Coffeeneuring Challenge 2019: Ride 2: Sound & Fog

A lovely fall day for Coffee ride #2, low 50s, clear and with a lightweight merino wool sweater it was great riding weather.

The Trek 420 was my vintage steed of choice in part because someone *might* be coming to look at it tomorrow.  I have had other people ask about it but no one has actually shown up so I am not holding my breath but better safe than sorry.  It was good I did ride it though as the rear shifter wasn't as tight as I would like and I also realized I need to remind any test riders that braking from hoods is just ok but braking with your hands in the bend really brings the bike to a halt adroitly.

Since I have lowered the price a few times I removed the MKS pedals and replaced them with something plainer and the MKS have gone up on eBay so maybe I will get close to my initial asking price when I add it all up.

I didn't want to move bike bags around and I wasn't feeling like wearing a messenger bag so I used two toe straps to lash a lock to the rack so I could secure the bike while I was in drinking coffee.  I am not a big fan of riding with clips and straps but I find toe straps to be very useful for many things.

Ok on to the coffee part, I went to Sound & Fog which is a nice place in the ground floor of one of the many new apartment buildings in my neighborhood.  I came here last year on the Allez Sport.

The mocha and croissant I had were very good but the shop is bit austere for my taste, still its nice to have so many independent coffee shop options in my neighborhood.

The data:

1. Where: Sound & Fog coffee/wine/beer, 4735 40th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98116
2. Date: October 14th at 11:30 am.
3. Consumed:  Mocha and a croissant 
4. Details:  Clear blue skies, temps in the low 50s, bike parking near store entrance 
5. Mileage: 2.15 miles
6. Bike Used: 1985 Trek 420

Ride. Caffeinate. Smile. Repeat

Trek 420 Refurb: Assembly IV (Smaller cassette and Bar tape)

Bar tape half done

Today I was on the home stretch and determined to finish the 420 and get it listed.  I used an RJ the bike guy video on wrapping handle bars the vintage Trek way and used Newbaum's cotton bar tape and the original Cateye bar end plugs.  I found on the first roll that with the adhesive backing being as wide as the tape it really wanted to stick to itself which is a pain.  It makes it difficult to keep it smooth and flat while wrapping,  For the second roll I would only let 2 to 3 inches of adhesive be exposed at a time to avoid this issue.  I found that two rolls (one for each side)  was plenty long for these vintage bars and in retrospect I could have probably cut a strip to put on the brake lever clamp, like you do with cork tape, so I wouldn't have that triangle showing behind the levers but I decided on this go around to go with the classic method.

Yesterday my new 12-28, 7 speed cassette came so I swapped it out and eliminated the chain grinding issue in the granny gear.  

I also decided to use the Vetta saddle from the Trek 520 for this bike as the 520 will probably get the VO saddle and this Vetta looks more in keeping with the bike than the Marin road saddle it came with, and the Vetta wasn't a real comfortable saddle for me.  It also got the blue Trek branded water bottle cage that was on the Ponderosa.

Its been raining alot today but I was able to get out during a lull and snap some shots for the Craigslist ad, btw for the first time in my experience CL is charging to post an ad, it was $3 for 30 days which is totally reasonable but its the first time I have to pay to list something on CL.
EDIT I inadvertently hit for sale by dealer rather than owner 

Although its officially the first day of fall I count this as the 6th bike I have put up for sale this summer which I am pretty sure is a record for me and not something I want to repeat.  Next summer I want to ride much more than I wrench.  I want to do a clean and tune of the Novara Ponderosa I picked up for a song and get it listed soon too.  Then this winter I can putter on the 520 and the Allez and perhaps deal with the little things the fleet needs, bar tape here a brake adjust there etc.

I am hoping the Trek sells and that I didn't wait too long to get it listed, I may still tinker with truing the rear wheel but essentially the 420 is done.

Refurb. Smile. Repeat,

A more thorough shakedown of the Trek 420

On Saturday I went for a ride with some local members of Bike Forums, Classic & Vintage group, who like me are nuts for lugged steel.  I am in appalling shape  but this was a flat bike trail ride and I figured I could always turn around if it was more than I could take.

Here are some of the C&V bikes that make the ride, my 420 and Schwinn Paramount and an very nice Eddy Merckx.  It was worth showing up just to drool over the lovely bikes.

For this ride I decided to put the VO saddle that had been on the Novara on the 420, I have finally wised up to removing nice saddles and pedals from bikes before I sell them.

It was a lovely fallish day for a ride mid 60s cloudy with sun breaks, 6 of us on the trail and I felt better than I expected, still a bit winded but keeping pace.  What I forgot was that the VO saddle wasn't as broken in as I thought and so at 4 miles in with a good turn around spot I bailed early to avoid some epic saddle soreness. 

Even though I had to cut things short I was glad I did the ride, I had forgotten how fun group rides can be especially when its a group of C&V nuts like me and no one is trying to prove how strong they are, they are just out for a ride.  I was reminded yet again that I need to get back into shape so I can jump into these rides and not worry if I can keep up on a flat 20 miler.   Also if you do the whole ride there is usually beer at the end!

