Ten Turing - Tales from the Coalshed: Coming of the Coalshed Racer

[Starnger]

I found this in my coal shed / bicycle workshop, a lovely tin of grease from Jedlicze, a town in southeast Poland, which I am now using when I rebuild my hubs. Before that I had to spend some time carefully removing the crud from around the lid so that none of it fell inside when I first levered the lid off. Behind it, up against the wall to the right, is a large hammer that I also found in there, lodged behind the furnace.

Finally, rather than being some kind of space motif or or oil leak, the red and black on my bench shows that I have not been a total bum in the build.

Yea, while working on my workshop in Poznan i also found all kinds of antique stuff from the times of USSR. Some grease, a soup can, a few bottles of vodka hidden in the ventilation, some wooden coils. But the coolest of them all is lots of old switches, free cables and a few powerful electric motors.

 

[GeePig]

Yea, while working on my workshop in Poznan i also found all kinds of antique stuff from the times of USSR. Some grease, a soup can, a few bottles of vodka hidden in the ventilation, some wooden coils. But the coolest of them all is lots of old switches, free cables and a few powerful electric motors.

And I was hoping for a still, but I still have the barn attics to go...

We are having the electrics replaced next month, which will involve stripping out a lot of aluminium wire - hopefully plenty of the solid stuff as I can find uses for that stuff every day of the week.

 

[GeePig]

I had a bit of luck yesterday, when the neighbour came around to ask if I could resuscitate his bike.

It had clearly been standing in a barn, a damp one at that, and so the chain was like a stick. The bike is I suppose a decade old, a Kross, made in Poland, with a massive child's seat on the back that actually made it easier to stand the bike upside-down in my earthy-floored barn. The rear wheel nuts were on back to front, and there were hammer marks on one of them. Once I finally extracted the rear wheel I was able to see that there were two colours of grease on the rear axle and a ball missing from one bearing. Then he asks me the loaded question - can I repair it or should he buy a new bike? Does he want a new bike and would like me to prove it to his wife? Does he expect a perfectly running bike? Or will running a bit rough do?

Anyways, inspiration strikes - I free off the chain a bit and slip on the wheels from Ten Turing. It was a bit of luck, really, as I was about to break them down for painting and a change of hubs. It ran a bit rough on that chain, but he seemed pleased enough and wanted to take it as-is (oh no, I say, not with my antique Stomils on!). His wheels have aluminium rims on rusty spokes and hubs, and I have Pigdogs slightly rusty but nice enough rims on good spokes and nice-ish hubs. Would he be prepared to swop if I chuck in a used replacement pedal and slightly used brake pads?

Yes he would, although he is perplexed why I do not need cash as well, but he has helped us a lot to find people to fix stuff around our cottage, so to me it is fair. Actually it is more than fair, as I get as much pleasure fiddling with old bikes as he does going fishing.

So there we are - I get a pair of decent rims that look the part and which I do not have to paint, and I can shift a minor proportion of my used parts stock. And since he talks to everyone in the village, everyone will soon know that I fix bikes. Maybe mowers too...

 

[GeePig]

The saga of the neighbour's bike continues...

As neither of us have a vice here, I decide to take both his and my wheels to my city garage, where I have a small vice, to remove the derailleur clusters to simplify the cleaning and repacking of the bearings. My one was tight to remove, but gave up eventually. In trying to remove his I broke my vice...

Well at least I now have a mini anvil, perhaps one for the farm too if I can remove the slide.

Anyway, today we return to the farm, where tomorrow I will rebuild my wheels and fit them to his bike, then strip out the vice-busting hub from his wheel and begin installing the S+F 3-speed coaster brake instead, ready for Ten Turing. Over the summer I will keep applying releasing agents to the recalcitrant derailleur cluster so that by the time the autumn come I can build the hub into the 27" rim that the S+F came out of - and find myself a better vice.

 

[Starnger]

Ha ha, funny-VICE i've got this mini anvil in a similar way

I just got myself a steel one instead now.

 

[kingfish254]

Most "VICES" are tough to break, like ... Drugs and Rock and Roll.

Don't forget to put your marker on the BO16 Builders Map

https://ratrodbikes.com/forum/threads/bo16-builders-map-go-ahead-and-set-your-marker.113951/

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Most "VICES" are tough to break, like ... Drugs and Rock and Roll.

Huh. Tough, you say?

