Monday, March 20, 2017

Spring Cleaning


I decided to give my touring/randonneuring bike complete overhaul this spring. Pretty much giving it the works:
  • New headset (Chris King)
  • New bottom bracket (Wheels Manufacturing w/ angular contact bearing)
  • New cables and housing (Jagwire Sport)
  • New bar tape (Fizik)
  • New stem (Dimension)
  • New bell (Crane)
  • New chain (KMC 10.93)
  • New brake pads (Avid metallic)
  • Service rotors
  • Service hubs
  • True and tension wheels
  • Service pedals
  • Frame saver treatment
  • Wax frame and fork
I’m planning to attempt a full SR series, a 1,000k, plus a few hundred training miles so I want it to be in good shape for the season.

Saturday, March 4, 2017

Motobecane Jury Townie

I finally finished the Motobecane Jury Townie I have been working on for a while and took it for a shakedown ride this morning. This will be my early morning and bad weather bike. It has Sturmey-Archer drum brakes, 3-speed rear hub, a dynamo front hub, Busch & Muller dynamo lighting and Honjo Aluminium fenders with Gilles Berthoud mudflaps, saddle and saddlebag.

There are a couple of things that I think turned out pretty well and are kinda cool.

I'm using wine corks as spacers for the rear fender. I used a hacksaw to cut the corks to the right length and a rotary tool with a sanding bit to shape both ends to fit the frame and the fender. I drilled a hole in the middle of the cork for the bolt, then cut the bolts to the right length with a cutoff wheel on the rotary tool. If that sounds time consuming. It was.


The other thing that I think turned out well was the electrical for the dynamo powered lights. The wire from the hub dynamo is routed to the headlight through the drainage holes in the right fork. The shift cable is sheathed in shrink wrap and the wire to the tail light runs through there. I put a grommet in the fender for the wire, then ran the wire inside the fender and secured it with HVAC foil tape back to the fender mounted tail light. You can't see inside the fenders, but I also cut down all the bolts so they are flush with the nut.




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The bike's not particularly fast, but it's fine for the way I'm planning to use it.