1960's Öglaend Strada

[FInnRat]

The replies on suspended banana saddle thread have been very interesting and gave me some ideas.

I checked out saddles to cannibalize today and I got a pile of them, two age old Lepper saddles, both in need of extensive repair, or some other use. Both have the base and springs in working order, main problem being lost rivets and the leather being totally worn by the elements or lack of maintenance. I've got these dirt cheap and have no use to them in this condition.

So I got an idea, tear the old saddles to pieces, see how the attachments and the base of the banana saddle I ordered is, then attach both old saddle bases below it. The main thing here is to find what kind of attachment to make, front should be easy, just do it the way shown on the pics on the other thread. Then that saddle base must be attached to the other and the back part to the sissybar. I already have some stuff to make a connecting strut to the sissybar, attach the saddle base from the back to that... Dammit, am I making any sense? My English skills suck today.

Anyway, my idea is to not modify the banana saddle itself, just hook up the two old saddles one after another, possibly modify the one on the back to fit and add that contraption below. I got some nice material and tools for making parts for putting it all together. I'll know if it works out next week once I pick up the new bike parts. Should be arriving tomorrow or Tuesday.

 

[FInnRat]

More spikes. This time just for the aesthetic reasons. I will use the idea of having them to hold the skirt guard again of course. I'm trying to not over use them, there will be some on the fenders and chain guard and that's it.

I got some really nice material for the saddle mod, 600mm x 20mm x 5mm iron bars... Two of them, that's plenty for making a bunch of attachments and custom parts if needed. There was 3mm variety too, but I went for the heavy duty stuff. This + M8 bolts should hold any saddle together.

 

[Captain Awesome]

More spikes. This time just for the aesthetic reasons. I will use the idea of having them to hold the skirt guard again of course. I'm trying to not over use them, there will be some on the fenders and chain guard and that's it.

I got some really nice material for the saddle mod, 600mm x 20mm x 5mm iron bars... Two of them, that's plenty for making a bunch of attachments and custom parts if needed. There was 3mm variety too, but I went for the heavy duty stuff. This + M8 bolts should hold any saddle together.

View attachment 143608

Love it

 

[FInnRat]

Glad to hear that. The chain guard still needs a paint job. I thought about if I should leave it as it is, but its aluminum and I want the only metal colors to be chrome, brass/gold chain and possibly I will paint the saddle springs as they're mostly quite rusty or nearly wiped out chrome plating. But then again, I think some rust would be really cool to leave there as the most is going to be quite bling and brand new. I'll have to try and see how it would look like.

But the chainguard will definitely get a paint job done. Mostly glossy black which makes the spikes to stand out even more.

 

[order99]

More spikes. This time just for the aesthetic reasons. I will use the idea of having them to hold the skirt guard again of course. I'm trying to not over use them, there will be some on the fenders and chain guard and that's it.

I got some really nice material for the saddle mod, 600mm x 20mm x 5mm iron bars... Two of them, that's plenty for making a bunch of attachments and custom parts if needed. There was 3mm variety too, but I went for the heavy duty stuff. This + M8 bolts should hold any saddle together.

View attachment 143608

I love the look-but maybe round them off just a little, or at least recess them as far away from your ankles as possible? I might be a bit paranoid, but I can just envision stuck pants cuffs and ankle scrapes...

 

[FInnRat]

I love the look-but maybe round them off just a little, or at least recess them as far away from your ankles as possible? I might be a bit paranoid, but I can just envision stuck pants cuffs and ankle scrapes...

I thought about it too, and came to the conclusion that its better to not wear loose pants while riding. The only way to really find out is to try. But now that I think of it, I can't remember once that my foot would have been anywhere near the chain guard.... Unless I fall over on my right side, then of course.

Really I can't know before I try. I got plenty of them spikes, can get the high ones of the front if they're on the way somehow. I can't see how exactly as my leg/foot aren't hugging the chain guard.

 

[FInnRat]

My order from Classic-cycle.de arrived today. Neatly packed and delivered to home. Well worth the postage which isn't too much from Germany to Finland. Oh boy did I get some cool stuff! The pics aren't showing everything, but speaking of details, the next bike is all about details.

It seems that the idea about making suspension on the banana saddle wont be too difficult. The fake leather + padding is attached by sort of hooks which are just bent to keep it in place. I think if I'm careful, I can open the hooks without breaking them and remove the padding etc., which then allows me to drill some holes to get the new base bolted tightly. Looks like the saddle post attachment is welded in place which means I need to remove it. Next thing is to measure and try out the old saddles to see which one fits the best and how to modify them. I want to make this sturdy so I may end up making a whole new frame for the saddle base, then attach the old stuff on it and so on. I'll update with pictures once this show goes off the drawing board. So far so good.