No problems so far

 

[GeePig]

Ha ha, funny-VICE i've got this mini anvil in a similar way
View attachment 161152

I just got myself a steel one instead now.

I am now thinking that many people here in Poland and elsewhere have such mini-vices...

I now plan to bolt one of those tubular box wrenches to some steel, then bolt that to the wall of my brick barn and use that to try and remove the gear set from the wheel - I have found a source of said wrenches in my local suppliers of tools and stuff:

It took me ages to find it, the locals would say they got whatever from 'Lewiatan' (a chain of small supermarkets) - but if you arrive at the right time then some mysterious doors will be open next to the cashier's desk - and lo!

 

[GeePig]

I now have the wheel rims I wanted, all I need do now is to get them off the spokes. At this point I realized I was being slowed down by a workbench (old and very small kitchen table) and toolboxes lying around on the floor, always with something ending up on top of them. However, there was a larger dining room table in the big barn with slowly rotting legs and an old bed frame in the wooden barn. A couple of days work and the two were married together to make me a larger workbench.

Evenness not being a strength of the coal shed floor, walls or, probably, ceiling, I had to find something to give me an approximation of a flat surface.

Note that those white 'boxes' on the right hand corner of the workbench are ceramic tiles from a former tiled stove from the kitchen, and once cleaned up make very convenient storage containers for when you are stripping a bike.

 

[GeePig]

Here are the rims I intend using, ready to be broken down. I have another front hub to go in, leaving the present one to be rebuilt later, and I hope that I have a set of spokes that will allow me to weave the Fichtel & Sachs hub in the rear.

That gear set is also the one that broke my vice, so I really need to get it off first. It would have been better to do it with the tire on, but I needed to transfer it to the bike I was rebuilding.

I forgot to mention that the table I used to make my new workbench also has a pair of extra leaves to extend each end. They are currently sitting at the back of my warsztat, waiting for power to be reconnected so that I can mount one as a fixed extension and the other as a fold-down for those times when you need a lot of bench space...

 

[Starnger]

Which model of F&S hub are you intending to use? How many gears?

 

[GeePig]

Which model of F&S hub are you intending to use? How many gears?

I think it is a 515, it certainly has three gears, a coaster brake and dates from 1983. It is a big chunk of a thing compared to my usual Velosteel single-speed coaster brakes. I am just a bit concerned whether I have the spokes to weave it into my aluminium rims or whether I have to order new ones...

 

[Wildcat]

Here are the rims I intend using, ready to be broken down. I have another front hub to go in, leaving the present one to be rebuilt later, and I hope that I have a set of spokes that will allow me to weave the Fichtel & Sachs hub in the rear.

That gear set is also the one that broke my vice, so I really need to get it off first. It would have been better to do it with the tire on, but I needed to transfer it to the bike I was rebuilding.

I forgot to mention that the table I used to make my new workbench also has a pair of extra leaves to extend each end. They are currently sitting at the back of my warsztat, waiting for power to be reconnected so that I can mount one as a fixed extension and the other as a fold-down for those times when you need a lot of bench space...

I've made up a bunch of wheels since I learned how recently. I used many different size rims, going 4 cross or 3 cross to make up the difference in sizes. Even 2 cross on a front wheel. I use this calculator to figure the spoke lengths:
https://www.prowheelbuilder.com/spokelengthcalculator
I just change the spoke pattern to see if any of my spokes are near the right length. Your rim looks recessed, the spoke can be a few mm longer and still work.

 

[GeePig]

I just change the spoke pattern to see if any of my spokes are near the right length. Your rim looks recessed, the spoke can be a few mm longer and still work.

I hadn't considered that, all my rims so far have been single layer - so no filing the tips off the spokes on this job either!

The hub is wider but has a larger diameter, so fingers crossed that one way or another I won't have to order any spokes - but I do like building my wheels with a 3 cross pattern, I find it kind of satisfying.

 

[GeePig]

As a surprise, by the time I got back from by pre 7 am bike ride through the woods, a trench was already being dug across our yard, with our car on one side and the entrance on the other. Hopefully they get to filling in the trench before we run out of supplies and have to beg a lift into town.

I found myself a pair of pedals, as-new and therefore not as sloppy as the one's I was toying with the other week. Once I remove the reflectors they will be perfection in my eyes. I am not certain how effective those reflectors are as I cannot recall driving along and thinking 'Oh look at those pedal reflectors', I just know that eventually they crack and then you cannot help thinking 'Uh look at those pedal reflectors'.

