A Lengthy Insanity

[Ulu]

I made the sissy bar is tight as I could and still allow some clearance for the brake lever.

The other side was symmetrical, and of course with no brake there it left a big void, so I threw in a reflector.

I started looking at the blank steel fender that I bought and taking some measurements, and I realized that this thing is not very symmetrical from left to right.

When I chalked the edges out on the floor I get two different arcs, which means that there’s gonna be some serious amount of reforming to make this work.

I am starting to doubt that I can mate the halves and make a straight fender, and making it a structural component so I can remove the seatpost seems less possible.

I need to step back and do something else for a bit. I’m gonna continue cleaning up my steel storage & my work area while I consider my next move.

Before I do any major work on the frame, I am probably going to do that clutch job on my motorcycle.

That was the promise I made myself when I started doing this bike.

But then, remember when I said that “this is almost certainly a lie.”?

I could’ve left out the word almost.

 

[Ulu]

I have been doing some more shopping and some more research online.

It is starting to amaze me how little I know about bicycles and their development over the years.

I had no idea that there was such a thing as the 20” banana seat (Which is only 16” long) and the 26” banana seat (Which is evidently over 20” long) Or the Schwinn Manta Ray seat (which is rather bizarre to my eyeball.)

Anyhow, I took apart my black-and-white seat today, which happens to be 16 1/2 inches long. The foam inside it was ridiculously thin and soft, and I took it out and replaced it with some dense upholstery foam. The seat went back together pretty well considering the cheapo construction of the whole thing.

This is just a single pan seat, and as I recall my stingray seat was a double pan seat, and it had two tinnerman nuts on the bottom that held it together by way of welded studs in the upper pan.

As my intention is to build a larger, well padded, adult version of a stingray seat, I think it should be even slightly longer than the so-called 26 inch seat. It’s going to be wider and deeper and I’m going to try and keep the overall proportions of the classic banana seat.

 

[Ulu]

No work on the new seat yet. My niece came over yesterday, as I had said I would fix her flat tires. Turns out she has a trike and all 3 were flat. She brought me 3 new thornproof tubes, so easy-peasy.

I did make some temporary brackets for the current seat and sissy bar, to test an improved riding position.

To improve the leg extension I lifted the seat 2” and pushed it back 2”. It seems OK, but I didn’t ride it yet.

The temporary brackets:

I didn’t take great photos because I’m not very proud of these. Just 4 flat straps, and a pre welded bit of tube with bent strap, cut from junk fence post hardware.

I didn’t have any black plastic washers so a green rubber washer protects my vinyl seat from the steel.

The seat sits on that thick bent strap, which sits on top of the seat post. That means the seat post won’t punch into my thin seat pan

When I moved the sissy bar it started to interfere with the Disc brake caliper, I put a dent in it for clearance and added some washers onto the axle, so my brake would work.

 

[Ulu]

BTW I didn’t weld the brackets to the sissy bar. Since this is temporary I just used these mondo star washers to lock them in place. Without these my weight would cause a rotation and the seat would drop about 3”.

 

[Ulu]

You noticed that (at this point at least) I am not too proud to show off some crude tooling marks and scratches on my work. As I have repeatedly mentioned, this sissy bar is just a temporary deal.

The turquoise ropework keeps the forks from banging into the frame, which is a total nuisance on this type of fork. It also holds down the brake cable, which no longer is long enough to run through the frame after I installed the ape hangers.

I tied on my water bottle and went off for my first ride with the new seat configuration. Wowweeeee . . . what a difference!

The seat was much more comfortable with the dense foam padding. Way more comfortable than I expected, because I’m sitting farther back.

The sissy bar wasn’t as rock-solid as I will eventually make it, but it was OK for this ride, and didn’t wobble (Until I grabbed it and tried hard to wobble it.) The seat pan is thin & thus offers no restraint for the assembly. It could use a solid crossbar.

I need to add links to the chain. I couldn’t get it into 13th or 14th. You can see my derailleur is maxed out.

I was a happy camper anyway! Here I am yelling at my wife, “are you ready? “

I don’t have a front derailer installed so I have to slip the front chain manually. I’m considering that I should have a jockey shift for that. Just a high-low shifter.

I am able to pedal this bike against the wind in the highest possible gear without being hunched over. It’s a lot of exercise, but remember: that’s why I’m doing this. Anyhow I am so glad I put the big sprocket on! With 7 speeds in each range, I have so much range to play with.

Of course sometimes life is about fun instead of exercise and I found that when I slipped the front down to the small cog I was able to do third and fourth gear wheelies from a rolling start.

This is the first time I’ve done a wheelie on a bicycle since about 1990. I might set up a wheelie bar just for yocks.

Anyhow I really like the riding position, So now I have some better adjustments to work from.

I really hate the black reversed gooseneck and I want a silver gooseneck that points the other way. I reversed it again because the arm reach was getting excessive.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

I am able to pedal this bike against the wind in the highest possible gear without being hunched over. It’s a lot of exercise, but remember: that’s why I’m doing this. Anyhow I am so glad I put the big sprocket on! With 7 speeds in each range, I have so much range to play with.

Of course sometimes life is about fun instead of exercise and I found that when I slipped the front down to the small cog I was able to do third and fourth gear wheelies from a rolling start.

