Wrongbike, my old Vista road bike conversion, was supposed to be the seed of Carpetbagger originally. For years I would scour the framebuilder list on the Sandsmachine website, talking to guys here and there about having couplers put on Wrongbike, meeting frustrating walls or lack of interest, or frankly, steep price estimates. When Lung got inspired to build a coupler, I took another look and lucked out on finding Tom at 4130, who turned out to be a savvy and honest craftsman, who in turn informed both of us that our frames of choice were ill suited for the project: Lung’s was awkwardly formed, and mine was old and soft. So, we got new frames, and built the coupler bikes around those. This freed each of us up to resume bike projects with the frames of the bikes we stripped in the first place. This is the first report on the new Wrongbike.

The Walnut Portage Strap is something i picked up from an Etsy seller and architect about 18 months ago, with no real project in mind. I mean, it was originally envisioned to go on an old timey build that would be my baby carrier, but since I used a Mixte frame there, that was out.

Next up was Carpetbagger. However, I sussed out a really obvious problem with that once I was assembling the travel bike: the strap is designed long enough that it reaches beyond the coupler point, thereby making coupling impossible, or rather, decoupling. I had thought the coupler could slide right out from under it but the lacing is too tight.

Thusly, Wrongbike became the recipient. This dovetailed nicely with a few other tweaks to this project that push it away from contemporary fixie ride set-up and make it a little funkier. There’s already plenty of warm leather on this bike, so the Portage Strap works perfectly.

I have to say, it was much harder to lace up than the elkhide bar wraps I’ve been doing. It’s much thicker, tougher leather. The waxed thread was stiffer. The inflexibility of the leather made threading difficult, and pushing the needle through made my thumbs pretty raw over those hours. But dammit, I got it done. And t’s GREAT.

What’s a Portage Strap? It allows you to carry the bike over your shoulder comfortably. And, in Wrongbike’s case, it also covers one of the cable boss braze-ons that always jabbed me in the whose-it. So awesome.

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – One Less Brake
2. Bike Build Process Log: Wrongbike – Strip!
3. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – The Wet

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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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: Wrongbike – Portage
2. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Build Completion Day
3. Bike Build Process Log- Wrongbike: Forked

So, when I rose the bars on Wrongbike(tm) in order to have a more comfortable climbing position in Calistoga (lung’s excellent idea, and it stuck) one drawback was that I now have a ‘tankslap’ problem: the bars no longer strike the little loop of bar tape on the top tube, so the fork spins in the headset and the calipers strike the downtube, causing a divot in the paint there, to metal. You’d think this would never happen, but I seem to often be pushing the bike out the door ahead of me, and the front end shimmy-shams and whack!

So, anyway, I tole Lung I’d be doing this, and lest it fall into the Lost Island vortex of projects suspended when my daughter arrives, I I thought I’d do it, like, right away. So, i did. And it’s sweet!

See that downtube wrap?

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Bars, Cuts, Wraps!
2. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Effing Forks, Seatposts!
3. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – One Less Brake

Wrongbike(tm) continues to be my favorite bike in the stable. Until it isn’t. But it currently is.

I’ve been out of commission for a little while. After our Calistoga 09 trip, I really got little chance to get on two wheels that didn’t involve SUV dodges in my dodgy MINI. My wifebot(tm) is very pregnant (well, I guess pregnancy is a binary matter, but she’s very 9 months worth of pregnant) and has various appointments due to circumstances, several days a week, so I’ve been driving to help her get there and such, then having meetings on days I didn’t have that task, and then, randomly, hyperextended my diaphragm and was fairly limited in my mobility until literally a few days ago. So, as you can imagine, I’ve been hot to ride, and hot to ride wrongbike(tm).

The first possible day was two days ago. I was still in a lot of pain, and was gingerly stretching and seemed to be able to handle it, so despite the rain, I had to head out, even just around town, since wrongbike(tm) currently lives at work here in Marin. I waited until the rain reduced to a drizzle, and headed out.

Even in the wet, I loved it. It was tenuously slippery, and my balance was weak from my effed up torso, but I noodled around, then picked up a salad at a place around the corner. A guy came out, about 50 or so, and was obsessing over the bike, leaning up against the shop window, so we talked for awhile about it. Then I rolled back to the office, and have taken it out thrice since, though only short rides.

The pedals are these smooth platforms you’ve seen in the photos, which are perfect because you can clip on one side, but have a steady platform for pedaling in normal shoes, or in Habanaras in my case more frequently here. The riser position of the bars feels nice and mellow, and it’s just a dream bike.

