Summer Sell a-thon

I started in the spring wanting to thin the herd, at that point I had 9 bikes which was way too much for my 2 bedroom apartment and I wanted to get down to a core 4.  I did NOT want to be the crackpot with a porch full of bikes and parts again.

I started with the Ibex, I paid $80 for it, rode it in last year clunker challenge,considered keeping it but couldn't get the fit quite right.  I put new grips and tires on it for $50 and basically broke  even with the sale at $130.  It went to a Mom who wanted a camping bike and something that could haul a kid trailer.

Next up was the 87 Letour that I started on last year.  I got this bike cheap, $50 but it had no rear brake, I spent $10 get a nice used long reach from the co-op.  This bike was odd in that I did all the normal full refurb stuff, stripping the bike to the frame, rebuilding all the bearings, cleaning the components, waxing the frame etc, but  I didn't change the bar tape or tires.  I picked up some misc cables to go with bits of housing I already had an a new chain so maybe $20 to get to about $80 all in.  The Schwinn sold for $130 to a nice local young man who was going to commute on it.

I had intended to keep riding the Novara Randonee but between its less than ideal fit, short TT, overlap with other bikes in the fleet and the fact it was prime selling time I put it on the market.  This bike gave me some challenges between seat post binders, shifters and trying to use a cartridge bb but it was in fine fettle by the time I sold it.  I paid $70 for the bike but then replaced the shifters, did the normal bar tape, chain, tires, cables and then also upgraded the cockpit.  I got $200 for it and we'll say that after getting use out of it riding (Including the Tour De Lopez),  I just about broke even,  It went to a Kid who is going to college in LA and needed a bike to get around, his dad is an avid cyclist and gave the Novara his blessing, and paid for it lol.  Had I kept the cockpit stock and not messed with the Symmetric shifters I could have probably done well on this bike but I did build it to ride it and I made it comfortable for me,

The Allez was the crown jewel of the bunch, I had a lot fun riding it last year to determine that a 56 cm bike just wasn't going to fit.  I got a great deal by finding this for $80 on CL.  It got the full spa treatment, I bought new tires and cables but the bar wrap and new chain had been in the parts bin for a few years, I hated the quick link on the Connex chain but used a KMC quick link instead which worked great.  I spent about $150 all in, and got $225 for it from a young guy who was already an Allez fan and was intending to use this one for winter commuting.  One of these days I will find a 58.

And tonight I sold the Rock Hopper to a tall gentleman who will use it to commute on the Burke-Gilman bike trail.  I got the RH for $65 and if I could have gotten the rear shifter to work I think I could have come close to doubling my $$.  As it was I put another $40 into for tires, really like the Schwable City tires btw, and used an orphan left friction shifter from the parts bin to solve the shifting issue,  I ended up selling it for $120 so I did make a little bit on this one.

I started with 9 bikes, adding the Rock Hopper brought me to 10, I have sold 5 and have the Trek  420 yet to refurb and sell and that will get me down to 4 bikes.  A lot more room and a bit of cash in my war chest for the potential coming unemployment, depends on how long it takes to find a new gig. 

I might have squeezed more $$ out of the above bikes but I am happy overall and my investments certainly did  better than sitting in a savings account,  and I had fun on most of these bikes to boot,  My plan is to refurb the Trek 520 over the winter an then do a lot of comparison riding between it and the Cresta GT,

Ride. Refurb. Thin the herd. Stack the Cash. Smile. Repeat

Tweaking the Ibex

As I mentioned the Ibex dropped its chain while a perspective buyer was out for a test ride and since I had previous issues with the FW that I thought I had fixed I decided to pull CL ad and replace the FW and chain.  On Friday night the Ibex went into the work stand and off came the rear wheel.

Since I had the FW off  anyway, I decided to do a quick clean of the hub and bearings (it was 3 bearings short btw) and replace the grease.  This part always seems to stall me on full rebuilds, but it only takes about 5 minutes to get the FW and axle off the hub so I am not sure why I let it road block me.

New FW side by side with the old one.  Different manufacturers - SunTour vs SunRace but the same number of gears and the same spread.  A new 8 speed SRAM chain and the 7 speed FW cost about $25 total on Amazon.

Because the new FW has the same gearing I didn't have to fiddle much with the shifting, however I thought the drive train was awfully noisy and "clattery".  Then I looked closer and realized I had colored outside the lines and routed the chain outside the upper jockey wheel cage -Doh!

Thank goodness for quick link chains!  I had it apart in a jiff and got it routed correctly, surprisingly the drive train was much quieter after the change.  A good reminder that if it sounds wrong there probably is something wrong.

