Got Gears?

[Spike Spiegel]

It's fixed now. I did find an issue. Give it a try.

So it worked for an hour or so and again I'm getting the same message

Oh well... good that I have a spare account

If anyone objects we'll have to deal with it then

I'll just post the rest of the build. If anyone has objections - that's ok with me. We mainly just do it for fun & building bicycles, right?

The next thing I did was pretty stupid, and I just realised it after I did it :/

I had a Shimano HG-71 6/7/8 speed chain that I used on my daily driven gravel bicycle that I stupidly rode once in snowstorm. Ofcourse I didn't re-grease it properly and it corroded shut. Since I had to remove the corrosion from my 14T-32T casette that came with the rear hub I decided to do this:

Yes, that's vinegar... while the casette came clean & nice, the chain came out completely trashed. Links broke, came loose and all of the nickel plating was gone. Note to future self - vinegar & bicycle chains don't go well together. Good thing that I have a lot of those in my shop so I just took a new one from the shelf (one of the few new parts on this build).

Next step was the rear derailleur. I got the original setup of derailleurs & brake/shift handles that the bike came out with (The Shimano Acera M330) I wanted something more! I'm a freak when it comes to having more high-end stuff on my bikes so I found a completely trashed Shimano M591 rear derailleur.

I changed it for a new one for one of my clients. He made almost 30000 miles on this one and drove around half of Europe. The cheap Shimano Tourney was used as a donor of pulleys & pulley screws for it.

Just witness the pure destruction to the original pulleys...

Some cleaning, re-greasing, new pulleys from a donor and it should work perfectly!

After that I had to find some pedals and a crankset.

BB-UN23 bottom bracket that I found in of my Reusable Junk boxes, a TY-301 42-32-22 crankset that came from two sets - one had the left arm bent, the other had the pedal thread trashed on the right arm. Da Bomb platform pedals came of a dirt-cheap dirt bike that I bought this summer and rebuild for my girlfriends nephew. They're pretty ugly, but work just fine.

So came the time to slowly put it together.

Found some used V-brakes, and used Kenda Flame tires I took from my girlfriends GT (she got new ones ofcourse!). Size is 26x2.125 (57-559) and they fit perfectly in the frame. Not the tires I want for this bike, but for now they would have to do. Most of the outer casings are also used. Don't throw away, recycle!

 

[Spike Spiegel]

So after a few days it was mostly put together.

I took it for a spin around my shop to see if everything works properly. Shifting is thing you definitely need to get used to since you need to always start from the 1st gear on the hub, change gears on the derailleurs while pedaling, and remember NOT to pedal while shifting the hub.

 

[Tallbikeman]

Sorry to hear that the last 3 years have been very hard on you and your loved ones. I loved my father in law and was very sorry to see him go. Covid and all the rest has just been a pile on. Your Shimano M591 rear derailleur is very similar to the type of Shimano MTB derailleurs I use. I couldn't help but notice the wear patterns on your finish. My derailleurs get the same wear patterns and I'm not sure what is touching the derailleur to cause that. Just an interesting aside to your great build.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

Sorry to hear that the last 3 years have been very hard on you and your loved ones. I loved my father in law and was very sorry to see him go. Covid and all the rest has just been a pile on. Your Shimano M591 rear derailleur is very similar to the type of Shimano MTB derailleurs I use. I couldn't help but notice the wear patterns on your finish. My derailleurs get the same wear patterns and I'm not sure what is touching the derailleur to cause that. Just an interesting aside to your great build.

I noticed that the paint finish on those more modern Shimano derailleurs is not that great. I put a few bikes together that used very old Deore & XT stuff and even it was abused it never was this beaten. The same wear pattern also happened on my 105 rear derailleur that never seen any abuse... how did it happen? I don't know...

As I posted before - on the 11th of November Poland is celebrating it's Independence Day, so it's a dayoff. Decided to hop into my small Daewoo...

...erm... I mean Pontiac! and drive to my work to do some final tweaks, hop on it and do a real road test going back from work to my house.

First of all I decided to ditch the super hard seat that came of a Giant MTB in favor of something much better for my big butt.

San Marco Bioactive seat. This model has a problem with the bars coming out of their mounts underneath the seat, but nothing that can't be fixed with large amounts of epoxy glue.

I decided to ditch those clamp-on handles in favor of putting back those Scott bar ends, and add a "strengthening" bar.

