Unofficial March Shootout II

[GuitarlCarl]

Stripped my Sam's Club Columbia #gettothechopper down today and there was no grease on the headset at all and I believe the crank is dry too by the way it turns. Now it's a couple years old and I don't know the history but I doubt it was ridden much. Good thing as dry as it is. I also peeled most of the stickers off. I may try black tint paint and see what happens.

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[horsefarmer]

You have to check EVERYTHING with big box bikes. Maladjusted bearings, almost total lack of lubrication. I got a deal a couple of years ago on a pair of wally world Huffy Cranbrook Girls bikes. Owner said he bought them for his daughters and they only rode them twice! Front tire on one had slow leak inside the wheel there was an extra spoke nipple between the rim strip and the tube cutting the tube! Really have to blow apart any big box bike and start over. Oh, and should pull them out of the box and look over welds and look for missing and defective parts. Want to return the defective while you can.

 

[El C]

I'm in.
Not sure of a name, going with "Know when to Fold'em" at the moment.
Bottom bracket and crank set came apart real easy with a few healthy squirts of PB blaster. Bearings were like new after cleaning.
Went through my parts stash and found a newer set of wheels (new tires on order) and scrounged up parts to convert to V-brakes.
Need to figure out the handlebars.

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Cool structure, never seen before.

 

[us56456712]

I’m done. Went for a ride in town and it all works and it fits me well. I did check the welds on the fork and drops and they look OK. It’s heavy. If I think of it I’ll weigh it. Next stop the Melting Mann gravel race.

 

[Pookie42]

View attachment 115056 View attachment 115055 I’m done. Went for a ride in town and it all works and it fits me well. I did check the welds on the fork and drops and they look OK. It’s heavy. If I think of it I’ll weigh it. Next stop the Melting Mann gravel race.View attachment 115047

From the pics those trails look like a lot of fun to ride on. Lookin good


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[Pookie42]

I got this in today

And after posting my build on instagram someone offered to donate two skiptooth chains as long as I don’t sell them “bonus” so I’m thinking that leaves a little extra cash for a special surprise upgrade


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[horsefarmer]

Some progress on "Huffymoto" on this drizzly day.

Added some old pedals and mounted the front fender.
Gotta dig thru the stash for a longer chain.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Garage floor parts pile!

Frame gonna be grey primer, bars and fork gonna be flat black.
It looks so stupid.

 

[handyandy1100]

New thumbies came in today, so I put daylight savings to work and got both shifters and the rear brake hooked up. Sure is a compact cockpit compared to my cruisers. Narrow bars probably will be great in the woods.

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[us56456712]

You have to check EVERYTHING with big box bikes. Maladjusted bearings, almost total lack of lubrication. I got a deal a couple of years ago on a pair of wally world Huffy Cranbrook Girls bikes. Owner said he bought them for his daughters and they only rode them twice! Front tire on one had slow leak inside the wheel there was an extra spoke nipple between the rim strip and the tube cutting the tube! Really have to blow apart any big box bike and start over. Oh, and should pull them out of the box and look over welds and look for missing and defective parts. Want to return the defective while you can.

My Kent Thruster I bought for this Unofficial Buildoff had the headset so tight that I had to use a 16 inch spanned and a breaker bar to get it apart. The threads were goobered up on the fork so I had to re thread it. Any further reuse on another bike is questionable. It only has to last for 3 races and then parts stripped and into the dumpster.

 

[us56456712]

Some progress on "Huffymoto" on this drizzly day.
View attachment 115057
Added some old pedals and mounted the front fender.
Gotta dig thru the stash for a longer chain.

I like the new fork

 

[horsefarmer]

I like the new fork

Thanks! Came off a 1980's Huffy Strider...

 

[handyandy1100]

ISM004

Unpacking day!
View attachment 115005

So, both of my daughters, as adults, have bought boxed Walmart Schwinns, and they generally had good welds, put together decently, lubed, etc. I have bought a Walgoose...and it was generally the same...I thought both the headset and bottom bracket were light on grease, but the were greased. This is my first Walhuffy . First thought, well packed. Second thought, WTH!
View attachment 115006

Fender bridge massively crooked...as well as the 'integrated' (tacked on) seat clamp .

