A Lengthy Insanity

[Ulu]

I pedaled for 6 miles today, and I worked on that 16 inch hoop for about 3 hours. It got stripped and scrubbed and scotch brighted and hand sanded with 400 and 800 wet 3M paper

It’s ready to buff out, but I am not ready to go out.

My sister-in-law lost her husband and she has moved back to town. I have been moving her furniture around with my truck & it’s well over 100° today. Fortunately was a relatively painless event. No big appliances, no stairs etc.

The spokes came for the big hoop today, and so I counted them and threaded the nipples on, and made sure that everything was flawless. Now I need to polish them up and lace the big wheel.

But after all the sanding and moving I am too pooped to polish. Time to veg.

 

[Ulu]

I got all the new stainless steel spokes polished up nice and shiny with Silvo metal polish. I spent almost 3 hours to polish 36 spokes and nipples. They are now shinier than the OEM cadmium plated spokes. These spokes look funny because they’re reflecting the computer screen.


Here I am setting up a truing stand for the fat wheel, but at this point I’m just polishing the hub.

I’ll probably polish the Sturmey Archer logos right off of it. We don’t need no stinking logos!

It’s going to be 99°F today so I’m polishing & lacing in my office.

The original three-cross lacing pattern, just for reference. I plan to duplicate this.

 

[Ulu]

I did not polish off the logos. I figure my hub polisher will do that for me eventually.

Here I am with the wheel partly laced and resting on a bucket before I flip it over.

I tightened the nipples just with my fingers and spun the wheel. First spin = 0.2” total Axial runout & 0.1” total Radial.



I hope the offsets will work. The stock Mongoose wheel is dish-laced.

There is probably 1 inch of offset on that hub. I didn’t pay any attention to that, since I used the front wheel.

So far this one is laced square.

 

[Ulu]

I finally sat down with the calculator determine what the change would be in my gear ratios with the new hub.

Currently I have 14 gears that run between 1.500 and 3.714

With the Sturmey Archer three speed hub, and my current 42/52 front sprocket set, the new low-range ratios will be:
1.750
2.333
3.110

The new high-range ratios will be:
2.167
2.889
3.851

I could pull the higher gear on flat ground without standing up, and I don’t think I’ll notice the loss of my lowest gear.

If you split shift can you wind up with six potential ratios. Here they are with the up shift percentage in each case.
1.750
=====23.8%
2.167
=====7.6%
2.333
=====23.8%
2.889
=====7.6%
3.110
=====19.2%
3.851

So that would mean some pretty ragged ratios if trying to split shift.

Based on my experience with the Sturmey Archer hub that I own now I don’t think this will ever be necessary to shift the hub up and the derailleur down simultaneously.

 

[Ulu]

I went out for a morning ride with my wife today and we had a freak rain shower.

This never happens in August and I am amazed, but it wasn’t much rain.

It was enough to make me want to polish my bike when I got home.

Anyhow I noticed that my front wheel still had some rust and black paint on the spokes and I spent an hour polishing them. They look a little better, but I am wishing for stainless spokes now.

Evidently the glow in the dark white stripe sidewalls on my Walmart tire are not rain proof.



I’ll trim that off & hit it with a dab of Krazy glue.

 

[Ulu]

It’s all together except the tire now. Maybe tomorrow.





When I took this apart, I cut the rim liner right at the lap splice. I sewed it back together and stretched it back over the rim with a QuickStick.

I didn’t think I was going to get it back on. Those things are Extremely tight. I could not move it around to get the stem hole to line up, so I just trimmed it out.

Here is my expedient truing stand.

The base is a mid lift frame from my moms old power lift La-Z-Boy, and the two bent bars are from the trailer hitch of a ‘96 Pontiac Bonneville.

 

[GeePig]

One day I dream that I will find a cheap bike around here with fat wheels.

Maybe not this fat, though...

 

[Ulu]

I got the new tire on today.

