I like bicycles.

[seanz]

Does anybody else like bicycles?


Just thought I'd start a bike thread as LeeG has put a bicycle-lock on his oil thread.


Also, I'm doing my first bike build for years. I'd forgot how much fun/completely maddening it could be.

Anyway, I'm building a shopping bike out of an old 27" semi-racer and I've hit a little snag.....when I sanded back the old paint I found a small crack on a rear stay...anybody know the best way forward from here? Braze the crack, junk the frame, just ignore it and hope for the best?

All advice gratefully received.

Unless I don't agree with your politics/dog/boat/sense of humour/taste in art/favourite beer/Americanised spelling/pocket knife/authors you like/the cause of The Civil War/hat.

[Paul Pless]

Does anybody else like bicycles?

I haven't ridden a bicycle since I got my driver's license; but this thread has got to be better than the proud american thread so maybe I'll hang out here for a little while. . .

[seanz]

They're good for you. You don't even have to ride them very far, get an old cruiser or MTB to ride down the drive to check your mail-box.

[GaryK]

Does anybody else like bicycles?


Just thought I'd start a bike thread as LeeG has put a bicycle-lock on his oil thread.


Also, I'm doing my first bike build for years. I'd forgot how much fun/completely maddening it could be.

Anyway, I'm building a shopping bike out of an old 27" semi-racer and I've hit a little snag.....when I sanded back the old paint I found a small crack on a rear stay...anybody know the best way forward from here? Braze the crack, junk the frame, just ignore it and hope for the best?

All advice gratefully received.

Unless I don't agree with your politics/dog/boat/sense of humour/taste in art/favourite beer/Americanised spelling/pocket knife/authors you like/the cause of The Civil War/hat.

Seanz, old 27" bikes can be had for $10 or free, I'd junk the cracked one you have, not worth the trouble.
I built a shopper once, replaced the rear cluster with a single cog, viola single speed racer, though not a 'fixie'.

[LeeG]

where's the crack? btw I didn't lock it or else my fingers hit the lock button,,where is it?

[seanz]

Junking it might be the go.....though it has sentimental value. It's been in the in-laws family for a while and I've already fixed it up once before and lent it to a mate for a short while. It was returned in good condition....then I foolishly let it out of my sight. Now I'm stripping it completely and giving it a coat of paint.

Old 27" bikes here aren't always that cheap.....some of the old 3-speeds can fetch over $100....that's why I'm going for a 10-speed for the time being.

[seanz]

An we're back......ya fall off, ya get right back on.

[Captain Blight]

So: is the crack in the seatstay or chainstay? Drive-side or NDS? From rust or stress, do ya think? What's the bike, the year, the tubing?

I have access to more frames, literally, than you can shake a stick at. I know and regularly socialize with internationally known framebuilders (Kroll, Kvale, Eric from Peacock Groove). I actually know a little bit about frame design in thin-wall tubing. My initial advice would be for you to braze a sleeve over the crack but without knowing more about the provenance of the frame, I'd hesitate to advise even that.


By the bye: I have no idea why 27"-scaled frames are sneered at. 700c is standardized by ISO as 622mm inflated tire diameter; 27" is 630mm. Sure, you'll shave a gram or two here and there, and have more tire choices (though Conti makes a superb tire in their Ulta Sport 27, and the Specialized TriCross slick will get you down the road faster'n Billy-blue-hell); but the slightly (8mm or so) longer spokes on a 27" wheel will give a slightly plusher ride. Yeah, the racer-bois all ride 700C wheels. So what? Are you doing time trials in the Camargue? Or just trying to pick up a sixer on a pleasant evening?

[seanz]

Oh, it'll be the latter......

So: is the crack in the seatstay or chainstay? Drive-side or NDS? From rust or stress, do ya think? What's the bike, the year, the tubing?

It's the seat-stay, drive side, rust and abuse. It's a Kiwi semi-racer (tourer) from late 10spd era and it's made from common or garden steel bike tubing.

Braze a sleeve over the crack? Sounds good. Metalwork with heat is beyond my skillset but there is a helpful local exhaust shop down the street.

GaryK is right when he says old bikes like this are cheap buuuuut if I strip the next one down, sand it, and find a hair-line crack just before I put on the under-coat, I shall be very cross indeed.

[LeeG]

what is plush is a load of groceries riding on 26x1.75 Panaracer pro-tex tires. I bet the Pasela TG in 27" would be comfy and rice riding.