Put on a pair of Cateye reflectors on oldschool mounts and, a set of lights & a bell. It's mandatory here in Poland that your bike must be equipped with:

* A red tail reflector
* A red tailight & front white/yellow headlight
* Bell
* At least one brake that works on the rear wheel.

That's ofcourse if you want to ride it on public roads... It's important since this year the ticket for not having any of that (Fixed Gear bikes without an adittional rear brake count as breakless!) rose FIVE times (from 25$ to almost 112$).

I also changed the front original derialleur from the Acera M330 to a Deore T610 that had to be cleaned & re-greased (it was stiff due to corrosion).

And with that, a bag to hold my phone and a pump in case I run into trouble I set off!

Since I had a lot of free time I decided to go on a longer path than normally and try it out on some dirt. My normal route is only 11.5km (about 7.2mil) and mostly on dedicated bicycle lanes.

Pretty boring, good if you want to get to work/back home quickly.

That's better! I also wanted to test how my GF could commute by bike to her workplace, and what bike she could ride (she has 3 - The GT, a trekking Meteor & a very sporty skinny tire Pinnacle). That place with terrain is definetly designed for MTB bicycles. Remember - mudguards are for the weak!

My thoughts on the first test drive:

The rear hub engages kinda slowly on the 1st and 2nd gear (you need to spin the cranks about a quarter of a full spin to engage).
Changing gears requires a little bit of practice but I had an occasion to test it down and up-hill in a tunnel underneath a big set of railway tracks. Going downhill is super fast on the overdrive and the reduction going uphill makes it super easy!
I definetly need to move more since it took me longer then I expected. Probably also need to loose some weight...
I need that extendo for the suspension fork since my wrists hurt pretty badly after the ride.
I probably need to dig out some other crankset since this one has probably a bent or broken tooth on the biggest 42T cog. It sometimes "catches" the chain.

So this is not even the final form of it! Next test drive in more heavier terrain this weekend

 

[Tallbikeman]

I'm not sure you have enough gear choices. More is better.

 

[Pondo]

The only part of this build I object to is that it's making me want to build another 63 speed bike! I had a Rans Stratus recumbent that I built up with a Sachs 3x7 hub and 3 ring cranks when I lived in Montana back in the late '90s. Fun bike. And you can't go wrong with a Rock Hopper! Very nice build, great bike, thanks for sharing the story!

 

[Jude Ephesus]

So it worked for an hour or so and again I'm getting the same message
View attachment 217092
Oh well... good that I have a spare account



I'll just post the rest of the build. If anyone has objections - that's ok with me. We mainly just do it for fun & building bicycles, right?

The next thing I did was pretty stupid, and I just realised it after I did it :/

I had a Shimano HG-71 6/7/8 speed chain that I used on my daily driven gravel bicycle that I stupidly rode once in snowstorm. Ofcourse I didn't re-grease it properly and it corroded shut. Since I had to remove the corrosion from my 14T-32T casette that came with the rear hub I decided to do this:
View attachment 217095

Yes, that's vinegar... while the casette came clean & nice, the chain came out completely trashed. Links broke, came loose and all of the nickel plating was gone. Note to future self - vinegar & bicycle chains don't go well together. Good thing that I have a lot of those in my shop so I just took a new one from the shelf (one of the few new parts on this build).

Next step was the rear derailleur. I got the original setup of derailleurs & brake/shift handles that the bike came out with (The Shimano Acera M330) I wanted something more! I'm a freak when it comes to having more high-end stuff on my bikes so I found a completely trashed Shimano M591 rear derailleur.
View attachment 217096
I changed it for a new one for one of my clients. He made almost 30000 miles on this one and drove around half of Europe. The cheap Shimano Tourney was used as a donor of pulleys & pulley screws for it.
View attachment 217097

Just witness the pure destruction to the original pulleys...

View attachment 217098

Some cleaning, re-greasing, new pulleys from a donor and it should work perfectly!

After that I had to find some pedals and a crankset.
View attachment 217099

BB-UN23 bottom bracket that I found in of my Reusable Junk boxes, a TY-301 42-32-22 crankset that came from two sets - one had the left arm bent, the other had the pedal thread trashed on the right arm. Da Bomb platform pedals came of a dirt-cheap dirt bike that I bought this summer and rebuild for my girlfriends nephew. They're pretty ugly, but work just fine.

So came the time to slowly put it together.
View attachment 217100

Found some used V-brakes, and used Kenda Flame tires I took from my girlfriends GT (she got new ones ofcourse!). Size is 26x2.125 (57-559) and they fit perfectly in the frame. Not the tires I want for this bike, but for now they would have to do. Most of the outer casings are also used. Don't throw away, recycle!

