24” Girls Rolumbiafast!!!! (Not Rollfast or Columbia!!!!!)

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I'm looking at the red bikes, that WF's rear hoop is insane! And the Schwinn twin bar too! They look small, are they 24s as well? Nice score, forty bucks for a truckload!
Thanks Matti; it’s hard to tell as all the tires on these bikes are toast!!!!

I really just grabbed them.

the Schwinn I think is a 24”; I put the WF right by a 26” Firestone and it looks like a 26”

I’ll do some more digging tomorrow if it ever stops raining.
 
The kickstand on this was sort of whacked.

Swapped out for a newer one I had laying around
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Trouble in paradise

I went to swap out the pedals.

As they looked the same when I pulled them off, they were not a dead match

When I tried to put the new pedals on, I found the right pedal was stripped!!!!

I guess this will give me an excuse to put on a larger crank, which should actually be better for riding.
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That's the SN part of the year stamp. The year digits should be just to the left of that. Maybe a light sanding will show the numbers, but it does look like the stamp was offset. It might be lightly visible under the paint.
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Ok, this never happens....

I call my buddy “500 Bike Bruce” and line up a trip to look for a new crank.

found an exact fit for dust covers and hardware (longer crank arm) that was a bit rusty, but all threads everywhere were clean.

got it home, scrubbed it up, pulled out the old crank, re-lubed the bearings, dropped in the new, snugged everything up.... boom!

soup to nuts was like, 15 minutes.

couldn’t believe it. Never had a swap go so smooth.

so, I got some parts on order. All the heavy lifting is done. Just wait for parts, throw it together and we’re there!!!!
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Cool Rolumbiafast build man!!! I like the new crank and sprocket.
 
Ok, this never happens....

I call my buddy “500 Bike Bruce” and line up a trip to look for a new crank.

found an exact fit for dust covers and hardware (longer crank arm) that was a bit rusty, but all threads everywhere were clean.

got it home, scrubbed it up, pulled out the old crank, re-lubed the bearings, dropped in the new, snugged everything up.... boom!

soup to nuts was like, 15 minutes.

couldn’t believe it. Never had a swap go so smooth.

so, I got some parts on order. All the heavy lifting is done. Just wait for parts, throw it together and we’re there!!!!
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BTW: I put the cranks by each other…. The new crank definitely has longer crank arms, but maybe an inch?

I suppose pedal strike could be an issue, but my daughter does ride at a good pace and I thought that short crank would just wear her out.
 
So....... wowzers!!!!

Sorry for falling off the face of the earth!!!!

Got caught up in family summer fun.

I’ve been super busy the last 3 weeks/ weekends.

So, here’s BLO part 2, as sitting outside for a month has taken a toll on the finish.

I also got the seat post out, which.... was a nightmare. BUT, no torches, no broken steel..... just 45 minutes of grunting and sweating in 90 degree heat.

The build should go pretty quick from here on out.
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Meh... hit a speed bump.

Front fork needs drilled for 3/8” axles.

I’ll get my bit tomorrow and wallow it out!!!!

-still a bit concerned about pedal strike: Navy girl’s going to have to keep this on pretty flat or paved trails and can’t get too crazy with “side-to-side” hard acceleration.
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Before you take a go at the fork, please read this 😉

What is harder to replace, an original six decades old fork or a modern wheel axel?

I see so many people put new wheel sets on old bikes by grinding the axel slots on thier fork to fit the wheel. NEVER DO THIS!!! It's very simple. Just grind or file flat spots on each side of the axel so that the fork is left original. Who knows, you may decide to put vintage wheels back on it some day.

That was todays project for the Rad Rot Bike. Here's some tips:

First mark the center of the axle in four spots, left, right, fore and aft. Make sure your marks line up across from each other on both sides of the wheel. I used some tape and marked it with a sharpie so that it's easy to see.
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The tape was placed away from the inside nut just enough to visually match the thickness of the fork. With the tape guide to go by, I then proceeded to take just a small amount of material off of each side (90 deg. apart) with a cut off wheel until it matched the fork width (keeping both sides equil). A vernier caliper comes in very handy here.
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Done! As a bonus the axel doesn"t spin around in the nice unaltered X-53 fork!
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