Fenders part 1: sizing things up

dry fit

If you intend to ride more than 3 months of the year in Seattle you have fenders on your bike, in my very first post on this blog I took a pair of very nice Velo Orange fluted fenders off my Handsome Devil and I haven't had a fendered bike in the almost 5 years since.  I am looking to change that by putting those same fenders back into service on the Passage.  The shot above is me placing the rear fender with no attachments just to see how it fits.

What I discovered by dry fitting is that a) my fender is too fat to reach the bridge just behind the kickstand mount and b) the hole on the bridge is on the Y axis and the corresponding hole on the fender is on a X axis.

When I went back to the HD to check on how the fenders would have worked on it, I discovered that the space between the stays was 4 cm as opposed to just 3 cm for the Passage and the bolt hole in the stay by the kickstand is on a X axis like the fender hole.

Fortunately I have some left over fender brackets that I think will help with the mounting and as you can see I found my original VO fender instructions which will help as well.

I also found that the original stays are kind of jacked up and although I recall carefully bagging and tagging all the fender hardware back in 2012 its no where to be found, so I placed an order with Velo Orange to get replacements.

I also had to deal with the fenderbot on the rear fender, after 5 years the batteries were deadsville, I was able to get the bot going again with a fresh set - as you can see above.  I like the fenderbot but one complaint I, and others, have is that the light is kinda weak.  Not a huge deal since I will also be running a planet bike superflash in the back, but I think Portland Design Works, maker of the fenderbot, has since updated their rear lights to be brighter.

My biggest challenge, pre-mounting, is getting this pair of fenders cleaned up, they went right from the Handsome Devil to the boneyard 5 years ago and although under cover they were still exposed to the elements.  That means cruddy on the inside and corrosion and water spots on the outside.

I usually start a clean up with the Armor All wipes which takes off the dirt and grime.  The issue I had dealing with the fenders after the Armor All treatment was "water spotting".

When I went straight to Mothers polish the results were just ok, cleaned up fender on the right, shinier but still spotty.  I tried going with Turtle-wax chrome cleaner and also rubbing compound but neither was any more effective than just the Mothers.

Not sure if you can tell from the pictures above but the part above the top blue tape has been gone over with my old friend, super fine steel wool (0000) and then followed up with Mothers the part between the blue tape has just had the steel wool treatment to remove the water spotting-clean but dull, and part below the tape shows all the water spotting.  So I am going to need to sit down on the balcony, with a beverage and do some serious cleaning before I do any more with these fenders.

By the way you know you are doing a good job polishing when your micro-fiber towel is black from taking the corrosion off, when you can buff with no black coming off you know you are done.  I might have to order a new pack of micro-fiber towels.

Once I get around to having the fenders all mounted I can break this guy out of the box and have an actual rack on the Passage.

I was watching a video from the BikemanforU on adjusting center pull brakes, he was using a Park Tool that clamps the two brake pads together (BT-1) and I thought hey that would be great!  However, when I searched for it on the Park Tool site I got no joy, they no longer make it, but Amazon had a similar tool, the third hand tool, and it was only $10 so I took the plunge.  Yesterday I was on Amazon checking something and saw that the third hand tool had been delivered and went to check my mail box.  At first I thought they had sent me the wrong thing as the package was so small, but no the tool was just very petite as you can see with the spoon for reference.

The pictures above show me testing it out on the Motobecane Grand Touring, if you have ever tried to work on center pull brakes; holding the brake pads closed, pulling up on the straddle wire while pulling down on the brake cable and then tighten things up -all at the same time, you know why I finally decided to get this tool.

Hope to have more fender action soon. Ride.Smile.Repeat.

First Rides

I had intended to write about my experience riding to a baseball game on Monday, but those plans got cancelled to due to weather, it literally rained the whole day and night and even if I had a bike with fenders, I don't yet although I have plans for the Passage, I am not sure I would have ridden. I took transit instead.   I have a friend who also lives in West Seattle and is a regular bike commuter, he is a few years older than I am and much wiser, he told me once while discussing commuting "I will ride in the rain, and I will ride in the dark, but I won't ride in the rain and the dark".  A good philosophy and one I took to heart last night, it was also 48 degrees so dark, cold and wet.  The bike to the ballpark experiment will have to wait for the next half price ticket night, June 6th, which I hope will be warmer and drier.

