Housemate Bike

Here is a post about the bike I towed from the last post. This was a gift bike from other housemates to singular housemate. Their original bike was too small, had a broken rear axle, and in general was reaking havoc on their commute.

Mid-eighties Team Fuji! 58cm square, seems to be a good fit.

Chrooome. Pain in the butt to fender.

Stuff lying around.

Nerd out!:

105 Rear Derailer

105 175mm Cranks, Chainrings came from old bike.

Campy something or other front derailer

Shitty Shimano Freewheel

Suntour asymmetric shifters

Suntour Sprint Rear hub! Was pretty trashed when I found it in the shop laced to some Araya rim.

Thomson Elite Seatpost

Titanium railed racey saddle

Cinelli stem with crap drop bars

105 Dual pivot rear brake

Suntour Superbe Pro front brake

Suntour Superbe pedals

Don't really care about the rest...

Racks Are Good

Especially on tri-bikes.

Tubes are also good.

RB-2 and New Blog Approach

Up to this point, this blog has been a bit more broad in its scope in terms of bike stuff. I'm not very good at coming up with lotsa non-techy material, so instead this space will be more about documenting my nerding out in private, nerding out with friends, and the results of our endeavors. So basically expect bike porn of old, repurposed and revived bikes. We'll see where it goes from there.

Back to bikes, this one Tanner built for a friend. Old RB-2 made for commuting/fun stuff.

Derailer cage too long, but he didn't have a short cage at hand so...

VO bars are pretty sweeeet.

Riding Then Eating

I'm pretty sure there isn't anything in the whole world better than riding a shit ton of miles hella hard then coming home and cooking a shit ton and eating twice the normal amount.

Parting Ways

I can only ride a frame for so long before I have to realize it's too small. So I'm saying toodles to my off-roadish bike.

$100 | Schwinn Voyageur
62cm c-t-c st, 59cm c-t-c tt. Dents in the top tube, paint ain't in the best condition with some rust. Beyond that, this is a pretty sweet frame. Clearance for 35mm with fenders, Champion No. 2 Extra Tange chromoly double butted tubing. Price is a little high because it comes with a Thompson Elite seatpost. Probably not the best matched, but what am I going to do with a 26.6 diameter seatpost??? The bottom bracket feels pretty bad, ISIS is the worst. Get an SKF if you want to keep the cranks for some strange reason. Headset needs to be overhauled... Tange-Seiki something or other.

Pick-up only, no delivery (unless in Oly area.)

Built From Stuff Literally Lying Around Our House

Front wheel came out of a dumpster.

 Shellac doesn't hold up in the rain too well when fresh, fyi.

Lotus Future

The Lotus has been a pretty awesome bike all around for me, being a frame that fits well and having fatter tires than once allowed. There are a few things that I would like to do to this bike though that would make it significantly more useful and safer. I have some ideas, but not sure if all of them will work. If you see any blaaaring deficiencies in my plans, you should let me know.

These are the Imperial Oval fork blades from Compass bicycles with a wide fork crown. I held on to these when my frame building project was brought to an unfortunate halt... I think I would like to use these for the Lotus, specifically to give it a low-trail design, 42mm tires with fenders in the front, brazed on center pulls if possible or cantis if not, and internal routing for generator lights. Given how damn big the bike is, I would be able to use a giant h-bar bag, probably a Berthoud. However this is worth consideration on top of headset choice: http://tommatchakcycles.blogspot.com/2007/03/frame-neutral-replacement-fork.html

In order to get the changes in the front to match the rear, I'd like for the rear tire to be about 42mm as well. The current 32s have a fair amount of room left, but definitely not enough for tires that big. My big hope is that by indenting the stays and messing with brake and chain bridges, I can accommodate enough...

While I'm at it, some brake post for the rear would be nice, significantly improving the brake quality, as well as a brake hanger that is simply brazed on (the Surly one is off center a tad...)