Now, to tear it down and start over! [nah]

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – One Less Brake
2. Bike Build Process Log: Wrongbike – Strip!
3. Bike Build Process Log: Wrongbike – Portage

As I mentioned to Lung earlier this week, I got to ride wrongBike(tm) on both days this past weekend, on city jaunts. It’s really refreshing switching between bikes in the stable, when you have both bikes and a stable. Especially when they are different enough to notice. It used to be that I would switch off between fixie and road bike and be stymied by the differences each time (in a good way) but now it’s even just between fixies themselves. I’ve been riding Villain, and it’s road geometry and big gear, for the last several weeks, so hopping back on this bike was a trip. I do ride a similarly geared fixed gear at work during the day, but only for short hops to get coffee or lunch or whatever. This weekend, I got to tool around on this guy for several miles, and it was AWESOME. It’s always nice when you can do your errands by bike, especially downtown. No parking issues (other than general bike thief dodgery), noodling through the throngs of tourists and shoppers, and just enjoying the otherwise annoying experience. For guys like Lung who ride a bike exclusively, they know no other way, but I’m always bound to the MINI, either because I’m taking wifebot(tm) around, or hauling crap from here to there. Any chance to do it by bike, I take it! And of course, this time next year, I hope to be hauling both groceries AND babies in a cargo bike.

Anyway, good stuff. The shorter bars and easier gearing made it feel absolutely acrobatic compared to the Villain.

:::

Also, update:

WrongBike(tm) now sans rear brake. It was an interesting experiment, and I got used to having both in operation, but I still tended to only use the front most cases, and decided to abort. Amazing how dumping the rear calipers makes the whole bike look different.

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: Villain- Yes Brake
2. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Whither the Rattlecan?
3. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Bars, Cuts, Wraps!

So, I did the inevitable this morning: I butchered me bars!
It was great.

I love bike mod projects because even when things are perfect, they can still be tweaked for change.

I’ve been running this bike with full length arc bars and no grips, because I liked the way it looked. I corked the ends of the bars and that was it. However, wide bars meant wide bike, and I noted it in traffic (as did Lung) and no grips meant painful grabbies, even with gloves. And when it’s cold? It’s collllllllllle!

So after laying in bed last night thinking about fVillain and the plans for that, I also started thinking to myself: self, I think it’s time to commit to those shorter bars.

Thanks to my handy pipe cutter and a cuppa joe, i’m now 3" shorter on each side. This translates to a bit more than my shoulder width. Plus or minus. It feels GREAT. In so much as riding 3 feet in a wrongRoom(tm) during torrential rain fan feel, anyway.

So, along with the cut-down, I decided to make use of my sweet, sweet Toshi tape from Japan. I bought this for the original wrongBike(tm) build-up but fell in love with bare bars instead. So what I’ve done is tightly wrap the ends just enough for one palm width, like shorty grips. I left the bar ends clean, because I like the look, and recorked them (though I have to take a file to the edges later, as the cutter made some sharp lines.) It actually looks pretty great, and more importantly, FEELS amazing. It’s kind of a different ride to me now, but I embrace it.

Right down to new bar band-aid, since the bars touch the top rube at a different place now.

Yay, change!

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: Villain- Ergo Post, Bars and Coggery
2. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – One Less Brake
3. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Build Completion Day

I didn’t get a chance to post before I left, but the day before I packed for Montreal was one of my fairly infrequent ECSTATIC evenings… I don’t mean I’m not generally enthused… but I am kind of an even keel guy, so I have highs and lows but generally feel just…good… so this night was one where I was tingly and felt GREAT.

We finished wrongbike(tm)!

Lung came by the worngRoom(tm) and after picking up a refreshing beverage, we set to work to complete this project. Well, complete meaning make it ridable, as these things always undergo mutation over the use of the bike. But this was the big night. First, we tackled the troublesome front fork. Between the two of us, and largely Lung’s enthusiastic dead pulls, we got the forks around the front wheel, and set it in place. At this point, the bike was, for the first time, technically ridable. From there, we strung the front brake first, and then I took it out for a spin.

I should mention, I haven’t actually strung a brake before, so this was a cool lesson in making all the adjustments and getting it right. I didn’t have everything necessary for the rear brake yet, so we took the bikes out for a spin and a trip to Performance and such, got a few more tidbits. Then we strung the rear brake, and technically, the bike was done!

The rest of it was just little details… culminating in me locating the right location to add something to protect the frame from bar slap…a strip of leather tape did the trick.

I can’t tell you how jazzed I was about this project. I love, love, love, LOVE it!

I haven’t had an opportunity to photograph it properly, but we’ll be certainly heading out for a photo shoot with our new rides soon…

:::

So yesterday, we went out, upon my return from Canada, on our first Saturday noodle after me completing the bike. It started out with adjustments needed: the seatpost was STILL too high, the chain binding a bit, and that rear brake dangerously sticky. But after another visit to American Cyclery, I got a harder set of rear brake pads, and a seatpost 2mm thinner in diameter, and we headed out to Golden Gate Park for some field work. After some tweaks, the bike rode PERFECTLY. It was joyous. I loved it.

My latest adjustment: since I am currently enjoying the bars bare, I needed to cap the ends to keep moisture out… some shaved wine corkery commenced!

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – One Less Brake
2. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Successes Approach
3. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Small Gifts and Large

The clamp experiment didn’t work with or wothout the crank arm, because what it needs it the back end of the clamp on the inner face of the fork, not the outer. The way the clamp is now, it just compresses the left fork mount. Damit!