[PeterSibley]

There is something delightful about renewing and repairing .It keeps things going , continuing .....


I'd drill a small hole at the each end of the crack ,then braze .I'm assuming ( unlike Capt Blight ) that if it's a shopping bike ,there is no need for the kind if repair that will withstand down hill mountain biking !

[seanz]

I'll be having a bit of a cull shortly and two 26" and a 24" bikes are going, now I just want something I can wobble up the shops on.

Speaking of 'plush'.....the frame isn't the only thing that's steel.....though it does have an alloy headstem.

[seanz]

There is something delightful about renewing and repairing .It keeps things going , continuing .....


I'd drill a small hole at the each end of the crack ,then braze .I'm assuming ( unlike Capt Blight ) that if it's a shopping bike ,there is no need for the kind if repair that will withstand down hill mountain biking !

True, this is river-flats....but it'll have me on it plus the library books.

[PeterSibley]

That doesn't sound that daunting !

[seanz]

I'm a big reader.

[PeterSibley]

How big ?

[Captain Blight]

Missed that, I did. Well. a seat-stay crack isn't the end of the world, though its being on the drive side makes me wonder if there's some underlying problem associated with the frame geometry. Tubing is probably 1020 Hi-ten steel from the same factories that supplied the Great Japanese Bike Boom; for all intents and purposes, save for geography of final assembly, you have a Fuji touring bike. Just get enough molten metal in there, it should ought to hold. For safeties sake I'd probably want a sleeve over it, but that's me.

There's nothing complicated on a bike (except for those damned combined brake- and shift- levers, robotically assembled in Japan. I couldn't understand why it took two people to reassemble one until I realized they were designed to be assembled by 4 hands. Dang.) The stresses involved are on a reasonable scale.

"When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man's convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man's brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle."

Shoot, man, patch it up and ride it. If it fits, if you like it, then it's the perfect bike. It's way more important to get your grin in the wind than to push the boundaries of the technology. It's the ride, not the destination.

Oh, yeah, +1 to Lee's recommendation of Panaracer Pasela or TG tires. Vittoria Randonnee tires are another good choice. Michelin made some superb folding gumwalls for touring in 27" size some years ago, they still show up on eBay as NOS from time to time; IMHO they are worth every dime. They are to Panaracers what panaracers are to Schwinn Puffs.

Speaking of Schwinn, I just took a World Tourist in trade today for some hours I worked and was owed. It's got the Integer front freewheeling system on it. Truly weird, but also well-thought-out and a lot of fun to ride.

[PeterSibley]

A good quote ,I always liked Iris Murdoch ....she has a lovely garden !

I've been hoping for ten years that my bike would break and then I could justify buying one of those new lovely hybrids .Unfortunately my 25 year old mountain bike won't break and just keeps rolling .It's what you get for buying good quality to start with ! The damn thing lasts forever .

[Captain Blight]

Oh, hybrids? They are actually quite comfortable. But the proportions look ungainly to my eye. It's not like I think they're de debbil; I just think they look dopey, with the short seat tube and a foot of post showing and the sloping top tube. Kind of like a giraffe on wheels or something. I do like the suspension seatposts and the 42mm tires!

[PeterSibley]

My weirder tastes involve recumbents but I'd be scared to ride one on our roads .The locals are quite likely to just drive right over the top .http://www.bobmccutcheon.com/HPV/

[Keith Wilson]

My weirder tastes involve recumbents but I'd be scared to ride one on our roads .

I built a recumbent (long wheelbase, under-seat steering) in 1981 and rode it around for a few months. I used one of those little orange flags on a fiberglass pole and it worked OK; I'm still alive, anyway. What made me mostly give it up was the amount of attention it attracted. Recumbents were very rare then, and a purple metalflake Lamborghini would have been far less conspicuous. Once I completely stopped a local little league baseball game; everybody, players and spectators, came over to the fence to watch me ride by, That gets old quickly.

Mine looked like this, more or less, but with a single large-diameter main frame tube.




Hey Captain, how's Chris Kvale doing? I used to work with him at Wheel Goods many years ago. Haven't seen him in 30 years, probably.

[PeterSibley]

Interesting Keith , I think I'd prefer the short wheel base with underseat steering and if there were any bikeways around here it's what I'd build .

