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Early morning shakedown ride along the river. 30.7 miles. No mechanical issues.

We have a bike. I finished truing the rear wheel with the original hub this morning, and finished all the other bits after lunch and took it for a short test spin. I ended up using a chain tensioner for now because I couldn't get enough slack out of the chain with the adjustable dropouts. I'll...

The cog is dished already, and it was off by about the width of my index finger even with the flange pointing out. I've already laced the original hub back on, and I'll finish truing the wheel today. I might have been able to get it in line with a BB that has a shorter spindle, but I just didn't...

Thanks, but it seems my first (and likely only) experience with an IGH is a total failure - I cannot get a straight chain line between my chainring and the IGH cog. There is no way to adjust the cog in or out; it is in a fixed location on the shaft. After working hours to get the IGH laced to my...

Progress pic. New hub successfully installed and trued on the front. Still need to pull the drive side crank and chainring and install the new ones. This evening I'll be working on lacing the SA 3-sp hub to the back rim. Not long now.

20 mile river ride this morning on a newly opened section of a rail trail.

My wheel tweaking went about as well as I could possibly hope. The LBS owner suggested I bring my off-center front wheel down for a look. He stuck it on his pro truing stand, then turned around and called for me to come to the back of the workshop. He tweaked a few spokes, made a few...

If I had any hair on top I'd be pulling it out. Lacing took me about an hour, not bad for my first attempt. Truing, on the other hand, took me 5 or 6 hours spread over a couple of days. I chased the lateral and rotary trueness back and forth over and over. The only thing that kept me from...

Just arrived a short while ago. Let the fun begin.

Cool. 50+ years ago I had a banana seat Schwinn I rode all over mine and adjacent neighborhoods. No idea what happened to it. :(

New cranks showed up this morning. Much better clearance at the chainstay. Front hub is supposed to arrive this afternoon.

Indeed. The black version has been hard to find, and one popped up in stock this morning. I figured if I wanted it I'd better not dither.

My biking experience is about to get a bit more interesting. I decided to go IGH with the new build and ordered a Sturmey-Archer RS-RK3. It has a disc mount and instead of the little chain that comes out of the axle, shifting is done by a rotary mechanism. So more wheel lacing. Should be fun...

The Best Laid Plans, Pt. II. I was just going to swap my Sugino cranks over to the new frame, but when I got them in place, I saw I had 2mm or less clearance between the crank end and chainstay on the rear sweep. The 650Bx47 are tighter in clearance than I expected, but the image is deceiving...

Not sure the best place to put this, because it's not a vintage build, but my frame arrived just a short while ago. I'm swapping a lot of parts from my older Big Red frame, and as you've read, building up a new front wheel. I might end up building a new rear wheel, too. For now I'll be riding it...

Much appreciated, wildcat.

Some of you may recall I was smitten by the camelback design of a Budnitz frame on eBay, and after several days of see-sawing back and forth, decided to buy the frame. My plan was to strip the heavy steel frame I've called Big Red and move all the parts over to the new frame. The best laid...

I'm gonna show this to my wife the next time she questions me buying a bike or bike parts. :D

Nice lines. I'm sort of drawn to the looks of camelback bikes.

Early morning, 20.8 miles along our newest rail trail. Just as I was pulling up to my car at the trailhead, a lycra-clad guy on what appeared to be a gravel bike raced past me at a high rate of speed, continuing on up the unfinished part of the trail. I had not even heard him behind me before he...