JUPITER - THE FLYING FINN
Hello everyone. Although I'm still pretty new here i feel comfortable enough to enter this cool build off for fun. So far, the entries are interesting to say the least and i'm looking forward for the outcome of this. Also, thanks to all who who spent their time to read my first post at the intro section!
Keeping journals and documenting my builds from the beginning to end is something i already do anyway, so it's only logical this will be cool possibility not only to to get the bike done but also to share the process as it goes. For this entry i am using a vintage finnish Jupiter brand muscle/youth bike from the late 60's to early 70's. I am unsure of the specific year and hoping to find out about it one of these days. I scored the bike locally a couple months ago and was stoked to say the least.
Jupiter was a popular and well known finnish moped and bicycle brand which also played an important part in the national folklore. The Jupiter bicycle frames were manufactured in norway, apparently by Öglaend and were then imported to Finland for the assembly. Originally the assembly took place in Helsinki but in 1960 the facilities moved to Messukylä, near city of Tampere at S.O.K.'s (Finnish co-op trading group's) assembling facilites. The last group of Jupiter bikes left the S.O.K. assembly line in 1984 ending the story of well beloved finnish bicycle brand.
However, in 2007 the Jupiter brand was resurrected again with a focus on affordable children and youth bikes now that "retro" is considered "cool" at any cost. The only thing that connects them with the original Jupiter is the name.
Here's the bike as i got it.
I pretty sure someone will say it is good "as is" but i won't settle with it. Although at first, i thought exactly same but then the overly ambitious side of me took control. It is apparent that the bike has been built by some of the bike's previous owners who has used a variety of components from different bikes, there is just way too much variety in colour (that is, underneath all that black paint) and such parts that don't belong in this bike. Chopped rear fender, mismatch fork etc. Nevertheless, i am using most of them but the overall style and colour will will be improved. I have my building roots in BMX so you can expect something in that vein. Guess this project is a strange mix of restoration and customizing yet keeping the overall "feel" with few improvements.
So where does the "Flying Finn" theme fit in? Well since this is a finnish bike and brand with respectable history i started thinking if there is any great finnish sports legends on two wheels? The first person that came to mind was ofcourse the finnish motorbike legend Jarno Saarinen who died at Monza track 36 years ago to date next wednesday, on may 20th 1973 which was the year i was born. Also, a long time good friend of mine thru BMX circuits has been a great inspiration for me throughout the years so part of this bike will be dedicated to him aswell. This is for you too Säm.
Recap of the story so far...
THE SEAT
The most recent part i finished was the original banana or "Rodeo" seat, whichever term one prefers, so i'll start with that. It was brutally spray bombed with black at some point. To be honest i didn't realize that until i removed the duct tape that was used to patch the nose of the seat. The original colour of the seat is blue and the vinyl had numerous cuts, rips and tears. It was a lot of work but totally worth it.
As it was after i had just tried some paint remover on it. I was stoked to find out the seat is actually blue!
Applied some more paint remover.
The seat completely disassembled. At this point i took a deep breath and thought, man.. this is going to take forever. Notice the plastic bag used as a hood to slide the vinyl on. Ultimately i saved it and left it there. I thought well the plastic bag's been sitting there for the past 35 something years, there is no reason to replace it.
The foam was in pretty rough shape but otherwise still fully useable.
Foam washed and repaired. Feeling fressshhh like Janina!
The metal frame and the foam, ready to glue it on. Added the blue strip so that the foam doesn't peek thru the holes in the metal frame. As you can see in the previous photos the metal frame was in bad shape. Rust, paint and grease. Took me a while to get it even as nice as it is. I was tempted to paint it silver for protection though but a layer or two of wax will do.
The nose had been damaged and this my cure. I was almost giving up on looking for the right shade of blue until i found this piece of nylon reinforced vinyl at the dry docks. It has different texture than the seat but what the heck, it was close enough.
While i waited for the glue to dry i cleaned up and the sissy bar of silver pray paint and polished it.
