Friday, March 2, 2018

Moving on from a Mixte

I have discovered something about myself and Mixtes.  When I'm building one for someone, like a sister in law, or niece or daughter, I enjoy the process.  When I am building one on spec, not so much.





I found the above Mixte at bike works in September of 2015, it was $32.50, it was all there, the paint and decals were in good shape, sold.  I really disliked the bars for some reason,  too much rise I think, and I quickly replaced them with a Wald bar with 2.5 inch rise.  I had picked up a set of grips at the sale as the ones on the bike had seen better days and the new ones were a buck.


I wasn't wise in the ways of rubber grips then and I don't think I prepped them very well and they only ended up going on about half way.  For some reason I let that defeat me, the bike got put aside, then put outside where it languished for at least a year.  It was on a covered porch but it still allowed the new bars to start to get some surface rust - bad Ryan!!


Last fall as unemployment wore on I brought the bike back in, thinking I could fix it fast and sell it, that was in October.  I saw it everyday from my favorite chair for months and I finally got fed up and in the stand it went.


I was too broke to list it for what I paid and too apathetic about it to do a complete tear down, so I made a list, poured an IPA, put on some John Lee Hooker and got to work.


Since grips had sidelined this project I thought I would tackle them first,  I got the grips from bike works off the bars and set them aside.  I'm still mad at them and didn't want to jinx the project by reusing them.  I had some rubber grips, still new in packaging that I think I had got for a 3 speed, which I decided to use instead.  I have learned since the 2015 fiasco that dish soap is your friend for mounting rubber grips.  It makes things slick but eventually evaporates. I coated the inside of the grip and lightly coated the bar and got them started...


And then I reached for the "persuader" to finish the job.




Grip problem solved!


At one point, early on I think, I removed an important part of the rack and the equally important hardware and instead of putting them in a baggie and taping them to the rack I put them down...somewhere.  I do not remember where and they are nowhere to be found, so I just removed the rack.  It was going to bug me anyway because they designed this bike with such a short seat tube that this particular rack was never going to be level.  I hate slanty racks.  



The bike also came with fenders but both front and back were rubbing on the tires and since fixing fender lines can take 20 minutes or 20 hours, I chose to just remove them.


The tires that came with the Mixte, as is often the case with vintage bikes, were dry rotted.  Normally I would go with some nice gum-wall tires but I didn't want to spend a penny more than necessary on this project, so I went with the Specialized Tri-Sports that I took off the Passage.  



I also used the saddle that came with the Passage as both it and the tires are basically new.


I really though I could get the Mixte up and running with out a penny out of pocket but it turns out I needed two mountain bike style brake cables (round end) and I only had one.



I have a whole box of cables and I had probably 5 or 6 road bike brake cables but only one with a mountain bike end.  Sigh..... off to the bike shop.


Dang, I forgot I can't go to the shop a mile away, it closed!  (sad trombone) I liked that place and the owner so I'm sorry they didn't last.  I ended up going to Bike Works and got the cable for $2.00, probably would have been cheaper on Amazon but I wanted it NOW and I like supporting Bike Works.


And so the Mixte is done.  It wasn't a complete tear down rehab, I didn't touch the bearings,  and the price and description will reflect that, but it is a functional bike.  And yes I know that a brown saddle and black grips is a fashion disaster but I don't care! I want it gone!!!

I ended up doing the following:

  • Wipe down frame and fork with armor all wipes
  • Sanded brake shoes
  • New grips
  • Newish tires and tubes (under 25 miles)
  • New saddle
  • New brake cables and housing
  • New RD cable and housing
  • Adjusted shifting 
  • Adjusted brakes
  • Gave the chain and FW a WD 40 spray and wipe down and lubed the chain.
  • Greased seat post and stem
It would be on CL right now except that I am heading out of town in the morning and I don't want to be the guy who lists something and then isn't around to show it.  My trip out of town is somewhat impulsive and involves a bike...(cue maniacal laughter).  More to come.






EDIT (3/38/18) after languishing on CL with the brown saddle for a few weeks I broke down and swapped to a sprung black one I had in the parts bin.  Will see if that and lowering the price from its already reasonable amount will shift it.




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