1969 Eaton's Fastback 100 - That's a Canadian Chopper eh?

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JNOACK

JNOACK

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http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/in...tback-100-thats-a-canadian-chopper-eh.100430/

Above you'll find the link to my unfinished MBB05 entry. It was my first go at anything on Ratrodbikes and it was a little disappointing to not have it cross the finish line. I was held up by the paint job and I was also quite busy with our newborn baby daughter. Anyway, the guy who does my powder coating just couldn't squeeze it in. So at this point in time, I THINK I have everything I need to put this thing back together.

Here's a few pics from the last thread, and of course my painted frame, fork, and chain guard. I'm pretty excited to start putting this thing together!! Stay tuned.....

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I've been feeling a little under the weather to start 2017, but not enough to keep me from tinkering in the basement after the baby goes down for the night. I put the frame on the stand and decided to start with the kick stand and the bottom bracket .

The fastback frame is the same as the early MK1 chopper frames. If you ever restore one of these, make sure you know the differences between the MK1 and the MK2 frame. I didn't realize the kick stand mounts were different and luckily I bought the correct kickstand by chance. It was very easy to install, but I hear that the MK2 install and removal is a little tricky. They even sell a special tool for its removal.

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After that easy install, I chipped away all the crud from the bearing cups and degreased everything with some park cleaner. I greased up the cups, added the bearings and carefully threaded the cups. You want to make sure not to cross thread these. You also want to make sure your powder coat guy properly seals this area so no paint gets into the thread. My guy did a great job, because these threaded on nicely. It's also great to have the right HCW-11 park tool for this. Also, make sure you put the axle in the right way. The sprocket side has a longer distance from the bearing races to the end of the axle.

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With the bottom bracket in place, the next step is to put on the cranks. This was my first snag of the rebuild. I damaged the original cotter pins when I removed them, and they were in rough shape anyway. The new ones I got were 9.5mm which is the correct size, but they don't have enough of a taper to fit properly. I'll have to shave them down when I can get into the shop next. I don't have anything good at home to complete this task.

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Not surprised you are having to shave the cotters down, the new ones that are available now usually need a shave...

I think the original intention was to shave them to fit each job perfectly, but most home builders rarely do...
 
Picked up these two old Raleigh Twenty folding bicycle this afternoon. $75CAD for the pair. Wish I had found these earlier because they have some similar parts that a chopper or fastback require. The kickstand is a match and both the ones on these two bikes are better than the one I got on ebay and had shipped from the UK.

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Pedals are not bad but bearings would need to be overhauled. It looks like opening up these block style pedals isn't that easy, because the metal tabs are bent to hold in the rubber. Not sure if I'll use them yet anyway. The other set of pedals are different and I have to have a closer look. One of the bikes is branded a Canadian Supercycle and has a few different components and none of the raleigh nuts. Strangely enough, both bikes have the exact size cotter pins I need, but they are so hard to get off without damaging the threads. I used the vise technique on one of the crank arms, but the pin was so stuck, the force to push it out mushroomed the threads. I'll try the other bike, but I'm guessing I'll be filing down the new replacement cotter pins I already purchased.

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Also got an email from my mom tonight reminding me of the bike history in my family. This is a picture of my Great Grandfather standing outside of his bicycle shop. I'll have to find out exactly where it is. Wish the bike from the second shot was still in the family!!!

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JNOACK said:
Picked up these two old Raleigh Twenty folding bicycle this afternoon. $75CAD for the pair. Wish I had found these earlier because they have some similar parts that a chopper or fastback require. The kickstand is a match and both the ones on these two bikes are better than the one I got on ebay and had shipped from the UK.

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Pedals are not bad but bearings would need to be overhauled. It looks like opening up these block style pedals isn't that easy, because the metal tabs are bent to hold in the rubber. Not sure if I'll use them yet anyway. The other set of pedals are different and I have to have a closer look. One of the bikes is branded a Canadian Supercycle and has a few different components and none of the raleigh nuts. Strangely enough, both bikes have the exact size cotter pins I need, but they are so hard to get off without damaging the threads. I used the vise technique on one of the crank arms, but the pin was so stuck, the force to push it out mushroomed the threads. I'll try the other bike, but I'm guessing I'll be filing down the new replacement cotter pins I already purchased.

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Also got an email from my mom tonight reminding me of the bike history in my family. This is a picture of my Great Grandfather standing outside of his bicycle shop. I'll have to find out exactly where it is. Wish the bike from the second shot was still in the family!!!

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Click to expand...
Cool pics and history!
 
Looks like a Raleigh chopper. I have trouble with cotter pins,I believe there are 2 sizes. But seems like its harder to find the smaller. I just slam them in.
 
Well, I decided the folders would be parts bikes, and perhaps the frames will be reincarnated into something new when I start welding some day. I started taking things apart. Thought I might use the chopper style pedals from the first bike, but I wasn't totally happy with the condition even though they cleaned up nicely. They would have needed work on the bearings and they didn't look easy to take apart either, so I sold them on EBAY for $40. There's half of my initial investment and look at all the great parts I will have left over.

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My next mission was to rescue the cotter pins from the second Raleigh Twenty. I butchered the first two. I mushroomed the first and the second one had to be cut off because the nut was stripped and would not come off with a wrench. I found this extraction method online and it works pretty good. This time I tried leaving a nut on the end of the pin to share the load of the vise. Check the pics below and you'll see it's pretty simple. It worked really well this time!! Now I have two cotter pins that are the exact size that I need, which means I won't have to file down my new ones.