The bike is back on CL and I even already have an appointment to show it tomorrow, so fingers crossed I will free up some room in the stable and the Ibex will go to a good home.  Next up the Schwinn LeTour.

Ride. Route your chain correctly. Smile. Repeat

Cresta GT Update part II

After letting the fork sit outside in our temperate weather for a few days I removed the tape from the canti studs and crown race area and mounted the VO headset crown race with my crown race setter.

Got the fork reconnected with the frame without much fuss.

I even got the wireless sensor back on the fork so the bike computer can keep track of my mileage and my very slow MPH.  And the original to the bike canti brakes got installed.

After doing some fiddling with the brakes I took it out for a neighborhood ride, the beer Junction may have been involved, and the fork didn't fall  off so I think I am good.  The rear brakes going to need more adjustment but that's minor.  I used the handkerchief I stowed in my new Carradice bag to project the top tube from the parking sign I had to hitch to when I stopped for beer.

I have a few more things to take care of like re-wrapping the  bars, I may go with Yellow this time rather than reusing the red Deda tape that I saved.  I also saw a deal on Metal fenders, Mud Butlers from Handsome Cycles for about $50 shipped.  The VO ones I had been eyeing are closer to $70 and don't include shipping.  I got a 45 mm size which should handle the Sand Canyons, if not I do have a few other bikes I could try them on.

The parts for the Ibex have come so the plan for the weekend is to get the FW off, clean and repack the hub, then install the new FW and chain.  Since the new FW has the same cog sizes and spacing as the old one I hope that I won't need to mess with the indexed shifting ...we'll see, Hope to end the weekend with it back on CL.

Ride a white legged steed, Smile. Repeat,

Some progress on the LeTour and a step back on the Ibex

When you have a stable of bikes you must be careful to spread the wealth of riding so as to blunt the petty jealousies, back biting and in fighting that can arise when bikes feel neglected or out of favor.  To that end I rode the handsome devil to the market today.  I didn't remember to take any pictures but I did have a market breakfast sandwich and of course sampled some beer.  After quite a bit of rain yesterday it was a nice sunny ride.

Schwinn LeTour

As I mentioned last week the Dia-Compe rear brake I had sourced for the LeTour didn't work, the arms were to short.

I was fortunate in rooting around in the caliper brake bin at Bike Works yesterday to find a long reach 47-57 rear Shimano brake which I picked up along with a new brake cable since one of mine was too short.

And success! the brake arms are more than long enough and the brake is dual pivot rather than single.  This means the front and rear brakes are mismatched but at this point what I care about is functionality.

So the brakes are done at least from the initial set up and running the cables and housing just need to dial them in and maybe true the front wheel a bit.

While waiting on a rear brake solution I had threaded the rear shift cable only to have the $%(*! cheap cable guide pop off.  This one has a post that goes into the hole in the bb, I think it supposed to be a bit bulbous on the end to keep it from coming out but that wasn't working, perhaps why later model under bb cable guides were bolted to the frame.

The hole in question..

Some good 'ol Elmer's glue which I have had for literally decades to help the cable guide stay put.

I rigged a rubber band clamp to keep the glued cable guide tight to the frame overnight.

I then got the rear derailleur hooked up and ran the new chain I purchased for the bike, a SRAM 830.

I would like to keep this bike indexed shifting as it was when I got it, but at first try it only sort of works, the derailleur isn't truly inline with the freewheel , its a bit outboard of where it needs to be.  As I have some other irons in the fire I am saving fine tuning the limit screws for when I have more time but I am inching closer to being done with the Schwinn.

Bianchi Ibex.

I had a local interested party come ride the Ibex Friday, unfortunately it dropped the chain while they were test riding it, he was very complementary of the bike and price but the trigger shifters weren't his cup of tea, can't blame him, trigger shifters aren't my top choice either.  I suspected the chain drop was the sticky freewheel rearing its ugly head again even though I though it was fixed.  I decided to pull my CL ad and ordered a new FW and chain and will relist after I have installed them and test ridden the bike.  I will raise the price a bit but I'll have more new stuff to list and hopefully won't have to worry about dropped chains!

As I was prepping the Ibex Friday for the test ride I noticed something about the seat tube bottle cage mounts, I am not sure they really thought this through.  Sure with some spacers you can make a bottle cage straddle the FD but why not just move it up the tube about 3 inches so the top bolt braze-on becomes the bottom one? Then the cage bottle is above the FD, like it is for most bikes.  Curious choice.

I mentioned other irons in the fire..... I should have an entire Cresta post coming soon.

Ride.Smile. Rattle-can a fork. Repeat.

