Campus bike project part II: Progress and road blocks (1978 Schwinn Traveler III)

Last weekend I started on cleaning the brakes for this project which had some rusty bits and I thought I would try Oxalic acid.

Oxalic acid bath

It wasn't warm enough outside, only about 50 degrees F, and I wasn't able to soak them for more than a couple hours but I gave it a shot anyway.

It wasn't perfect but I did see enough improvement in my abortive attempt to want to try again when its warmer and I can do a proper soak.  It was fine for this project as I don't want things too shiny.

The barrel adjusters were still frozen even after the acid bath so I soaked them in some liquid wrench and then went to True Value to get a small adjustable wrench as the nuts on the adjuster bolt were smaller than 9mm which was my smallest open end wrench.  I have sockets and box end wrenches that are smaller than 9mm but I needed an open end.

Using pliers as a vice and my new tiny wrench I did get the adjusting nut freed up so that the barrel adjusters are once again fully functional.

And that meant I could reassemble the brakes, I did make the mistake of taking both brakes apart at the same time when I should have really left one intact to use as a template, but I was able to get everything back together.

I used my headset cup remover to get the crusty headset cups out of the frame.

And then they got a long soak in the sonic cleaner to loosen and soften the decades old grease.

Which made them easy to clean up.

I didn't bother to remove the lower crown race but I did get it cleaned up in place.

To keep this bike ugly and therefore unappealing to campus bike thieves I am leaving the paint scratched, and scraped and rust spotted, however there were a few major rust spots I wanted to deal with.  I treated them with naval jelly and then after the frame dried I rubbed in some 3 in 1 oil, later I will either wax those frame sections or use some clear nail polish to slow down the rust returning.  In addition to naval jelly the bb shell also got a brass wire brush dremel session and then got a thin coat of grease.

I did a quick check of the wheels in the truing stand and then put the "new" rubber on and in doing so discovered that the front rim was a somewhat rare 27" rim drilled for a presta valve.  I could have drilled it out to accomdodate a schrader valve but I had a presta tube and it really goes with the mismatched theme of this bike, the wheels, tires and now tubes are all mismatched.  The tires are Boontrager and Specialized, the hubs are Shimano and generic, the rims are alloy and steel and the tubes are presta and schrader.

My work on the frame, headset cups and bb shell meant that by end of day Saturday I had the headset back together and the cartridge bb installed.  You may notice the bb pictured is different than the one  I showed last week, its what I always intended to use on this project since it is used but I couldn't find it last week!  Rummaging for other things in the parts bin turned it up so the new one will be saved for some other project, I also find using the half inch socket driver gives nice leverage when installing the bb cups.

It was all going well yesterday until I got around to dry fitting the stem.  I know about French bikes having an odd headtube size and stem (22.0) but it had slipped my mind that a majority of 70's Schwinns used an American standard of .833 inches for their stems or 21.15 in metric which is why my 22.2 stem wasn't going anywhere.  It wasn't a total loss as the handle bars I want to use were too small for that 22.2 stem without a shim, which I don.t have, but will work perfectly with the 25.4 opening (1 inch) on a standard .833 stem.  I made a mental note to visit bike works on Sunday as I didn't want to pay $16 to have a new stem shipped on Amazon for this low budget project.

Since bike works doesn't open until eleven, I went about my day before driving over...and found them closed!  I stood dumbfounded for a moment as it clearly says they have hours on Sunday and its 1 pm, and then I noticed the poster at the top of the door and recalled getting an email that they had an event today and realized I should have put 2 and 2 together earlier and saved myself a trip.  I consoled myself at the nearby Columbia City bakery with a blondie and a macaroon.  Next week I will come back for a stem and try to avoid the temptation of the warehouse and all the potential project bikes that lurk there.

The weekend wasn't a total loss, the derailleurs, brakes and cranks are mounted, I have a wheelset ready to mount and when I get the right stem I can unblock this project.

There is even a seat post and saddle secured to this frame.  Hopefully there will be more to come next week, until then Ride.Smile.Repeat.

Campus bike Project (1978 Schwinn Traveler III)

I could have called this J*nk bike II, but based on the way it ended last time, I didn't want to jinx things.

You may have noted a few days ago in my shots of the great porch clean up that one bike and one wheel-set remained.  The 1978 Schwinn Traveler III was close to joining the trip to the scrap yard, but I thought that I had enough parts to make a working bicycle and that I could achieve multiple goals in one project; reduce my clutter, make a usable bike without spending any money, and put some $$ in my pocket.  This bike piqued my interest last May and I thought I would give it a shot.

The Traveler in now in the work-stand and the first thing I noticed is that the seat post, even though is has a LeTour mark, didn't seem to fit quite right, close but not really a great fit.

So I tried the sprung saddle with seat post from the 1974 Nishiki Professional and it fit like a charm.

My philosophy for this project boils down to three things; ugly, functional and cheap.  I think ugly will take care of itself especially if I resist the urge to clean and wax the frame, ugly is a theft deterrent, which is key for a campus bike. 

