, centerpulls AND 38c knobby tyres. There’s a whole thread on that tangle elsewhere. Suffice to say, I’m glad I tested the wheels on the new frame because…

Yep. That’s a tight gap. The El Pasado frame was and is awesome for many reasons, not the least of which being the very versatility that allows for this project, so unusual in an entry level track bike frame. Not only does it have all the braze-ons and eyelets for racks and such, but the fork is wide enough to accommodate big commuter tyres. However, check that gap: it’s like 2mm-3mm. So, this means a change in vision: I had planned to bring everything over from YBD onto this build, but those fenders aren’t happening. That’s OK though, because Wrongbike’s rebuild (and eventually a new name will be required) is veering more old timey than it has been in recent years, and it will take those fenders just fine.

So, basically at this point Wrongbike, Ye Blacke Death and Ghostal are all blown apart and Ye Olde Shoppe looks like a bomb hit it. For now!

*As you may have noticed, I name my bike builds after old-timey villains. Villain, Crook, Redcoat, Carpetbagger, etc. The name Rapscallion is a good one for my baby carrier: evil in one definition, but playfully mischievous in another. Appropriate for a toddler delivery system. Of course, my wifebot certainly never appreciated the baby bike being called Ye Blacke Death. Heh.

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: Rapscallion – Live Load Test Ride
2. Bike Build Process Log- Rapscallion: The Hanging
3. Bike Build Process Log: Ye Blacke Death – More Prep Work

Many components of the Carpetbagger coupler project are reclaimed from other projects. It’s half the fun. This shot is of some of the small parts that were pulled from other bikes, cleaned with liberal amounts of WD-40, and ready for reuse. I have acquired three or four degreaser/cleaners for bike parts over the years, but you know what, for me, it’s all about spraying the hell out of it with WD-40 and buffing it out.

The bottom bracket spindle, plastic cowl, bearings and cups are from a Sugino 75 bottom bracket I got from Magnus from his ALC09 Mash build. The cog, chain, masterlink and crank bolts all came from Ghostal. There were a number of other parts being cleaned in a second round, for wrongbike’s rebuild but this was just for Carpetbagger. The rest were either new parts, or didn’t require a chemical bath.

It’s one of my favorite parts of a build, cleaning old stuff, especially parts right off of an old rustbucket. Which is interesting, since I generally dislike my hands being caked on with grime, grease or clay. But I find it very relaxing. I’ve learned to do it in very specific, controlled environments these days, though. I lost a bottom bracket cup on the first wrongbike build when it launched off of my loft deck into the hinterlands below, and I lost a few small items through the deck slats out back of my current place when working on one of the Crook builds. Now I’m slowly learning to protect the work area, ha. Dolt!

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1. Bike Build Process Log- Carpetbagger: Dinged and Spindled
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I recently pulled Ghostal apart, after offering up it’s last rites. I really loved this bike, but in the interest of streamlining the Hangar and making room for other projects, this was the bike I selected to be disassembled.

I had initially hoped to sell it built-up, but the reality is that even when you work from a budget frame as this Origin 8 was, if you use new, reasonably good components, you’re not going to be able to recoup that investment on a cold sale. People spending a good amount of money on a fixie want it either to be custom built to their specs, or super cheap, or incredibly rare. I can dig it. I don’t want to buy complete bikes, and unlike 718c’s haunts, we aren’t as fluch with freshly-minted-hipsters looking for fixed-gears ready made out here in Marin. Anyway…

I didn’t put a ton of miles in on this bike, but really the only wear and tear was the front rim, which shows the streaking from the brake pads on the painted, non-machined rims, which will have to be cleaned off before sale.

Man I still love this collage of skulls used to cover up all the Origin 8 graphics that were dodgily located UNDER the clearcoat. Custom design!

And now, the frame and a few other parts are ready to be sold off. Sort of looks kidnapped…

Anyway, most of the components migrated to the new build, so overall, it was a good recycling. But I’m still nostalgic for the Ghostal as a ride. Steel, solid, supple even. It was just smooth. I really enjoyed it.

Pour your sip out!