I do believe the deoth of the wrench mount on those ENOs is designed as a spacer. The wheel is specifically designed for vertical drop bikes, which had cassettes, and long BBs on the drive side. The difference in sizes of those mounts between wheels must have to do with the relative size of the original drive train. Als I know is, it makes me very pleased to have had those two redundant wheels in the wrongRoomt(tm)!

:::

Fini-day reporteds:

So today’s objectives were threefold:
a) attack with the new seatpost (26.6mm)
2) test the stretched fork for successes
d) RIDE

Right off the back, more wrongRoom(tm) typical complications. I got the seat post in about a cm beyond the bottom of the seat tube ‘split’ and stopped. I was having a ton of resistance, and as I consulted the seat tube, I saw filaments of aluminum coming out. The seat post was ever so slightly too large. Dammit, tole! So I went to get groceries, and pondered. Some research on Jensen determined that they make posts at 26.0, 26.2, 26.4mm so WTF… So, I was figuring at this point I’d just order all of them. That’s how this bot rolls. Especially given that they are $14 on Jensen, and the same seatpost was purchased yesterday at American for $38. Hm. But with that plan in motion, I considered: I own that post now. And I got a good amount in there, say 70 cm… and it ain’t moving. So if only I had a pipe cutter. My man Lung has a grrrlfriend day on Sundays, so I didn’t want to make a pipe cutter borrowing run… and no hardware stores ever seem to be open on Sundays, so it would have to wait… and sure enough, around the corner from the gas station I was at comes a homie with a toilet seat in plastic, beaming at his purchase. Tole! So I darted around the corner and sure enough, Divis hardware was open! I grabbed a pipe cutter AND a 1/2" pipe (the missing component to the pipe-based spreader alternate I got) and returned to the wrongRoom(tm) for the experiment.

As you can see, I’ve significantly shortened my seat post. But I’m happy to report: successes!

SICK! I proclaimed.

Fueled by this success and Arcade Fire, I proceeded to further experiment with my forks. Yes, they were an overnight failure. Not one mm of stretch in them. Granted, maybe this wasn’t long enough. But impatient, I spent about an hour using two screwdrivers as levers and thrashed around trying to get the wheel on. No success. So next, I tried the pipe spreader, figuring maybe if I could get the fork mounts wide with that, then I could slip the wood spreaders in higher, and spread there too. However, the pipe spreader was an epic fail. Not enough good purchase, generally, and when I did get it just right, the strength of the steel exceeded the strength of the tension rings that hold the non threaded side of the pipe spreader on the pipe. So meh. I put the wood spreaders back on, and left for the day.

At this point, if I can get the damn things spread enough to muscle a wheel in in a few days, I’ll be stoked, though it still bodes not well for front flats. However, we’ll see what we’ll see. I have them in tension now, and then I’ll spread em a little more tomorrow before work, and then a little more tomorrow night, and then tuesday, perhaps I’ll bring it over to Chez Wireless-Access-and-wet-bar-and-flat-screen-hazing-Ghetto and see if a little ironwrong action can get the wheel on there!

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Related posts:

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

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

So, I was researching hubs. I mean, either there was an old standard that predates my hub, or the forks are deformed, right? Two options. The Japanese weren’t going to make a custom hub size. They copied as much as possible from the Schwinn and euro bikes and improved what needed improving, where economical. No reason.

I couldn’t find ANYTHING that suggested the size changed. Further, I can hardly find dimensions like that about the hubs in the first place. Further evidence that it is standardized.

So I finally had a nice thorough talk with Logan at Performance, who was very knowledgeable. I believe he’s the guy that replaced Arturro. Anyway, he said they never changed standards after the 50s. The rear wheels, sure. Not the fronts. He went and measured three different hubs in the shop, and nary a modern change either. He DID however, educate me further on the powdercoating process. There IS heat involved. Last step after electrical bonding is sitting in a 500 degree oven for a few hours. AHA. So the proposed shop deformation of the forks Lung posited seems to be the most likely culprit. They perhaps had the forks clamped at the ends while sitting in the oven, and the heat allowed them to narrow, if the clamps were at the outside edges of the fork blades. It’s not worth hassling those guys, because I love the paint job, the price and turnaround were right, and hell, what are they going to do, replace them? NAH. We proceed!

So, he also told me that the powdercoating won’t crack. The frame will deform before the powdercoat fails. So, I think i’m going to just wait until the back end is done (sugar DVD!) and then try to mount the curb, I mean the wheel, with the leverages, using the muscle of others to help. One grabs one blade, the other another, and the third holds it in place and mounts. I think we can get 35mm out of it between two guys. And if it doesn’t work? i’ll get another old fork, and have THAT powder coated to match, and continue.

FORWARD!

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Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Effing Forks, Seatposts!
2. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Effing Forks, Trois!
3. Bike Build Process Log- Wrongbike: Forked

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