For the functional part I knew I was going to need to check the bearings, when I was working on the Mirage hubs I also checked the hubs on the spare wheel-set, and I made sure they weren't dried out, I did add some additional grease but they should be fine.  The headset though, is gonna need some work, as you can see from the photos above.

This frame has rear brake cable guides and half a rear derailleur guide on the chain stay but no shift cable guides on the down tube.  Parts bin to the rescue!  it yielded Huret and Shimano bolt on cable guides to solve that problem.

I have the wheels and rubber taken care of, its a mishmash but it should be functional, one tire is specialized and one is Boontrager, the front wheel is Shimano and I'm not sure about the rear one but they should get the job done.  Since I am using "previously owned" tubes I have pumped them up to be sure they hold air before I mount them.

The cockpit shapes up like the photo above.  I already talked about the saddle and seat post, the handlebars and grips were part of the 1980 Raleigh Rapide mixte purchase from bike works.  If I hadn't sold the three sets of SunTour stem shifters in the parts bin on ebay last month, I would have set this up for stem shifters but I had a bunch of plastic thumb shifters in the parts bin so that is what I am going to use.  I should admit that when I went to buy a MTB brake cable to finish the Mixte project I bought two additional cables with this project in mind so I have actually spent $4 so far, not sure where the city levers came from.

For the drive train the crank, rat trap pedals, and the SunTour U, RD all came from the 1983 Raleigh Record of Junk Bike fame.  The 110mm bb is a modern sealed bearing unit that was in the parts bin as were the second RD, FD and plastic pedals.  I hope to get a working drive train this collection.

The Side pull brakes also came from the junk bike.  With a bit of clean up and sanding the Kool Stop brake pads should be usable but the barrel adjuster are very rusty so  I am planning to use them to test oxalic acid for dealing with rust.

For extras I have a Pletscher rack and a clamp on water bottle cage which both came from the 1980 Raleigh Rapide Mixte.

I didn't use the rack on the Mixte project in part because I had misplaced both a key bracket and the nuts and bolts.  I have since stumbled across the bracket which I taped to the rack so I wouldn't lose it again.  I was also able to come up with enough hardware (lower left bottom picture above) that I should be able to mount this rack.  I like to think that both my father, and grandfather, a carpenter, would be glad I had a collection of  random nuts, bolts and washers, however they might be wondering how a guy in his fifties only has two small tins worth.

The plan is to assemble all these parts into a ugly but functional bike, sell it for $50 on Craiglist and hope it ends up cruising someplace like the University of Washington -pictured above.

Until next time; Ride, Recycle, Smile, Repeat.

And then there were three

Ok that isn't actually true yet but it's the goal, get down to three bikes in the whole apartment;

• The 2009 Handsome Devil
• The 1987 Nishiki Cresta GT
• The 1978 Motobecane Grand Touring

Those three will keep me plenty busy as the last two both need the complete overhaul/spa treatment, and even the HD needs new bar tape and a few tweaks.

The pictures above are from June of 2017 and chronicle the height of the bike zaniness,  it can be tough to see it all but there are; two complete mountain bikes, two complete road bikes and five frames, as well as various wheel-sets occupying my humble balcony.

The pictures above reflect how things look today, just a bit of a change.  What happened to all the stuff you ask?

• The 1978 Schwinn Traveler and one wheel set remain in the on deck circle- a project in waiting
• The 1980 Raleigh Rapide is completed and listed on CL for sale
• The Green 1973 Motobecane Mirage is in the work stand and is close (fingers crossed) to being done and will be sold on CL.
• The Yellow Motobecane Mirage frameset was sold along with a few french parts and a wheel-set.
• The 1960 something,Torpado Alpha Frameset and all its parts were sold as a project and I threw in a bunch of new consumables; tires, tubes, cotter pins, cables, etc.
• The 1984 Nishiki Cascade was sold with new tires as a project.
• The 1986 Miyata Trail runner was sold - the guy traveled 50 miles just to get the stock wheel-set.
• The wheelset from the 1974 Nishiki Professional with the sanshin high flange hubs got moved inside and if I am dumb enough to buy a frame only project down the road they will be ready.

The last two residents of the balcony along with some wheels and rims and various metal bits went to the scrap yard (sad trombone).

• The 1983 Raleigh Record (Junk Bike) had a trashed seat tube
• The 1974 Nishiki Professional had many issues and was more than I wanted to tackle

I did harvest many parts from both of the bikes above some of which have been sold on and some of which may appear again soon in a future project.  For the Nishiki Professional as an example, I kept the wheel-set, and the seat post and saddle, while the stem, shifters, and derailleurs got sold. The Sugino bottom bracket and crankset I may also clean up and sell.  I should have never bought that bike but I think I at least broke even.

Some of these projects have been lingering for 5 years and it was cathartic to clear them out.  It also didn't hurt to put some $$ in my pocket.  I still have two projects I want to complete before tacking the Nishiki Cresta GT,  and after that I have the long overdue MotoGT to give a well deserved overhaul, so I am far from out of the woods.  After I get through all that I hope to take more of a one at a time approach to my rehab projects.  We'll see how that works out... lol. 

in the workstand

Until next time. Ride.Smile.Don't hoard.Repeat.

