Red Rocket Bomber (almost done 11*18*08)

[ratina]

Lookin good so far, those tires are awesome!

[ponytailmike]

Hey all…
First I wanted to say I wish I had time to respond to all the builds…
They are all looking great… good job fellow Klunkers…
Red Rocket is in the first stages of drive train and brake mock up…
But she is a rider now…



The dual back brakes are modified Dia-Compe side pull…
The stud was damaged for the rear brake…
So… I drilled out the old stud…
Then used the longer front stud to hold it all together…
It works pretty well…



The drive train is an old 1978 Shimano Integer FF system…
What is that you might ask???
Well back in the 70’s all the manufactures were experimenting …
Shimano decided to put the freewheel up front with the chainring…
This allowed the user to shift gears while coasting or pushing the bike…
Quite a neat system… But it didn’t go over very well…





Shimano Thunder Bird front and Eagle II rear derailers…
Wald pedals with toe clips attached round out the drive train…
Here is a video clip…




The seat is a Mesinger… Nothing fancy…
I just like the design on its side…



BMX handlebars outfitted with Shimano thumb shifters and Dia-Compe hand brakes…



Red Rocket is still only in mock up stages…
I’m thinking I might braze on some better brakes…
I’m currently undecided…
And I do like a triple chainwheel…
Might look for another set of handlebars…
Just thinking on the keyboard…
We’ll keep up posted…

Ponytailmike
Mike

[Ed_Straker's_Rat]

Man, that freewheel up front is pretty cool looking, kinda like a set of spinners... I can see more than a few people getting stitches from the spinning bashguard tho

[Rodland]

I am liking that double rear brake a lot.

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

this is my favorite klunk so far. like what you're doing.

[ponytailmike]

So I’ve been riding Red for a week…
And the brakes were working out great…
But the side pull brakes had a lot of flex in the arms and thought
For a Klunker… That will be hitting the trails as well the pavement…
I needed a brake set up that would not get ripped off the frame…
So…
I cut off some brake studs from a donor and added them to the front fork…
Used a piece of metal strap that had holes in it for my jig…
This jig setup worked really well… I know I’ll use it again…
Juggernaut was silver soldered…
I am using brass braze this time… Silver solder is a little pricey…





I would of taken more progress photos but it was getting dark…
Day pictures are just so much better…
With the front fork done…
I shelved the dual side pull brakes for an up grade…
I added some more brake studs to the frame…





I’ll be using a modified gyro cable splitter to operate the back brakes…
The handle bars, stem, brake handles,
and shift levers were also up graded…





It’s starting to get cold here in Kansas City…
I still need to get the frame and fork cleaned up and painted…
I think I need two warm 65-degree days…
Got my fingers crossed…

I’m loving all the builds guys…
Keep Up The Good Work All…

ponytailmike
mike

[thatismytruck]

Wow. This thing is great. I love the brazing you are doing. How are you going to pull the second rear brake? For the front, I wonder if you could drill a hole in the upper truss support and feed the single brake cable through it. (did that make sense? ) This would give you more power to your front brake right?


mind if I borrow the brake line idea?

[blink]

that thing is looking really cool....

i am using the same saddle on my Klunker Build.

[ponytailmike]

Hope everyone is happy and well…
Got most of the bugs worked out… At least for now…
The wind was blowing a nice constant 5mph with 15mph gust…
Certainly not a good day to paint… It is in the lower 60’s…
Why not… Red Rocket needed paint…
I used rust-oleum paint this time… Primer, paint, and clear…
The directions on the can of primer stated…
“Apply a second coat or top coat within 1 hour or after 48 hours”
The sunrise red stated…
“Apply a second coat or clear coat within 1 hour or after 48 hours”
She got the full treatment...
Painted her in about an hour and a half…





If this paint method works out, I may use more rust-oleum paint…
Time will tell…

ponytailmike
mike

[elvis51]

mike the red turned out really nice man!!! this bike will definately be in the top runnings imo.

Easy E

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

this is still my fave

i chuckled about your painting technique. i'm the same way. i'm the most impatient painter ever. i usually assemble the bike while tacky too.

[Rustinkerer]

That's gonna be one sweet ride! Btw, that's a Columbia/Westfield frame. The giveaway are the rear dropouts. Monark had similar frames, but their prewar frames had ears for dropstands. ~Adam

[ponytailmike]

Happy Halloween… BOO…





This is my rear brake cable…
It’s a modified gyro SST front brake cable…
That’s a 1/8 inch locking collar I picked at the hardware store…
The original cable used an alloy plug molded to the cable…
The locking collar fit perfectly in the SST barrel…



This is my unfinished head badge…
It started as a piece of 7/8 refrigeration soft copper tubing…
I plan to use some steal stamps for the lettering…
And of course… Polish… Polish… Polish…

Well… gotta go…
Hope to have another update after the weekend…

ponytailmike
mike

Oh and by the way…
Thank you rustinkerer for the frame ID…
It helped a lot…

[ponytailmike]

It was a beautiful weekend…
70 degrees both Saturday and Sunday…
Red got all hung up in some masking tape I had laying around…
Looks like she struggled for a bit…
I decided I would kool her off a bit and grabbed the wrong rattle can…





I just could not help myself Sunday afternoon…
I assembled the front fork on to the frame…
And then the tires…







Still undecided about the drivetrain…
The old front freewheel is a kool setup but…
I’m still looking around at different combinations…
I may put an old Suntour set up on her…
By the way… here’s the rat tool box build photos…











Got the nice old heavy tool box at a thrift store for 5 dollars…
The wagon parts were given to me…
All of a sudden… One day… About a month ago…
I thought that box has just been sitting… Let’s put on some wheels…
Sorry got a little off track there…
But hope you enjoyed the photos…

ponytailmike
mike

[Markm]

WOW!!!!