Finished and Delivered! (Raleigh Super Course Part X)

So when Thursday arrived I still had the brakes to do.  I had run the cables and housing but hadn't hooked it all up.

Front done

One thing I like to do when working on Center-Pull brakes is to clamp down the brake arms so the pads are touching the rim - taking the slack out of the system and then pulling the cable through and adusting the bolt on the straddle wire hanger.  Unfortunately the quick clamp I inherited from my dad has about a foot and half of over hang so it doesn't stay clamped very well, I need to get something better suited for bike work.  I did get the front snugged up but an extra set of hands would be nice for this job.

Rear done

One thing I enjoy about using colored cable housing is that even the cable tips can add a splash of color.

golden tipped cable

So Thursday night finished with the bike complete in the stand and just in need of a test ride on Friday.

bike stand work complete

While I was at work on Friday I got to thinking that an Upright Sophisticated Gentlemen's City bike needed a kickstand and I had one rattling around in the parts bin so I took care of that before the test ride.  I like to protect the tubes of the chain stays when I do this.

I keep some old tubes around for this job as they are really good for protecting frames, handlebars etc.

I cut a couple rubber strips to put around the tubes where I am mounting the kickstand, you can cut them long enough to circle the tubes but since I am really only looking to protect the top and bottom I just cut enough to form a "C" on the tube.  I then use a little electrical tape to keep the rubber in place while I mount the kick stand.

When  I first mounted the kickstand I had the mounting bolt dead center between the tubes but that ended interfering with the movement of the crank arm so i had to adjust it slightly.

Close tolerance

And with that it was ready to go on it test ride.  When I am testing out I bike I look for the following:

• Is there play in any of the main bearings; wheel hubs, bottom bracket/cranks, headset/stem
• Does the saddle slip is it aligned straight?
• are the handle bars on straight
• do the brakes work -crisp or mushy?
• does the shifting work - no over or under shifts
• An untoward sounds?

I came back with a few things to tweak and then it was ready for some beauty shots.

Non-drive side

Drive side

Just a little ways from where we started with this bike.  I was up early on Saturday to load the bike up and head to Portland.

are we going somewhere?

The bike spent a little time as a gallery piece - I didn't mind.

I'm home!

And then it was off for the shake down cruise and lunch.

Reunited

The Sophisticated Gentleman on his upright city bike.

Hanging with the Handsome Devil.

And to cap the evening off Joe delivered on his promise of beers and dinner (Bangers for me) at the local English style pub,  hmmm Imperial pints.

I have certainly enjoyed refurbishing old ten speeds in their drop bar form but I might have to do more of these city bike conversions.  We'll see.

Until next time... Ride.Smile.Repeat.

I'll just do a little bit....(Raleigh Super Course Part IXa)

That was the plan anyway, I was just going to a little bit; attach the saddle to the seat post, mount it to the frame and run the brake cables.  Just a little bit...(yes I know I am cheating with the titles so I can end up on part X)

The freewheel wasn't supposed to be arriving until today (Thursday) so it wasn't part of the plan, but when I arrived home what was in my mailbox?


shiny and new

Since the rear wheel was just waiting on a free wheel I have to mount it right?  Part of my prep for mounting a freewheel is greasing the threads first, someone, somewhere years later, who is removing your freewheel will thank you for this bit of prep.

Well now that the free wheel is mounted I kind of have to mount the rear wheel right? And this is where I encounter the first issue of the night.  Lets be honest when you are mounting new parts to a 40 year old bike issues ("opportunities") are the rule rather than the exception. 


In my case I had no issues getting the wheel into the drops but after I tightened it  I would get about one spin and then the wheel would slip just slightly and the tire ended up rubbing on the drive side chain-stay effectively braking the wheel.  You don't get far if your tire is flush on the chain stay...sigh.  I tried a few things but it was still happening so I decided to take the wheel out and walk away from that piece for a while.  When I came back I decided to try the skewer from original wheel just to see if I would get a different result and I now noticed that with the old skewer the piece where the quick release snugs up against the drop out wasn't quite able to reach- there was just a smidge of a gap, and it occurred to me that maybe this rear wheel had an axle that was just slightly longer than the original.  Enter the magic washer hack to bridge the gap and problem solved, the quick release snugged up and the wheel spun like a champ with no slippage or interference from the chain stay.


