Campus Bike Part III, My Kingdom for a shim (1978 Schwinn Traveler III)

I thought I could build a bike out of my parts bin with zero funds out of pocket and I thought I could put it together quickly.  I was wrong on both counts.

I was able to make it to Bike Works one evening after work and found the stem I needed.

As I was looking through a box of stems one of the staff came over and asked what I was looking for, I mentioned a 70's Schwinn and he asked "is that like 21.1 (.833 inch) mm?" yes it is I replied and he laughed.  He was building up a bike earlier that day and couldn't understand why the normal looking stem was so skinny and then realized it was 21.1 not 22.2, he knew exactly where it was and with $5.50 out of pocket I was on my way.

I got it greased and mounted, it was looking good.  Now for the Handlebars...

So guess I was wrong about all .833 stems having 25.4 handlebar openings, I am going to need a shim.  I have some shims in the parts bin but turns out there are for more modern stems and aren't going to work in this instance.  Screw it, I went on Amazon and ordered a 25.4 to 26.0 shim, which should here late next week.   Sigh, I am now up to about $10 about of pocket on this no cost bike.

I wasn't going to be able to finish the bike this weekend without  a shim but there was plenty I could do like apply clear-coat (nail polish) to those rust areas I treated.

And mount the bottle cage I had lying around, I took this off the Raleigh Rapide Mixte and didn't put it back on so it was available for the Schwinn.

I also mounted the wheels, the rear when on fine but the front didn't want to go, I got out the calipers and noticed the outside nut distance on the axle was a smidge wider than the drop out width,  Then I noticed the nuts on axle were kind of chunky.

I had a Specialized 32h front that has been rattling around in the parts bin for a decade.  I had a bad habit of haunting the Bike Nashbar bargain bin online on '07 and '08, it resulted in a $40 Brooks b17 that is on the Handsome Devil but also allot of stuff I didn't really need including the hub.

I took a look at the new hub and realized it had slim outside nuts, noticeably narrower than the ones on the front wheel, so I swapped them.

I used the specialized hub to "cold set" the front width for a while and then mounted the front wheel, it wasn't easy but I finally got it on the bike.

My final challenge was the rear rack, which also came from the Raleigh Rapide mixte.  The hardware I had set aside for the seat stay bracket ended up being too short and the ones I had that were long enough were too fat for the holes in the bracket,  Off to Tru-Value and a few more $$$ out of pocket and the rack was mounted. Oh and I put on the pedals too, I went with the plastic ones.

With any luck the shim will work and I can get the handlebars mounted and put the finishing touches on the Campus bike.

Tomorrow I think I'll ride to the farmers market and drink beers,  Ride, Smile, Repeat.

Campus bike Project (1978 Schwinn Traveler III)

I could have called this J*nk bike II, but based on the way it ended last time, I didn't want to jinx things.

You may have noted a few days ago in my shots of the great porch clean up that one bike and one wheel-set remained.  The 1978 Schwinn Traveler III was close to joining the trip to the scrap yard, but I thought that I had enough parts to make a working bicycle and that I could achieve multiple goals in one project; reduce my clutter, make a usable bike without spending any money, and put some $$ in my pocket.  This bike piqued my interest last May and I thought I would give it a shot.

The Traveler in now in the work-stand and the first thing I noticed is that the seat post, even though is has a LeTour mark, didn't seem to fit quite right, close but not really a great fit.

So I tried the sprung saddle with seat post from the 1974 Nishiki Professional and it fit like a charm.

My philosophy for this project boils down to three things; ugly, functional and cheap.  I think ugly will take care of itself especially if I resist the urge to clean and wax the frame, ugly is a theft deterrent, which is key for a campus bike. 

For the functional part I knew I was going to need to check the bearings, when I was working on the Mirage hubs I also checked the hubs on the spare wheel-set, and I made sure they weren't dried out, I did add some additional grease but they should be fine.  The headset though, is gonna need some work, as you can see from the photos above.

This frame has rear brake cable guides and half a rear derailleur guide on the chain stay but no shift cable guides on the down tube.  Parts bin to the rescue!  it yielded Huret and Shimano bolt on cable guides to solve that problem.

I have the wheels and rubber taken care of, its a mishmash but it should be functional, one tire is specialized and one is Boontrager, the front wheel is Shimano and I'm not sure about the rear one but they should get the job done.  Since I am using "previously owned" tubes I have pumped them up to be sure they hold air before I mount them.

The cockpit shapes up like the photo above.  I already talked about the saddle and seat post, the handlebars and grips were part of the 1980 Raleigh Rapide mixte purchase from bike works.  If I hadn't sold the three sets of SunTour stem shifters in the parts bin on ebay last month, I would have set this up for stem shifters but I had a bunch of plastic thumb shifters in the parts bin so that is what I am going to use.  I should admit that when I went to buy a MTB brake cable to finish the Mixte project I bought two additional cables with this project in mind so I have actually spent $4 so far, not sure where the city levers came from.

For the drive train the crank, rat trap pedals, and the SunTour U, RD all came from the 1983 Raleigh Record of Junk Bike fame.  The 110mm bb is a modern sealed bearing unit that was in the parts bin as were the second RD, FD and plastic pedals.  I hope to get a working drive train this collection.