Identical to the last Chao Yang tire, both came from a display bike, and were therefore “takeoffs”.

The whitewalls were a bit yellow from age.

The shop owner said he can’t get any more of these. They’re probably sitting on a container ship at the San Diego port.

So chain alignment doesn’t seem to be a big problem and brake alignment doesn’t seem to be an insurmountable problem, but the axle on the Sturmey Archer hub is shorter than the mongoose axle! Argh! How did I ignore that fact?

Considerably shorter, over 17mm less. I can only get one nut on, and then the other side doesn’t stick through.

So it’s not just going to bolt into this frame without modifications, which I sort of feared & suspected all along.

 

[Ulu]

I just decided to cold bend the frame with a big clamp. This is a stout frame but it gave up the three-quarter inches with no problem.

It took it right back too!

Unfortunately that doesn’t solve the problem, because while the offset to the disc is the same as my other wheel the offset to the sprocket is 1/2” off. The wheel is gonna rub on the sprocket side by the time I get the nut on there and tighten it down. I’m gonna have to have the dish within 2mm on his bike for everything to look good. I can shim the hub sideways 1mm in the frame with different washers, but I don’t want to do more than two.

I can bend the frame but that will not help as this wheel needs to have the brake move towards the center 1/4”.

It seems I must take everything apart and dish the wheel.

 

[Ulu]

I put the 7-speed wheel back on, adjusted the cones, and put on a better shifter cable. The frame didn’t change any. That wheel slipped right back in

I really wanted to test the 3-speed hub, but it must wait. I want to start on a new frame, just for this wheel. But now that too must wait.

 

[Ulu]

Today was marketing and bill paying day so I didn’t get started on the bicycle until the evening. I’ve been frustrated all day as I thought I had this wheel perfectly centered.

As it turns out the rim is only off the hub center by 0.014” fat on the drive side.

I did not have a convenient jig, but only a straight edge and shims and depth gauge. So I only measured at one spot, and I’m sure my wheel has at least that much wobble, so it could easily be twice that.) say 0.030” min.

Now the contact surfaces are off the hub center by 0.312/2= 0.156”. (3.497 vs 3.185) fat on the brake side.

When I crunch the numbers, it means that my wheel should move off the driveside 0.142” based on the rim and contact surfaces, ignoring where the hub falls.

I was off farther than that last night, and it was driving me nuts.

I had to put an extra nut on the driveside axle (!) trying to make the wheel align in the stays. What I really need is a much thinner nut on the brake side by about .156 to align the brake, then dish the wheel another .156 to the brakeside. I think that should get my tire in the center of the frame.

 

[GeePig]

And I was worrying about my front wheel not being centred well enough

 

[Ulu]

Yeah, this was literally rubbing on the drive side stay.

 

[Ulu]

One day I dream that I will find a cheap bike around here with fat wheels.

Maybe not this fat, though...

You can’t find a cheap one here either.

I paid $400 for mine and it was several years old, though barely used. None of the local bike shops have a new fat bike for sale on the rack. None of the big stores like Walmart have one either.

I did see a rather ugly, rusty, flat black fat bike over on the coast selling for $275. I nearly drove two hours to go buy that bike but, I don’t like to buy things that have been out in the salt air.

I live in the desert and I am spoiled by the lack of rust.

 

[GeePig]

You can’t find a cheap one here either.

I paid $400 for mine and it was several years old, though barely used. None of the local bike shops have a new fat bike for sale on the rack. None of the big stores like Walmart have one either.

I did see a rather ugly, rusty, flat black fat bike over on the coast selling for $275. I nearly drove two hours to go buy that bike but, I don’t like to buy things that have been out in the salt air.

I live in the desert and I am spoiled by the lack of rust.

Ah, that is what dreams are for, to keep us looking at the normal stuff until something happens. It might not be the fat wheels, but it will be something special.

 

[Ulu]

Today I put the fat bike wheel back on the truing stand and I got a proper dish on it without too much trouble.