Closer look with the fenders off. Seriously, how does this happen?
View attachment 115007

Couldn't find my wrench to remove the cranks. Slid wheels and fork together to get an idea of stance... View attachment 115008

... skeptical. I think that is too much fork (29" monocog). I will probably try a 26" monocog fork.

I should have just waited to pick up one of these used...but, I really wanted the orange and it was only $99 at the time. The paint is already pretty shot as it was obviously assembled before the paint dried. Headset was lightly greased, but was so tight I couldn't turn the forks with one hand. The bottom bracket spins...but not freely. Fenders and chainguard are so thin they bend looking at them crooked.

I just want to say that I'm sorry. Everytime I heard one of those BigBoxStore bike horror stories, I just assumed y'all were too picky as my experiences 'weren't bad.' Well...I now see the light....

I found a similar situation on the Huffy Nel Lusso I had. Bought it used and didn't look at alignment, just overall condition. A few days later I was working on it and discovered the rear rack was welded on crooked. Wasn't real bad, most people probably didn't notice it, but I knew something wasn't straight. Decided there were more important things to get up tight about, so I enjoyed it for awhile and got rid of it.

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[us56456712]

And here's the Donkey's counterpunch!View attachment 114756
Way too small, that seam is bound to be irritating, mounted on a flimsy contraption in no way designed to support my ample frame

Where’s the duct tape? I’ll have to put some token duct tape on my Kent, can’t have you out ratting me.

 

[horsefarmer]

Chain and pedals added. Sunny but still just above freezing. Took it on a 6 mile shakedown cruise. Rode well. Thought it would be too tall geared but it wasn't. Stock kickstand interfered with longer crank arms and my heels. Replaced with good used aluminum kickstand. Some manipulation of the front fender was required for clearance.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Where’s the duct tape? I’ll have to put some token duct tape on my Kent, can’t have you out ratting me.

By the time you finish that race, yours will out rat mine!

 

[sandman]

I won’t get around to blowing snow from the blizzard until Monday. I have been painting my daughters living room, plan to finish it Sunday. No bike work because of this. Two day blizzard, then 40 F yesterday and 7 F now which is about as cold as it got all winter. We only had 2 days of -10 F this year. It’s spring transition weather. Company is coming from out of state so the bedroom bike shop is temporarily shut down for decluttering.

While some of you are still shoveling snow , down in the south the beaches are starting to be invaded by spring breakers , while we stay busy mowing and trimming yards and trees . Last week I had to replace 200' of rotten wood fence , before it get's too hot . Back in high 80's by next week . Going to replace the carb on the JD mower today , to get it running .

 

[us56456712]

While some of you are still shoveling snow , down in the south the beaches are starting to be invaded by spring breakers , while we stay busy mowing and trimming yards and trees . Last week I had to replace 200' of rotten wood fence , before it get's too hot . Back in high 80's by next week . Going to replace the carb on the JD mower today , to get it running .[/QUOTE

You would have to rub it in. I started to shovel off my roof yesterday afternoon but I only got about 10% done before my body gave out. Climbing up there was very sketchy and worse getting down. My ladder was all the way extended and rested on a ten inch thick ice dam. Comming down you could not see where the top rung of the ladder was because there was two feet of snow on top of the ice. My boots were snow covered and slippery and the top rung only allowed a toe hold. The ladder kept falling off the ice dam until I found a grove in the ice to place one of the ladder ends. It never occurred to me what would happen if the ladder fell off while I was up there shoveling. Dah! I hired a gal and her son to finish shoveling off our roof and they are coming today. It’s snowing now but tomorrow it’s going to rain. This will cause the water to back up behind the ice dam and then the roof will leak. I would rather fix a fence or do yard work, even in heat, than deal with all this ice.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Yup. @56456712 attacks yard work like he attacks cycling. Hard core, man. Hard core

 

[GuitarlCarl]

I've got rims to lace today...
Note the stagger is different, gotta be careful you can't just copy a lace job. Sometimes you have to flip it too.

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