Drinking beer for the Co-op and Moto_GT drive train day

For the second year in a row I went to the Peddler brewing benefit for Bike Works Co-op.  Its on a Friday so I just drive there instead of going home, maybe next year I will ride.

I drink beer and the Co-op gets a donation, yes please!  Its a very bike friendly place, good beer and I even got to see the Mariners on TV, what more could I ask for?

Bike Works had a few of their finished bikes on display including this Novara Ponderosa steel mountain bike, I would love to find something like this in a more dilapidated state for cheap to replace the Miyata trail runner I had to sell in the spring.

One of my favorite days at the Farmers market, first Raspberries!  Today was the day and they taste as good as they look, yum.

I've been working for the past week on cleaning up the dirty drive train.  The derailleurs were especially filthy and even after an extended sonic bath I had lots of ancient grease to get off the jockey wheels of the RD.

And after some polishing the RD is looking nice and shiny.

I had a whole table full of clean shiny parts so it was time to get to work getting things back on the bike.

First I went with the low hanging fruit and got the RD back on the frame.

I took lots of pictures of how the crank went together, and came apart, so I was equally careful in putting it back together.  Step 1; small ring and spacer/nuts.

Step 2; spider crank arm.

Step 3; big ring

Step 4; bolt together.

Step 5; spacers on big ring.

Step 6; attach bash guard.

Done and ready to go back on the bike.

Crank-set and front derailleur mounted to the frame.  I am starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Ride.Smile.Repeat.

Fathers day and more progress on the Moto_GT

On Fathers day I was up early and went for 45 minute ride on the Allez, down to a local view point and back, its not all that far but its the farthest I have gone so far in 2018.  My girl had baked me chocolate chip cookies and made me a card ;-).  I sent out some good thoughts and FB tribute in memory of my dad and got on to working on the Moto_GT.

I got the front brake polished up and mounted and then moved on to the levers.

I liked that the original levers have a built in quick release, but wasn't thrilled that they had been set up for safety levers and so the red pivot sticks out and that wasn't going to fly.

I got the lever apart for a closer look and to make it easier to clean.

I have found out that back in the day bike shops stocked alternate pivots like the one above but shorter so you could convert an extension lever version to a normal brake lever, but I couldn't find any on Ebay and I don't really have the facility or tools to cut down the pivot without it become tedious and laborious.  I choose a different course.

I went to bike works and found a set of (non-safety) levers for $8 and tax - see the sample on the right.  Because of the funky leatherette bar wrap...

the levers for the Moto_GT don't clamp onto the bars the bolt screws directly into a threaded section on the bars so I had to do a bit of cannibalizing....

.. to make it work but the original bolt worked in the new levers so I could get them mounted.

Its not perfect as the new lever body its a touch longer than the stock ones but I came up with two solutions;

Black bar tape from an orphan roll I had in the parts bin and

Electrical tape.  I am going to ride it a bit before I decide which to standardize on, I am leaning towards the bar tape.  Its not the best result but -

I like it better than having that stub from the extension bars on the stock levers sticking out which would have meant cutting into the new hoods to make them work like the old ones.

The new levers are drilled so they do have that going for them even if they aren't a perfect fit.  I am keeping all the original stuff I don't use so perhaps someday if I have a shop area and decent cutting tools I will adapt the Original levers and use them.

As long as I was bending the as stock as possible with the build rule I decided I would swap the 40T inner ring for a new 38T ring, which is a small as the stock crankset will take,  Its not a huge jump but a  38/32 low gear will make the hills a bit more palatable.

And this evening I got the crank set broken down so I can proceed  with the cleaning and polishing.

Until next time. Ride. Smile. get creative. Repeat.

Making Progress on the Moto_GT

It wasn't that long ago I was down to the frame on the Moto_GT, last week I got the frame and fork back together and this week  I wanted to start getting things back on the bike.  Make no mistake I have a long way to go but I made some progress this weekend.

The before picture of the reflector bracket and front brake cable guide.

After some clean up and brass wire brushing.

I also wanted to get started on cleaning up the brakes which are dirty and dull...

...so remembering the one at a time adage (in case you need a template for getting them back together) I started with the rear and took it apart and readied it for a sonic bath.

Looking cleaner after the bath but I wanted it a bit more shiny so I used Mothers on the three main pieces of the brake.

And with a bit patience, persistence and a minimum of bad language I got it back together - the cleaned up one is on the left.

Since the rear brake and rack get mounted together and because I already had the Mothers polish out I did the rear rack too, the before shot above.  Kinda dull.

After polish and buffing, not perfect but better and not so dull.  Someday I will have a garage and a bench mounted buffing wheel and no alloy part will be safe from a mirror finish.

And here is the pair mounted back on the bike.

The stem definitely needed some help.

A little time with some steel wool and a dremel and it was much better, but the cockpit was still a bit dull.

I didn't want to get mothers all over the bar covers so I taped them off and then got to work.

The Pivo logo is looking a bit better after some attention.

Might as well see what they look like on the bike.

I also wanted to get the BB installed today, here is the shot from April.

The June edition with a cleaner frame, parts, fresh grease and new bearings.  So now half the main bearings are done with the hubs next on the list.

The seat post was looking a bit lonely..

..so I put the cleaned up seat clamp binder/rear brake guide back on.

A seat post binder begs for a seat post and I had just polished this one up, not sure I noticed the logo on the SR post before.

And a seat post of course needs a saddle and I couldn't see putting the bargain bin one back on and although this Brooks springer is intended for the Cresta GT it was just laying around in a box and I'll need some thing for the shakedown cruise.

I had forgotten that on the back of the Brooks instruction sheet you get a cool poster featuring some vintage bikes and a fox.

The Suntour cable guide also need some love..

Which it got, not back on the bike yet but ready to go.

As I said lots still to do but its starting to look like a bike again.

With the sun shining  I did my regular Sunday trip to the market, which was my second ride of the day.  Yes I said second ride, I have been riding on the trainer in the mornings but since Friday I have been doing my 20 minute rides on the road.  At 6 am its light out and no one is on the road and the beauty of being a bike nut is that I have a bike dedicated to the trainer and another, the Allez these days, for local rides.   It's also giving me more saddle time with the Allez.  Today's market ride included a first, starting with sunny skies..

..and concluding with rain which greeted me when I stepped out of the Beer Junction.  My saddle was a bit wet but nothing that a purloined napkin from the mermaid place couldn't deal with and I don't think I got much of a skunk stripe on the short ride home.

Ride. In Sun and Rain.Smile.Repeat.