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It’s possible I’m done…

Anyway, I had a migraine that lasted around 54 hours, so I didn’t get anything done. When it ended this afternoon I did some things.

View attachment 213520

Grabbed these pedals off my Cannondale cargo bike and used these instead of the brown ones, these needed too much work.

View attachment 213518

Installed the wheel and tightened the coaster arm.

View attachment 213519

Installed a new KMC 6 speed chain.

All I have to do now is ride it.
Sorry brother, migraines are heck on earth.
 
I hope you guys will allow my build. This is your chance to tell me no.

I post bicycle build videos on TikTok and I had a few people request a klunker. On September 26th I posted a “test” video on my 1957 JC Higgins men’s bike on a local trail.

View attachment 212388

Then on September 28th I posted a video of me stripping the bike down to the frame.

View attachment 212389

The next day on the 29th I posted a video of me putting paint stripper on the frame to remove the paint (unsuccessful).

View attachment 212390

So, all this is to let you guys know that this was technically started before the October 1 start date.

So I am asking permission to join this build with my 1957 JC Higgins bike.
Use a torch on the paint after a little more sanding and power whirte wheel. It burns right off.
 
The bikes I ride most are tallbikes, 1 is a coaster brake bike, the rest have a single front caliper brake or cantilever brake or V-brake. I often consider what I would do on them if I lost a chain or broke a cable on a fast downhill since my foot cannot possibly reach the tire without a full or partial dismount.
Remote lever action “spoon” brake?
 
3 keys to winning...
1. be one of the cool kids
2. bike must bend the rules to even qualify
3. contestant must smooze everybody else and provide positive commentary

It's hard man! #2 is the only one I can ever pull off. (but I'm working on #3)
So essentially what you’re saying is that winning has absolutely nothing to do with how good your bicycle is.:cool:
 
I am really not & never have been one of the cool kids (Like I actually have to tell you guys…) but I have to tell you this story.

Years ago they laid off all the engineers in California when the government military contracts ran out after Vietnam. I designed tools for a company that made equipment for servicing military airplanes.

I met some of my compatriots flipping burgers and one of them handed me my check at the unemployment office.

I went to work as the assistant manager of an equipment rental company in Fresno. Like every garage in the world we had a regular Coca-Cola machine, and it had 1,000,000 miles on it.

Anyhow one day a couple of FOB** Pakistani guys came in to rent a trailer and they tried to buy a Coke. They didn’t speak much English but we were still able to transact business with no problems until they drop that dime.

Because they didn’t know quite how hard you had to push the dime into that machine to make it go all the way down, they got nothing. It was a 1950’s machine, you see, and American dimes became lighter over the decades as they removed the real silver and copper from them.

Seeing their distress, and watching them search their pockets for another dime, I walked over there and smacked the Coke machine a little bit, right above the coin changer, with my fist.

That’s the day when I realized that anybody can become an American.

The Dime dropped, the machine jiggled, and the coke popped out.

Those two guys looked at each other and then they looked at me and one of them said, “Oooo . . . just like Fonzie!”

Anyhow, standing there in my ridiculous orange and blue striped Aramark garage shirt, having been humbled by life to go from a tool designer to fixing old lawnmowers, trailers and dump trucks, that’s about the only time in my life I ever felt like one of the cool kids.

**FOB = Fresh off the boat. A recent immigrant to America.
 

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