Silver King Unchained: BELT DRIVE....What a ride~!

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Jack's Huntington Beach = OG North Orange County, CA WIN

BITD, downtown HB was gritty and probably just as much so as Venice/Santa Monica was. Jack's was a cornerstone just as much as the Golden Bear.
Would love to ride this bike down Huntington Beach someday.
 
Couldnt help but spotting the little instructables sticker on your woody. Do you publish over there as well? I go there by "Uersel"...
Yeah, haven't posted a project in a while, but have won a few contests over the years. In fact, a link from there to RRB is what got me started here.

You might recognize my username; OddJob. :grin:
 
Yeah, haven't posted a project in a while, but have won a few contests over the years. In fact, a link from there to RRB is what got me started here.

You might recognize my username; OddJob. :grin:
When checking your name out I realized that I was already following you over there... :113:
 
Day 27 Update

It's the start of the Memorial Day holiday weekend here in the north country. OJ and Mrs. Job (as @The Renaissance Man likes to call her!) will be heading up to the north woods in an hour or so. First trek of the season to the campsite, which means getting all the systems up and running, recreational vehicles functioning, possibly some chainsaw work if there are any downed trees blocking our way. We did have a couple of extreme high wind storms this Spring, so I'm crossing my fingers, toes, legs; everything I've got!

I've got some belt tension ideas in the mix for SKU, will try those once I get back. My current rat version holds the wheel in place just fine, but bottoms out before I get all tension on the belt that I'm looking for.

In the meantime, here's a clip of one of the great crooners of all time, 'belting out' a tune.....




"..... I get no kick, from champagne. But I, get a belt, out of you...."
 
Day 4 Update on SKU: Parts is Parts

Remember the Wendy's old chicken sandwich ad? Maybe this will refresh your memory...



Well, I can say for this Silver King Unchained build, parts is definitely not PARTS. And knowing that I had to be sure that things were going to work before I went ahead and bought some 'SKU build specific' parts, I had to dismantle
( read: wrestle with, soak he H-E-double toothpicks out with PB Blaster, and resort to non-traditional extraction methods) last Fall before I went ahead any further. I knew I would have fun using the Trek Belt drive crank ring, cog ring, and belt tension device on another build if it didn't work out. And I had the belt on order that would fit the system as well; all in for only about $75 at the time.

But, if for some reason I couldn't get the bottom bracket and cranks, and the fork and headset out of the SK frame, then I would bag the idea and move on to another frame at another time.

Here are some photos from my experience wrestling with those rusted solid, 76 yr old parts, minus the swearing.
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I managed to eventually, over the coarse of a couple weeks of off and on soaking with PB Blaster, and as gentle persuasion as I could muster so as not to damage the cast duralium frame, get those parts removed.

One turn of the saddle on the seat post to see if I could pull it out, after MANY applications of PB Blaster, and I snapped the very short snub of seatpost off right at the top of the seat tube.

View attachment 192138


This is now here today, I attempted to pull on the post and see if it had loosened up over the winter, if the freezing and thawing of the BACK40 had worked it's magic. No dice. There wasn't much to get a hold of as the post sheared off right at the top. I have been using a drill bit to gradually remove what is left of the post inside. Have a couple ideas about how I might approach a 'seat post' as it were. Might have a rat rod modification on my hands for sure. Already made two trips to my local Ace Hardware. My staff friends just nod and smile. They know it's bike building season again....


View attachment 192140

RaT oN~!

They know it's bike building season again....
LOL....
 
Update from the boondocks.

They say you can't get a good pizza in the middle of nowhere. And the pizza cutter is vintage 1989, before they started the PZT-1, PZT-2, etc. Handlebars broke off at some point in the last 33 yrs. Still slices za like none other.
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Day 29 Update on SKU

I'm on duty at the bike shop tomorrow, so we came home this afternoon. Got everything cleaned up and had a couple moments in the BACK40 before throwing the burgers on the grill.

My rat rod chain line tension devices held the wheel in place great, but they bottomed out before I got the belt really tight. My man Todd , head wrench dog at ye olde shoppe, said that my belt needed 'cinching'. Since the belt around my waist is hopeless, I figured I'd order up some real live tension devices and see what they could do to put some snap in this drive belt.

Certain bike parts are still hard to come by via the shop, so I ordered these off Amazon. They were waiting on the front step when we rolled in today.
SKU tensioners.jpg


I installed them and boy did they tighten things up in the back end! Had just enough time to jump on the bike and try a small hill at the end of our street.....no popping and skipping on the belt / cogs / drive ring! I think we've solved that issue.
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I also installed the grips that I had colorized earlier in the week. Shoe polished the leather and smoke anodized the bright chrome lock rings. I think they will work with the rims. Couple more 'brownies' coming up for SKU...

283712827_1027219274569827_8050013834124989962_n.jpg


RaT oN~!
 
Were the alloy dropouts too thick to fit in the channels in the tensioners?
Yep. I knew they probably wouldn't fit when I ordered them. But with the pressure on the tensioner, and the axle nut holding it all in, they aren't going anywhere. These are cast aluminum frames remember, not high tensile steel or hydroformed aluminum frames. They made up for the lack of strength by adding mass and surface area. The width of the duralium dropout is 8.6mm. The channel width of the tensioner is 7.75. Nearly a full millimeter.