The Side pull brakes also came from the junk bike.  With a bit of clean up and sanding the Kool Stop brake pads should be usable but the barrel adjuster are very rusty so  I am planning to use them to test oxalic acid for dealing with rust.

For extras I have a Pletscher rack and a clamp on water bottle cage which both came from the 1980 Raleigh Rapide Mixte.

I didn't use the rack on the Mixte project in part because I had misplaced both a key bracket and the nuts and bolts.  I have since stumbled across the bracket which I taped to the rack so I wouldn't lose it again.  I was also able to come up with enough hardware (lower left bottom picture above) that I should be able to mount this rack.  I like to think that both my father, and grandfather, a carpenter, would be glad I had a collection of  random nuts, bolts and washers, however they might be wondering how a guy in his fifties only has two small tins worth.

The plan is to assemble all these parts into a ugly but functional bike, sell it for $50 on Craiglist and hope it ends up cruising someplace like the University of Washington -pictured above.

Until next time; Ride, Recycle, Smile, Repeat.

Moving on from a Mixte

I have discovered something about myself and Mixtes.  When I'm building one for someone, like a sister in law, or niece or daughter, I enjoy the process.  When I am building one on spec, not so much.

I found the above Mixte at bike works in September of 2015, it was $32.50, it was all there, the paint and decals were in good shape, sold.  I really disliked the bars for some reason,  too much rise I think, and I quickly replaced them with a Wald bar with 2.5 inch rise.  I had picked up a set of grips at the sale as the ones on the bike had seen better days and the new ones were a buck.

I wasn't wise in the ways of rubber grips then and I don't think I prepped them very well and they only ended up going on about half way.  For some reason I let that defeat me, the bike got put aside, then put outside where it languished for at least a year.  It was on a covered porch but it still allowed the new bars to start to get some surface rust - bad Ryan!!

Last fall as unemployment wore on I brought the bike back in, thinking I could fix it fast and sell it, that was in October.  I saw it everyday from my favorite chair for months and I finally got fed up and in the stand it went.

I was too broke to list it for what I paid and too apathetic about it to do a complete tear down, so I made a list, poured an IPA, put on some John Lee Hooker and got to work.

Since grips had sidelined this project I thought I would tackle them first,  I got the grips from bike works off the bars and set them aside.  I'm still mad at them and didn't want to jinx the project by reusing them.  I had some rubber grips, still new in packaging that I think I had got for a 3 speed, which I decided to use instead.  I have learned since the 2015 fiasco that dish soap is your friend for mounting rubber grips.  It makes things slick but eventually evaporates. I coated the inside of the grip and lightly coated the bar and got them started...

And then I reached for the "persuader" to finish the job.

Grip problem solved!

At one point, early on I think, I removed an important part of the rack and the equally important hardware and instead of putting them in a baggie and taping them to the rack I put them down...somewhere.  I do not remember where and they are nowhere to be found, so I just removed the rack.  It was going to bug me anyway because they designed this bike with such a short seat tube that this particular rack was never going to be level.  I hate slanty racks.  

The bike also came with fenders but both front and back were rubbing on the tires and since fixing fender lines can take 20 minutes or 20 hours, I chose to just remove them.

The tires that came with the Mixte, as is often the case with vintage bikes, were dry rotted.  Normally I would go with some nice gum-wall tires but I didn't want to spend a penny more than necessary on this project, so I went with the Specialized Tri-Sports that I took off the Passage.  

I also used the saddle that came with the Passage as both it and the tires are basically new.

I really though I could get the Mixte up and running with out a penny out of pocket but it turns out I needed two mountain bike style brake cables (round end) and I only had one.

I have a whole box of cables and I had probably 5 or 6 road bike brake cables but only one with a mountain bike end.  Sigh..... off to the bike shop.

Dang, I forgot I can't go to the shop a mile away, it closed!  (sad trombone) I liked that place and the owner so I'm sorry they didn't last.  I ended up going to Bike Works and got the cable for $2.00, probably would have been cheaper on Amazon but I wanted it NOW and I like supporting Bike Works.

And so the Mixte is done.  It wasn't a complete tear down rehab, I didn't touch the bearings,  and the price and description will reflect that, but it is a functional bike.  And yes I know that a brown saddle and black grips is a fashion disaster but I don't care! I want it gone!!!

I ended up doing the following:

• Wipe down frame and fork with armor all wipes
• Sanded brake shoes
• New grips
• Newish tires and tubes (under 25 miles)
• New saddle
• New brake cables and housing
• New RD cable and housing
• Adjusted shifting 
• Adjusted brakes
• Gave the chain and FW a WD 40 spray and wipe down and lubed the chain.
• Greased seat post and stem

It would be on CL right now except that I am heading out of town in the morning and I don't want to be the guy who lists something and then isn't around to show it.  My trip out of town is somewhat impulsive and involves a bike...(cue maniacal laughter).  More to come.

EDIT (3/38/18) after languishing on CL with the brown saddle for a few weeks I broke down and swapped to a sprung black one I had in the parts bin.  Will see if that and lowering the price from its already reasonable amount will shift it.