My first build on RRB's, Early style track racer

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carrotsnax

carrotsnax

Joined
Nov 21, 2011
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Location
Richmond/Staunton, VA
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Well I am no stranger to bicycles but this is my first thread and first build on RRB's.

So this is what I started off with. A little flashy for my taste. lol

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I didn't do much to the frame, I obviously pulled all the stickers and the head badge. But I also cut off the cable holders on the frame and I also removed the paint from the head set with a razor blade to happily find the head set was mild steel. So I left the frame out to get some rust on it. I also removed the paint from the head set hardware and stem nut and left them out to rust. Also Added this Cool "SpeedWell" Badge.

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The wheel set is 700c in size with 700c x 38 tires. I really wanted a 2 speed kickback on this bike so I have a Sturmey Archer S2C kick shift.

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I spent a long time looking for a fork and a crank set up that would fit the frame. I bought both at the Trexler town bike meet.

The fork looks to be Schwinn and the crank looks like a cheapy sears crank. I also bought the Nickel plated drop bars at Trexler town. No idea what they are from but a couple guys at the meet said they looked like early Columbia bars.

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Sorry Bad photo of the bars on a crappy stem.

I cut apart the ugly techno sprocket and sorta made my own sprocket out of two. After making "my own" sprocket I went to the Bicycle museum of America and saw that what I made was basically a fairly common Schwinn design of the 20's-30's. No biggie.

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I was going to use this seat post, I was really excited about it. Bought it for a good deal and it was rusty. I removed the paint and lightly wet sanded it to give it some shine but also not to remove the rust that was already there. After wet sanding I left it outside for a while. Sadly... Like a dummy I bought this thinking it fit my frame. It fits inside of my seat clamp but not into the actual down tube. The seat post is stamped "Made in England." So its a weird ball 1-1/16" diameter. My down tube is 1". I have been considering Grinding two flat spots down either side of it to get it to fit but I think it would look tacky if the grinded area was showing. The problem with grinding it to is that the seat post material is so thin. So I don't know, I guess I am on the hunt for another Lucky 7 seat post.

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My shorty stem.

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I have been slowly working on this bike since Sep 2011. lol I am a full time student, so I am limited on time. But I really want to get this bike finished now.

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So final things that I need:

-looking for steel Quill style pedals that don't say "Japan" all over them. Possibly rusty and grungy.
-Lucky 7 seat post
-Real rusty chain
-Wood grips, I will probably make the wood grips when I have time.

Final things I need to do:
-Cut down stem on fork
-paint fork with paint matched paint.
-RIDE!! :D


Hope you guys like it!
 
Welcome aboard and nice work with that Thruster.
I really like the chainring and bars.
 
In that last photo I thought that you had made a wooden tank plate for the bike, but it's just your fold down table side! It looks good, might wanna try it. :D
 
Thanks Zumo, yoothgeye Its funny you mention that. I didnt even notice, but it does look interesting. Maybe in the future I will consider something like that. I always have wanted to make a movie advert sign like some of the postal carries had on their tank bikes in the 30's and so on. But for now I want to keep it simple looking.
 
It was cool hanging out with you yesterday and talking bike stuff. I think you are about the fifth RRBer that I have met personally.
Good luck with your build. You should post some pics of your other bikes when you get a chance.

It was funny running across you and your mom today, less than 3 minutes into my first ride on Fat Fink. I should have gotten you to take a photo of me on it.
Happy Easter.
 
Have you put the Lucky 7 seat post on yet? Wondering if it helps with the knees hitting the handle bars when making turns. This is something that looks like it is going to be a problem on my current build that is very similar to yours.
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kingfish254 said:
It was cool hanging out with you yesterday and talking bike stuff. I think you are about the fifth RRBer that I have met personally.
Good luck with your build. You should post some pics of your other bikes when you get a chance.

It was funny running across you and your mom today, less than 3 minutes into my first ride on Fat Fink. I should have gotten you to take a photo of me on it.
Happy Easter.
Click to expand...

Kingfish it was awesome catching up with you and talking bikes. I don't often get to talk bike. lol I need to pull some of my bikes out of storage and take some digital photos of them. I look forward to the day where I can have all my bikes in the same place. I was surprised when I heard my name and saw you riding by on Easter. You know I was thinking the same thing as you were riding off. I thought to myself that I should have taken a picture. Oh well, next time I guess. I will keep you posted if I wind up down that way again. I would like to do one of the 2 major bike events down there. Or maybe even take part in the bike Bashing as I think it was called? Its so nice and flat down there, it would be a great place to try out this^^^ bike. Its a shame Fat Fink already had to go back to walmart, but it looked like you had a good time regardless.

g-ratter said:
Have you put the Lucky 7 seat post on yet? Wondering if it helps with the knees hitting the handle bars when making turns. This is something that looks like it is going to be a problem on my current build that is very similar to yours.
Click to expand...

I haven't used the lucky 7 seast post I have. It does not fit my downtube. I imagine with a lucky 7 there is some possibility of my knees hitting the bars but hopefully minimal. I dont intend to make sharp turns with it and my bars sweep pretty far forward and the hand grip area is short. By the way, I like your truss frame build.
 
So classes and exams are over so I made a full on attack of doing everything that I could to this project.

Here is what I have done the past two days.

-I cut down my fork, and painted it after wet sanding the primer coat.
-I had to cut down my Stem a little bit to get it to sit as low as I wanted in the fork tube.

I have also been playing with salt and cider vinegar to patina some items. I started doing one chain but found that more than half of the links on it were cracked. So I went to my local bike shop and got a used rusty chain to start over again with. The coiled up one is the one I scored today. It isn't very rusty or really even bad, it was still oily.

The other chain to begin with was not very rusty either but in the short time of playing with it it has patina'd quite nice.





I am now pondering rusting my crank and sprocket. I have a nice set of mildly rusty steel quil pedals and I think I just want to even out the rust ratio, also giving it an aged look. WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?



This is part of my old sprocket. I think if I was to age it I would only do the tips of the crank arms and the outer most edges of the sprocket slowly fading inward. Again you guys tell me what you think. I am torn. lol


Here are the results!




 
I'd say you have the award for taking something useless and making it cool. A thruster fixie into this?...Nice work!
 
I received my pedals today after their long arduous journey from Italy.





Mildly rusty, and steel, without "Made in Japan" stamped all over them YAY!

I will need to disassemble these to straighten them out and grease them. More pics upon fitting them.

I now just need a seat post, wooden grips and a chain.

Both of the rusty chains I was aiming to use do not fit the sprocket on my 2 speed kick back. I have a chain that fits but its too short. So I am on the hunt for another chain.
 
With the craziness of the build off, I totally missed that you started back up on your build.
I may try your patina trick on my rear fender. I like the way it looks. I don't think I would do it to your cranks because they are just look too slick as they are.
This is really a great looking ride. Keep it up.
I love the sweep of those bars too.
 

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