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]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

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]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

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

 

[user 135]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

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

 

[HotRodHocke]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

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]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

The straightened out forks look awesome, great work!

 

[IronDio]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

The straightened out forks look awesome, great work!

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

 

[Xcruiser]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

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

 

[brett4christ]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

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]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

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]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

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]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

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]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

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]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

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

 

[gcrank1]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

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

 

[HotRodHocke]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

by ruddigger on Sat Mar 31, 2012 7:39 pm
The best way I can think of to describe this bike, is elegant. I can't wait to see what you do next.

Many thanks! I can definitely live with "elegant"!

by gcrank1 on Sun Apr 01, 2012 9:23 am
I like the seatpost mod, how about some more details on how you did it ?

Yes, no problems. Started with cutting off (very thin cutoff wheel in an angle grinder) the black aluminum tubing from the upper part, made the last cut like this and when finally taking it apart I used a very sharp chisel closest to the upper parts "body" (where my LH thumb is in the pic) to not cut into it trying to leave as much of the material intact as possible:

And then drilled a 19mm hole in the upper part...:

to make it fit the old but cleaned up seatpost piece of tubing:

Left to figure out is some way to lock the old piece of tubing into the upper part, but that's no biggie, been thinking about either a roll pin from the front of it or a M8 allen bolt from the top. Here's BTW the grinding tools that I used to shape the upper part of the seatpost:

Started to lace the rear wheel today, but ran into some problems because of the lenght of the spokes I was trying to use. Am ivestigating an alternative spoke pattern right now, we'll see... or I might need to go and buy some shorter spokes tomorrow.

Håkan

 

[gcrank1]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

Use the Red Locktite for bearings races and sleeves; it is marvelous stuff, wont come apart without heat from a propane torch and is ever so easy to use.
What do you think they used to hold the original seatpost into the head?, just a press fit or more?

 

[HotRodHocke]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

by gcrank1 on Sun Apr 01, 2012 11:51 am
Use the Red Locktite for bearings races and sleeves; it is marvelous stuff, wont come apart without heat from a propane torch and is ever so easy to use.
What do you think they used to hold the original seatpost into the head?, just a press fit or more?

Thanks for the info on red Loctite! Not sure if it was a press or a shrink fit on the original seatpost, at least there was no traces of any Loctite or similar there. My degree in engineering is from the seventies (I am 54) but from what I remember a properly made shrink fit is several times stronger than a press fit. But just to be on the safe here I still plan on using something to mechanically lock the parts together.

Håkan

 

[HotRodHocke]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

Finally got the rear wheel laced tonight:

The 295 mm length spokes I had problems with had to be replaced with a set of 288 mm. Even looked into if I should use a 4X pattern before I bought the new ones, but then they would have been too short. If my calculations are correct they will be a perfect fit for the front wheel though. The hub is BTW an internal three speed Torpedo hub.

Talked to the to the guy I bought the spokes from and described the surprisingly light Swedish made frame I am using and he said it used to be called an "aircraft steel" frame and most probably is from the 1950s.

Håkan

 

[HotRodHocke]

Re: Path Racer - Early Euro style

The status and progress so far:

Received all the parts I had ordered a couple of days ago, mounted the tires on the black painted rims and started to prep all the parts that's going to be polished. Also made a new cover for the shifter as the earlier one I made was a little bit too small.

Håkan