Last week I finally accomplished a goal I've had for almost 40 years with this bike.
Around 1976-'77 I made an agreement with my older brother to do his paper route for a year and at the end of that year I would be the owner of his 1968 Schwinn Fastback with ram's horn bars on it. (campus green of course).
I loved that bike a lot but it always bugged me that I could never get the brakes working well enough to do a skid turn with it. I even took apart the back wheel and tried to lace an s6 rim on there to get more braking surface. Didn't work.
So almost 40 years later I decide to build a Fastback and got some good brakes on there. These tektro long reach calipers are a great plug and play upgrade for an older bike. Especially with a modern alum rim with machined sides.
I've only done one other skid to practice since I didn't want to scuff the tire too much. When I rode into this parking lot and felt the warm sun with the cool November air I knew it was time. Didn't take much of a tug on the lever to lay this patch.
Something I discovered this week is that when you spread the stays in the back to make room for a wider hub the dropouts actually angle in a bit. I thought I had them straight but I noticed the derailluer was pointing inward compared to the center line of the chain.
Didn't want to mess with the painted frame so I just tweaked the hanger to line everything up. Wondered why the limit screws seemed out of whack. Drivetrain is much quieter now. Just a little growl in 9th gear when it's on the stand. When you're riding it you only hear wind in 9th gear...;-)
I can see from the picture now it looks like I can probably loosen the tension screw a bit but the limit screws are fairly even.
Schwalbe Duranos are not too bad in the snow. They are an all season road bike tire.
Time to clean out the garage to get my car in. Cleaned out momma's side last night before the snow. Will be nice this year. Since I'm down to one boring car, I can keep my driver in the garage...it is a 6-speed manual with 3 pedals though. A rarity these days.
Went ahead and added my bike to the finished bike thread. http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/mbbo-3-finished-bikes-thread.87999/
Around 1976-'77 I made an agreement with my older brother to do his paper route for a year and at the end of that year I would be the owner of his 1968 Schwinn Fastback with ram's horn bars on it. (campus green of course).
I loved that bike a lot but it always bugged me that I could never get the brakes working well enough to do a skid turn with it. I even took apart the back wheel and tried to lace an s6 rim on there to get more braking surface. Didn't work.
So almost 40 years later I decide to build a Fastback and got some good brakes on there. These tektro long reach calipers are a great plug and play upgrade for an older bike. Especially with a modern alum rim with machined sides.
I've only done one other skid to practice since I didn't want to scuff the tire too much. When I rode into this parking lot and felt the warm sun with the cool November air I knew it was time. Didn't take much of a tug on the lever to lay this patch.
Something I discovered this week is that when you spread the stays in the back to make room for a wider hub the dropouts actually angle in a bit. I thought I had them straight but I noticed the derailluer was pointing inward compared to the center line of the chain.
Didn't want to mess with the painted frame so I just tweaked the hanger to line everything up. Wondered why the limit screws seemed out of whack. Drivetrain is much quieter now. Just a little growl in 9th gear when it's on the stand. When you're riding it you only hear wind in 9th gear...;-)
I can see from the picture now it looks like I can probably loosen the tension screw a bit but the limit screws are fairly even.
Schwalbe Duranos are not too bad in the snow. They are an all season road bike tire.
Time to clean out the garage to get my car in. Cleaned out momma's side last night before the snow. Will be nice this year. Since I'm down to one boring car, I can keep my driver in the garage...it is a 6-speed manual with 3 pedals though. A rarity these days.
Went ahead and added my bike to the finished bike thread. http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/mbbo-3-finished-bikes-thread.87999/
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