Another question mark is the fork, the base of the fork actually, I need to remove a lower part of the bearing cup from some old fork and install it on the new one. Shouldn't be difficult as that part is only forced in place, some precision work with a hammer will likely take it off. The fork luckily is typical 1" width like the old forks so this shouldn't be too difficult. The upper part may need a spacer or two, there's about 190mm shaft on the fork, the bike has 17cm so it may need a some spacers. Or then maybe not, I don't remember the exact length of the original fork but its very close to the new one.

One thing not on the pictures is a German made NOS stem, looks fantastic and will hopefully fit without problems. It shouldn't as the measurements match, nothing with bikes is self explanatory.

The fenders are wide as heck at 80mm and they need some work. I think the front only needs about a 5mm bend on each side to fit the new fork, but the back fender needs some real overhaul, pieces need to be taken out from one spot and I'm yet to think of how to make it look nice. They have a nice black pain job, but its not glossy, I thought to do some detailing on them and then add glossy clear coat, should make them look as shiny as the frame.

Handles are leather, I wonder if they were made in Italy if I'm not mistaken? Seems like quality work. The handlebar could be slightly longer, but I think it'll work just fine. At least I wont be hugging it. And look at that sissybar! I just had to get the leopard backrest on it, just for the looks.

The pedals are cool as heck and they seem to have decent bearings too. Only problem is that these are riveted shut, but I think its possible to drill the rivets off, replace them with bolts so I can do maintenance on them. They seem to have free bearings which is awesome. I think I'll leave them as they are for now and when the need for maintenance arises, then think on how to get rid of the rivets. I hope the adjustment is not welded in place, if it is, I'll just file the welds off and replace stuff if needed.

Sooo, next thing is to test the fork and fitting of the fenders. Luckily I have several same type frames so I don't need to use actual one for fitting the parts. I thought to try to keep the paint as pristine as I can, learning from past experience on how installing parts can eff it up.

So far it looks this was money well spent. I hope this stuff proves to be sturdy enough to handle my riding.

 

[FInnRat]

A quick question to those of you who know better, I have never before installed a springer fork on a bike. So my question is, how tight should the bolts be on which it should pivot? Any tips? I don't want to screw this up, so help me out.

 

[FInnRat]

More bike building coming up today. Next step is decals on the frame and rims. And testing some parts and what not. Nobody has answered the question I posted before, so I'll ask again, how tight should a springer fork be set? My logic says it should not be overly tight or its gonna be a like a rigid fork... Help me out, I have never installed one of these on a bike before.

 

[Captain Awesome]

How tight should the spring be, or how tight should all the pivot points be? I assemble mine off the bike to get all the pivots "close". Tight enough that it's not freely swinging but can still be moved back and forth with one hand. I also put nylon washers on the pivot surfaces

Top spring is dealers choice. All preference for feel

 

[FInnRat]

How tight should the spring be, or how tight should all the pivot points be? I assemble mine off the bike to get all the pivots "close". Tight enough that it's not freely swinging but can still be moved back and forth with one hand. I also put nylon washers on the pivot surfaces

Top spring is dealers choice. All preference for feel

Pretty much what I thought about doing. The problem is that the screws/bolts are normal ones, I can't see them not getting loose unless they're overly tight or the locking kind. I'll see what I have to do with them.

But there's another issue. I tested the fork today on another frame, I got several of the same kind. The problem is that I can't get the spring attached nicely, it seems that the part of the frame in which the fork goes is just too long. I even did a test, I cut about 10mm off of it. Better, but still the spring attachment is problematic. My English sucks, I wish I could just explain this but I don't even know the names for all the parts. It seems that with bearings, the cups yadda yadda, the spring attachment does not want to sit in a nice angle, nor go low enough. The measurement should not be a problem. The new fork is only few millimeters shorter than the original, but even with the frame cut shorter, it wont fit.

Likely the problem is not the parts, but me not knowing how to deal with it. I'll take some pictures tomorrow. Its way easier to show what's wrong than to explain it.

Also I got a problem with spray paint going on wrinkles for some unknown reason, perhaps its incompatible with the black paint I used or I touched the rim with dirty fingers or something. Its one of these days when nothing goes right so I gave up for now. New try tomorrow, I'm on such a bad mood its better not to force it.

EDIT:
I will try to explain what's the issue with the fork. The shaft is nearly the same length as the original, only tiny bit shorter. With the bearings + cups at both ends like they should, there is not enough thread to fit the lock bolt on top of the fork when the upper spring attachment is in place. I tried to work around this by cutting piece of the frame off from top and below, this helped, now there's easily enough thread visible to even have some spacers in there, almost seemed like there's too much. So that's that, I don't want to take such big pieces off the frame unless I really have to. Then the issue is to get the spring in place as its quite stiff and I just couldn't get it fit. Looking at this picture, the attachment bolt and the spring will not align and that's not an issue. I guess I was just being too gentle?

