SWB0 CobblestoneRat - Done, but still getting little upgrades... ;-)

Shop deals on ebay
BOXKARS
shop deals on amazon
Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Another little tweak got finally dealt with today. In the last few weeks the CobblestoneRat got quite a lot of roadtime an most of the times with a convertible backpack attached to its rack. Yesterday I had big trouble shifting and when I checked I saw that the little shifting chain had rubbed through parts of the padding and that probably caused my shifting problems.
IMG_20240514_164957160.jpg

So today on my way home I scouted several little bike shops (the big one nearby had nothing) to find a protective cage for the shifter. Luckily I found a used one in the third shop I checked out...
IMG_20240514_165004593_HDR.jpg
 
Two little upgrades today:
First I finally managed to mount a different hitch to the trailer, thus making it compatible with all my bikes that have the fitting counterpart which are as of now almost all the bikes I keep here at home...
IMG_20240613_153639114.jpg

The other upgrade needed a bit more effort.
First I bought this bag
IMG_20240612_204954254.jpg

IMG_20240612_204924838.jpg

Then I dug out this sheet of hard foam PVC from the basement and cut and bent two fitting inner stabilizers
IMG_20240613_120021560.jpg

Then I dyed the bag pitch black
IMG_20240612_211543553.jpg

Ok, not pitch black, but good enough for my purpose.
IMG_20240613_134604531.jpg

IMG_20240613_134537098.jpg

I also had purchased these two parts.
IMG_20240613_120032432.jpg

Throw in some screws, sweat and swearing and you get this:
IMG_20240613_135514358.jpg
IMG_20240613_134330990.jpg

IMG_20240613_134257571.jpg

It fits perfectly
IMG_20240613_151037694.jpg

I might add some color to it later on...
IMG_20240613_134741311.jpg

IMG_20240613_135328066.jpg
 
Last edited:
I just came back from a long (and still ongoing) protest ride through Berlin. I think this one needs a little political context to fully get it. Several years ago, Berlin has given itself a mobility law that sets certain parameters how the various modes of traffic should be prioritized. Public traffic first then bike and pedestrian infrastructure and then privat cars. So much for the theory. As if the last elections we have a very conservative (car centered) government that wants to get rid of all this and bomb Berlin back into car traffic stone age.
Also a few years ago air quality was very bad and the government then was forced to limit the speed on several roads to 30 km/h. No the air quality has improved and they want to turn back to the regular 50 km/h speed limit (it's a bit like if you take medicine for a chronic disease and after getting rid of the symptoms you stop taking the medicine and expect to stay healthy).
So than one guy had a crazy idea: Why not make a 30 hours protest bike ride for a 30 km/h speed limit?!?!
Today that ride started at noon and it will end tomorrow at 6pm. It's split up in two alternating routes, one leading into the north and one two the south, both around 33 km long.
So today I rode the CobblestoneRat for three rounds, one north and two south from 3 pm to midnight. With the way there and back a put another 126 km on my clock...
Here are some impressions from underway...
My ride
IMG_20240615_175830292_HDR.jpg

The pack leaders
IMG_20240615_182323094.jpg

This bike is a regular on our monthly protest rides. They did two rounds today

On the road
IMG_20240615_161403037.jpg

Todays track
Screenshot_20240616-003818.png
 
SwissGuy said:
I just came back from a long (and still ongoing) protest ride through Berlin. I think this one needs a little political context to fully get it. Several years ago, Berlin has given itself a mobility law that sets certain parameters how the various modes of traffic should be prioritized. Public traffic first then bike and pedestrian infrastructure and then privat cars. So much for the theory. As if the last elections we have a very conservative (car centered) government that wants to get rid of all this and bomb Berlin back into car traffic stone age.
Also a few years ago air quality was very bad and the government then was forced to limit the speed on several roads to 30 km/h. No the air quality has improved and they want to turn back to the regular 50 km/h speed limit (it's a bit like if you take medicine for a chronic disease and after getting rid of the symptoms you stop taking the medicine and expect to stay healthy).
So than one guy had a crazy idea: Why not make a 30 hours protest bike ride for a 30 km/h speed limit?!?!
Today that ride started at noon and it will end tomorrow at 6pm. It's split up in two alternating routes, one leading into the north and one two the south, both around 33 km long.
So today I rode the CobblestoneRat for three rounds, one north and two south from 3 pm to midnight. With the way there and back a put another 126 km on my clock...
Here are some impressions from underway...
My ride
View attachment 269717
The pack leaders
View attachment 269716
This bike is a regular on our monthly protest rides. They did two rounds today
View attachment 269718
On the road
View attachment 269719
Todays track
View attachment 269715
Click to expand...