I was reading an article over at Bicycle Times  and it mentioned something about learning to ride and it sparked some memories for me,

Apparently in my early days I was a fan of the ape hangers, must have caught a glimpse of an Easy Rider movie poster.

Later on it was trikes, I have realized later in life, that according to bike industry sizing, my legs are too short for my height, and this picture proves it has always been this way.  I suspect that this was one of my siblings old trikes and it was just a photo-op prop.

I went through a Go-kart phase too.  Actually this was a fun memory, I got this for my 5th birthday and family legend has it that my dad was out in the garage cursing, um I mean wrenching to put this go-kart together until the wee hours on the eve of my birthday so it would be all ready to go on that sunny, summer morning in 1969.  I was as sick as a dog on my birthday so I got the rare and unexpected privilege of getting to ride my new go-kart in the HOUSE!  I don't recall much of the being sick part but I sure remember tearing around the house on my new toy.

The real memory the article sparked though was of my first ride on a two wheeler, a hand me down Schwinn Sting Ray which as I recall had a big chunk taken out of the seat like some rabid possum had tried to chow on it, but it was cool, it was copper colored, the seat cover had that sparkle fleck in in it that was so popular at the time- and it was all mine.   I don't recall any training wheels or training sessions to learn to ride, but what I do remember was walking to the bottom of the hill we lived on to the flat part of the street with my Dad, mounting up and pedaling like mad, him pushing me with his hand on the rear of the banana seat.  I am sure in reality there was no one out on the side walk that day or perhaps one or two neighbors but I have a different and vivid memory..

I have this image of neighbors lining the sidewalk and cheering me on as, unbeknownst to me my Dad had let go and was running along behind yelling encouragement. One thing we had not discussed was turning, and my first solo ended with me running into the back of a neighbors parked camping trailer because I could only go straight, but I shook it off, I could ride a two wheeler!

The other memory it sparked was me teaching my daughter to ride, this is her flying along on her first geared bike at about age 8 or 9, I smile every time I look at this picture, it was a fun day with friends but mostly its my girl gliding along comfortable and at ease on her bike (that she was outgrowing!).

She learned to ride with a combination of training wheels and a home brew coaster bike, a freebie that I removed the crank from, and she had a lot of practice with her razor scooter too which I think helped her sense of balance.  We would practice at the local grade school be cause they had a big flat blacktop and in our neighborhood the street had an incline and uneven sidewalks.  One day as I am unloading her bike at the grade school she says "Dad can we take the little wheels off?"  I was both proud of my girl for wanting to move up to riding for real and panicked as I am not sure I have any tools with me but I scrounge up an adjustable wrench from the trunk and off the little wheels come.  Like my Dad before me I run along behind her and hold her seat and then I let go and she is going solo, what made this moment even more memorable is that the kids at the grade school had painted a mural of a map of the USA on the black top so my Daughters first solo ride was right across the states.  No pictures because I was so in the moment I didn't even think to try and take one.

This is fathers day from 6 years ago, we'll have to do it again.  Learn to Ride. Smile. Repeat.

Bikes, Beer and Brunch

Centurion Elite GT

Went to the Farmers market today under somewhat threatening skies and was not too surprised when the converted parking spot bike corral where I usually park was empty.  As I crossed the street to the market I scanned for bikes on the sidewalk bike racks as usual and spotted a few nice vintage bikes, more than I have seen all year.  Above is a Centurion Elite GT, with the cool center down tube mount shifters, this former road bike has been converted to city use with north road bars and a rear rack.  I see this bike around West Seattle quite a bit, always warms my heart to see old steel getting re-purposed into useful bikes.   Next I saw a couple Fuji's, small and tall.

Fuji Del ray

This is a very tiny road bike that I am guessing by the unicrown fork is from the later 80s it also has been converted with straight bars and its sporting some spiffy new gum walled tires.

Fuji Allegro

And just down the street is the tall sibling, a nicely maintained Fuji Allegro, retaining its drop bars but adding fenders and rack for usefulness.  After wandering the market a bit I make my traditional stop at the Beer Junction.   Recently, instead of ordering a pint I have been getting 4oz pours which allow me to sample more beers, this part is for you Jim, it was a hard job but I was happy to do it.

Started off with the Coca-Fied Imperial Stout on the nitro pour from Fortside in Vancouver WA, strong and smooth.