Tires look awesome on there! I havent seen the flame tires in brown. Super cool.

 

[LACABikeGuy.55]

after being involved with RRB ive come to the realisation that everyone has a different build speed, I myself take a month or so, others 3 months and theres some who can literally knock a complete bike together in days,
after looking at these pic's I rekon this guys genuine, he has cycling attire on a rack in his lounge and his mrs is a keen biker too, I think he could very well be capable of knocking a great machine up within a week, maybe even days!, im cool with this...very jealous but im cool with it!
Also he has a cat...cat lovers do not lie! LOL

I’m going to take my time if I can…. Or I’ll have to enter another bike for skinny tires.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

So I couldn't do the offroad test for a few reasons. First I got sick, and almost the same day it started snowing here in Poland. This weekend I picked up our service truck from the shop and went with my boss up to the town of Wisła to buy new skis & stuff for our ski rental buisness. But I also took an advantage that our truck is again operational to take the bike back to the shop.

And this is what you get for not runing mudguards

But I have a suprise! Since I consulted people much smarter than me and the statement is clear:

"The rules clearly state that you cannot enter with a bike that is already finished whether you can prove that you started it after the start date or not it still says you can't do it. So you could 1. Not enter 2. Find a different bike to build and enter 3. Take your existing bike back apart down to the frame photograph it in that state and then show the rebuild process"

So I decided to go with the 3rd option - take it apart down to the frame, and put it back together. But that would be to easy for me

So to make it harder I decided to make it a timed challenge. How quick I can strip it to only the frame and put it back together? We will find out!

So without further ado...

We have here in Warsaw, Poland.

And, ready, steady, go!

 

[Spike Spiegel]

And done!

So had to pause to talk with a client, but I'm still impressed with the time. I didn't rush it not to break anything, and not lose any parts.

So right now it's 15:00 here in Warsaw, Poland. I'll catch a quick smoke, and get back to puting it back together!

 

[Spike Spiegel]

I did it!

Took me a little bit longer than the dissasembly

So I fnished at 15:51. Now only thing left to do is some final tweaks to make it road worthy back again, and finally an offroad test.

 

[Tallbikeman]

I wouldn't cut it in a bike shop, too slow. Wow you burned through that disassembly, reassembly process. I too am a very slow builder because I always have a new idea that needs to be mulled over, then slept on, then forgotten, then remembered, slept on again, you get the idea. Good work on your build.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

I wouldn't cut it in a bike shop, too slow. Wow you burned through that disassembly, reassembly process. I too am a very slow builder because I always have a new idea that needs to be mulled over, then slept on, then forgotten, then remembered, slept on again, you get the idea. Good work on your build.

Thanks! I usally plan ahead, gather parts, consider my options and then assemble. While the bicycle season has slowed down I have a lot of spare time in my shop, so that also helps. Usually it takes me up to a week from concept to assembling a complete bike.

But when it comes to records... I once time-trialed assembling a new standart bike from a box. It took me 11.31min, and an additional 5min of road worhty test, and ready for pickup by a happy new owner.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

So last sunday I got together, put on some warm clothes and went out to the nearest "forest" (It's basically a less organized city park, but with a lot of more "wild" parts) called Lasek Na Kole (Koło (eng. Wheel) is a district of Warsaw, so the name translates to "Forest on The Wheel" )

Speeds up to 18mph in light terrain are nothing for this klunker. Also even steeper mud climbs are not a problem.

I definetly need to upgrade it with the suspension fork and put the steering bar a little bit higher (even 0.5" would make a great difference for my back). I'm also considering swaping the crankset for a two piece Deore crankset with Hollowtec II tech, and with the fork I migh swap the shifters & brakes. I have a front Avid Elixir disc brake, and will look for some hydraulic Magura rim brakes for the rear wheel.

But for now... Ride On!!!

 

[GeePig]

* A red tail reflector
* A red tailight & front white/yellow headlight
* Bell
* At least one brake that works on the rear wheel.

That's ofcourse if you want to ride it on public roads... It's important since this year the ticket for not having any of that (Fixed Gear bikes without an adittional rear brake count as breakless!) rose FIVE times (from 25$ to almost 112$).

ah ha, ah hum... well most of the old folks who still use their old Romets down may be technically illegal, but you can see the Police from far away...