Sounds like you are getting it where it needs to be. Grown ups need fun too!

 

[Ulu]

Thank you Matti. The leg extension is just perfect now and I just need the right gooseneck to get the handlebars correct.

I am also glad that I didn’t screw up the upholstery when I took that seat apart and put it back together. My wife figured it was a gonner. I still intend to build a larger one but I’m going to put this one on the Schwinn bike.

 

[Ulu]

Well I screwed something else up. The rivets in these lamps are so flimsy that I just tapped one of them and it came apart.

So I took them off the bike to straighten things out. Now, you can see where I hid the dimples.

My kickstand was now too short. First I stripped all the paint off of it and I found this from an old air ratchet.

A strong magnet means I don’t need to tack weld first.

A little torch welding on a calm afternoon.

After some snagging, filing, sanding, wire brush.

It works!

 

[Ulu]

What is this page 6? And I finally Welded something? LOL

I just love the little gear teeth but I hope this doesn’t turn out to bite me in the leg.

 

[Ulu]

I added several links to my chain and now I can run all 14 gears.

I wasn’t originally planning to keep the derailleur system, but I decided that the three speed Sturmey might not have enough range to make me happy with a bike this heavy. It is topping 46 pounds With the kickstand back on.

Unfortunately I don’t think I can lower the bike as easily, now that I have to consider the action of the derailleurs

I don’t think I can do anything like this without having the derailleur smacking the frame.

However I could probably get away with something closer to this.

 

[Ulu]

I added several links to my chain and now I can run all 14 gears.

No I can't.

There are still two that have a wacky chain angle and the derailleur hates it. It'll shift in. It'll jump in and out. It'll toss the chain. If I lengthen the chain stays it might work better. Maybe I just want a 5-speed freewheel?

I did make it to Stevens in Clovis, which is a local bike shop of great merit. I picked up a Shimano freewheel socket and a new 559 tire, some cables and presta valve adaptors. I found it hard to believe that the Mongoose doesn't have caged balls. I lost a loose ball from the axle, and it just happened to be a size I had some spare balls.

I figured out why the $75 Huffy got returned to Target. Somebody jammed the shifter = Half Price Bicycle.
Hard not to like eh?

 

[Ulu]

So I got my new freewheel remover from the bicycle shop, then pulled apart a couple of Shimano hubs last night.

The cluster from the fake Schwinn bicycle appears to be cadmium plated and ratchets inside sound very fine.

The cluster from the fake Huffy bicycle is also Shimano, and identical in appearance except it is painted black.

But the ratchets inside sound coarse and it spins slowly. Now it doesn’t have any miles on it at all and the Schwinn does, so this may be a matter of break-in time.

Or they may be internally different. No way to tell unless I open them up. I don’t think I will do that I’m just gonna use the best one of the three I own.

I started to buy another one at the bicycle shop, but the cluster available had an enormous low gear cog on it, and I didn’t think I wanted that for neighborhood cruising.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

an enormous low gear cog

Meet Granny Gear

 

[Ulu]

No progress on the mongoose except to say that I rode it 4 mi today and it went well.

I gathered my courage and cut the first piece of fat tubing, but for the Sting-Gray.

It’s not a contest build, but you will see it in the regular builds.

 

[Ulu]

The gaskets had shrunk up in my lamps and I needed to fix the loose rivets. The rivets were soft brass and drilled out easily. I replaced them with 3/16" screws and nuts and loctite.

I found out that the bulbs were fine in these lamps but no one had ever crimped the wires properly on the bullet connectors. Once I did that they were ok but one of the sockets was a little damaged. These were old fashion lamps & I decided to take them out. Later I will mount some batteries and white LEDs inside of these housings.

I cut new gaskets by hand from .094" gasket paper. no pics of this boring stuff.

I mounted my phone on the bike and shot two short videos from the bike. Unfortunately, the mount was too shaky to get a really stable video.

 

[Ulu]

Meet Granny Gear

I'm not up for towing with the bicycle.
But I'm still looking for the right cluster.

I still have to pull the Mongoose cluster and check it out, but I wanted to ride it today. Twice.
So I will get to it soon enough, eh?

 

[Ulu]

I went through yesterday’s video. There wasn’t much usable but here’s a couple still shots from the Sunny California ‘Burbs, looking out my garage and to my front door.

Back patio.

Sorry for the distraction. More bicycle related content today....

 

[BartRidesEternal]

Very green neighborhood, many conifer trees over there.

 

[Ulu]

Today I did a rear axle service on the project bike for the first time. It was definitely out of whack & I may be replacing this hub sooner than optimal.

I determined that of my three available Shimano seven gear clusters that the one from the fake Schwinn was the best. It had very little time on it & it worked great, so I cleaned it up like brand new and put it on the bike.

(Note to self: ditch that ugly black derailleur!)

With some fresh grease, and a nice cone adjustment, and a really slick cluster, this bike is even more fun.

 

[Ulu]

Very green neighborhood, many conifer trees over there.

We live on the edge of a huge desert called the San Joaquin Valley, but people have been irrigating here for almost 200 years now. If you go up the mountain an hour from here you’ll see the giant redwoods & giant sequoias, and it’s all quite lovely as I recall. I haven’t been up there since the recent fire.