obfuscated.org

I took the bike down to Stan’s today to get the bottom bracket and headset — the only to parts I don’t have the specialized tools to remove — off the frame. $10 later and I’m down to a bare frame and about twenty baggies full of component sets. So now I have to actually start restoring the bike. Somehow I think this will be more difficult than dissembling it was.

There were a few surprises, both good and bad, in terms of the condition of the bike. The frame and fork are much more rust free than I was expecting. There’s the standard rubbing on one side of the bike where it was most likely leaned up against a wall and spots on each of the chain stays next to the bottom bracket shell, but other than that they’re in really good condition. I have more hope that I’ll be able to make it look good without repainting it — which will save the decals, braggably — but I’m not quite to confidence on that front yet. We’ll see. (If I do have to repaint it, what color should I make it? Stephanie suggested racing green, which I think would work well. Maybe have the fork chromed?)

The freewheel and cogs look like they’re going to be more trouble to restore than to just replace. I’m also leaning that way for the wheels, in part just so I can move to 700c’s and have more readily available parts. If I can find the time, I’d definitely like to build the wheels myself, if only so I can get 36/40 spoke wheels instead of the 32/32 that seem to be most readily available. (I wonder how dumb it would be to try to go to 650B and get real touring wheels?)

The bottom bracket, headset and both derailers (Sheldon Brown 4evah) look to be in really good shape. Maybe I’ll replace the bearings in the headset and BB, but they can almost certainly all stay around. (In the case of the rear derailler, if I can find a six-speed cassette.) The crank arms and chain rings are without question good to go. They just need to be cleaned up a bit.

The brakes are probably a pair of pads and some new grease away from being perfectly good, but there’s a pair of Tektro side-pulls that I really have my eye on. (Although if the existing ones are wide enough to take a 700×30-32 tire, maybe I’ll stick with them.) The handlebars are much, much too small for me. Perfect excuse to get a fancy Nitto Noodle bar.

I’m going to start in on cleaning off some of the components and getting the rust off the frame within the next week. (Thanksgiving day while the turkey smokes will be perfect for this.) I’ll try to take pictures as I get the individual components cleaned up.

CC attribution: neoliminal

There is a Robocop on a Unicorn photo pool on Flickr. Nothing can possibly be better than that. (Thanks to Brad for the tip.)

CNN reports on some of Trek’s new chainless offerings:

Aside from the whisper-quiet ride, the lighter and longer-lasting carbon-fiber composite belts won’t rust, can’t be cut, won’t stretch or slip and won’t leave grease marks around your ankles. A guard over the belt-drive and the construction of the system makes getting your pants stuck an unlikely scenario, Bjorling said.

My Sawzall begs to differ.

Note: I think belt drives are very, very cool. I’d be very interesting in setting my bike up with a belt and an internal hub.

It’s getting on winter, and in southern California that means rain. Well, it means the ominous if not particularly realistic threat of rain. Not even that: there is definitely a possibility that some time between now and next summer it may rain. And as you all know, rain means the opportunity to buy new gear for your bike. SKS fenders in my case.

Unfortunately, I have a bad habit of working on my bike after work, and the muse to wrench often strikes after particularly trying days. This leads to calamity more frequently than I’d like. This was definitely the case with the fender installation.

My first attempt was actually at the end of a very pleasant Sunday and got the front fender on without difficulty. Unfortunately I was a little overzealous with the rear fender, broke one of the little plastic guards that goes on the end of the v-brace and snapped a spoke on the wheel.

I have no spare spokes, nor do I know how to properly true a wheel — this has to change. I wonder if the bike kitchen still does wheelbuilding classes? — so I imposed upon my gracious wife to take it down to Stan’s and have it fixed.

After that was done I put the rack back on, rode it to work, had One Of Those Days, got home and decided that it would be a dandy idea to give the fenders another go. Not five seconds passed before I snapped one of the bolts holding the rack on — it was also to hold the fenders on! — right off the bike.

My best efforts to extract it with a locking wrench weren’t that hot. In fact they made the situation worse, breaking off what little was left of the bolt.

I consulted some friends and my dad and decided to invest in a left-hand drill bit to try to either drill the damn thing out or turn it out. A trip to Osh, one 5/64^th” bit, one 7/64^th” bit and twenty minutes with a drill later and I had a 7/64^th” hole through the still very immobile bolt.

My next attempt involved a trip to the Home Depot and the purchase of an Alden Pro Grabit damaged screw extractor. It’s basically a left-handed screw built on to a drill bit. It’s also not at all designed to take bolts out of bike frames: it lasted maybe half a second before it broke right the damn off.

It’s still wedged in the frame of my bike. I imagine that it will take an act of God to remove it.