Next was the Bottom Cutter Imperial IPA from Bale Breaker in Yakima WA, I have had their Top Cutter IPA a number of times and like this one too as you can see I got a bit thirsty before remembering to take a picture.

The gentlemen next to me recommended the next and last taste, Camp Stories IPA from Georgetown, Seattle WA.  A nice way to finish my visit, it lives up to their motto of Darn Tasty Beer.

As I headed back to the bike I realized I was a bit peckish and that one of my favorite restaurants, Jaks Grill, was at the tail end of their Sunday brunch so the Mothers day crowd had died down.  Now before you go thinking I'm a bad son I will let you know I had flowers delivered to Mom and beat the rush, and my 3 siblings, by calling her Saturday to wish her happy mothers day and tell her I love her, she also had the company of my two older brothers in Portland today so Mom was covered.   I usually can't stay away from Steak and eggs here but decided to go with the smoked salmon bene and rather than my usual 12 oz MANmosa I had my friend Mick at the bar make me a boymosa.  It was all delicious as usual.

As I walked back to get my bike I noticed that the skies were much bluer and that resulted in..

quite a bit of company for the Handsome Devil at the bike corral.

And in the next stall over was a Japanese built Schwinn Le Tour ladies bike, still with drop bars but in a very functional form with p-clamped rear rack equipped with fold out Wald baskets, an errand runner if I ever saw one.  I think the bike gods were making up for my lack of garage sale success yesterday, by showing me lots of vintage bike goodness today.  Next time I hope to have a report on bikes and ball parks, until then, Ride.Smile.Repeat.

Annual Garage Sale day - Ya got any bikes?

Every year in May, my neighborhood puts on a garage sale day where there are over a 100 garage sales on the same day - see map above.  I am not in need of a new project but I have found bikes on this day in past - Takara's to be exact.

A lovely road bike that started off as a $25 garage sale find.

And a same day clean and flip city bike.

So even though I don't need a project bike it seems rude to pass up an opportunity that is served up on a platter - a 100 garage sales within a 3 mile radius of my house, how many have old dusty bikes?  I am going to be picky though, only the right bike for the right price.  And to insure I don't get stupid I only take $40 out of the ATM.  I have too many current projects to be reaching for something that isn't a great deal.  The neighborhood blog hosts a registration page for Sale day and folks who register can write a brief description of what they have to offer up.  I find 4 targets from the list with Bicycle in the their write up  including one that even said "Vintage bicycles".

Now I should probably state my own garage sale philosophy,  IMHO a garage sale is an opportunity to get rid of stuff you no longer use and/or need that is taking up space in your abode,  and as a bonus people will come to your house and PAY you for the right to haul away your unwanted stuff! No Goodwill or dump runs, they come to you and pay you! So you price things accordingly and you make a little scratch but more importantly people think its a great deal, want to buy it and take it away.  Now if you come across an item or two you think have real value, you research it via google and list on Ebay or Craigslist rather than the garage sale.  Again, that's just me and I am beginning to think my viewpoint is in the minority.

80s something Schwinn World Sport step through

On my way to the first two listings, which were close together and only had kids bikes, I spot this Schwinn and stop for a look.   Scanning - mid 80s Schwinn World Sport, ladies bike, cotterless crank, updated saddle, mostly appears "all original" i.e 30 year old tires, cables, chain etc. remnants of bike light or computer on the bars - just the mount now.  Solid, might be a decent city bike conversion, what's the price on the tape attached to the saddle...$125.00.  Ok, back slowly away, its still early and the sale has only been going for about 20 minutes maybe I will come back around, but really $125! I might only ask $50 more than that for a completely overhauled bike of this vintage! ok I know, I need to raise my prices but do you actually want to sell this bike?  In my head I imagine this scene unfolding behind me as I walk back to the car....

Jeanna, aged 43 and mother of 2, watches the stocky gentleman in the ball cap walk away from her bike, " oh good " she thinks "he left, that was close, I've had Wanda the world sport since college and I told Brad (husband) he would put her out in this sale but I will be god damned if I am going to let her go for a song! He priced her at 25 bucks,  really! as if my life history is worth 5 freaking lattes, but I snuck a one in front of the price -take that Brad!, I had some awesome times on Wanda and I will again!"