There was a fat jam nut on one cone and a thin jam nut on the other cone, and I switched them so I could get a good alignment on the brake disc.

I cold-bent the stays 3 times. Yesterday I used a big steel clamp & rags & it just sprang back 99%. That was pretty awkward, so the second time I used a lighter ratchet type furniture clamp. That was better, but still awkward to locate and keep positioned.

The third time I used the tourniquet method, with a rope and stick.

That worked perfectly, no scratching, no padding to slip, and it was plenty powerful. The fat wheel allowed plenty of access for my hand to wind the “tourniquet”.

I got out for short ride, and the gears work, but the chain has too much slop. I must change the dropouts.




I determined that I probably don’t want to run the bio-pace crankset without a tensioner, and I really don’t want a tensioner. Or a front derailleur.

 

[Ulu]

The customizing business is only fractionally about skill, and almost entirely about making decisions.

One could be the worlds finest panel shaper, yet lack the imagination needed to inspire any review of one’s opus.

Never has this been more true than in the world of modern rat-rodding.

Anyhow, once you know can no longer make a good decision, it’s time to hang it up and change the music for a while.

Last night I had started swapping crank arms and sprockets, but the black Mongoose stuff is just awful looking, and the cog is too small, and I hate the plastic chain guards . . .barf city, Man!

The urge to forge ahead was not there so I just gave up, defeated (at least in my quest to have a rideable BBO bicycle at 7 AM this morning.)

I caulked off early instead of working on my bicycle until midnight as per usual.

After a semi-restless sleep, my mind cleared just a little, and I was able to decide:

I must learn to love the Darkside of noncircular cogs.


The Shimano bio-pace is the nicest looking gear that I’ve got, it’s in great shape, it will buff up even nicer than it is now, and I just think it’s cool to have a non-round sprocket.

Also I have a second bio-pace drive side crank and sprocket donated to me by someone whose car I fixed.

My path is clear.

I will reinstall it, and create/buy a tensioner.

 

[Ulu]

The Sturmey WORKS!
The Sturmey WORKS!
The Sturmey WORKS!
(Oh what a relief it is!)

I had to suffer the indignity of the black derailleur, but it allows me to use both front cogs.

Photographs after I shower. I’ve been out riding like a madman, and it is my second time out today.

 

[Ulu]

OK, it works so well I am happy as a clam, but the details are like warts.

This chain roller & ragged scrap of fouled shifter cable holds the idlers in line with the Sturmey sprocket. It cannot move. Sprocket alignment could use a deep dish Sturmey cog.


It shifts, but this ugly clamp is scratching the paint. It was quick & dirty: A tiny guide washer cut from a chain link and a zip tie complete the shift cable anchorage.


I didn’t put on the supplied twist shifter. The shimano shifter worked on 3, 5 & 7 after adjustment.

Chain alignment was workable if not ideal. I was able to run in high or low range.

Of course I’m still changing the front cog with my fingers.


With 6 speeds I was fully covered for the riding I will do.

My earlier calculations of gear ratios ignored the fact that bio-pace cogs are variable diameter. They go up and down in diameter twice per revolution. The gears all feel “taller” than the numbers would indicate.

 

[Ulu]

I cleaned up the shifter cable anchor. This is just bits of chain and a screw, nut, and star washer.

From below:

It’s not much but it’s quite secure and gives a better angle to the shifter cable. The shifting is noticeably easier than before. Also it is no longer chipping the paint.

I was moaning about that black derailleur when I realized that I still had the semi-shiny Shimano SIS shortie.

I don’t know if this will do the trick or not.

It’s definitely not made so you can disassemble it. The main arm is staked to the casting, capturing the coil spring inside of a plastic portion.

I will clean it up tomorrow and see if it will work.

With the (potential) banishment of that black painted derailleur, I will feel inspired to polish the black paint off of the brake caliper and mounting bracket.

That is all alloy and will shine up quite nicely with a coat of clear paint.