The magic washer

Yippee the rear wheel is mounted! so I kind of need to run the chain now right? When I first started out doing my own maintenance I was a Shimano loyalist and used 9 speed chains and that meant I used pins to connect my chain.

stinking chain pin

It was a process getting the pin to seat just right, snapping off the excess using a special tool for the whole thing, learning to get the feel of when you had it just right etc.  Amazing what you will put up with when you don't know any better.  Somewhere along the way I tried a different brand of chain and discovered the master link, and I vowed I would never use a $#%^*&! chain pin again if I could help it.


master link- beauty!

So long story short I ran the chain around the cranks over the freewheel and through the rear derailleur and, using only my hands, got it all connected with the master link.  So now I have a drive train hooked up I 've got to dial in the shifting right?  I mean I ran the shift cables last night and they are in place, they just need to be tightened up and then I can check the shifting.  I did have one hack along the way.  I couldn't get the rear derailleur cable housing to seat the way I wanted in the cable braze on,  so I resorted to a zip tie which should help it stay in place.




zipped up

One of the many things I love about friction shifting is that when you set it up you only really need to worry about the high and low settings, i.e. making sure you aren't over shifting into the spokes or going the opposite way into the frame.  In the bike stand its all working great and we'll see if the same holds true when I go for a test ride.  I've noticed that the bike doesn't always behave the same on the road as it did in the work stand so a test drive with some caution is always a good idea before your bombing down a hill and realize the brake cables are a bit slack.


Now what was it I actually planned to do this evening?...oh yeah saddle and brakes.  As you will see at the end the Saddle piece went off no problem, still need to do some final snugging up of bolts but its mounted.  The brakes, well they were another story.  I first realized I had an issue when I started unwrapping the brake cables and housing.  Normally I get cables that have different types of "heads" on either end of the cable so you can keep the one you want and snip the one you don't - like the shot below.

What I needed was the head that looks like a puck to work with my brake levers, however what I had ordered was a set with only one head, the more modern one, the one looks kind of like a small nail or screw which would not work with my brake levers. 


Fortunately, I am a bike geek and I have cables and housing to spare including a couple new sets, unfortunately to get it all to work I had to use black housing rather than the cool Gold braided housing like I used with the shifters.  The important thing is to get it all to work and I was able to end the night with the brake cables and housing run front and rear and now they are just waiting to be tighten up so I can test the brakes, but that's for another night.....

late at night -very close...

Is that a light at the end of the tunnel... or an oncoming train?  Until next time, hopefully a real part X..


Ride. Smile.Repeat.

Closing in... (Raleigh Super Course Part IX)

almost there doc

I can just hear Bugs saying "you're getting warmer doc" as things start coming together.  The rear wheel, which wasn't supposed to arrive until Thursday, arrived on Tuesday and got put through the new wheel protocol.

As it turned out it did need a bit of truing so I got out my spoke wrench and reference guide, the very good manual by Leonard Zinn- Zinn and the art of Road bike maintenance , and got to work. 

hitting the books

Once that was done I got some new rubber mounted on the rim and now we just await the new 6 speed freewheel, to be delivered today, before putting it on the bike.

Dude where's my freewheel!

I also started to run the shift cabling so it would ready to be finished once I mount the rear wheel and chain.  This gave me a chance to use my newest bike tool, before I left REI I purchased a Park cable & housing cutter using my small discount.  I started out with a cheap no name cable cutter a long time ago and quickly tired of poor cuts resulting in frayed cable ends.  I moved from that to a PBK (Pro bike kit an English online bike retailer) brand one that had been doing a good job but was starting to come up with poor cuts too.  So far I am really liking the clean crisp cuts of the Park CN-10.




out with the old and in with the new

One thing I like to do with cables is to keep some of the old cable housing lengths if I think they looked good on the bike, in particular for the final front derailleur housing.  I use the old musty ones as a template for the new ones.