In the excitement of impending power, I have started to chisel off the accumulated coal and mortar from the top of this brick step that pretty much goes around the whole coal shed, so that it can live up to its promise of a handy little shelf, always within reach. Next will be to clean up the 'furnace' in the corner, then remove all cobwebs and the crushed coal flooring, and finally to wipe a paintbrush around with a large tub of white masonry paint.

 

[GeePig]

They are now about half way through installing the wiring in my coal shed, and I have taken the opportunity to sort through my collection of bike parts so that I can figure out which parts I should be using for this project - and what I might be lacking.

I have found some material to cover my seat, once I decide which one I am going to use. I have also cut some long thin strips of that black material one uses to keep flower borders from sprouting weeds and which instead I intend to use to wrap my handlebars - once I can source something to plug the ends of the bars. I also need to find one of those shops that sells buttons and thread, because I need to make some straps to hold on other stuff because I cannot seem to find enough of those metal clips to hold things on frames that seemed so common back in the 1970s.

Quandary time - because the non-sprocket-side crank arm has badly worn chrome, I am torn between popping the crank set off poor 'Danusia', one of my Jubilat folders, or trying to be a bit less lazy and cleaning the crank up in some way. Laziness merely looms as an option because we have to spend a couple of days in the city, and Danusia has been sitting there for months without a seat stem, going nowhere.

 

[GeePig]

The last time we were in the city I had no qualms although a little guilt in robbing another bike there, my Best Junior. I am supposed to be rebuilding it, but then I raid more parts off it and have to find other one's to replace them. Peter-Paul, Paul-Peter...

So here is my gear lever from Best tor Turing, all in pieces.

The bike is some 20 years old, so I kind of feel comfortable using it as it is only a few years younger than Turing. All I need now is some way of marking where the gears are, rather than sending mixed message to the hub when I plan to select second gear.

 

[GeePig]

And then...

I have what I call my 'farm bike', a 3-speed derailleur folder known as a Zenit and although it has no reference to it being a Romet, and the frame is a slightly tweaked Romet Jubilat 2, and built in the same factory, we calls it both me Zenit and one of me Jubilat 'collection'. It can be confusing to ride as it feels like a Jubilat but there is no coaster brake but instead screechy calliper brakes front and rear, so keeping one finger on each lever serves as a reminder that reverse pedalling is silly.

Oh yes, and it has an old-style friction gear lever, located on the stem - just what one needs on a tricky off road descent, not.

The current plan is to put the Shimano lever from ...... (the bike donating its S+F 3 speed coaster brake hub) on Zenit, and then use Zenit's on Ten Turing. Best still does not get its lever back as it will get the rotary changers from Pigdog. Stuff keeps moving around in my coal shed as it gets reassigned, and I am still waiting for the electricians to return as I have half of their stuff in there too.

In the meantime I am trying out where everything should finally go in there, and have retrieved the stainless steel sink I found by our dumpster in the city, which will be installed somewhere in my new bench system, or would be if I didn't keep having to mow the grass and nettles, or take deliveries for replacing the facade and repairing the foundations on the front of our cottage.

 

[GeePig]

I failed to notice that Ten Turing was standing behind Zenit, so here you can see more of Zenit and the current level of progress with Ten Turing:

Ah, poor thing, it must be tired and is having a sleep in the straw while it waits for the coalshed rewiring to be completed.

As you can see on Zenit, no expense was spared in the maximising the effectiveness and efficiency of the rear brake and gear change - just clip the cable somewhere it won't (hopefully) be eaten by the chain. These bikes are just a couple of years apart in age.

 

[GeePig]

Yesterday seemed to be a busy day as I finally managed to loosen the last two spokes of my front wheel so I can strip and paint them and the hub. Ha ha, I thought, let's go get some stuff to build a tool to help me remove the gear cluster from the rear wheel to let me strip that one as well! Indeed I bought a socket, bar and a steel t-piece to add to the steel tube I use as a lever bar and which will shortly be mounted somewhere as leverage for the gears. Yay, progress....

...not.

I hadn't noticed that I need a pair of tubes with valves long enough to pass through the rims.

So much arranging to get the wheels. So much time checking out tires in the shops and planning my tool part purchases.

Back to making a seat cover, if I can find where I put the leather. Anyone know how to stretch leather?