Al Fur

[GeePig]

Since this frame is unlikely to ever spend serious time on the road again I would like to see what it is capable of in different configurations. This is one possibility with a slightly larger front wheel or longer front fork - which is something I would like to play around with if I ever finally get around to buying some kind of welder.

These forks would be an easy pair to extend.

I also like the way the rear frame and wheel are also nicely tucked together.

I mean, I do have a pair of very short cranks...

I kind of like the low road speed, high rate of pedalling using this kind of sprocket would entail, if you could be seated comfortably enough on the bike.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

I'm impressed by your dedication to creating the banana seat from scratch! Looking forward to seeing it finished.

I love the slammed look in the picture above! I hope you can make that work!

 

[Ulu]

After I saw you put a freshly glued seat onto the heater to cook, I was hoping you would not be overcome by fumes!

 

[GeePig]

Thanks!

I try to keep my supplies to a minimum, because that allows me to really look at what I have got and consider what I can and want to do with it.

I have definite plans for the slammed look, I am glad now that I rescued the frame from my other barn. I used to think the frame was too new, but now it seems just right - it must have aged well in the barn

 

[GeePig]

After I saw you put a freshly glued seat onto the heater to cook, I was hoping you would not be overcome by fumes!

Ha ha, I put it there before I lit the heater, as I needed room in the kitchen as I had decided it was time to sort out my paper and card that I use to light it.

 

[GeePig]

I am very interested in learning how it is going to steer with such an angle at the front. It looked like it was vertical, but when I popped my magnetic level on it I could see it was a few degrees in the right direction. Since it has the plates welded on at the bottom, that gives it a few more degrees as well.

It should be interesting.

It has a couple of really thin plates tacked on the bottom of the arms, and I am hoping that after I remove them I can find another set of forks that I can cut up and insert in there to make this into a set of classic-modern extended forks. The trouble is that all my non-kiddy bike forks that I have are my reserve sets of Romet forks.

Maybe I will find something, somewhere....

 

[GeePig]

I need to work on the rear wheel, as it is missing the spacer that normally fits in the derailleur hub - which has been sitting on the bench for the past two months as I was also not sure whether I would be using this wheel or not.

So yesterday I began sorting out all the bits of axle stuff I had out for this wheel and the bits from the other three wheel I have been stripping down in the meantime. On the front wheels you often have these little aluminium bearing retainers that usually get damaged when you remove them.

Except now, with a nut and bolt plus four washers, I can make them look almost like new again.

Well, as new as an old bearing retainer can look like. I just wish I had taken a picture earlier.

So now this tool sits in my box of new and decent/irreplaceable old bearings and associated bits.

 

[GeePig]

I have once again used my former spare front door catch, removing it from my previous seat before I scrapped it. I have also decided to move on from having a wad of washers as spacers on each side and instead use a pair of nuts. This was actually a good move, because trying to squeeze in the final couple of washers was always a little fiddly.

I still need to trim down the bolt length, but I will first go and check what bolt lengths they have in my local store.

I also drilled some holes in the rear seat supports to allow me to position the seat relatively low. One day I might come across some high handlebars, or at least some steel tubing that will allow me to create something like that. If that happens then I might rebuild the bike to have a higher seat location.

I also have nothing to connect the tops of the rear mounts, but I have made sure that the main parts are vertical, because if they were positioned at an angle then they could or would look sloppy.

I will be spending most of the next two weeks in the city, which will be a good opportunity to finish covering the seat and checking out the available bolts.

Other than that there is only really the chain, the pedals and the front brake to go. Since the weather is likely to be cold and wet for the next 4-5 months, I might save this bike for riding in the spring, before stripping it down and eventually building something else out of it.

 

[GeePig]

Finally got the chain lengthened and fitted. It took a bit of effort to get the wheel and the axle all aligned and set up, but if I could only remember to get some of those chain links so you can split and fit the chain without a chain splitter tool then I would. I just have to remember to measure how wide my chains are, but I always forget.

I have since removed the saddle and brought it and two pieces of covering material so that I can choose which colour that I prefer and then fit it. Not a lot else will be done for the next week and a half, because we are back in the city now.

To make more room on the floor, I hooked my 'new' frame up on the wall since it was very similar to the Amsterdam frame already hanging there. I am very fond of both frames, but I do not really have any desire of building the Amsterdam, not unless those big Decathlon front forks can be made to fit. I would rate the Amsterdam frame 8 out of 10, while the Romet is a mere 5 out of 10, or perhaps a 6, but I am much more interested in building it.

I also need to remember to buy some batteries for my clock.

 

[GeePig]

Currently I am in Lublin, and I have my saddle with me so that I can fit a cover to it. I actually had two old pairs of trousers ready, one in a reddish colour and the other a greyish brown, and I was going to choose which colour I preferred for this job and cut out a section that would fit. Then I thought I would just nip up to one of our local DIY stores and see what kind of nails they had for fitting the cloth to the wooden baseboard.

