Bike Blitz Day 3

I got in a solid three and half hours today on bikes.  I solved the 3 minor issues I had at the end of the day yesterday on the Mirage.  I used a punch to persuade the seat binder bolt to come out.

The giant allen wrench got the kickstand loose although it was pretty tight quarters, and the non-drive crank arm got also got some persuading...

A few taps of the mallet on the back of the crank arm got it started coming off.  Today was mostly about about cleaning.  I am not sure this bike was cleaned at all in the last 20 years.

I can usually do most of the cleaning with armor all wipes but I knew this was going to be all hands on deck, so I brought lots of supplies from home.

I started with the headset pieces in sonic cleaner, except for cups still on the headtube and the crown race on the fork.  I would usually remove them but that would mean bringing more tools over so I cleaned them in place.

I still have some detail work to do on the headset pieces but they are 100% cleaner then when I started.

Both the fork and..

 frame are filthy, this may be tied with the Tiger for the dirtiest frame I have ever refurbished.

After a bout with soap and water and then one with armor all wipes and some tooth brush scrubbing on the greasiest parts, I waxed and polished up the frame and fork.  It's not perfect but it came a long ways today.

I got the crank apart for cleaning but I did take a few shots before I took it apart so I would be able to reference it later - something I forgot to do when working on the Passage crank.

The brakes, pedals and derailleurs also got a sonic cleaner bath.  I also flushed the pedals with WD-40, I am going to let them dry out and pump them full of grease tomorrow.

While the sonic cleaner was going I stripped the wheels of the old dried up rubber and started cleaning them as they are as filthy as the rest of the bike.

The front hub looked like this when I started.

Still a bit of detail work to do but the front hub is now much cleaner.

I also started on the rims, I used to use very fine steel wool for this but after reading many admonitions not to use steel wool on chrome I have started using bronze wool which leaves fewer fine scratches.  It's a tedious job but the results are worth it.

And finally some progress on the Nishiki! more to the point movement.  After 3 days of spraying liquid wrench down the seat tube and taping on the seat-post in a radial pattern and testing it by gently but firmly twisting the frame back and forth- it finally started moving.

And bingo the frame is free! a very satisfying feeling and not really expected.

I read somewhere that using penetrating oil on a alloy seat-post stuck in a steel frame was useless, don't recall the reason why but as you can see from the picture above it penetrated nicely.

 I did such a good job with the penetrating oil in fact that I filled up the inside of the seat-post.

So now the Nishiki can be built back up, the paint is in poor shape but I think it could make a great commuter and I have about 80% of what would be needed to build it, not bad for $11.

Speaking of mountain bikes, I did a bit or work on the Miyata.  As you can see the cheap plastic fenders have come off which makes it look a ton better.

I also removed the saddle and seat-post so I could bin the saddle which was padded, tattered and smelled like it had been dipped in a vat of fabric softener.  When I got the post out I could see it had been shimmed with pieces of tin from a pop can, which meant it was not the right size or original to the bike.  And to make matters worse its a post and clamp model rather than an integrated seat-post so I will be replacing it once I figure out the correct size.  The one in the bike was 26.0.

I removed the crappy foam grips, one of which was torn anyway.

And put on the new grips I got for the bike, some Ergon knock-offs I got from Amazon.  Had I known was going to get a job offer I would have ordered the real deal.  If I decide I love this bike I will probably upgrade.  Until next time.  Ride.Smile.Repeat.