Sunday Odds and Ends

I put the Bianchi Ibex on CL last week but I thought it would look better with some new grips so since I had no serious bites last weekend I ordered some $10 Celeste grips and cut off the tired old faux leather grips.

I think the new grips give the Ibex a fresher look, we'll see if that translates into a sale,  I raised the price a smidgen to cover the new grips but I think its still priced to sell.

I have been stalled out on the Schwinn Le Tour at rebuilding the hubs.  I started with the front wheel Saturday by removing the stupid "safety" hangers which physically connect the wheel to the fork, comes in real handy when you need to change a tire, smh, they are scrap metal now.  I can actually operate a quick release skewer like most 10 year olds.

I got the bearings out, cleaned them up in the sonic cleaner along with the axle and cones,  the races got cleaned up and with some fresh grease the bearings are back in and ready to go, 3 out of 4 main bearings are now done.

Today it was time for the rear wheel, in addition to cleaning up the bearings and adding new grease I found a number of extremely loose spokes which would explain the wobble in the wheel.

One trick I learned in removing bearings is to use an old bike computer spoke magnet to get them out of the hub and into my Park Tools magnetic bowl, I still have bearings try and get away from me but not as many and using the magnet is not as messy as sticking your fingers in there.

Of course it can't all be smooth sailing, the cheap CST tires were a bear to get off the rear rim, I don't recommend bringing in the screw driver but in this case with these $%&*! tight tires I made an exception. I did finally win.  If I hadn't needed to put this wheel in the truing stand I wouldn't have bothered.

The sonic cleaner did its magic with the bearings cones and spoke protector.

And now all four main bearings have clean bearings and fresh grease.

The wheel is far from perfect but its closer to true and all the losey goosey spokes are tightened up.

I got the stock FW off the bike I gave it a WD-40 bath but it still refused to spin, as it turns out I had a new Shimano 6 speed 14-28 FW in the parts bin and that had been there for years,  so I put it on the bike and I will play with the stuck one later and see if I can free it up.  I might even try an take it apart as I have nothing to lose.

Rear wheel back on with the fresh new Shimano FW, which I hope will make setting up the indexed shifting easier since it matches the spread on the old FW.

Seems to be one step forward and two back with this bike, the bearing are done, unfortunately the rear brake needs sorting.  The Le Tour had no rear brake when I got it, I found one at Bike Works but the arms where the pads go are short,  T-rex arms, and they don't extend far enough for the pad to meet the rims flush.  Sigh.  The good news is I can go back to Bike works and root around in the parts bin.  I will measure first before I do.  I would have assumed the caliper brake arm length was pretty standard in this era but this what I get for assuming.  

So closer on the Schwinn but it still needs the rear brake shorted, the cables run and we'll see if setting up the index shifting is a chore or not.  If it is, I can learn some new skills and I did find a helpful Park Tool video that should come in handy.

I got in a ride this morning to push my clunker challenge mileage on the Trek 520 to 90 km.  Hope to finish off the distance  and complete the challenge next weekend.

The goodies have accumulated for the Trek and await the end of the clunker challenge for installation.

I think the bar wrap will play off the Trek logo and the wider bars, taller stem and sneaker pedals will improve the comfort.  I still need to sort a saddle, as the Vetta must go, but I have a few Brooks I can borrow from other bikes in the short term.  I think the Seat post size on the Trek and the Handsome Devil are a match so that would make swapping fairly easy.

As I mentioned previously I wasn't sold on the look of the Carradice bag with rear rack on the Cresta GT,  and since I was able to find a modestly priced, used bagman support I ordered one.

Today I got the rack off the bike and the bagman support, basically a metal loop, installed on the saddle.

Since the front of the bag has to attach to the support and not just loop around the seat post the supplied strap was too short for the new support, however I like to keep toe straps around even though I usually discard the toe clips, so I had a spare and it was plenty long for the job of securing the bag to the support loop.

I like how it looks with the support loop much better than with the rack so I am glad I bit the bullet and bought the bagman, I might need a bigger bag now like a Nelson long flap lol.  The barley bag has a 9 liter capacity and the Nelson has 15 and can extend to 18 liters, but I am not going to upgrade unless I actually start doing credit card tours and decide I just have to start bike packing/camping.

All the work on the Schwinn meant missing the farmers market but I decided to ride up to the Junction and get a late lunch.  I have felt like I have been neglecting the Moto GT lately so it got the nod for the lunch ride.

Since I was nearby I had to stop in at the Beer junction for a couple tasters including this Third wheel Coffee Porter from Dwinell Country Ales in Goldendale, Wa.

Three day weekend coming up so I hope to keep riding and wrenching.

Ride. Smile. Repeat.