At this point I was done with the whole thing. To hell with the fenders. I live in Southern California where it never rains. Off to REI for one of those dumb looking racks that just attaches to the seat post.

Unfortunate — or fortunately, depending on how you look at things — the dumb looking racks are way more popular than the old school racks that need 10,000 mount points and braze-ons and what have you, so they start about $50. Which was just enough to make me look around a bit more and discover a $5 pair of Delta Rack Mount Clamps.

These things are awesome. They hook on to the seat stay or the chain stay and let you pretend like your frame has all the mounts you need. It also lets you forget that you destroyed the perfectly good rack mounts that you already had. Anyway, about ten minutes after I got home I had both rack and fender attached.

(Pause for a moment and bask in the majesty of my high-tech bike work stand)

So now I can ride to work with my stuff, and I can avoid getting water sprayed all over me if it ever rains. Braggable. Here’s a closeup of the fully awesome Delta clamps.

Perhaps the best thing about getting the rear fender on is that I got to use my awesome reflecty tape. The night commuting is still sort of unnerving for me, so any chance I can get to be visible is appreciated.

So there you have it. cp: 1, broken bolt: 0. Also, there will from here on out be a house rule against screwing anything in to the frame of a bike without grease.

Sad news for Monrovia from the Pasadena Star News:

City officials and Vroman’s representatives had been having discussions about the bookstore’s possible expansion into Monrovia for months and had been close to an agreement, according to the city’s website.

“…While we were very close to reaching an agreement to purchase the newly renovated building at 601 S. Myrtle Avenue, the more recent economic conditions and variances have caused our Board of Directors to adopt a more conservative approach regarding expansion at this time,” Vroman’s president Joel Sheldon said in a statement.

The bookstore has not ruled out the possibility of coming to Monrovia in the future.

Which is too bad. A bookstore is the only thing that Olde Towne Monrovia really lacks.

On the up side: maybe this means the rumors about the old Crown City Brewery being the new tenant are true. That would be cool.

Meet my new project bike. It’s a 1985 Bridgestone 300, 23″ (~59cm) in Burgundy Red — an eBay special (I rated a “AAAAAAAAA+++++++++” feedback message. eBay is so weird) from far-away San Pedro. I’m going to try to restore it to a more ride-able condition, although probably not to original components.

My current plan is:

• Disassemble the whole thing
• Throw out all the wear and tear items — tires, tubes, cables, housings, chains, tape, etc.
• Figure out what I have to do to the frame. I’d like to keep the original paint, but if there’s too much surface rust I may have to sand it down and repaint it. (Which sounds like an adventure in and of itself.)
• Clean the drivetrain parts — derailers, crankset, cogs, etc. — and see what all needs to be replaced. Hopefully as little as possible.
• I’m probably going to replace the current 27″ wheels with 700c wheels, just for practical purposes. (Tire/tube availability, mainly.) There’s enough play in the brakes that this doesn’t seem like a big deal.
• I’d really like to put a new stem and handlebars on it, along with new brake levers and some bar-end shifters. We’ll see how that works, budget-wise, though.
• Stephanie got me a nice saddle that would look quite lovely on this sort of a bike. Especially along with some shellacked cork bar tape.
• Reassemble and ride in to the sunset.

After I took these pictures I tried to raise the saddle up a bit to ride it around before I start working on it. Unfortunately the bolt that holds the seat post in place decided to give up the ghost, so it’s officially a non-functional project bike now.

I’d really like to be done with this before next summer. Not quite sure how ambitious that is, given my almost complete lack of free time. I’ll try to post pictures as things progress.

Pat tagged me for some dumb alphabet meme. Rules available on his site or on the meme’s originator. My fivetags: Jill, The Canadian, Sarahliz, Gavin and Kitty.

A is for Animal House

B is for The Big Lebowski

C is for Caddyshack

D is for Dr. Strangelove

E is for The Evil Dead

F is for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

G is for Good Morning Vietnam

H is for Harold and Kumar go to White Castle

I is for I’m Gonna Git You Sucka

J is for The Jerk

K is for Kingpin

L is for Lost in Translation

M is for The Mouse that Roared

N is for No Country For Old Men

O is for Office Space

P is for The Princess Bride

Q is for I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT I HAVE EVER SEEN A MOVIE THAT STARTS WITH Q

R is for Rushmore

S is for Super Troopers

T is for The Thin Man

U is for The Usual Suspects

V is for Vertigo

W is for What’s New Pussycat?

X is for X-Men? (I’m painfully short on “X” as well.)

Y is for Young Frankenstein

Z is for Zoolander? (Oh my. What an ending.)

So get out there today and make democracy work.

(Unless you’re voting for prop 8, in which case maybe you should stay home and not screw up California’s constitution. I’m just saying.)