Sekines

The big red Sekine sold last weekend, along with the Lava Dome. I'm back in business again! It's good to get some progress made after a long hiatus.

Next up is a real challenge, another Sekine - but this time a women's frame, 5-speed, and pretty rusty.

I think I'll try replacing the forks rather than rescuing them - and going over the whole bike with white Tremclad. It's a shame to lose the nice pearl paint, but it's also a shame to let it rust away.

I'll also swap out the steelies for alloy rims and give it a total overhaul. Should be a nice bike!

Wild Thing

Got the big Sekine put together - new grip tape, fully rebuilt rear wheel, mix-n-match drivetrain... and now to find it a new owner.

I also tuned up and re-chained an '02 Kona Lava Dome for my dad. We'll see what its future is.

Today I snagged a nice "retro" MTB off craigslist. It's a TECH brand - possibly aka CycleTech, a Canadian brand...? Hard to say, the bike has XT components and a "Made in USA" True Temper frame:



It is presently set up with slicks and is in dire need of some attention. I'm not sure yet if it will be rebuilt to resell or parted out - it depends on the value of those XT bits.

Can't pull them all

The Nishiki Regal frame looked to have close to zero use. The rims were barely touched, knobbies still on the tires... what a find!

But... the seat post was beyond stuck. I suspect it had done some sort of chemical bond. No amount of bashing, twisting, or careful cutting would free it.

I finally tried pounding a squared-off long chisel made out of a broken fencing foil down the cut that had been made, but to no avail. I ended up punching a hole in the seat tube instead of neatly slicing out the seat post.

Fortunately, it was not a priceless handmade bike, so I stripped as much off as I could and snagged a donor Sekine frame (in my size!) that is now being built up with some of the Nishiki parts and some of its original. It has a Dura-Ace brake lever! Probably from around 1974.

Pillar to Post

The Univega bike had (surprise surprise) a stuck seat post.

Tonight I pulled it out, with a combination of heat, penetrating oil, and violence.

Tomorrow I will get a replacement, and some new cable housing, and this bike will be back in action.

After some deliberation I decided to sell the Raleigh Superbe as-is. The ad lasted about 20 minutes before it was sold. Another happy customer!

The Stack

It's a constant struggle to be rid of the bikes I'm always acquiring.  The current (and long running) projects is a neat old Raleigh Superbe.  However, it is very close to being finished, which will be worthwhile!

Then, it's back to the fabrication shop to build some sort of contraption that will bash out stuck seatposts.

Old 10-speed buyer's guide

I figure this is handy knowledge to have around, whether or not anyone finds it.

Let's say you're standing in front of a bike.  It's so shiny!  Or dusty.  Or greasy.  The seller may or may not know its value.  (Hint: it's as worth as much as someone will pay for it; no more.)  How do you decide if it's "good"?  Here are some tips!

• Weight.   Pick up the bike.  Do you think "wow, light!" or "wow, heavy!"?  Lighter is better.  Also consider yourself.  If you're a big person, don't get a featherweight bike.  It could break.
• Tubing.  Check for a tubing sticker on the frame - right below the saddle.  No sticker means a cheap bike or a clever previous owner.  Good things to see are "Tange", "Reynolds" or "Columbus".   Bad things are "Hi-ten" or "all brazed steel".   Flick the tubes with your finger, if they ring, it's nice steel.  If they thunk, it's not nice steel.  This test doesn't work for aluminum or carbon fiber.
• Lugwork / welds.  Nicer bikes tend to have more interesting lugs.  If it looks like plumbing, it's probably just a utility bike - great for a beater but will never be as nice as something made with better tubes and lugs.   Also inspect the soldering jobs, sloppy work means a weak joint.
• Dropouts.  They can be stamped, forged, or machined.   Look for a manufacturer's name on the dropout.  Don't trust the fork, it could be a replacement (although factor this in, and consider a replacement fork could have meant a crash)
• Shifters.  Cheap bikes have the shifters up high on the stem.  Nicer ones have them on the downtube, or on the bar ends, or integrated into the brake levers.
• Brakes.  Cheap bikes have "cheater levers" that you can pull when riding upright.  Maybe you want these, maybe not.  Don't let the brake levers or shifters dictate what you buy, if the frame is super light you can always change the brakes to suit yourself later.
• Cranks.  Less important unless you're keen on upgrading.  Know the differences between one-piece, three-piece, and cottered cranks.  Consider the origin of the bike if you plan on swapping out the drivetrain, some French and Italian bikes use different threads in the components which can make upgrading more of a chore.
• Wheels.  Aluminum is better than steel, hands down.  If you disagree, wait until it rains.

An easy rule of thumb is to add $10 for every "good" thing you can think of and subtract $10 for every "bad" thing.  Generally, a nice bike in poor condition is worth about $100.  A crummy bike in great condition is also worth $100.  Tires, pedals, attachments (water bottle holder!  yay!), handgrips and saddles should rarely factor into the value of the bike, unless they are unique or desirable.  And that's more for personal preference.

The consumables to give a bike a tune-up cost at least $25.  More if the chain, saddle, or cable housing needs to be replaced.

Until next time...

Hooray for Drummond

The big old Heidemann bike (the Vainqueur) never worked out for me - so I've been prepping it for sale.  However, because I foolishly went ahead without reading the internet, tightening the nuts on the cotter pins broke the non-drive cotter.  Horrors!

So this evening was spent in the machine shop, fabricating a new cotter pin.  I used a chunk of steel from a kick-stand and the Drummond Round-Bed Metal Lathe to do the deed.

Normally one does not go to such efforts to make the bits & pieces, but this was more convenient (and fun!) than trying to find the right sized one in a shop.  The Vainqueur uses such a variety of parts that I figured it would be a difficult job finding a new cotter!