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After that, I decided to reclaim the spoke protector from the original Fastback wheel that I won't be reusing because it's pitted. It cleaned up nicely!! It was really dirty!!

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I also cleaned up the second set of salvaged pedals, and they're not too shabby. I might use them, or maybe let them go on ebay. We'll see.

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Keeping busy in the northland I see. Thanks for the tips on the pedal mods / fixes. You must have a heated space for all that fine detail work and polishing....
 
Made a little progress this evening with assembly. Not as exciting as a custom build, but it's nice to see this come together. I do have a few custom details planned that might keep some of you reading and add a little interest. I was able to use my salvaged cotter pins and used the reverse of the method I used to get them out, in order to put them back in. My wife and baby daughter are always in bed by the time I get to tinker, so it's hard to do any hammering. Pressing them in place with the vise worked well.

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Next I moved on to the front fork. I cleaned up the bearings I had and the Raleigh Twenty came in handy again, as I was short a few bearings. I had to sand the inside of the head tube a little to get the bearing cups pressed in. The bottom one slid in easy. The top one needed some encouragement. A few hits with a dead blow hammer and then a pause to listen for any disturbance upstairs. Phew....

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You might notice the fork detail here. The Raleigh Choppers have chrome thimbles, but the Canadian Fastbacks have these chrome plugs. I had already sent my frame off for powder coating and the instructions were to paint over the ones in place. I didn't think I'd be able to find the replacements. When I did find a set on ebay, I again, had to import them from the UK. I sent a message to my painter asking him if he could drill out the original plugs because I had NOS replacements. Anyway, there was a lot of time between that message and when he actually was able to paint them, and they were left in. I would like the chrome plugs, and it's almost an OCD thing because I'm a stickler for details. I've decided the fork is staying the way it is. Initially I contemplated taking them out, but I couldn't think of a good way to do it without wrecking the paint job and then having to have it coated again. I'm not complaining about my paint guy. He's awesome by the way. Had to paint this frame twice too, because there was a lot of grease in the steel around the kick stand, and it bled out when he baked the first coat. $120 for blasting and powder on a frame fork and guard, and that's Canadian dollars. For you Americans that are following, I'll do the conversion for you. Approx $90.

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Fit the stem and the handle bars. Pretty quick and painless. Stole the stem nut from the Raleigh Twenty because it was nice and shiny compared to the original.

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I then moved on to the sissy bar. This one might need some advice from here or the Raleigh chopper community. I know from taking this out, that they tend to rust in place. That means that there's still a rusty mess inside the tubes and I need this sissy bar to slide in nicely. Currently it doesn't go that far in at all and I don't want to beat it in place. I kind of wrapped things up for the night, but I left it sitting with some WD40 sprayed in the tubes and I stuck a round file in the ends and worked out some of the crud. I imagine you guys will tell me the name of some sort of stuff I should spray in there to help prep the tubes for the new expensive re-pop sissy bar I imported from the UK only because I won first prize in a Halloween Costume Contest. Good night!

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The Blaster PB spray stuff works to get rusted shut parts loose, not sure about de-scaling the inside of a steel tube. Probably would work.
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Plus, if you get bored, you can read all the message 'blasts' on the can and count the number of fonts used to produce that lasting image....:bigsmile:
 
Hi JNOACK. Would you sell me those spare raleigh pedals? I also collect choppers and live in the uk. I can either buy them or swap for some parts you need? Thanks
 
Can't believe you changed that bike it looked like it was in awesome condition .
You must be a Leafs fan lol
 
bleedingfingers said:
Can't believe you changed that bike it looked like it was in awesome condition .
You must be a Leafs fan lol
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"Looks" is the operative word. In my experience as a bike collector, the bike always looks better in the picture. Often I'm a little disappointed when I finally arrive to pick up a bike I've arranged to buy from a picture online. I agree that this bike did look pretty good, but when you get close up, you can see all of the work it needs. The rims were badly rusted, the seat was ripped, the pan was bent, the sissy bar was rusted and seized, the kick stand was missing..... The list goes on. The blue gives it a new life. Also, I already have so many 20 x 16 orange muscle bikes. Leafs fan, yes, but that was not part of my decision making process. Leafs fans bleed a little darker blue than the colour I chose. I hope you like it when I'm done!!
 
JNOACK said:
In my experience as a bike collector, the bike always looks better in the picture. Often I'm a little disappointed when I finally arrive to pick up a bike I've arranged to buy from a picture online.
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Been caught out myself with that too!
Just occasionally though, it looks better in real life than what the pics had you thinking, love those days!
 
Seems you have your cotter pin issues taken care of at this point. I became so frustrated with one particular set my wife bought me the cotter pin press made by Bikesmithdesign, before you go giving her praise for buying me bike tools, know that it was for her bike. They also make a drive side bb cup tool for the raleighs, which help for those cups that are siezed in from rust/corrosion.

http://bikesmithdesign.com

And for the tubes where the sissy bar goes in, what about trying a "flex-hone"? We use them on the seattubes of new frames to polish them up and prevent scrtaches on the seatposts, may be able to find one small enough for the sissy bar tubes.
 
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