And I think it works pretty well.

For the shifter housing I was on my own as we swapped road drop bars for city bars on this build.  Unless Joe wants to do "twirlies" like a bmx rider I think the length will be fine. 

This the third build I have used the Jagwire gold shift and brake cable & housing kit on and I think it will look good playing off the brown of the frame.  I wanted something with a bit more pizazz than black for the Sophisticated Gentleman's Upright city bike.


Since the Saddle had plenty of time to dry after I washed it, I went to phase two and applied the Obenauf's saddle goop. 

Pre saddle goop

I try not to be miserly with the goop especially on an old saddle but I also try to wipe off the excess before I let sit.




post saddle goop

Still have more to do like; mount the freewheel, put on the rear wheel, run the chain, dial in the shift cables, add the brake cables, attach saddle to seat post and mount, test ride etc.. but its coming together and I hope that the next post will include some pictures of the finished product.  Until then...


Ride. Smile. Repeat

Making progress (Raleigh Super Course Part VIII)

Nothing like a self imposed deadline to get a person moving.  I made some more progress on the Raleigh Super Course today.  I started off with carefully washing the Brooks Saddle, with warm water, gentle (hand) soap and a bristle brush made for cleaning leather.  I wanted to do that chore first so the saddle would have plenty of time to dry before I move on the next step -Obenauf's leather saddle goop.

before - bottom

before top

Even-though I had to wait for the leather to dry that didn't stop me working on the metal bits.

rivet clean-up

I am fortunate the Dremel comes with so many brushes,  I can clean the rivets without hitting the leather.  I was also able to get most of the rust off the saddle frame but in the spots where the finish has worn away I like to put a little 3n1 oil on the steel so it has some protection against further rust, I dribble a little oil, rub it in, let it set for a few minutes and then wipe off the excess.

A little 3n1 oil on the rusty spots

I was also able to get the seat post cleaned up, I thought I had a "before" picture but I can't find one so imagine it was greasy and dirty, and now..

The new front wheel was quick to arrive so I did my normal protocol with the Amazon wheels:

• Loosen up a cone so I can squirt more grease in both sides of the hub, I don't think they use enough at the factory and bearings are not a place to be skimpy on the grease!
• Adjust the bearings to that "just right spot" I find the factory ones tend to come too tight.
• Check the wheel for true, I have yet to have a problem myself, but have seen this as an issue in the comments section for others.

In the truing stand

And after going through the protocol above and transferring the new rubber onto the new wheel it got mounted.

One wheel down

I like to anchor the front wheel to the frame by looping an old toe strap through the wheel and down tube, that way the front wheel doesn't flop while its in the stand.  Just remember to take it off before you try riding the bike!

I got to the brakes today, reassembling the rear that I cleaned up so long ago (Part III), and cleaning up the front.

rear brake back together

Front brake installed

Since I was working on the brakes I also swapped out some old parts for new ones.

 Some new Dia-Compe gray matters to replace the worn out original Weinmanns.

And some nice shiny new straddle wires to replace the rusty old arthritic ones.  I had scheduled cleaning and mounting the cranks for tomorrow but decided to push on and give my schedule some cushion.

very dirty crank

The crank is big enough that not all of it would fit in the sonic cleaner so it got a bath in sections.

Mid stream cleaning

Lots of simple green, a tooth brush and elbow grease to get the the rings clean.

pretty clean

I would love to report that the cranks cleaned up good as new but as with the forks there are places where the chrome has worn away down to the bare steel so I shined it up as good as I could and used 3n1 on the bare spots for a bit of extra protection.  

before steel wool

After steel wool - better not perfect

The good news is things are straight and no teeth are missing or worn down.  Since the cranks were clean I was able to mount them and add another "City bike" piece to the bike....

Yep some nice wide city pedals with rubber grips, just jump on and go, these are Sunlite Crusier pedals.  In addition to getting more done than anticipated I got the further good news that the new rear wheel which I wasn't expecting until Thursday has shipped and is expected to arrive Wednesday.

Stay tuned as I race toward the finish.  Until next time...

Ride.Smile.Repeat.