Getting back into cycling

[herr_oberst]

Lotta centuries going on in the cycling world this month and next!

Nice work, Leaky! What was your average speed? How much vert?

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Lotta centuries going on in the cycling world this month and next!

Nice work, Leaky! What was your average speed? How much vert?

Over a vertical mile and (for a limited time) speed can be accessed for a special membership fee*


*special membership fee not worth paying. it was pretty slow.

I was happy about several things though- one- I pulled out a road bike I pretty much hadn't used in 5 years and it worked flawless(ish), two- I've done enough of these I threw in some curve balls of not preparing and the sky didn't fall, three- I did not get bitten by a dog(unlike last week), Four- some guys I was riding with shared similar interest of cars, garden tractors, and extreme lawn mowing groups, 5- I took all my contraptions of data collecting, and they all meshed fairly well, and finally 6- I used a map upload on my garmin and I still eff'd it up.

Tell me if you can figure out THIS cloverleaf!!! (well... I couldn't, but, I eventually did)
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42722223?fbclid=IwAR2KWheuaHD0roi6q338B_EYaoKlZFTh fWPb6EZqXkGd-7wNequIxWAUCfY

[herr_oberst]

Almost 6000 feet of climbing in little dibbles and dabs all day long. Those rollers can get exhausting, if there isn't any flats at all to just spin for a while.

Nice work.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Almost 6000 feet of climbing in little dibbles and dabs all day long. Those rollers can get exhausting, if there isn't any flats at all to just spin for a while.

Nice work.

Thanks. Precious few flats, but the hills rolled well. The winds really kick up in the valley though. Enough to make you sail, or break your day. Today was a little of both.

[flatbutt]

I'm the most precious Flat of all

[otto_kretschmer]

Done with the paint. I painted outside so I got some dust specks and a couple bugs to buff out. Some 800 to 1000 grit wet/dry and rubbing compound is all I need.

I'm happy with the results.



So now I get to spend more money on parts on ebay

[otto_kretschmer]

Just a note about the paint:

Its a PPG product. Delfleet Essentials. Its an economy single stage urethane for fleet markets; school buses, trucking companies ect.

I bought it in 2014 so its nine years old and its still good. I mixed a small amount and tested it on a garbage can and it still sprayed and cured and then I shot the frame and fork. I'm amazed that the paint is still good after sitting in my garage for so long.

[sc_rufctr]

That looks sweet Otto... Well Done!

[sc_rufctr]

- meanwhile "other things are happening".

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

- meanwhile "other things are happening".

Ooooh Flatty like.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

- meanwhile "other things are happening".

Good luck!

[otto_kretschmer]

I'm done with the paint and I started putting the bike together. The first thing I wanted was to put the headset on so I can assemble the forks to the frame.

And I ran into a problem. The fork crown race wouldn't fit. It was too small for the forks.

I was about to get a big hammer out but I decided to see how much of an interference fit there was. I was expecting something but not what I had.

.030" ballpark.. or NFW will I get the race on

I got my dial caliper out and measured the fork and it was 1.065" and I measured the ID of the race and it was 1.034"

WTH...F F F F.....This fork is a cheapie of Ebay so I measured another fork I have, a good Japanese Tange, and it was 1.066".

My headset is a Shimano 600.

So I put my mallets away and start digging into why I got parts that are not compatible.

And I find there are several standards of bicycle parts. There is an ISO, French, Italian, English and Japanese standards. The ISO is the most common today but 50 years ago it seems each country built bikes for their own domestic market and they were not compatible with another countries parts.

I'll make a long story short... I have two forks made to the Japanese standard and the headset (made by a Japanese company) is made to the ISO standard.

My choices were to get a new fork, or headset, or crown race.. or mill one of my parts to make it fit the other. Of the two it was easier to chuck the fork into the lathe and cut the crown seat down to the recommended .1-.2mm interference fit and thats what I did.

I would like to thank the late Sheldon Brown for giving me part of the puzzle

https://sheldonbrown.com/cribsheet-headsets.html

No fingers were harmed with the fork legs swinging around this morning.

[otto_kretschmer]

I kept taking .002" passes, so .004" on the diameter and stopped when I got 1.040" on my caliper. That gave me a .006" interference fit. A little on the tight side but I didn't want to take another pass.

I took the fork and race into my sister's kitchen and heated the race over one of the burners of her gas stove for a minute and dropped it on the fork and got it started and quickly went back to the shop and got a tube and ball peen and pounded the race home.

[David]

^ Nice work!

It wasn't that uncommon to see stuff that was wrong back when I was a bike mechanic. Half the time it wasn't caught until too late. I remember a mechanic pressed a race into the frame head tube only to realize the factory hadn't machined the relief in the head tube bore. We realized it when it split the head tube.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by otto_kretschmer

[

No fingers were harmed with the fork legs swinging around this morning.

Thank the god of your choice! I wish I had a lathe. What RPM did you need to keep the chatter at bay?

[sc_rufctr]

Otto - I love your work Man. Just sayin...

[look 171]

sticking that fork on the lathe is serious stuff. I like the way you think. I would have taken a file to it if only its someone's frame. That or enlarger the Fork crown race if the frame belongs to Peter

[look 171]

Originally Posted by David

^ Nice work!

It wasn't that uncommon to see stuff that was wrong back when I was a bike mechanic. Half the time it wasn't caught until too late. I remember a mechanic pressed a race into the frame head tube only to realize the factory hadn't machined the relief in the head tube bore. We realized it when it split the head tube.

I remember having to cold set or realign some of the more expensive Italian or French frames before putting them together when I work in the shop. Carbon frames? Quality control is so dang good that everything almost fit perfectly our of the box. All my frame did.

[otto_kretschmer]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Thank the god of your choice! I wish I had a lathe. What RPM did you need to keep the chatter at bay?

I ran it as slow as it would go. The cut wasn't super clean but I'm not a machinist. After my last pass I took a file and some sand paper to it and smoothed it out a bit.

I'm still finding more problems. The fork is still about an 1/8" too short. I'm going to take the crown race off and chuck the fork in the lathe again and take some more metal off the shoulder at the crown. Right now the locknut on the headset has no more than two threads. I'd like to get at least five threads and then put it together with red loctite.

[sc_rufctr]

The little details...