Ramblings

Driven mad by the extreem cold 2 thoughts to add
1) A film American Flyers is on the TV soon, all about cycle racing and last seen in the club ouse
2) Have to make 2 spacers for for the sprocket to improve chain alignment and one to move the brake calipers backwards, then due to various angles and curves of wheel my brake pads will line up

Putting it back together

Being a bit of an engineering type I made a tool up to pull the new headset in. The wheels are only tempoary to allow the fitting of mudguards, which I do think add to the looks of the bike. Yes it was a bit of an extravagent expense but they are really practical for a daily commuting bike. After asking around, track nuts for the rear wheels seem to be the order of the day with a fixed wheel to ensure the wheel stays firmly put. Mike at Cyclerama had a pair of 3/8 inch cycle thread nuts for £1! I also have some 9mm metric ones for free if you want them e-mail me at ian883@hotmail.com.

Dear Father Christmas

With the introduction of a new ferry service to south wales this place could be easily accessible. Wonder if you could spend a week here.http://www.newport.gov.uk/_dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=leisure.centres&contentid=CONT067624

Handle bars

Good news, with some nifty hacksawing and some imagination, the handlebars now look more like I had invisaged. In a nut shell I cut too little off the first time and they resembled cow horns, now they are more 90's time trial bars.

Damm and double damm

After spending many minutes polishing up the brake calipers and fitting them to the frame, I decided to offer in the wheels to get an idea of the finished result. The result was spectacular, the brake pads miss the rim by 6mm or 1/4".****! Also cut the handlebars down for the low profile look, it looks ok but thet bend is a bit wrong for my hands, back in the seventies narrow bars with shallow drops were all the rage and no one had thought of turning them upside down and cutting them off.

A real challenge

For those hard core fixed wheel junkies, how about this
www.coast-coast.co.uk
Not only would you earn international respect but you would help us to raise money for our local hospice.

Helpfull stuff

If you are into restoring old bicycles to their former glory and require transfers, have a look at this site, they may have exactly what you require.

http://www.hlloydcycles.com/ListFeb09html.htm

Big thanks must goto sidwell street cycles exeter who dug out a second hand chainset for me and phoned another bike shop on my behalf when looking for a part. Thanks guys.

Shinny Bits

Here are the photos of the wheels complete with 16T fixed sprocket. Amber Marketing at Stoke Cannon just outside exeter distribute the sprockets. As next years frame colour is black I have painted the frame accordingly.

The Wheels

With the bike completely dissasembled, the easiest bit to do first was to regrease the hubs and polish the rims up. The wheels are Ridgida alloy rims 36 spoke, on some French hubs with a silly name which is difficult to read. Dimension wise they are 27" x 1 1/4".
Tripple O wire wool and t-cut is great for polishing up the rims.
Also, in these environmentally friendy days, to clean the grease out of the hubs and off the ball bearings, first wipe off as much as possible with kitchen roll then if you have some Sainsbury's kitchen cleaner put all the bearings in a pot squirt with cleaners, slosh for a bit then wash off in water and hey presto shinny balls. Of course if you have some nice posh degreaser then you will be better off using that.

Thinking

I am still undecided on how the bike should look when it is rebuilt, somedays I think let's do something different, unique even, then today I thought, how about restoring it so it looks the same as the day it left the factory.

Finding a bike

Intrigued by the simplicity of this type of bike, the papers were scanned, cards in newsagents windows looked at and, 1 or 3 trips to the recycling centre. The plan was for a MTB fixed wheel as the 26" wheels would allow me to cope with the hills with lowere gearing. I found a Holdsworth with Reynolds 500 tubing and a pair of v section wheels with sealed bearings, brilliant I thought, until closer inspection revealed the hubs on 1 wheel and the rim on the other were cracked. This was all recycled! Several trips later to the nearer recycle centre I picked up a Carlton with nice lugs and surprisingly, had hardly been used. Now I am more excited as it reminds me of my old race bike. In exchange for £20 I now had my doner bike. Pictures to follow.

The start

Whilst out riding with Team Pud, we came up with a plan to build fixed wheel bikes in the spirit of scrap heap challenge.