 

[horsefarmer]

Good idea to take a break for a bit. You know the old saying,"Act in haste, repent at leisure".

As for paint wrinkling, it can be can be caused by top coat being to chemically "hot". Like laquer over enamel. Also a problem I have is recoating before previous layer is dry. Never hurts to give it another day.

 

[FInnRat]

Good idea to take a break for a bit. You know the old saying,"Act in haste, repent at leisure".

As for paint wrinkling, it can be can be caused by top coat being to chemically "hot". Like laquer over enamel. Also a problem I have is recoating before previous layer is dry. Never hurts to give it another day.

Yea, its one of these days when nothing goes right and its just felt wrong since the morning. Hmmph... I'm trying to work on the bike at weekends when I have some daylight hours to do it. I don't have decent workspace so I got to do a lot outdoors or in a cramped space with bad lighting so daytime is best.

The paint issue was weird, I didn't expect this to happen after letting the black paint dry for a week indoors. There were few spots on which it went all crazy and others were jut fine. I wonder if I should the black paint dry for another week. The problem is that by just painting one stripe on one rim I can't really know what is the problem and I don't want to end up having to grind and repaint a lot. One solution is that I don't use those spray paints and get the same stuff in different color what I used already, but that would cost me more and this bike has cost already an arm and leg. I have to rework that rim anyway, wrinkled paint wont stay and it looks horrible so I have to at least show it sandpaper and repaint.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

The problem is that the screws/bolts are normal ones, I can't see them not getting loose unless they're overly tight or the locking kind. I'll see what I have to do with them

Is it possible to use nylock nuts? They won't come loose, even when they haven't been tightened all the way. The plastic insert in the nut itself provides the friction as opposed to bolt tension or whatever

*Never worked on a springer, so I'm just shooting out ideas
Ps, the bike looks really cool. I've been falling for step through frames with tall bars.

 

[FInnRat]

Is it possible to use nylock nuts? They won't come loose, even when they haven't been tightened all the way. The plastic insert in the nut itself provides the friction as opposed to bolt tension or whatever
View attachment 143964
*Never worked on a springer, so I'm just shooting out ideas
Ps, the bike looks really cool. I've been falling for step through frames with tall bars.

This is what I thought about, I can easily get nylock nuts to use in the fork. I think coupled with nylon washers they should work well. Another idea is to have longer bolts and have two nuts at each end to lock them in place.

The bike in the above picture isn't mine btw, I just copied that from the Classic-cycle.de, its one of the pics showcasing the fork I bought. Its a really cool bike, the frame is quite close to what I'm building atm. No idea which brand it is, some European one I would guess.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Haha you caught me, I was lost in the word salad. You need an editor, or I need an attention span longer than ten seconds.

Look, over there, a squirrel!
What were we talking about here?

 

[FInnRat]

Haha you caught me, I was lost in the word salad. You need an editor, or I need an attention span longer than ten seconds.

Look, over there, a squirrel!
What were we talking about here?

I suggest you improve your attention span as my word spam is likely to not change much.

 

[horsefarmer]

If you just have spots of wrinkled paint I'm thinking there could be oils or dirt under it in those spots so maybe take it down to older paint or bare metal in those spots and clean with solvent before touch up. Also maybe a primer surfacer coat to seal the old paint? Maybe to expensive tho.

 

[FInnRat]

If you just have spots of wrinkled paint I'm thinking there could be oils or dirt under it in those spots so maybe take it down to older paint or bare metal in those spots and clean with solvent before touch up. Also maybe a primer surfacer coat to seal the old paint? Maybe to expensive tho.

The rims were sand blasted clean and I have already painted them with primer and glossy black paint. I'm fairly certain I touched the rim with oily fingers as I was taping it. (Yea, being careful and all that. ) Another issue was that I had to do the painting outdoors as I don't have a decent workspace, its quite cold in Finland this time of year, just barely above zero... Everyone knows what happens to metal when its brought from +20 to +2 and spray paint does not like moisture. I checked the rim yesterday, there's few spots which need to be fixed. I'll just use sand paper and repaint. Just enough to smooth out the wrinkled parts and that's it.

I thought of taking the rims to my workplace and use the painting room there if there's nothing else being worked on. There's no certain way of doing successful paint job outdoors when its almost freezing cold.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Yes, here in Canada, I can relate. We have 4 seasons, fall, winter, spring, and painting season. It just doesn't go well with temps below 15 or 20°c. I failed to complete my March mini build off bike because I had to wait for paint weather. Also, I washed the bike with dish soap and after the rinse, I didn't touch it with my skin to avoid fingerprint oils