AL-U-Mini

[Ulu]

Well I got almost nothing done on the project bike today.

I did get to trim the stem off after repairing my pipe cutter. I put a new cutter in it and the replacement cutting wheel was just a little bit loose, causing the cut to wobble.

So I had to find a tiny shim washer and shave the aluminum body until everything fit perfectly, and the cutter did not wobble. Then I got to trim the stem.

I put in the star nut, Reassembled the steering stem, and got it all adjusted down correctly and did an alignment of the fork legs.

I have a big black rubber band that is actually the tensioner for some tire chains that I will never use again. I put that around the fork legs so they wouldn’t bump the frame. It works but it looks awful and clearly I will want to do something else.

 

[Ulu]

I flipped the rear cog and put spacers on the front, and the chain rub is gone.

The bio-pace eliptical chain ring, over a conventional ring, for comparison.

 

[Ulu]

Special snap ring pliers, & installing the sprocket.

 

[twojs.bike]

Dang! I didn’t know pliers like that existed! I am on eBay now buying a set. (I have a small problem with collecting tools). Craftsman 4735.

 

[rgrrbt]

Ulu, I really enjoy reading your build threads. You have a great talent for bringing us along for the ride as you tackle the problems that arise. Thank you for taking the time to document your thought process.

 

[Ulu]

Dang! I didn’t know pliers like that existed! I am on eBay now buying a set. (I have a small problem with collecting tools). Craftsman 4735.

They are essential if you’re going to rebuild a transmission. Those things are full of snap rings. I have about five pairs in different styles which have replaceable tips.

 

[Ulu]

Ulu, I really enjoy reading your build threads. You have a great talent for bringing us along for the ride as you tackle the problems that arise. Thank you for taking the time to document your thought process.

Why thank you. It’s a great joy to me that people appreciate these things.

My progress has been much slower than hoped for, but things rarely go as planned. Instead of working on the bike, I had to drive to the store today and get some more chain ring hardware. This would not have worked without those little “third cog” spacers.

I had a spare set but I misplaced it, and I ordered two sets at the bike shop two weeks ago, but the order hasn’t gone out yet.

But the shop owner let me scrounge through his collection of old stuff and I found five used ones that work fine.

These are the kind of things that double the time required to do anything.

 

[GeePig]

Well, you have about a month and Christmas to get it all done

Le sigh, so have I....

 

[Ulu]

Well I have three bikes completed, and the fourth one is getting done. But none of them have all the finishing touches that would make them a winning bike.

If I get any of that done it will be wonderful, but the real purpose of all of this bicycle building (aside from the one I built for my own exercise) is just to have a variety of toys for the kids to play with when they come.

 

[Ulu]

Not a lot of time to play with the bike yesterday, as I’m messing with all the Christmas stuff and we had a big rain too.

I did cut some struts out of the old sissy bar and I raised the front of the seat. I shouldn’t have cut the seat post off so short.

It’s so low I can’t ride it. My legs don’t bend that far anymore. I don’t like the way it looks either and it’s not structurally sound yet anyway.

 

[Ulu]

The Camry is out, all the bikes are pushed out if the way, and the Christmas boxes are down out of the attic now. The fake Jaguar is still under cloth and in pieces. Anyhow now you can sort of see the whole garage as it looks from my laundry room door.

Years ago I put up the gyp board ceiling with those LED can lights, exhaust fan and ceiling fans.

The boatyard, seen from the door of the welding shed. A gloomy day.

Between the welding shed and the tool shed is the dog kennel.

The tool shed. I told the wife it was the she-shed and let her decorate it, but I put it the shelves and peg boards and lighting.

Looking in…

Looking out…

Very gloomy on the patio.

My redwood trees are looking very sparse because of the drought. We had to clean out a lot of dead stuff this year.

Anyhow the whole property is only 1/3 of an acre so there is no “back 40”.

You are looking at the “back one sixth”.

 

[Tallbikeman]

Same thing. Right?

Jealosy rules the world.

 

[GeePig]

Between the welding shed and the tool shed is the dog kennel.
View attachment 218717


View attachment 218722

Well, your dog does look very smart, but I am surprised by how much he/she is into flowers and lovely lace tablecloths!

Back in the sixties, they closed down a huge swath of the rural railway lines, and it was very popular to buy the old village stations and turn them into homes. With the old platform and shelter, many of them did look a bit like like this...

 

[Ulu]

@GeePig
It is surprisingly difficult to teach decorating to a dog. Ours is actually an un-decorating specialist. Or maybe it’s mis-decorating, or dis-decorating.

But all the little plants and garden ornaments and racks and shelves and tables are generally the doing of my lovely wife.

She does a wonderful job of it all, then I have gardeners come to actually mow and rake and prune, so I just do the fussy things, like drypack under the shed. Fix the Doggie-de-decorated fence, turn the steel grid roof of my dog kennel into a big radio antenna….

And of course struggle to maintain my junkyard. I am hoping against hope that the authorities will not come and shut down my little hobby shop.

Of course what the authorities are worried about is they don’t want me to go down in flames. In relation to that, I take great caution doing what I’m doing most of the time, and the rest of the time what I’m doing isn’t dangerous.

I’m trying to imagine in what way it all looks like a railroad station, but it’s truly a dog habitat, with a small corner for the filtration and habitation of some fish, and enough for an iron gated pet cemetery.

We have retired a number of cats, and fish out there which lived to 14 years, and cats up to 22. Nowadays I don’t dig it up. We just put some ashes out there and add a decoration of some kind. The authorities would be upset if I had planted Scotty, Mickey, Ricky, Molly, and Bizzy, who were all 60~75 lb dogs, In the acute corner of my odd lot.

 

[Ulu]

Jealosy rules the world.

Well all I could find there today was some moldering worms, and they got retired to the pet cemetery.

 

[Ulu]

Yesterday I managed to get a new seat post to replace the one I have butchered, and I bought some new tubing to build a sissy bar.

Today we will see if I get to build one, or wind up decorating a Christmas tree.

Now I have to decide what to make the dropouts from.


I have some 0.112” black anodized tempered aluminum computer door, I have a big piece of 0.132” aluminum checker plate that I’ve been carting around since 1983, And I have a piece of 0.100” hard tempered 301 stainless steel from the Air Force.

 

[Ulu]

I decided that, Before I could go on designing the drop out plates, it was time to clean off the brake anchors (with the Dremel Moto tool.)

I’m getting down to the fine part of the setup, where a milimeter matters.

 

[Ulu]

I cut through most of the welding and popped off the anchor with a crescent wrench.

I ground off the roughest peaks with a little grinding wheel. Then I started filing. Genuine Nicholson file really cuts the aluminum.

Lots of duct tape keeps me from scarring the frame as I do the rough filing.

I just looked at that file and it was made in Brazil. Hmmm. I have a Nicholson file made in Mexico, and several made in the United States. My Oregon file is made in the Philippines. Go figure?

 

[Ulu]

After some precision filing and two grades of scotchbrite, the scars are gone.

Now I have to do the other side. Oh my aching hands and wrists! I might have to wait until tomorrow for me to finish the other side. I didn’t understand a thing about pain until I got old enough to have arthritis.

 

[Ulu]

Well with the aid of mild analgesics I was able to carry-on. The second anchor is removed.