...when you can't tell if you should feel proud or ashamed of your stash.
I just bought a pretty rad frameset from RRB member Kram ( http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/trailmate-industrial-frame-and-fork.82693/ ) and it arrived in a very nicely packed package yesterday. (Yeah, I +1'd his feedback--thanks, @kram !) The purchase included frame, fork, headset (not installed), and seatpost (included, not installed.) Unique to most old-school Industrial bikes, the Trailmate doesn't take a seatclamp like a worksman or a SHD; rather, it takes a binder bolt like an old road frame would have. The binder bolt wasn't included, and it's a dookie-fat one, looks to be 1 1/8" shoulder-to-shoulder. Bummer. I checked the parts bin; all ofmy binder bolts are too small, but then I checked my small bits bin, and as luck would have it, I have a sleeve nut that's long enough, in the right size, with the right thread pitch. At this point, I'm a little bit amazed and feeling pretty good about myself, even if the scenario is pretty much proof that I'm an unrepentant bike nerd.
Next problem (well, there are a buncha problems, as one tends to get from an old bike, but only one other problem points to the dork-factor): the Trailmate has a deviant seatpost. It ain't a 13/16" and it ain't a 7/8"; even though the frame is pure Florida redneck, with an oversized 1" threaded headset and skinny tubes with fat walls and primitive TIG welds and stamped drop-outs....all of which are hallmarks of a blue-blooded SAE hillbilly bicycle frame... it takes some kind of metric seatpost. Best of my measuring abilities suggest it's a 22.0mm, which is a popular size on Peugeot UO8s and other degenerate Froggish bicycles from a time before Bicycle808 was even born. (I won't say anything against French ppl, but I have to say that French bikes are pure evil.) So, after I figured out that my7/8" posts wouldn't fit, and my 13/16" posts would slip around, I figured I'd use the stock post, even though it's short'n'stubby, scratched up, and probably the same age as my wife. (She's youngish for a wife, but she'd make for a rusty old seatpost, judging by age.) OF course, it fit fine, but it's a pipe style post, and due to it's slightly skinny dimensions (straight up n down), the guts wouldn't tighten down t it properly.
Ran back to the bin, praying that I had a Wald #905 13/16"-to-7/8" shim. As it turns out, I had 2. So, I initially put one between the 22.0mm post and the guts, which worked fine but looked stupid. So, I pulled it all apart, and slid the shim into the frame before installing the 13/16" post. Tightened it all down, and everything's all come together.
So, despite feeling like a roaring champion initially, due to the good luck and bountiful diversity of my parts bin, I started to think a little harder. In some ways, I feel weird about being "that guy": the guy with obscure pieces of hardware on-hand that enable him to cobble'n'kludge together esoteric old bikes of little-to-no monetary value. "Shame" ain't the word, really, but when I was explaining the story to my buddy Harry, I did feel a bit embarrassed.
Then again, if I weren't "that guy", I'd be sitting here looking at a 95% complete bike, wishing I could ride it while waiting for a few pieces of hardware to arrive in the post.
So, sorry about the long-winded bicycle romance novel, but I gotta ask--- does anyone else have a tale about having the luck/obsession required to put a bike together when weird little bits were required?
I just bought a pretty rad frameset from RRB member Kram ( http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/trailmate-industrial-frame-and-fork.82693/ ) and it arrived in a very nicely packed package yesterday. (Yeah, I +1'd his feedback--thanks, @kram !) The purchase included frame, fork, headset (not installed), and seatpost (included, not installed.) Unique to most old-school Industrial bikes, the Trailmate doesn't take a seatclamp like a worksman or a SHD; rather, it takes a binder bolt like an old road frame would have. The binder bolt wasn't included, and it's a dookie-fat one, looks to be 1 1/8" shoulder-to-shoulder. Bummer. I checked the parts bin; all ofmy binder bolts are too small, but then I checked my small bits bin, and as luck would have it, I have a sleeve nut that's long enough, in the right size, with the right thread pitch. At this point, I'm a little bit amazed and feeling pretty good about myself, even if the scenario is pretty much proof that I'm an unrepentant bike nerd.
Next problem (well, there are a buncha problems, as one tends to get from an old bike, but only one other problem points to the dork-factor): the Trailmate has a deviant seatpost. It ain't a 13/16" and it ain't a 7/8"; even though the frame is pure Florida redneck, with an oversized 1" threaded headset and skinny tubes with fat walls and primitive TIG welds and stamped drop-outs....all of which are hallmarks of a blue-blooded SAE hillbilly bicycle frame... it takes some kind of metric seatpost. Best of my measuring abilities suggest it's a 22.0mm, which is a popular size on Peugeot UO8s and other degenerate Froggish bicycles from a time before Bicycle808 was even born. (I won't say anything against French ppl, but I have to say that French bikes are pure evil.) So, after I figured out that my7/8" posts wouldn't fit, and my 13/16" posts would slip around, I figured I'd use the stock post, even though it's short'n'stubby, scratched up, and probably the same age as my wife. (She's youngish for a wife, but she'd make for a rusty old seatpost, judging by age.) OF course, it fit fine, but it's a pipe style post, and due to it's slightly skinny dimensions (straight up n down), the guts wouldn't tighten down t it properly.
Ran back to the bin, praying that I had a Wald #905 13/16"-to-7/8" shim. As it turns out, I had 2. So, I initially put one between the 22.0mm post and the guts, which worked fine but looked stupid. So, I pulled it all apart, and slid the shim into the frame before installing the 13/16" post. Tightened it all down, and everything's all come together.
So, despite feeling like a roaring champion initially, due to the good luck and bountiful diversity of my parts bin, I started to think a little harder. In some ways, I feel weird about being "that guy": the guy with obscure pieces of hardware on-hand that enable him to cobble'n'kludge together esoteric old bikes of little-to-no monetary value. "Shame" ain't the word, really, but when I was explaining the story to my buddy Harry, I did feel a bit embarrassed.
Then again, if I weren't "that guy", I'd be sitting here looking at a 95% complete bike, wishing I could ride it while waiting for a few pieces of hardware to arrive in the post.
So, sorry about the long-winded bicycle romance novel, but I gotta ask--- does anyone else have a tale about having the luck/obsession required to put a bike together when weird little bits were required?
. One will be in this years build off...