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In the previous few weeks, prior to re-injuring my back, I had an opportunity to cycle through, so to speak, my bikes one after another each day on my work commute, and was struck by the choices in current gearing. For one thing, Ghostal’s was higher than I often remember, at 76. Wrongbike’s is pretty low, but I kind of remembered that and frankly, I ride that bike slower anyway. But when I returned to Crook, I realized that the gearing changes I made for ALC really paid off. This bike started at 81 inchgear, then 78 (+/-) and then settled on 72. 72 inchgear is perfect for it. I spin fast, I have acceleration, and it’s really nimble and suits the stiffness of the frame.

Anyway, it’s fun to have different bikes with different gearing, but when you ride one more frequently than the others, you kind of forget how different those little changes really are on the road.

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Wifebot: Hey, what are you doing?
Self: I’m decommissioning Ghostal.
Wifebot: Why! I love that bike!
Self: Well, it’s redundant and I can use some of the parts for Carpetbagger.
Wifebot: Don’t take it apart. I love how it looks… all… white.
Self: Oh. I would have thought you’d want it to go away, considering, you know…
Wifebot: Know what?
Self: You know, uh, the ghost bike.
Wifebot: Ghost bike.
Self: Someone crashes and dies on the bike, they paint the bike white and chain it at the scene in effigy.
Wifebot: —
Wifebot: SELL IT.

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Forthwith, I present the next project.
WrongBike is dead, long live WrongBike!

What we’re calling Operation: Carpetbagger was supposed to begin with a strip-down of wrongbike. A bittersweet process, to be sure, but I was prepared. I had my mental and emotional fortitudes.

Yep, the fork was still effed up. Thats after a year of constant riding, and it hadn’t stretched a millimeter. I was prepared to retire it. For the Carpetbagger project, I’d need easy wheel removal.

Somewhat surprisingly, it wasn’t getting the front wheel off that was the hardest, but rather the seatpost. If you saw how much work it took to get this thing IN there in the first place (Thatswhatshe….) anyway, lots of lube and it was out.

Here we are, wheels stripped, one crank off, working on the rest of the drivetrain…

And the deed was done.

I was bit twice that day: once by wrongBike’s resentful chainring, and once by Villain’s derailleur, just sort of hovering around the fight, and holding me while wB delivers liver blows… metaphorically.

Finally, I present the only TRUE Ghostal in the stable.

Next up, reincarnation!
But wait! Here’s an update: I’ve come to subsequently find that wrongBike’s old frame (A Vista, go read the original bike build notes) is of soft metal and cheap lugging… on the advice of our expert framebuilder, I’ve desided to abort the plan to make wrongBike INTO Carpetbagger. One upside is that I get to build up a fresh frame for that project. The other is that I get to keep wrongBike and it’s glorious nuclear yellow/orange cheddar color for more sweet, sweet ridery!

So, in the end, what we have here is a probably much needed overhaul and maintenance check on wrongBike before reassembly. HA! Stay tuned…

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1. Bike Build Process Log: Wrongbike – Portage
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3. Bike Build Process Log- Wrongbike: Forked

As I regard my future third Cinelli MASH frame build and how I might change things up, I’ve been toying with the idea of using an aero lever on it, something I’ve only done with Fix-e (on Nitto stache bars) and Ghostal (on long bulls)… I thought to myself: ‘Self, I’ve never seen that done to a Cinelli X MASH…’And then of course, a day later, here comes one from the motherland:

http://mashsf.tumblr.com/post/3014750082/trainer

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Well, this morning I rode in. I said to myself, ‘self, give Ghostal a swan song final voyage!’
And so I did.

However, the combination of the slightly better braking (aero brake lever plus new black pads) and the startling reminder of how smooth and steady and SILENT a new-parts steel fixie is compared to either the rattle of my aluminum Cinelli or the squeak of my steel conversions, combined with tons of nostalgia and misplaced attachment to the build made me struggle with the concept of this weekend’s planned dismantling.

Now I think I *may* keep it in one piece, either until the new frame ships in a few months or until the rains are done and the used frame market wakes up. I dunno. If it braked well it’d be a no-brainer but even with the black brake compound it’s still an unmachined rim and makes more noise than stoppies.

But what a smooooooth ride. If only I remembered the fender.
Or golashes, ha.

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