The 420 performed admirably and besides the saddle was comfortable and makes me look forward to what the 520 will be like with a more plush cockpit.  With any luck the new cassette will arrive today and I can close out on the 420.

Ride with friends. Smile. Repeat

Trek 420 Refurb: Assembly III (Cables and Chain, close but cigar withheld)

Yesterday I got the bars cleaned up, a combo of Goof off and a toothbrush followed by steel wool got the bars smooth and took care of the sticky residue, and I got the new cane creek hoods on the levers.  Its starting to look like a bike again.

Today was all about getting the bike cabled and chained.  I used Sheldon Browns method of wrapping the chain around the big big combo front and back without going through the RD and making sure you have a full link and half overlap.  I had excess so I used the chain tool to knock out a pin and reduce the length, measure twice or three times and use the pin tool once, too long can be sloppy but too short is unusable.

The front brake went fine but the rear fought me, the pinch bolt that the cable threads through didn't want to back out far enough for me to thread the cable through the hole.

I usually avoid using the hammer but in this case it was a good tool to persuade the bolt to come out of its hole.  I removed the brake to make it easier and cut down the chance of a tragic accident.

Once I had the %#($~! bolt out I used a file and some steel wool to smooth it out so it wouldn't get stuck again and then gave it a dab of grease.  Problem solved, brakes done.

One thing that had me a bit worried was running the rear derailleur cable which goes through the drive side chain stay, however the guide tube they inserted at the factory was still there and the cable went through first try, easy peasy.

A trick I learned is that if the cables on the bike look like they are correct then save them to use as templates for the new cables as I did the the RD cable.  I had some yellow left over from the Allez and thought it would add some pop.

Now we get to why there is to be no cigar today, sad trombone, in the granny gear the chain grinds due to the RD not having a long enough cage to handle the 32t cog in back.  That may explain the tiny cogset the bike had on it and it means I need either a smaller 7 speed cassette or a longer cage RD.  Tomorrow I will go to bike works and see what I can find for vintage RD and hope for a quick swap and painless fix.  We will see.

EDIT I checked Velobase and sure enough it says plain as day that the max cog size for the Shimano Z-505GS is 28T.  I really should have done my research before getting a new cassette, 28T large cog would be fine and I think even a 30T could have worked but not the 32t I ordered.  Sigh, live and relearn.  I decided to keep the original RD and ordered an 12-28t cassette that in theory will be here Sunday and should be an easier swap than the RD.

Since I could use 20 of 21 gears I decided to do a quick lap around the block in the waning light just to see how she rode and if any other issues would present themselves. None did,  so I need to find a different RD, swap it, On Sunday I will swap to a 12-28T  cassette, do a thorough shake down and then I can wrap the bars and list this 420 while its still September.

Ride, two steps forward, one step back, smile, repeat.

Trek 420 Refurb: Assembly II (brakes, cranks and bars)

As I mentioned in the last post I am not going to be able to use the new Tektro brakes due to rack clearance so it was time to dig out the stock dia compe 500's.   I stripped off the old pads.

And they got a soak in the sonic cleaner along with the non drive crank arm.

And came out cleaner than when they went in but....

I noticed one brake was missing its cap nut ...

So I was able to scrounge one out of the parts bin, off the brake I didn't end up using on the Schwinn LeTour in fact.

They still need a bit of polish from the brass wool and the new pads but they are on the bike.

I decided not to disassemble the cranks but cleaned them up with chain rings in place, some sonic cleaner and then some simple green and a tooth brush to deal with the grime and some Mothers on the cranks arms.

Turns out this crank is a very sensible 50/40/28 which paired with the new wide range 7 speed cassette should give this bike lots of useful gears.  It probably won't win town sign sprints or climb up trees but it should handle all the stuff in between.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do about pedals as my bikes have had a lot of swapping lately.  The flat pedals that were originally on this bike came off so I could mount the Shimano PD324 with SPD side for the trainer.  Those stock pedals went onto the HD which lost the PD324s and then eventually went on the Novara Randonee when I sold it so I could keep the MKS sneakers I had on it and they went on the HD which deserved my favorite flat pedals.  I found these in the parts bin and I believe they came in on the Cresta GT.  They needed to lose the toe cups.

I should probably see if they are worth anything on ebay but for now anyway they are on the 420.

And more progress is made, I have cranks and pedals mounted.

I do, however, keep getting in my own way on this build.  I started to prep the bars but realized they did not fit my vision for the bike.  I wanted bars with the raised and engraved section in the middle so I would have a clear mark to start the cotton bar tape.  As you can see these bars are plain Jane.

The stock bars from the Novara Randonee that got replaced when I upgraded its cockpit where perfect.

And since they came with cloth bar tape they had the cool Cateye bar end plugs which I plan to clean up and reuse.

I also have some cane creek replacement hoods that have been knocking around in the parts bin for a while, which is good as the stock ones are a bit crumbly and sticky.

My next job will be to clean all the sticky residue off the bars, shine up the engraving, get the new hoods mounted and the bars and stem back on the bike.  The wrap will wait until after I have test ridden the bike.

I continue my slow march to the finish and hope to make some good progress this weekend.

Ride. Smile. Repeat.