I might still go tonight, as I have been too busy so far, while today is relatively relaxed, work-wise.

However, while I was checking for something else in our garage here, I found the vinyl seat covering material I took off my old work chair a few months ago. It is black, needs a little bit of sewing, but should look good as a cover.

The problem is that my bike is at our farm, and the forecast says that it is going to snow this weekend, which means the chances of me going there and finishing off the bike is slim. If I cannot do that nor the small number of other tasks, then the chance of me completing the bike is slim.

So it all depends on the weather!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Hoping for good weather in Poland! Good luck!

 

[GeePig]

Darn, it snowed last weekend, and this coming weekend I am going to be too busy to visit my bike. This will mean that I will not have time to finish this build.

This winter I will not be alone while I work from home and wifie heads off to her university, as one of our cats has come back to the city with us. She was born in our village, but her mother vanished while she was still very young, and she entered a poorly fed working life while she was still very young. She eventually escaped and moved in with us, and you could feel all her ribs clearly. Not now, she is about 5 years old and this is her first winter she will spend in the city, mostly indoors.

She seems to like this idea too.

I have been using a rather worn out office chair at home that someone in our block was throwing out a few years ago. Recently the metal frame had begun to crack, so I stripped it down so that I can build bike seats from it. If you have ever stripped down such a chair, it typically has a plywood seat and back covered in some foam and a surface layer, here fake leather. The plywood for the base and the back are shaped perfectly to build a bike seat from.

As the seat is longer than any part of the seat, and I did not want to have the seat edging visible, I decided to sew two pieces together.

Of course, I got it wrong the first time, as the long piece was a bit too narrow where I sewed it - so out with the stitches, then I chopped a couple of inches off, and resewed it.

You can see our lovely mix of English and Polish sewing materials here. Wifie has little in the way of sewing skills while I approach the problem like an engineer

 

[GeePig]

Fitting the cover was a bit of a fiddle but, unlike with my last saddle, I decided to just put a single tack at each end, and then began in the middle of the sides. Then I worked on both sides until I reached each end.

I did not have one of those tools for holding the tacks while fitting each one, so it was all a bit fiddly and the cutting was also a little untidy.

My hammer, which is now some 40 odd years old, is an antique in terms of the internet, although it still feels fresh and young to me. It looks a bit like the one owned by the mechanic who trained me, and he was about 60 years old at the time. From him I learned the significance of wrapping insulation tape around the handle to save it from damage when you clipped something else while working with it under a car - so the tape is now battered but the wood underneath is still like new.

Well it is not looking too bad, the material is so much better than when it was when it was covering my disintegrating chair.

With a little bit of fiddling, I managed to get the front end of the seat covered, and now all I need to do is to punch a hole in each side to match the rear mounting points and to clear up the the holes where I will fit the front mount.

Although it is looking quite good, I still want to add a strip to cover the seam. I am hoping that it will be a bit more comfortable than my last seat, which I have since stripped and thrown away.

And the view from my window, with a light covering of snow.

You can see the tower of what was once stated to be one of the ten ugliest churches in Poland. It is certainly not, I would say it is far from being close to that. I remember when I was a lad how many of the books I read criticised Victorian buildings, and yet now such buildings are loved and the buildings from the era of my youth are thought of as rubbish. No, Victorian and the buildings of my youth can both be good, as is this church.

 

[Ulu]

Something you could do with the seam in the seat, is to make a strap like they used to put across motorcycle seats (for the passengers, and put that strap right across the seam.

My Yamaha 180 had that strap back in 1973.

 

[Ulu]

Thar she be Matey!

 

[GeePig]

Something you could do with the seam in the seat, is to make a strap like they used to put across motorcycle seats (for the passengers, and put that strap right across the seam.

My Yamaha 180 had that strap back in 1973.

Yes I used to have a lot of motorbikes from the 1970s, and yes I remember that strap well, and yes I have been making one for this bike!

It is just a pity that I have nothing at the moment to make that chrome trim that they used to fit around the seats.

 

[GeePig]

I finally finished getting the main cover on the seat, and I am very pleased with the tacks even though they were a bit difficult to install, but at least they got easier to fit the more I fitted.

The creases were sadly unavoidable, but I am going to use a different design for the next seat that I design and make, and that will hopefully make it easier to cover. I am certainly even more pleased with this one than I was with the last one.

Then I made a strip like you used to see on old motorbikes and nailed that on the seat as well to conceal the seam.

Now the seat is sitting beside me, and I think this is as far as I can go with this build since I will not be seeing it over the next few weeks.

 

[Ulu]

What a shame that you’re going to miss the end. Since I didn’t enter a bike, I am not even sure what day the BBO is over…

 

[GeePig]

What a shame that you’re going to miss the end. Since I didn’t enter a bike, I am not even sure what day the BBO is over…

I think on Thursday, as that is the end of the month and so many people are putting their bikes in the finish section