Another 66 Huffy Rail- light resto

[Pondo]

This is the 66 Rail that I picked up a few weeks ago. It’s in really good condition so I’m mostly going to just clean, polish, lube and tune.

@CRASH noticed that some of the parts on this bike were a later vintage and suggested some parts swapping might be in order. Namely the Shimano 333 rear derailleur should have been a Huret and the pedals on it were for a later vintage. So yesterday I loaded the Rail in the truck and headed down to CRASH’s shop!

And here it is on the stand getting some pro muscle bike attention.

The derailleur that was on it.

The correct Huret

The rear wheel has seen some trauma. A previous derailleur had broken and caused the chain to go into the spokes which bent a number of the spokes and destroyed the spoke protector. CRASH had a brand new spoke protector that he suggested we use for it and I could reimburse him. Super cool! Next thing I knew the rear axle was out to get the free wheel off. Gotta clean off all that old gunk and put some fresh grease in there.

 

[Pondo]

While this was going on CRASH made the comment that the wheel would be easier to shine up if it was disassembled. I said I would get into that at some point as I wanted to learn to build wheels. The response- no better time than the present. And the spokes came out. This just turned into a rear wheel resto!

CRASH cleaned and polished the rim and hub while I was servicing the rear hub bearings. He uses crumpled aluminum foil and hot water to remove the rust which works great. A little wire wheel action to clean up the inside of the rim.

Now that’s a well used polishing wheel!

 

[Pondo]

The chrome came out looking like new!

Then CRASH walked me thru the basics of wheel building. This is when the wheel became the PITA wheel. I didn’t have new spokes and using the old ones made it a real pain to get this wheel right. I got to do the initial spoke tensioning but CRASH took over for the trueing. It took a while but he got it spinning perfectly, and only one of the spokes that had been damaged broke. I’ll probably redo this wheel with new spokes sometime down the road.

The finished wheel looks pretty minty

 

[CRASH]

He forgot to mention the bottom bracket overhaul, new chain, and new shift cable we put on it. And of course once I have chrome apart, I have to polish it. The bike was an onion, and we kept peeling. But we got it rolling right and shifting, so, time well spent! It was nice to work with someone.

Pondo tensioning. (I made him do it with a screwdriver because the bit I made for my drill didn’t fit in those old nipple heads! So he tensioned while I polished.

 

[Pondo]

We decided to service the bottom bracket while it was accessible so the cranks and chain ring were treated to a clean and polish.

The derailleur needed a little tweaking to be straight but it’s pretty good now. Then we hit a road block with a frayed shift cable that wasn’t salvageable. This shifter takes a cable that isn’t made anymore. It’s brake sized cable with a smaller barrel on the shifter end. CRASH happened to have some in his stash (wow!) so on went a new cable! The next hurdle was the chain that was bad and kept ejecting itself from the chain ring. Parts stash to the rescue again! While it was apart CRASH straightened my shifter lever.

Swapped the pedals out for the earlier style.

Ok, it finally got all back together and functional, cool!

It came out terrific and I’m pretty stoked. What started out as a simple derailleur swap snowballed into a substantially longer project. In a very good way. The bike is looking great and I’m pretty happy with it.

There’s more chrome to polish and bearings to service but it’s looking great right now!

Had a gorgeous sunset on the way home too.

 

[Pondo]

forgot to mention

Haha! I'm just a slow typist on the iphone.

The bike was an onion, and we kept peeling. But we got it rolling right and shifting, so, time well spent! It was nice to work with someone.

Agreed. It was a ton of fun and a day well spent. Thanks for having me down for an uber cool wrenching session!

 

[ingola]

He forgot to mention the bottom bracket overhaul, new chain, and new shift cable we put on it. And of course once I have chrome apart, I have to polish it. The bike was an onion, and we kept peeling. But we got it rolling right and shifting, so, time well spent! It was nice to work with someone.

Pondo tensioning. (I made him do it with a screwdriver because the bit I made for my drill didn’t fit in those old nipple heads! So he tensioned while I polished.

View attachment 245659

Learning to build is one of the best things to learn opens up options and will save you a ton

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

nice work fellas. Beauty bike.

