villageidiot's build thread "the jerk"

[villageidiot]

I can send you one, just a few bucks to cover shipping.

thanks for the offer.... just did a friday trip to the LBS (mile away)

got some
-seat guts
-AME grips (not my favorite, but they'll do for now, i don't like squishy grips)
-20t rear gear
-redline platform pedals ("polished" aluminum)
-more head spacers...... not sure how much i gotta space it out, but i got a 20mm, and 3 5mm ones to work with.

hopefully i'll have it riding this weekend, weather depending, if its not raining, I'm going dirtbike riding, bicycle may not get finished.

 

[Bicycle808]

Sounds awesome. I have found that different AME grips have a different feel to them; i got some on my black INB that are super squishy. I kinda like squishy grips, but these take it to far. The regular AME "Tri" grips are maybe a little harder/thinner than I prefer. My favorite, as far as feel goes, are ODI Rogues. Not too soft, but very fat....

Headsets and spacers depend on how high you wanna go, but just remember that you want a few mms of gap between the top of the steerer and the top of the stem.... cut the steerer as needed if it's gonna be too high for ya. (I'm sure you already knew that, but.... ya never know.)

 

[villageidiot]

yeah, i plan on cutting the tube, but the neck seems really low/close to the top bar, within 1/4" if i turn the bars 360* not gunna be doing any bar-spins. haha but ergonomically, might be a bit low. Ill play around with it in different combos before i cut the stem, i can always take more metal off, harder to put it back on.

i got the AME tri grips. i remember going to the bike shop years ago (same one i went to today) and the grip selection seemed much larger, or maybe its cuz i was younger etc. grips are cheap and easy to replace.

i wanna ride this thing.

 

[Bicycle808]

Grips are weird b/c it's one of those few parts left where a lot of them are made in the USA, and the US ones are priced the same or real close to what the imports cost. AME is awesome b/c they've been making grips for bikes, motorsports, and golfers in Nevada for as long as I've been alive. That's something to be proud of.

There are probably as many grips on the market now as there ever was, but bike shops have changed int erms of what inventory they carry b/c now they have to compete more than ever with mail-order and internet-based competitors. If they order a bunch of grips like they did BITD, they may sit on a lot of dead inventory as the fickle BMX kids move on to the next big thing. A lot of shops order a few things that are reliable sellers, and offer to special-order anything specific if ppl don't want what's on the shelf...

 

[villageidiot]

it rolls, real nice.

ok, so today was a busy day, but i managed to turn my seatpost on the lathe, drill, tap and pin the seat guts to the post. post is solid 7/8 bar, i gave it a brushed treatment with some scotch brite and then decided to knurl it. in the seat guts you'll see a hole. I've been drilling and pinning my seat posts forever so they don't turn on the post. this was nice being solid, i could just thread the hole. used a button head stainless bolt and lock washer.

got the tires and tubes mounted on the wheels, swapped the rear cog from 18t to 20t.

mocked up the stem and bars with spacers and such and settled on a good combo.

installed the wheels, and set up the chain, coaster brake retainer, etc etc.

got it all buttoned up.

here she is.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Very, very cool!

Luke.

 

[Bicycle808]

I think you win the "best seatpost" award.

 

[villageidiot]

ill be happy to make more machined alloy seat posts.

the worksman was super easy, as most seat guts are 7/8" anyways, so there was literally 5 minutes of machine time. not including drilling and tapping.

other diameters are able to be made, just have to machine a step into them.

under 7/8" sized seat posts are gunna be kinda tough because then i have to bust out the tig machine and no guarantees it'll get square etc.

let me know if ya need one.

 

[honestherman]

Nice, you can say you built it the way you wanted it.

 

[LIVE TO RIDE]

Best Worksman of all time!!Turned out perfect.

 

[villageidiot]

Best Worksman of all time!!Turned out perfect.

i don't know about the best of all time, but thanks for the kind words.

 

[DeuceWheeler]

Seriously nice build, Do the worksman frames have 1'' or 1 1/8'' headsets?

 

[villageidiot]

Inch, but it's a proprietary headset with odd sized cups. You can run 1 1/8" if u use a mash up of parts from a 1 1/8" headset, the stock frame cups, and some 5/32" loose bearings.

 

[DeuceWheeler]

Inch, but it's a proprietary headset with odd sized cups. You can run 1 1/8" if u use a mash up of parts from a 1 1/8" headset, the stock frame cups, and some 5/32" loose bearings.

Nice, thanks for the info!