Elbow grease and metal polish. The chrome is pretty much gone and rust has done its damage but it polished up nice enough.
Too bad these go way up into to the sissy bar so that only the bottom is showing (which is in worst condition).
Then it was time to put on the repaired vinyl cover. The blow dryer came in handy as the vinyl had shrunk a bit since last time it was on. Everything went smooth and i used the original bolts and lot of glue.
And finally, after so much work, one of the most distinctive parts of this bike is done!
For the moment, everything has been disassembled for cleanup, polish etc. The frame will be painted soon, meanwhile the rims have been stripped and repainted waiting for pinstripes of some sort and some colour, which, i haven't decided yet. The czech Favorit coaster brake hub has been dismantled, re-greased and show polished and so are the pedals, 46T sprocket and cranks.
THE BARS
The bars were pretty beaten complete with regular stem and original german made grips i am yet to identify. The stem had been welded on to the bars by previous owner due to obvious problems with clamping power to get the bars to stay put in one position. The bars aslo had great amount of flex which was unacceptable. I also wanted to add some "BMX" to them so i decided to make some bolt-on crossbars out of a folding rack i found in a dumpster. I made several one, straight and v-shape. And, not just a single crossbar but two! I took measurements, cut the tubes, flattened the ends and drilled holes accordingly. So now i have a "motofied" version of the stock apehangers which flexed way too much anyway and instead of a single crossbar, there's dual crossbars! I am really happy with the result and will be even happier once the numberplate is done.
The material.
Here pondering with different ideas and shapes.
Experimenting with different tubing and angles.
Done. Decided to go with slightly thicker tubing and less bend.
PARTS ROUND 1
The frame.
The vintage brass headbadge.
The rear fender needs work.
Halfway done with the fork, waiting for paint.
The czech Favorit coaster hub with a new old cog and lockring.
The chainguard, presumably for the 50's or 60's all polished up and ready to go.
This is it for now, we're far from "done" this is just the beginning so stay tuned!
I will keep you posted.
Thanks,
-Timo
Hello everyone. Although I'm still pretty new here i feel comfortable enough to enter this cool build off for fun. So far, the entries are interesting to say the least and i'm looking forward for the outcome of this. Also, thanks to all who who spent their time to read my first post at the intro section!
Keeping journals and documenting my builds from the beginning to end is something i already do anyway, so it's only logical this will be cool possibility not only to to get the bike done but also to share the process as it goes. For this entry i am using a vintage finnish Jupiter brand muscle/youth bike from the late 60's to early 70's. I am unsure of the specific year and hoping to find out about it one of these days. I scored the bike locally a couple months ago and was stoked to say the least.
Jupiter was a popular and well known finnish moped and bicycle brand which also played an important part in the national folklore. The Jupiter bicycle frames were manufactured in norway, apparently by Öglaend and were then imported to Finland for the assembly. Originally the assembly took place in Helsinki but in 1960 the facilities moved to Messukylä, near city of Tampere at S.O.K.'s (Finnish co-op trading group's) assembling facilites. The last group of Jupiter bikes left the S.O.K. assembly line in 1984 ending the story of well beloved finnish bicycle brand.
However, in 2007 the Jupiter brand was resurrected again with a focus on affordable children and youth bikes now that "retro" is considered "cool" at any cost. The only thing that connects them with the original Jupiter is the name.
Here's the bike as i got it.
I pretty sure someone will say it is good "as is" but i won't settle with it. Although at first, i thought exactly same but then the overly ambitious side of me took control. It is apparent that the bike has been built by some of the bike's previous owners who has used a variety of components from different bikes, there is just way too much variety in colour (that is, underneath all that black paint) and such parts that don't belong in this bike. Chopped rear fender, mismatch fork etc. Nevertheless, i am using most of them but the overall style and colour will will be improved. I have my building roots in BMX so you can expect something in that vein. Guess this project is a strange mix of restoration and customizing yet keeping the overall "feel" with few improvements.
