chop

[kirkcudbright]

My second and newest chopper, name of Frek:



I reused as much of the original bike as possible, but it was made of rust and fail. Seriously folks, no matter how you hate your bike, don't leave it out in the New England weather. This one clearly spent several years, untouched and unloved, until it was finally hauled to the curb.



The corrosion on the fork enveloped the brakes. I had to cut the compression arms off with an angle grinder, but as a reward I was left with 9" steel stanchions to weld the new fork extensions to.


Rust and fail. I actually wire-brushed the gears and the derailleur, installed and new chain, and it mostly shifts okay now.


The fabric sidewalls on the tires were a blowout waiting to happen. The pedals are still SPD, because I can't get them off the cranks. I kept the saddle, but the sketchy cloth seat cover shredded on the maiden voyage.

The front derailleur cable clamp was rusted, so I had to tap a new screw into the side of the derailleur.

Even the quick-release skewers are bound up, and will need to be replaced Real Soon.

But the fork, the beautiful 30" fork! I still have to install front brakes, and paint the fork (bare metal now, don't want to turn into rust and fail). And it needs a bell.

Work to be done, but it's a really nice ride.

Comments

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

Nice ship, LD50!

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

sweet! what's the history on that gorgeous fork?

[kirkcudbright.livejournal.com]

I found a random piece of tubing that sleeved nicely over the stanchions, and cut it in half. There was no planning or measuring beyond "that looks like a nice length". The dropouts were serendipitously already cut from their fork, and also sleeved perfectly into the extension. The dots are 3/8" plug welds (you can see an example on the HAL Monotube_Fork_Construction page).

[totient]

Hey, I've got some of these coming in the mail soon -- want a pair? Or do you have the brake boss thing under control?

[kirkcudbright.livejournal.com]

The back brake is under control. I brute-forced a solution by cutting off the damaged boss, and welding on a boss from a mountain fork out of the junk pile.

I could use a brake in the front, and this sort of thing would be the preferred solution, but the fork is wide enough that I'll probably need offset bosses rather than the centered ones.