Bravo 💪✊🏼
 
SwissGuy said:
I just came back from a long (and still ongoing) protest ride through Berlin. I think this one needs a little political context to fully get it. Several years ago, Berlin has given itself a mobility law that sets certain parameters how the various modes of traffic should be prioritized. Public traffic first then bike and pedestrian infrastructure and then privat cars. So much for the theory. As if the last elections we have a very conservative (car centered) government that wants to get rid of all this and bomb Berlin back into car traffic stone age.
Also a few years ago air quality was very bad and the government then was forced to limit the speed on several roads to 30 km/h. No the air quality has improved and they want to turn back to the regular 50 km/h speed limit (it's a bit like if you take medicine for a chronic disease and after getting rid of the symptoms you stop taking the medicine and expect to stay healthy).
So than one guy had a crazy idea: Why not make a 30 hours protest bike ride for a 30 km/h speed limit?!?!
Today that ride started at noon and it will end tomorrow at 6pm. It's split up in two alternating routes, one leading into the north and one two the south, both around 33 km long.
So today I rode the CobblestoneRat for three rounds, one north and two south from 3 pm to midnight. With the way there and back a put another 126 km on my clock...
Here are some impressions from underway...
My ride
View attachment 269717
The pack leaders
View attachment 269716
This bike is a regular on our monthly protest rides. They did two rounds today
View attachment 269718
On the road
View attachment 269719
Todays track
View attachment 269715
Click to expand...
We even made it into the news and you can see me (or better my flag and the orange helmet) passing by the camera...
https://www.rbb-online.de/abendschau/videos/20240615_1930/nachrichten-eins.html
 
And another little update: I finally got the perfect bell for the many upcoming protest rides: a storm bell (or continuous bell). I had mounted it already on the fly on Saturday but quickly realized that I needed to tweak it a little.
IMG_20240618_210348533.jpg

To mount it securely I countered all the fixing screws (tip from someone with the same kind of bell):
The original handle was very flimsy and the cable was so short that I had to mount it to the seatpost. Not very comfortable to handle and ugly...
IMG_20240618_210840220.jpg


So I dug through my parts and found an old Simplex shifter lever that had the perfect look. With some shimming (with tape) I could mount it right next to the shifter:
IMG_20240618_210937029.jpg

IMG_20240618_210353564.jpg

I kinked the cable a bit while trying it out, but replacement is almost ready. I need to file the cable stop a bit to make it fit into the shifter. What I also need is some zip ties to fix the cable housing to the frame. Today I only had tape ready...

But it works and the sound is really nice and loud:
 
Today it even got worse. The break anchor bent even more and the brake completely blocked...
IMG_20240622_175303598.jpg

Looks like I need to rebuild the rear wheel with another hub. I think I have one in a spare 26' wheel, but no spokes on stock and no time to get at it... 🤬
Next week I'm not in Berlin and in two weeks is the next protest ride, where I wanted to use this bike... 🤦🤔
 
Today I finally found time for the urgent wheel swap. When trying to swap the tires I ran into an unusual problem: I couldn't get the valve undone because the little nut was crooked:
IMG_20240701_183113402.jpg

I had to use brute force to get it out...
The rear hub looks pretty much shot. I don't think I'll find a proper replacement soon. I have an idea where to ask for spare parts, but that might get too expensiv. We will see...
IMG_20240701_210636732.jpg


IMG_20240701_210657046.jpg


While at it I hooked the rat up to the scale. A whopping 22,5 kg...
IMG_20240701_210532349.jpg

And when I almost was done I remembered another little issue: When I had a bag attached to the rack it made a little creaking sound, because the rack was rubbing against the fender. A little bit of tube (coming from the one I had to rip out) took (hopefully) care of that:
IMG_20240701_212221625.jpg

And I also swapped the extra bell to the other side and up, as I used to kick it with my heel sometimes when pedaling... Tomorrow I have to check if this setup works with the bag I made...
IMG_20240701_212802036.jpg



Long story short: The CobblestoneRat is operational again!
IMG_20240701_212755962.jpg

I'll take care of the mismatched rims, when I'm back from my trip to Florida in August...
 
MattiThundrrr said:
Oh man, that's going to be HOT!! You planning on doing any cycling down there?
Click to expand...
Don't know yet. We will be there in the last week of July and the first two weeks of August, mostly in Lakeland and Cape Coral, that's where my wife has relatives that we want to visit... If I get access to a bike I'll probably ride it around. We will see...
 
Next week I'll spend two days on the campground (much less then I hoped for, but I took over some cat sitting duties without thinking further...🤦) so in preparation of some wheel building I disassembled the rear wheel with the messed up hub...
IMG_20240818_130719412_1.jpg

Here you can clearly see how bent the break arm is... 😬
IMG_20240818_130728507.jpg

On the campground I must have a good Torpedo 3-speed somewhere stashed away and most probably also some fitting spokes (if not I'll order some).

I also need to take care of the pedals, as they produce an awful squeaking sound. They might be in need of some grease...

So hopefully by end of next week this ride should be in proper working order again.
 
Success and frustration are close partners...
On the campground I found the Torpedo hub I was looking for and even a set of spokes that fits.
I managed to lace in the rim in less than 30 minutes. Here it is with a bit of 70ties caravaning vibes from the original upholstery 😁
IMG_20240819_212754885.jpg

And here comes the frustrating part:
After putting some initial tension on the spokes I put the wheel in the truing stand. I could feel a unusual resistance when I tried to spin the wheel, so I took a closer look.

It was not only the rim that wobbled, but also the hub itself: bent axle...!🤬🤬🤬
 
So, time for plan B (even if I might end up not using it for this bike):
I just today unlaced a Torpedo Duomatic hub from a 20" rim. It's the rare one with 36 holes. It has the same flange diameter as the 3speed, so I unlaced the bent hub and laced the Duomatic in.
IMG_20240819_231504104.jpg
IMG_20240819_231522169.jpg

This hub behaves like it should.

I even managed to position the oiler in the right spot 🎉
IMG_20240819_231550486.jpg

Now I just need to true it...
 

Latest posts

Back
Top