Firebolt

[Duchess]

This won't be a very interesting build, basically a freshening and modernizing of a '61 Columbia Firebolt for nephew #2 to ride on family runs until he can fit on a bigger bike. Will be converting to 6-speed derailleur with disc brake using a flip flop hub (no dishing, so I should be able to keep the spokes it has) to replace the single speed coaster and doing a few things with retroreflective tape. I'm also working on making a kind of repro TOC Troxel saddle and I might make a version in vinyl for this as the spring seat is really loose feeling, but probably not.

Beginning (new rims with reflective tape added to replace rusted out junk):

 

[MojoK]

You say not so interesting.....I'm very interested.

 

[Duchess]

All the parts were already ordered, so it was a matter of mocking it up. And taking it apart and mocking it up again, then swapping the flip-flop and mocking it up again. I had to get a 205mm axle to be long enough as the original wouldn't cut it. Adding two derailleur hangers (the one on the brake side makes alignment easier as the hangers intrude into the dropout space a little. I just cut off the bottom and am going to use it upside down.). The brake mounts to one of those add on brackets and the rotor uses thread on adaptors to screw onto the fixed gear side of the flip-flop. I had to double them up. Not too sure about the mounting bracket's strength, but I'll find out when everything goes back together. Tomorrow, the parts will be painted and I'll have to pick up some longer bolts to go through both rotor adaptors all the way.

 

[Duchess]

Modified double stem shifter. Ground off the second post as it isn't needed. It will be mounted to the handlebar.

Working on a new head badge using retroreflective tape. The green tape is nearly a dead match for the paint and the white is very much a match for the trim color.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Very cool! Those brake adapters seen to work fine in my experience if it is the one I'm thinking of...

 

[Duchess]

chain guard with crank strike scratch. Decided to replace it with retroflective tape.

So, boom!—look at it reflect! Also, the wheels and trim are painted white and impatiently mocked together. I'm leaving it alone to cure a little better before I push my luck.

 

[Duchess]

It took a little doing to find a white chain that wasn't single speed nor too narrow or too short of chain, but I did it . . . well, more or less. First, I still needed to give the chainring teeth a little grinding to get the chain to fit on the teeth without palm strikes, but, yeah, got that done, rock and roll!

Nope! 116 links wasn't enough . . . by about 4 links or whatever. OK, order another one . . . except no more in white! As an office motivational poster should have told me if their messages weren't too insipid: there are no problems, just opportunities for creative solutions. (I like to say this, but in reality, it usually only comes out after a round of cursing. However, in this particular instance I just found it funny.) With no white available (or brown or green) I bought a black chain and I'm going to run a chain that's half black and half white.

I just noticed that I still have a black mark on my thumb from when I accidentally stabbed it with a pencil stored in my car's map pocket while working on my portfolio for design school about five lifetimes ago. I guess it's there forever at this point.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Will you chain be black for half and then white for half, or more like black, white, black, white, black, white?

 

[Duchess]

Just half and half like Two-Face, I'm way too lazy to alternate every other link.

 

[SpikeFC]

Just half and half like Two-Face, I'm way too lazy to alternate every other link.

That makes me saaaaaad panda would definetly like to see that...

 

[Duchess]

It's a good idea, and if the pins were more easily re-insertable, I'd probably go back and do it, but certainly not that many times.

 

[Duchess]

Wow, so this worked out impressively well! I'm going to need to find more things to do with this now other than finishing the head badge and some new pedals. (Could use some lights . . . and now I realize I could have used the tank I removed for a headlight battery, but my cable routing has precluded that option. I'll think of something.) Shifts are really smooth and the disc brake works well. Getting the bracketing and spacing for everything was a little annoying, but everything works great from the go. Brake squeals a little, but that should break in. The important thing is that it brakes even going down a decent hill at a fair clip and I must weigh double what my nephew does. Almost too easy—anticlimactic. Maybe I'm finally learning some tricks. Of course, this wasn't too challenging and I had most of the parts waiting. Compared to what everyone else is doing, I kind of feel embarrassed to have this thing in here, but I guess that means I probably have the time to make a custom seat and whatever else I can think of light-wise.

I probably should have used string for all the retaining points for the cable housing, but I already bought and painted the clip things and I didn't think of it until I felt I needed another retainer to hold the housing tighter near the derailleur and didn't have any more clips.

The disc brake adapter fits onto the axle with a 2-prong fork about perpendicular to the dropout slot, so changing the wheel requires loosening the whole brake caliper assembly so it can be pulled away and the axle can slide out of the dropout. I was a little suspicious about this thing while test fitting it, but it seems pretty solid now that it's all together.

Had to double up the thread-on rotor mounts and play with various washers and spacers to get the brake lined up right and the wheel centered (it's not dished, so both sides had to match). I really hope doubling doesn't cause a problem with the additional torsional stress, but I'm probably overly worrying. I'll keep an eye on it, but it's not like this will get much use, anyway.

