Path Racer - Early Euro style - Finished!

[HotRodHocke]

Hi again,

Some of you guys might remember me from last year's two builds "Never too late.." and "Strawbeery Milk". Anyway, I am back at a bike build again. This time a path racer style bike for myself as I had some surgery done to my right foot lately and really would need some exercise to get back on track. Had this cast on for three weeks and had a lot of time to plan for this build as I've been pretty much stuck in front of the computer:



I've been looking a lot at early style English, French and Italian made racers. But as the frame donor I decided to use a Swedish made "Stanley" brand frame I found at the side of the road here in town:



Here's the first mockup with some 700 wheels:







And here's a photochop to show how I possibly need to modify the frame and fork to get the look I am aiming at:



Already ordered are these parts (Ebay):













This is going to be a very simple bike, 3-speed internal gear rear hub with coaster brake, a steel one-piece crank, straight MTB handlebar and gloss black paint. I will try to stay away from any extra or fancy parts just as the early racers. Here's my collection of pics of path racer style bikes that I used for inspiration when planning this build: http://public.fotki.com/VikingMustang/other-projects/path-racers/

Håkanfotki

[Critter1]

Its always fun to plan a build.. Its even more fun when the parts start showing up! This sounds like it'll be a great simple diamond frame racer for you! Looking forward to your progress.

[HotRodHocke]

Today's very small update.

Bought this "SR Quill Handlebar Stem" off Ebay last night:





had a whole bunch of quills in my parts bin, but they were all made of heavy steel and the wrong style for this build. Also passed a place on my way home from work and bought these new rims:



More later,

Håkan

[cman]

Your other builds were top notch,so this should come out nicely.

[HotRodHocke]

Thanks cman and Critter1!

Took another fork I had and straightened it in my shop press just to see if it would fit into the style using an absolutely straight fork:





I at least think the front wheel is in the right place now:



Next step would be to cut the frame kind of like this:



To get a result like this:



Then there's of course some adjustments, cutting and welding to be made around the rear dropouts. Also maybe lower the rear part of the frame and fork a little bit to the ground, we'll see.

And sorry for the mess on my workbench, it's just the way the situation usually turns out when getting started on a new project. Arm's lenght access to parts I might use...

[mattyfu]

The straightened out forks look awesome, great work!

[IronDio]

The straightened out forks look awesome, great work!

I agree! Very cool look! Goes well with the frame

[Xcruiser]

Yeah,that fork idea is over the top sweet!Keep up the good work!

[brett4christ]

Nice work to date. Might want to shorten both the chainstays and seatstays....if you don't, you'll be raising the rear of the bike.

[HotRodHocke]

Thanks all!

Actually I do not mind if the rear of the bike is a little raised, but we'll see what it will look like later on when it's time to do the rear frame mod.

Not much to brag about regarding project progress, but I've at least cleaned and greased up the front hub I am planning to use, made a choice of front sprocket (took the oldest looking design I had) that will be polished and started on a homemade small cover for the Torpedo 3-speed shifter I am also planning on using. There's of course some work, filing, sanding, polishing, etc. left on the small cover before it's finished:

[mos6502]

I actually like the original fork a lot - I like how it's raked out very close to the bottom rather than further up as is usual. Very antique-y style fork. It could look cool with a straight fork too, but save that original fork whatever you do.

[HotRodHocke]

by mos6502 on Sun Mar 25, 2012 1:15 pm
I actually like the original fork a lot - I like how it's raked out very close to the bottom rather than further up as is usual. Very antique-y style fork. It could look cool with a straight fork too, but save that original fork whatever you do.

Yes, don't worry I kept the old fork as I agree it looks cool! Just not what I am aiming at with the look of this build though.

Finally put my small hacksaw into the frame and modified it today even if I actually was a little reluctant to sand off and clean it up from the great patina is has:



Tacked it back together:





Took it out to check out the result that I am very pleased with. Also cleaned the frame from all brackets I won't be using:



This is how much forward the upper frame tube is leaning now:



Took the frame back into the garage and finished the welding, grinding and sanding on the frame where the mod was made:







Also decided to modify the rear dropout a little bit. had to be very careful when welding here not to mess up the old brazing:









Added on material with the MIG and grinded it down:





That's all for today...

Håkan

[HotRodHocke]

Details, details...

Bought this el cheapo seat post to just use the upper part from:



The frame uses a 19mm (3/4") seatpost so I adapted the old one to the upper part of the bought seatpost, here's the result after a lot of grinding and sanding:



Also temporarily attached the shifter to the frame to check things out, not entirely happy with it, it doesn't look as expected from the other side, we'll see about this later. The whole idea here is to try to make things look as simple as possible:



Hopyfully I'll have time to lace the wheels tomorrow.

Håkan

[ruddigger]

The best way I can think of to describe this bike, is elegant. I can't wait to see what you do next.

[gcrank1]

I like the seatpost mod, how about some more details on how you did it ?