M_V's multitude of bikes and adventures in the land of framebuilding

Must have missed the mini Honzo when you first showed it. Absolutely amazing!

Rep.

One pack of haribo away from bespoke zertz.

Silver crankset would stand out too much against everything else black?

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Boredom got the better of me and I ventured out to the garage today.

Decided to strip the good bits off a couple of bikes and store the framesets away for possibly future rebuilding. So far I’ve stripped my Raleigh Twenty and the Giraffe bike and I might do the Schwinn too.

I’m not meant to or really able to use my right hand yet so working left handed things take a bit longer! Haven’t done any real clean up of parts yet as I don’t want to get the cast all grubby and washing my hands is even difficult.

I love stripping bikes I’ve not been using much (not using any since breaking my thumb!) as you end up with a pile of nice parts some of which you’d even forgotten about and it’s like you had a splurge on eBay or something mailed you think what you could do with it…

I’ve a bit of a hankering for a bit of simple retro steel ssmtb puppy slaying. Buy a frame/bike and swap the dropouts to track ends, remove all unnecessary braze ons etc. Probably a Kona, maybe Orange or Specialized. I’d probably put the Paul cantis off the Twenty onto it, I was using them with Kona levers so a Kona would be a good fit.

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Don’t push it with your right hand, been there, done that, it’s not worth the risk. Drink coffee, eat biscuits and watch crap films. Okay, maybe a brisk walk first.

As suggested by @NotDotMatt the TA cranks are too skinny for the Spa.

I bought some 86bcd Stronglight cranks but I think they’re too skinny too. They also don’t kick out enough to clear the chainstays when they’re on the length of bb that makes the chainline work.

Ended up taking the bashguard off the ht2 Zees and I reckon it looks a lot better.

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I’ve a bit of a hankering for a bit of simple retro steel ssmtb puppy slaying.

I was watching a few Konas on ebay but they are rarely big enough for me. There was a nice Raleigh Maverick on retrobike but despite saying in the 1st post that he'd be up for postage and then bumping the thread for 5 pages, the seller couldn't be bothered to get a box when I enquired about it so that fell through.

I then though about chucking the Paul cantis on my ss grav biek and set about doing that as a nice wee project on international singlespeed day (2nd Nov). It turned out that the Pauls have real small slots for adjusting the pad height and with the position of the wheel in the track ends it just wasn't going to work which was a bit of a bummer but I got the bike put together with Tektro cantis and a swept back bar I'd recently lacquered so it'll be a nice chill cruiser for when I can ride again.

As bummed as I was about the Pauls not fitting my grav bike, it really gave me an excuse to build a bike around them so I went back on the hunt and turned up a 1986 Rockhopper retrobike, from a much more accomodating seller this time. Postage was an option this time but I discovered the seller was located just north of Perth so a deal was done and I was going to see if I could collect the frame at some point but then he offered to bring it to Glasgow as he needed to go into the office anyway!

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The paint is rough as a badger's arse but it's all structurally sound (not for long*) and the headset is the original Spesh one and running like butter.

*It's always a bit of a worry buying stuff with the intention to chop it up, never know if the seller will mind or not. Luckily this seller was cool with it actually suggesting I chop bits out the chainstays to add tyre clearance when he dropped it off and realised he'd seen my work at Brazin'.

First thing was to check was what the tyre clearance was like and, yeah, that ain't gonna chooch.

A 2.4" tyre has to be deflated to even fit in the frame, a 2.2" fits and spins but barely. A little mud and it'd all be over.

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I think I'll chuck a Konga yoke in there rather than just chop the chainstays and braze in a bit of 3" tube like I did on the Raleigh Record Ace.

I checked out the dropouts too.

One option would just be to open up the slot in the driveside forward facing horizontal dropouts currently fitted but I reckon I'd prefer a track end.

It wouldn't be too difficult to de-braze the current dropouts and fit track ends back into the slots in the stays. I'd lose a bit of length which is not an issue if I'm putting the yoke in anyway but what would be an issue would be the slot in the track ends being a bit higher than the current dropouts. This would slacken what I expect, given the frame's age, would be an already pretty slack geometry and perhaps more im portantly, would drop the bb slightly.

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I think I can get around this though by using a similar technicque as I did on the mini Honzo and putting a bit of tube laterally between the track end and seatstay.

If I'm cutting the chainstays at the front to do the yoke then a change in angle at the bb shell is easily accomodated.

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Might get a set of the Bear copies of the Paul dropouts and see how they'd fit but they are pretty pricey.

https://bearframesupplies.co.uk/deluxe-horizontal-dropout-steel/

Your bikes are always cool, but this is perfection

Is there any reason you didn’t cut the excess edges of the tubing down and file it smooth with the rest of the stays? Aesthetic choice?

Need to leave a bit of extra or you’d be removing all the fillet.

Managed to use the angle grinder and torch to start the mods on the rockhopper frame today.

Chopped the chainstays behind the bb and debrazed the dropouts from the seat stays.

Also debrazed the gear cable routing from the downtube and bb shell and the brake cable guides from along the top tube as I will replace this with a cable stop at each end like the Stumpy of that era had.

I won a slingshot stem on eBay for this so have fitted that along with a riser bar made from the top of a bmx bar. I’ve just chopped the loop of the bottom of this bit of bar and filled the crudely punched vent holes with brass and filed smooth.

It’s only something like 760mm wide, will see how I get on with that and could extend it if needed.

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I love to see you kind of LEGO approach to frame building/modifying - it's definitely inspiring me to approach all kinds of projects this way.
For instance I put in snap buttons on the right leg of my favourite trouser to avoid using elastic to keep the wide opening out of the chain.

For instance I put in snap buttons on the right leg of my favourite trouser to avoid using elastic to keep the wide opening out of the chain.

Hacks & Bodges thread, with pics please >>>>>>

Nice, I sometimes feel I'm being a bit lazy modding things instead of building from scratch but then I remember that building from scratch was never actually my intention and I just kind of fell into doing it as it's sort of the 'usual' way to go.

I don't think I would ever describe your process as lazy.
As an on-looker I can come up with a number of benefits to your approach: lowering barriers of entry, using existing stock instead of buying new, not to mention being a source of inspiration.

That's really good to hear, cheers.

Frame mods done on the Rockhopper and first coat of lacquer on.

I had to dimple the chainstays for clearance for the crank arms.

Original seatstay bridge was a little close to the tyre so chopped it out and replaced it with a bit of brass. "NG - NM" is No Gears, No Masters.

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Absolute hot stuff. Have to agree with @MisterMikkel. I love the LEGO approach and how you make things work for you. Excited to see the final build.

I managed to ride a bike properly (not just on the rollers) yesterday for the first time in over 6 weeks.

Tried the Spa first. I thouight I'd be totally unable to use the shifter (and have ordered a Dia Compe ENE thumby as I think that despite it's name, it'll be easier for me to use) but I was actually able to use the rapid fire shifter currently fitted. The most comfortable place for my thumb to sit though is also where the shift levers are so the thumby will be useful after all*. The way my hand sits on the bar/grip also seems to cause bumps and shocks to be a bit painful on my thumb.

*I also wanted it to get away from being tied in to Shimano Linkglide stuff.

I then took out the lugged singlespeed and the much more swept back bars are so much more comfortable for my thumb so looks like I'll be mainly riding it for just now.

Going back to work on Saturday and hopefully can commute by bicycle most of the time/straight away.

I agree. Proper craftspersonship and it's great to see that misplaced fear of these bikes' 'classic' design doesn't get in the way of building one that works for you.