 

[OddJob]

Not to give you any more to do or anything, but to me this bike is begging for fenders. A set of white fenders, with those whitewalls kind of disappearing underneath them, would really set this off!

You've got a good roll going on this build. Keep 'er rollin'!

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Wow, so this worked out impressively well! I'm going to need to find more things to do with this now other than finishing the head badge and some new pedals. (Could use some lights . . . and now I realize I could have used the tank I removed for a headlight battery, but my cable routing has precluded that option. I'll think of something.) Shifts are really smooth and the disc brake works well. Getting the bracketing and spacing for everything was a little annoying, but everything works great from the go. Brake squeals a little, but that should break in. The important thing is that it brakes even going down a decent hill at a fair clip and I must weigh double what my nephew does. Almost too easy—anticlimactic. Maybe I'm finally learning some tricks. Of course, this wasn't too challenging and I had most of the parts waiting. Compared to what everyone else is doing, I kind of feel embarrassed to have this thing in here, but I guess that means I probably have the time to make a custom seat and whatever else I can think of light-wise.

I probably should have used string for all the retaining points for the cable housing, but I already bought and painted the clip things and I didn't think of it until I felt I needed another retainer to hold the housing tighter near the derailleur and didn't have any more clips.

The disc brake adapter fits onto the axle with a 2-prong fork about perpendicular to the dropout slot, so changing the wheel requires loosening the whole brake caliper assembly so it can be pulled away and the axle can slide out of the dropout. I was a little suspicious about this thing while test fitting it, but it seems pretty solid now that it's all together.

Had to double up the thread-on rotor mounts and play with various washers and spacers to get the brake lined up right and the wheel centered (it's not dished, so both sides had to match). I really hope doubling doesn't cause a problem with the additional torsional stress, but I'm probably overly worrying. I'll keep an eye on it, but it's not like this will get much use, anyway.

Looking really nice!

 

[Duchess]

I'm trying to keep the weight down as much as possible for my sleight nephew, but I do have the fenders and I agree it would look nice. The fenders have a peak to them, which looks pretty good.

I'm going to try to find a flashlight small enough to fit in the longitudinal tube of the integrated rack and put a red gel over it to act like a taillight and an idea for an unusual headlight is starting to form, but I'll need to solve the battery storage problem (it will have to be 12V to work and, while they have small packs, I'm not sure they're small enough).

 

[Chad T]

Cool bike! Nice work so far. Love the gears and disc brake. Could be doing something similar myself...

 

[Duchess]

If you do a dished wheel, it would be even easier (and you could get a more modern cassette with more speeds at least until they require a narrower chain, though I suppose you could grind the chainring teeth down farther—they are steel). I just didn't want to buy new spokes and I had the freewheel 6-speed. Probably would have been only a little more to get a modern disc hub/freehub already built.

I'm working on an idea for an interesting headlight, but I'm undecided on part of it—the ideas I have are kind of cool, but don't make sense on this bike. However, I might have found a solution that works, though it would have to be explained that Cyclopses forged Zeus' lightning bolts as nobody is going to know that (and I'm thinking this will be a very stylized cyclops).

 

[toro1978]

I'll need to solve the battery storage problem

I took a modern headlight, took the bulb out, and ran two cables + and -. I put the modern headlight in a frame bag under the seat and ran the cables to an old headlight on the fork.
The power source should be where it is most convenient.
Very nice grips, is this cork?

 

[Duchess]

I have a battery in a small frame bag for a "motorcycle" headlight (advertised as for a motorcycle, but it's way too weak. Good for a bicycle, though) on my USAAF bike, but I want this to be a completely separate system. I have a solution—I'm going to incorporate it into the mount, which will be a bridge across two truss rods. At this point, I know I want a 2-piece design for the light, but not 100% on what the primary piece should be. I want something that goes with the colors and has something to do with firebolt/thunderbolt. Like, I'd like to do a light up Medusa head, like a small version of the below, but it doesn't make sense thematically. I could have an aircraft look like it's going supersonic, but neither the P-47 Thunderbolt nor the A-10 are supersonic aircraft and those are the only ones that sort of work with the name. It has to be something leaping/jumping/flying and it has to light up, so I think a stylized flying cyclops head with an eyeball light will work unless I come up with something I like better.

 

[Duchess]

Did a little bit. New pedals, which were built by someone who doesn't understand or care how bearings work as they were way too tight. Since they're (not as) cheap (as they should be), they're not designed to be taken apart to adjust or lube the bearings, so I had to grind off the riveted pedal block bolts and replace them with carriage bolts and lock nuts, which I could only find in a larger size, requiring everything to be drilled out and square holes to be filed out for the carriage bolts. Much less work was the truss rods. Bending the second one to match the first was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Helps that they're aluminum.