 

[Tallbikeman]

This bike looks great. I remember when these long top tube 20" bikes came out in the mid sixties or so. I remember K Mart sold bikes like these and I wanted one. But...............I was growing ridiculously tall even in my early teens and these bikes really didn't fit me. So I bought a Schwinn 24" frame Super Sport 10 speed which was a super nice bike and just barely fit me with the post way out. I eventually bought a 26" frame Schwinn Paramount brand new and that was the first bike that really fit me. Never the less you guys are doing great work on one of my wannahave bikes of my teenage years.

 

[Pondo]

This bike looks great. I remember when these long top tube 20" bikes came out in the mid sixties or so. I remember K Mart sold bikes like these and I wanted one. But...............I was growing ridiculously tall even in my early teens and these bikes really didn't fit me. So I bought a Schwinn 24" frame Super Sport 10 speed which was a super nice bike and just barely fit me with the post way out. I eventually bought a 26" frame Schwinn Paramount brand new and that was the first bike that really fit me. Never the less you guys are doing great work on one of my wannahave bikes of my teenage years.

This bike is pretty small even with the longer frame. I’ve ridden it a very short distance and it feels cramped. Plus the cranks are absurdly short. I’m 5’6” so I can only imagine how uncomfortable a bike like this would be for tall folks like you and CRASH.

 

[Wildcat]

The bike looks great.

It looks like you could get the seat back a couple inches by rotating the seat coupling forward.

 

[Pondo]

The bike looks great.

It looks like you could get the seat back a couple inches by rotating the seat coupling forward.

View attachment 245714

I’ll try that.

Another unknown is why it has a Huffy decal on the chain guard instead of Rail. I understand most of them said Rail.

 

[Wildcat]

I found this 66 Huffy dragster. Maybe they weren't all Rails, maybe yours is a different model. I'll see if I can find a 66 Huffy catalog.

 

[Pondo]

I'm looking to get a rear tire to make my Rail ridable. The original slick is pretty fragile looking and I want to keep it with the bike so I don't want to destroy it. I ordered a Duro 20x2.125 knobby but a 26" showed up- my bad.

I found this cool Raleigh 20x2.125 redline knobby and was wondering if it is the same rim diameter or a different british diameter?
https://www.amazon.com/Raleigh-T1246-Redline-Cycle-Tyre/dp/B0048LLR9U
I was also wondering if anyone had any experience with this diamond tread Alta
https://www.amazon.com/Alta-Bicycle...la-818932773593&ref=&adgrpid=79098076267&th=1
I know the Duro slick 2.125 actually measures out to about 1.75. Has anyone tried this Alta? Is it 2.125 or skinny?

 

[Ed Stately]

I'm looking to get a rear tire to make my Rail ridable. The original slick is pretty fragile looking and I want to keep it with the bike so I don't want to destroy it. I ordered a Duro 20x2.125 knobby but a 26" showed up- my bad.

I found this cool Raleigh 20x2.125 redline knobby and was wondering if it is the same rim diameter or a different british diameter?
https://www.amazon.com/Raleigh-T1246-Redline-Cycle-Tyre/dp/B0048LLR9U
I was also wondering if anyone had any experience with this diamond tread Alta
https://www.amazon.com/Alta-Bicycle...la-818932773593&ref=&adgrpid=79098076267&th=1
I know the Duro slick 2.125 actually measures out to about 1.75. Has anyone tried this Alta? Is it 2.125 or skinny?

I have the diamond drizzle tread in 24" and 26". I like the square edge's and I ride about a third of my time on gravel the rest asphalt and they do well on both. I have them in white and black wall.

 

[Pondo]

I have the diamond drizzle tread in 24" and 26". I like the square edge's and I ride about a third of my time on gravel the rest asphalt and they do well on both. I have them in white and black wall.

Thanks for the input! They look pretty good, look like they might be fairly wide.

 

[Ed Stately]

Thanks for the input! They look pretty good, look like they might be fairly wide.

Yes they are wide. Had do some adjustments to all the fender stays at the top so they would not rub on the Typhoon. Go fenderless and there is plenty of room.