[Keith Wilson]

The long wheelbase worked better than you might think. It was a little awkward in parking lots, slow speed maneuvering and such, but it more than made up for it down hills and, surprisingly, over rougher terrain. Narrow tires, and gravel didn't bother it at all; quite unexpected. The main disadvantage was that it took up a lot of space in the garage. The under-seat steering tended to make one's armpits sweaty.

[cs]

I'm not as much into bikes as I was when I was younger, but few years ago I did rebuild a Laguna GT BMX bike. I wish I still had pictures online of it.

Chad

[Y Bar Ranch]

I went from cast-iron (OK, maybe it was 4130 steel) mountain bike with no shocks to an aluminium framed full suspension ride. Like going from Wright Brothers to F-22. Amazing technology. Love to ride it on the trails.

[PeterSibley]

I went from cast-iron (OK, maybe it was 4130 steel) mountain bike with no shocks to an aluminium framed full suspension ride. Like going from Wright Brothers to F-22. Amazing technology. Love to ride it on the trails.

Get behind me Satan !! Mine is steel ...like I said it won't break and I can't bring myself to replace it .

[TerryLL]

My current bike is an older 18-speed mountain bike with front suspension only. I cruise the bike shop about once a week and drool on the full-suspension darlings with their disk brakes. The missus rides an old steel clunker with balloon tires and a wire basket up front, and wouldn't trade it for the world. Between us we put more miles on our bikes in a year than on the car.

[huisjen]

The little bit I've ridden a front suspension bike makes me not like them. Hit the brake and the nose dives. Scary.

I'm still riding my (Chicago) Schwinn Probe that I got in Chula Vista in '89. There's hardly an original part on the frame, but it still goes.

Dan

[Y Bar Ranch]

The little bit I've ridden a front suspension bike makes me not like them. Hit the brake and the nose dives. Scary.

Requires a bit of getting used to. My brakes are hydraulic disc brakes and have amazing stopping power, like going over the handlebars the first time you hit them power. Zero cable stretch, nothing but stoppy goodness. Fingertip pressure. Gives you a warm and fuzzy on those long steep downhills.

TerryLL, I justified the purchase of my FSR by figuring I'd owned my last bike for 20 years, and still have it, so I can amortize over 20 years. It's a frankenbike, of course, not an original part on it probably.

[TerryLL]

The little bit I've ridden a front suspension bike makes me not like them. Hit the brake and the nose dives. Scary.
Dan

I would guess the front shocks were out of adjustment, or just a low-quality set. The front shocks should be quite stiff with little or no nose dive when braking. A decent set will have an adjustment knob at the top of one of the tubes.

[Brian Palmer]

Seanz, old 27" bikes can be had for $10 or free, I'd junk the cracked one you have, not worth the trouble.

This is generally true, until you try to find a decent quality frame in a larger size (e.g., 63 cm/25 inches). You don't come across them in the trash or on CL as often as you might think. And if the fork is missing or damaged, you may as well just keep looking.

Brian

[paul oman]

At last, a good thread!

I ride a 35 year old Motobecame and have do so since I bought it. Still do several 12 mile rides each week. ride it as much as I did 35 years ago. Has outlasted jobs, girlfriends etc. It is one of the few 'anchors' in my life. After perhaps 100K miles, about the only original equipment is the frame and handlebars....

[Ed Harrow]

This is generally true, until you try to find a decent quality frame in a larger size (e.g., 63 cm/25 inches). You don't come across them in the trash or on CL as often as you might think. And if the fork is missing or damaged, you may as well just keep looking.

Brian

The mountain bike my neighbor gave me came, 100%, from the trash behind Landry's Cycle. He makes it a point to wander by the back side of the store on a regular basis - finds something 'fixable' (he's not a bike mechanic, so we're talking parts swapping), fixes it up and gives it away. He and I are both just sub 6' and his bike and the one he gave me are both 'good' fits.

[Captain Blight]

Hey Captain, how's Chris Kvale doing? I used to work with him at Wheel Goods many years ago. Haven't seen him in 30 years, probably.

He's good! I didn't know you'd worked with him, specifically. I'll remember you to him next time I see him!

[Ed Harrow]

Requires a bit of getting used to. My brakes are hydraulic disc brakes and have amazing stopping power, like going over the handlebars the first time you hit them power. ....

I'm a luddite, I guess. I've stood my Dawes up on its front wheel with nothing more than the original Weinmann centerpulls. (Yes, it was a long, long time ago. ) I'd be curious to know the weight differential between a rim-brake wheel and a disc-brake wheel (all other things being as equal as possible), rotating weight being so significant.