The distance between the axle and the end of the dropout on the frame is quite short, which is what made my version not work the first time. And, these belts only come in about 3 lengths for this 'pitch' and number of 'teeth'. The other two belt sizes were either way short or way too long for my 'chain stay length'. Such are the woes of custom, one-off, building. :wink1:
 
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Could you not have installed longer machine screws in the original tensioners ?
It isn't the length of the machine screw that was the issue in this case. It is the short distance between the axle and the back of the frame drop out. What I could have tried was putting a washer(s) behind the dropouts, between the cable end shaft and the dropout to increase the distance. But I would have had to flatten one edge of the washer, and with the size of the machine screw, it wouldn't have left much for 'bite' and strength. And there wasn't much wiggle room. The design of these alloy ones allowed me to use the natural tensioning of the screw to adjust the wheel, instead of the static distance, if that makes any sense?
 
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It's funny how the amazing revelation of the fact that adding these alloy tensioners completely solved my 'skipping' problem and took away my most pressing problem, got lost on some viewers because of minute details. :bigsmile:

Believe me, I think these things through to the end. Just because sometimes it happens fast, doesn't mean it was easy. Oftentimes, it gets worked through in many iterations in my head long before it hits paper, or physical application.

Revel in the joy with me, fellow rat rodders! That's where the true heart of building these bikes lies!

RaT oN~!
 
Sounds familiar Mr Job. I wake up at night thinking of how to make stuff too. Usually it's bike related, but sometimes it's wooden toys for the grandkids.
The idea of using BMX chain tensioners has been floating around in my head since I realized no locally sources, modern threaded bolts would work to replace the gnarly old factory original tension screws.
 
Day 29 Update on SKU

I'm on duty at the bike shop tomorrow, so we came home this afternoon. Got everything cleaned up and had a couple moments in the BACK40 before throwing the burgers on the grill.

My rat rod chain line tension devices held the wheel in place great, but they bottomed out before I got the belt really tight. My man Todd , head wrench dog at ye olde shoppe, said that my belt needed 'cinching'. Since the belt around my waist is hopeless, I figured I'd order up some real live tension devices and see what they could do to put some snap in this drive belt.

Certain bike parts are still hard to come by via the shop, so I ordered these off Amazon. They were waiting on the front step when we rolled in today.
View attachment 195078

I installed them and boy did they tighten things up in the back end! Had just enough time to jump on the bike and try a small hill at the end of our street.....no popping and skipping on the belt / cogs / drive ring! I think we've solved that issue.
View attachment 195081

View attachment 195082



View attachment 195083


I also installed the grips that I had colorized earlier in the week. Shoe polished the leather and smoke anodized the bright chrome lock rings. I think they will work with the rims. Couple more 'brownies' coming up for SKU...

View attachment 195087

RaT oN~!
Awesome grips!
 
Day 29 Update on SKU

I'm on duty at the bike shop tomorrow, so we came home this afternoon. Got everything cleaned up and had a couple moments in the BACK40 before throwing the burgers on the grill.

My rat rod chain line tension devices held the wheel in place great, but they bottomed out before I got the belt really tight. My man Todd , head wrench dog at ye olde shoppe, said that my belt needed 'cinching'. Since the belt around my waist is hopeless, I figured I'd order up some real live tension devices and see what they could do to put some snap in this drive belt.

Certain bike parts are still hard to come by via the shop, so I ordered these off Amazon. They were waiting on the front step when we rolled in today.
View attachment 195078

I installed them and boy did they tighten things up in the back end! Had just enough time to jump on the bike and try a small hill at the end of our street.....no popping and skipping on the belt / cogs / drive ring! I think we've solved that issue.
View attachment 195081

View attachment 195082



View attachment 195083


I also installed the grips that I had colorized earlier in the week. Shoe polished the leather and smoke anodized the bright chrome lock rings. I think they will work with the rims. Couple more 'brownies' coming up for SKU...

View attachment 195087

RaT oN~!
Yeah, too bad i got the brown fenders Lee.. HA!! HA!!!
 
Day 32 Update

Well, it's June 1, and other than a little mod I have in mind for the pedals, Silver King Unchained is pretty much done. Some of you who are new to this site might say,
" What? Don't we have three more months left?!?"

Yes, yes we do. But my time will be very limited for the rest of the summer with 2 weddings, 7 music gigs, and 3 long weekend trips all ready on the schedule. I was hoping to finish this build in the first month, and have pretty much reached my goal. And this is not unusual for OJ speed; I'm usually done in the first month or so. :wink1:

It's a great rider, and the belt drive is functioning like a champ now that I have the belt fully tightened! I will be posting some ride vids here and the pedal mod in the days and weeks ahead.

And of course, I will continue to moderate the forum and cheer on the rest of you!



keep calm and rat on.jpg
 
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Day 27 Update

It's the start of the Memorial Day holiday weekend here in the north country. OJ and Mrs. Job (as @The Renaissance Man likes to call her!) will be heading up to the north woods in an hour or so. First trek of the season to the campsite, which means getting all the systems up and running, recreational vehicles functioning, possibly some chainsaw work if there are any downed trees blocking our way. We did have a couple of extreme high wind storms this Spring, so I'm crossing my fingers, toes, legs; everything I've got!

I've got some belt tension ideas in the mix for SKU, will try those once I get back. My current rat version holds the wheel in place just fine, but bottoms out before I get all tension on the belt that I'm looking for.

In the meantime, here's a clip of one of the great crooners of all time, 'belting out' a tune.....




"..... I get no kick, from champagne. But I, get a belt, out of you...."

love Frank. Our wedding dance song was “the best is yet to come”.…. And I once brought down the house at a karaoke singing “That’s Life” while out with a bunch of my business clients and colleagues. (My first and only attempt at singing in public) ….. it was a pretty young crowd, so I’m not sure how many people present had ever heard the song before. - and, as I’m a far cry from the millennial crowd, I think I was somewhat of a novelty taking the mic’!
 

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