The next two places I check no longer have bikes including the one that advertised Vintage bikes, I guess the earlier bird gets the worm as we are only 40 minutes in, oh well.  I again spot a bike in front of a sale and stop, first I wait while a coltish teen boy examines the bike with his dad but after they move on I wander over to take a look.  Its a Cannondale, an H800, hmm not familiar with that model -I had a R800 road bike from Cannondale, anyway its been converted to a single speed and its priced at $100. It seems in nice shape but I don't need a ss, I am not into Aluminum anymore and its just not speaking to me.  I am curious enough to do some research later, the H is for Hybrid - duh - and its Cannondale's cross training bike from the early 90s, when that was a thing.  1993 Catalog shot below, note the funky dropouts..

the H series

 In my head.... Dave watches the man of about his own age walk away from the old Canny, the second person to do so in the last 5 minutes "did I price it too high? I thought that kid was gonna bite" he thinks " To me it feels like 1993 was a few years ago -not a quarter century! Henry the 8th was an awesome commuter for all those years, even did an STP* once, what was I thinking converting him to a single speed like I was some hipster college kid? did I forget West Seattle has Hills for cripes sake!  man I really gotta stop talking to myself.....wonder how the Mariners are doing? must be the 3rd inning by now"

*STP = Seattle to Portland, an annual ride of about 200 miles.

After the Cannondale,  I went by my Daughters track meet to watch her run and was headed home when my ex texted me a tweet from the West Seattle blog, they were showing an old Schwinn Varsity still for sale, that was nice of her to think of me and since I had time and the address I swung by.

Schwinn Varsity

I'm not all that interested in Varsities although I did think the other day that it would be cool to find a Continental to rebuild and experiment with converting from the American one-piece (boat anchor) crank to a standard 3 piece crank as I have seen done in a few places.  Anyway, what the heck lets take a look,  I don't bother to scan much, its a Varsity, I've rebuilt one, seen a ton of them, this one has the stock fenders which is nice, the tweet had no price so I glance at the tape on the saddle....WTF!... $200.00!  The homeowner is just over there behind a table of household items, I think for a nano second about going over and inquiring about the bike but I quickly realize how its going to go, I am not going to be able to keep the snark out of my voice and if I make a counter offer, no matter that its informed and reasonable, it  will seem like an insult based on where he has started, in short I'm going to seem like a dick, and I don't want to be that guy, not today, not over a Varsity I don't really want, so I just walk away.....

Dave, a successful marketing manager, shakes his head as the clueless man walks away from the bike he has out in his front yard.  "I can't believe people don't know that old stuff is valuable! Don't people watch antiques road show or Ca$h in the attic? I'm sure its rare, I can't believe no one is buying this bike, maybe I priced it too low?  Sarah keeps complaining about having to move it whenever she wants to get to something in the garage but I know its worth a mint!"

Down the street I see a couple more bikes, turns out to be a pair of beach cruisers, not really my thing so I move on but imagine this scenario...

Toby and Lisa were part of the great California exodus of the 80s and 90s, they had lived near Venice  and rode beach cruisers all the time in the Southern California sun.   When they settled in West Seattle they thought they would continue to ride along alki beach.  They go once, its hilly here and you have to climb a big hill to get back home from the beach, and its cold! only 50 degrees out in May and it rains on them, the bikes go into the garage and stay there, only coming out  for garage sale day.

As I am going home I again see bikes and circle back to check them out, upon closer inspection a mountain bike and fairly modern road bike, nothing of interest but as the friendly homeowner asks me how I'm doing, I spot a solo rear wheel and ask if he knows if its a free-wheel or cassette? he picks it up and reads the rim label "622 something" and hands me the wheel.  I convert that ISO # to 700c, bike nerd style, and count the chain rings, 8, so likely a cassette, 8 speed FW's are out there but they are rare.  I see its a Campy hub and out of curiosity ask him how much?  He says a friend left it behind in the garage and he's not sure what to ask, clearly wanting me to make an offer.  My brain does some quick calculations, I could throw out 20 bucks, he could say yes, maybe I clean it up and sell it for $40....but I don't know much about campy beyond the basics, I have no sense of the market and I am trying to get rid of clutter not add to it, so I hand him back the wheel and wish him good day.

I arrive back home with an empty bike rack, maybe next year.  As always Ride.Smile.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