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us56456712

us56456712

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The middle of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
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I'm not painting it. Just a clean up and new spokes and seat. The bearing races appear to be threaded bigger than newer ones. I need the thread on race next to the chain wheel. The original was cracked. I haven't been able to find a replacement yet. Next I'll attempt to rebuild the wood wheels.
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The wood wheels are going to take me quite awhile to repair. Before I cut out the spokes I drilled and steel pinned the wood joints together with an epoxy anchor in the pin hole. I once took apart an old wood wheel and the hide glue was dried out and it fell apart with spoke removal. These joints looked good but I thought I would be cautious. The front hub has badly rusted ball bearings. I think it can be saved but I'll have to get new balls for both hubs. The wheels were originally built without spoke head washers, even though the rims will drilled for washers. Over the years the spoke heads had sunk into the wood and made the spokes too long. I have a set of nipple washers coming from Europe but that will take some time. I'm wondering if this was done to save weight as the wheels are surprising light once the heavy tires are removed. I haven't been able to find any information on glueing tubular tires to wood rims. The tubular rim tape is only for carbon or aluminum rims. There is a lot of dried glue on the rims that I will have to remove, so much that it leaked through the nipple holes and is smeared and dried on the part of the rim you see. The tire glue is no longer sticky or gummy, it is more like thick flakey dried paint. I'm too impatient, I want it done now. I ordered Schwinn bottom bracket bearings and races to see if that will fit the crank. The end where the pedal goes is too big for a traditional BB lock bolt to clear. We'll see it that works. I like the original crank so I hope I can use it. I may have to jury rig ream and tap an inner BB race but I hope not. I can always use one of my cranks from the 1930s but that would be a last resort. The wheels are holding me up, dang. I finished building my front wheel for my 1930s road bike yesterday but I have to build another rear wheel. The rear hub was too bent to use so I have to dismantle the wheel and lace in the replacement hub. Wheels are holding up both my builds.
 
It is a monster!
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I go to spring police bike auction (maybe 400 bikes) walk around and try to inspect them. When the BMX bike came by I snagged it for a couple of $.
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I was lucky the bearings were saveable, cause the crank is oversize thread and std OPC bearings are too small. I love how heavy they are, Max flywheel effect!
 
horsefarmer said:
It is a monster!
View attachment 89332
I go to spring police bike auction (maybe 400 bikes) walk around and try to inspect them. When the BMX bike came by I snagged it for a couple of $.
View attachment 89333
I was lucky the bearings were saveable, cause the crank is oversize thread and std OPC bearings are too small. I love how heavy they are, Max flywheel effect!
Click to expand...

I'm having a problem finding bearing races for my crank too. The inner bering race was cracked and chipped. Otherwise, at least so, far I have been able to find replacements for almost everything. The tires I have are used 33mm tubular cyclocross tires and the originals were 40mm. There are no smooth tread replacement 40mm sew ups out there. There is a 40mm gravel tire but it has side knobs and coast $80 each. I'm not sure that the 33mm tires will stay on the 27mm inside measure wood wide rims.
 
The Redline BigBlock crank uses different caged bearings than other OPC. But the races are standard size. I understand people sub loose ball bearings when the originals give out. Would be cool to try a long throw crank with an exercise bike huge sprocket!
 
The mailman hasn't delivered for 2 days. Yesterday was a blizzard and I don't know what the deal is today other than it's -14F and the highway is a sheet of ice. My BB rebuild parts and my sew up tire are at the the post office 20 miles away but no delivery. Today UPS did drive down my ice covered one mile drive to deliver 100 loose ball bearings for my front hub (I have another 100 somewhere but couldn't find them since we moved from town to the boondocks). I hope to have the stuff to complete everything but the rear wheel by Monday. The chain is iffy, it's been soaking now for five days and it still has frozen links. The rear hub is still rust frozen, The front hub was also rust frozen but that came loose so I am hopeful. I have to wait for spoke washers from Europe before I can rebuild my rear wheel. I don't know why I am so impatient to get this bike done, I can't ride it anywhere for months, unless I haul it way south.
 
us56456712 said:
It's -21F but USPS tracking indicates my parts are out for delivery. I should have them by 6PM.
Click to expand...
6PM still no mail delivery, no parts. My buddy's house, 70 miles west go me, had -30F this morning but his digital thermometer only goes to -30F so who knows how cold it got.
 
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my parts were finally delivered and I finished installing the crank. I built the front wheel but the nipples are long to go through the wood, which causes a lot of friction. Some of the nipples resist threading on from the friction and strip either the nipple or spoke. I'm going to dismantle it and oil the spoke holes in the wood rim to see if that helps. I could ream out the holes but then they might get too big if they get dryer. I'll have to play with them to see what works. There may be some gummy stuff in the holes from the sew up glue. Like I say, I'll have to dismantle and inspect and oil the holes.
 
I didn't use oil on the spoke nipple holes, I thought it might interfere with the tire glue bond. I reamed out the glue from the spoke holes. The handlebars had rust through on one side so I wrapped it in 3 layers of carbon fiber. The front wheel is laced.
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Wood wheel rebuilt.
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