Palate cleansing, more scrap and a dilemma

mess o cables & housing

As you may have noticed I have been posting allot lately, being in job search mode means that I have more time on my hands than usual and between that and the bad taste I had in my mouth from the failed Junk bike experiment I went on a bit of a cleaning jag.  My cable and housing have been a bit scattered for a while and when I got it all together - the mess above - I was a bit shocked at just how much I had! I tend to keep the leftovers.

I had this idea that if I had a tube, like what posters get shipped in, I could contain all the housing and my local art & frame shop had an old one they were willing to give me.  I had a few housing lengths that were so long that even in the tube they were flopping around so those got coiled and zip tied.  And the brake and shift cables got sorted and separated.

And finally its all cleaned up, contained and stowed away.  I don't think I am buying any complete cable and housing sets for a while.

My dining room area is essentially my "shop", its where I have my bike stand (on a tarp) and since July, when I took apart the Gitane , it has been covered in bike parts.  Lately though, in addition to just looking like a mess I was starting to have a hard time finding stuff so I decided it was time to clear the decks.

One of things I would have a hard time finding was tools, where is the %$&^! Y hex wrench!  I went through the tool box section by section to reorganize and put all the tools away, which has made them much easier to find.  We'll see how long it lasts.

I teased in my last post with a shot of the 1974 Nishiki Professional and I was able to get it all broken down.  This is a project bike I should have passed on, that is what happens from spending too much time looking at bikes on CL.  The tear down went smooth...mostly...

The notched spacer you see about half way up the threads was so tight to the cup that I thought they might be one piece.  I got it started but then it didn't want to go any further and I had to struggle a bit.

Since I had just got done cleaning up my tools I recalled that I had a Park HCW 7 that I almost never use but I thought its 32mm end might work on this headset and sure enough between it and a pin spanner on the spacer I got the two pieces separated and off the bike.  I may have to start using the Park tool rather than the adjustable wrench on headsets.  At one time I considered using this frame as a platform for a junk bike/stealth commuter but I am just not inspired enough by it to do so and since its a tall frame I would have a small pool of buyers for that kind of bike.

 

So its off to the growing pile destined for scrap.  The good thing about the Nishiki is that I didn't pay much for it and it has enough interesting parts that might even turn a profit if I can sell a few of them, and additional income would be nice these days.

I have a complete vintage Sugino Maxy crankset with dust caps and Sugino bb that I think might be worth something on ebay especially if I clean and polish them up.

Love the logo details on these cranks.  

I also like the look of this forged Dia-Compe stem so I will clean it up and see if there is any eBay interest.

The most intriguing piece of the parts harvest are SunTour Barcons, these are sought after and if complete then I could probably triple what I paid for the bike by selling them, however they aren't perfect.

There should be a screw and nut where the bailing wire is in the shot above.  I am not saying I won't sell them but I want to play around with them a bit before I decide.  They still have value even as parts.

This sad little simplex RD will probably join the two or three others I have rattling around in my parts bin and..

Since it came with a baggie of parts I hope to get one complete derailleur from my pile of Simplex's.

I have three complete bikes that I could potentially work on but for some reason this frame set in the boneyard piqued my interest.  

Its a 21 inch Schwinn Traveler III and I believe, based on its Pearl Blue color and model, that it's from 1978.   And there is plenty of info on this bike on the web, in addition to the 78 catalog there is also a video from the BikemanforU.

It's the same year and color as the Schwinn LeTour I built for my sister-in-law and like the Le Tour its a made in Japan model.  It is, however, not without issues.  I picked up this frame-set from Bikeworks for $5 a number of  years ago when they were having a frame sale and its in rougher shape than I remembered.

There are plenty of rust spots on the frame and the headset as you can see, a big paint scrape on the top tube and overall its in the fair/poor end of the condition spectrum.

Sorry for the blurry photo but this rear derailleur cable stop isn't stopping anything as its only half there, nothing some tape  or a zip tie can't fix but it would need to be dealt with.  There are also no seat tube or down tube shifter cable stops, they would have been clamp on cable guides when this bike was stock. 

No seat post nightmare as this frame has a post, shim and the stock seat post binder - you can almost make out the "S" under the rust and grime.

It also had a rusty crusty Shimano sealed square taper bb which I removed, it was shot and had the cheap plastic cup on the non drive side, which I am not a fan of, so there is no bb.  The now departed sealed bb was not stock for this bike, so someone did some work on the Traveler at some point in its life.

I am not really sure what to do with this bike, but I'm not without options;

• I could donate it back to Bikeworks when I was there 10 months ago they were short on project bikes and frames, might not be the case now but you never know.
• Add to the scrap pile, I don't want to be a guy that just scraps old frames but the argument could be made for this particular one.
• Go the junk bike route - might be a too soon.
• The frame is too rough, as is, for my standard refurb but it might be a good rain bike candidate, like what I did with the Tiger, I think I have enough parts on hand to build up a full bike.

I am trying to do a better job of being deliberate about what I spend my time on rather than just jumping right in.  What do you think? feel free to chime in.  We'll see what happens, until next time Ride.Smile.Repeat