So where does the "Flying Finn" theme fit in? Well since this is a finnish bike and brand with respectable history i started thinking if there is any great finnish sports legends on two wheels? The first person that came to mind was ofcourse the finnish motorbike legend Jarno Saarinen who died at Monza track 36 years ago to date next wednesday, on may 20th 1973 which was the year i was born. Also, a long time good friend of mine thru BMX circuits has been a great inspiration for me throughout the years so part of this bike will be dedicated to him aswell. This is for you too Säm.
Recap of the story so far...
THE SEAT
The most recent part i finished was the original banana or "Rodeo" seat, whichever term one prefers, so i'll start with that. It was brutally spray bombed with black at some point. To be honest i didn't realize that until i removed the duct tape that was used to patch the nose of the seat. The original colour of the seat is blue and the vinyl had numerous cuts, rips and tears. It was a lot of work but totally worth it.
As it was after i had just tried some paint remover on it. I was stoked to find out the seat is actually blue!
Applied some more paint remover.
The seat completely disassembled. At this point i took a deep breath and thought, man.. this is going to take forever. Notice the plastic bag used as a hood to slide the vinyl on. Ultimately i saved it and left it there. I thought well the plastic bag's been sitting there for the past 35 something years, there is no reason to replace it.
The foam was in pretty rough shape but otherwise still fully useable.
Foam washed and repaired. Feeling fressshhh like Janina!
The metal frame and the foam, ready to glue it on. Added the blue strip so that the foam doesn't peek thru the holes in the metal frame. As you can see in the previous photos the metal frame was in bad shape. Rust, paint and grease. Took me a while to get it even as nice as it is. I was tempted to paint it silver for protection though but a layer or two of wax will do.
The nose had been damaged and this my cure. I was almost giving up on looking for the right shade of blue until i found this piece of nylon reinforced vinyl at the dry docks. It has different texture than the seat but what the heck, it was close enough.
While i waited for the glue to dry i cleaned up and the sissy bar of silver pray paint and polished it.
Elbow grease and metal polish. The chrome is pretty much gone and rust has done its damage but it polished up nice enough.
Too bad these go way up into to the sissy bar so that only the bottom is showing (which is in worst condition).
Then it was time to put on the repaired vinyl cover. The blow dryer came in handy as the vinyl had shrunk a bit since last time it was on. Everything went smooth and i used the original bolts and lot of glue.
And finally, after so much work, one of the most distinctive parts of this bike is done!
For the moment, everything has been disassembled for cleanup, polish etc. The frame will be painted soon, meanwhile the rims have been stripped and repainted waiting for pinstripes of some sort and some colour, which, i haven't decided yet. The czech Favorit coaster brake hub has been dismantled, re-greased and show polished and so are the pedals, 46T sprocket and cranks.
THE BARS
The bars were pretty beaten complete with regular stem and original german made grips i am yet to identify. The stem had been welded on to the bars by previous owner due to obvious problems with clamping power to get the bars to stay put in one position. The bars aslo had great amount of flex which was unacceptable. I also wanted to add some "BMX" to them so i decided to make some bolt-on crossbars out of a folding rack i found in a dumpster. I made several one, straight and v-shape. And, not just a single crossbar but two! I took measurements, cut the tubes, flattened the ends and drilled holes accordingly. So now i have a "motofied" version of the stock apehangers which flexed way too much anyway and instead of a single crossbar, there's dual crossbars! I am really happy with the result and will be even happier once the numberplate is done.
The material.
Here pondering with different ideas and shapes.
Experimenting with different tubing and angles.
Done. Decided to go with slightly thicker tubing and less bend.
PARTS ROUND 1
The frame.
The vintage brass headbadge.
The rear fender needs work.
Halfway done with the fork, waiting for paint.
The czech Favorit coaster hub with a new old cog and lockring.
The chainguard, presumably for the 50's or 60's all polished up and ready to go.
This is it for now, we're far from "done" this is just the beginning so stay tuned!
I will keep you posted.
Thanks,
-Timo
. Love the pictures and documentation...very impressed 
