Commuter

Got my beater stolen a few months ago and using the racer on a daily basis doesn't feel too right. It's not practical enough and with the wet weather looming I want a sensible mudguards + rack bike. It'll have to be on the cheap as well, and I've been putting the classifieds to good use and getting some parts of fellow forumgers. With a bit of luck this will end up at £250, but I can't guarantee it'll be pretty.

Early next week I'm picking up a Viscount frame, so while that doesn't happen I did some work on the wheels I bought from oldskoolracer a few days ago. Wheels are planet x hubs on mavic open pro, nicely built and true:

The issue is that as they were being used fixed, the front rim had the brake surface a lot more used than the rear one, which is basically new. So I thought it'd be good to switch them.

This is the first time I have a go at building a wheel, and given that I'd need to unlace both rims to make the switch I decided to tape the spokes by pairs so I didn't need to worry about forgetting their position. Can't decide if I should feel stupid or clever.

I also cleaned it all nicely, and de-stickered the rims. I think sometimes the stickers look real nice on good bikes, all pro and stuff, but I don't envisage this ending up as one so I went all clean.

That's one.

That's done.

I also collected brakes, stem and pedals from kat today. I already have bars and levers. Now in the look for a crankset but first I want to see what's the situation with the bb — specially as it's a Viscount. That'll have to wait a couple of days though.

My commuter started as a £60 purchase, second hand, ready to ride. But i have spent about £130 on parts to make it more to my liking. Building wheels looks like a project all on it's own. Good job.

Frame collected today from onyerbike. Great to meet you and thanks for the inner tube trick, very useful indeed. Frame looks like an used frame does, some rust here and there but will definitely keep as it is.

Put it together quickly to see if wheels match the frame spacing and it's ok, but the brakes will have to be long drop, something like the alhonga ones. If anyone have some spare lying around, I can exchange for a pair of 'regular' tektros.

Crappy picture, sorry. Tomorrow will get bolt and nut to do the sheldon brown tool and remove the fixed cup of the bottom bracket. I can see it going wrong already. Good news is that the bottom bracket is threaded, so once the old one is out it should be pretty simple.

This is taking a while and it's a bit more frustrating than I was counting on. First I had an issue with removing the bottom bracket. I tried the bolt and nut trick:

But that was no good. Couldn't move it an inch, so took it to the lbs and again more frustration. We broke two spanners and couldn't get it moved, so the only solution was to use the cup and put together a cup and ball bb.

This might do the trick, still need to grease and get the right spindle measurement before finishing it up. Second hand bottom bracket costed me £6 on ebay so not so bad after all.

Next I had issues with the fork. The original fork had the tiniest of damages on the top of the threads that wouldn't allow a headset to screw in. I cut off less than 2mm and it solved it, but the problem was that the stack height of my headset exceeds the length of the steerer. By far. I tried other headsets but none would do. This was not because I cut the 2mm, as the steerer needs to be at least a good centimeter longer for me to have a chance of fitting a headset there. Annoying.

I thought that sourcing a low stack height headset might be a hassle so it seemed easier to get a new fork. Got a cheap, crappy chrome one from ebay that almost makes me regret the £15 I put on it. Crown race fitted, steerer cut and headset in. Progress, finally.

With tyres and rear mudguard quickly fitted to check clearances, this is what I have at the moment:

I might have to use different calipers on front and rear, one long drop and one normal. And looking at the photo it seems like the top tube is sloping, but on the flesh it looks absolutely normal.

If you need an extra-long drop caliper (like 75mm for 27" wheel frames with 700c wheels) then Condor sell a nice one for £17 IIRC.

Now my issue is with the chainline. It's so far off, and I'm struggling to see how to get it straight. The rear spacing is 124mm, and the current hub is 115mm so that needs changing.

The bottom bracket shell is 68mm wide, and at the moment a straight line from the cog position gives me this:

It's way in the bottom bracket, not even close to clearing it. Assuming I change the rear hub, I'm still unsure if it will eventually fit. Here's a clearer line:

Measuring the bolts and threads for cog and lock ring, I get around 24mm of bits on each side, then the hub. Putting that on a scheme against the bottom bracket, I still have a projected 7mm offset on the best of cases:

Somehow 124mm spacing and 68mm bb shell doesn't seem like unusual measurements, so surely there's a dead simple way out of this. I want to avoid buying parts for trial and error, anyone with similar specs that can shed some light?

If you need an extra-long drop caliper (like 75mm for 27" wheel frames with 700c wheels) then Condor sell a nice one for £17 IIRC.

good to know, I got a pair of Alhongas already, cheers for that.

Don't despair, my beater looked a lot like this. Choose a cog with a good broad shoulder, stick a couple of shimano 10 speed cassette spacers on the hub, put the chainring inside the spider, and if it's still more than 2 or 3 mm off use a 3/32 chain which has a bit more flex.

Don't use a straight edge - Look down the frame with one eye closed, move eye toward wheel until chainline is correct.

You can get spacers for the chainline, no?

Choose a cog with a good broad shoulder

I assume this means getting a hub with plenty of thread for the sprocket, is it? That would allow me to do this:

You can get spacers for the chainline, no?

Is it? If so, do you know a budget hub that'll fit the bill?

Sorry, my bad. The thing I was thinking of only works with road hubs...

Not sure if anyone else can help. Not too clued up on conversions.

I assume this means getting a hub with plenty of thread for the sprocket, is it? That would allow me to do this:

No, any fixed hub will do, there's not a huge difference between the offset on sprockets but you want as much as possible. It's not going to be a big enough difference to risk running out of threads. I'm running a Halo 1/8" sprocket with 3mm of spacers on a cheapo POS hub and still have enough room to fully thread the lockring on.

right, this project is back on. I've been entertained with another bike and left this on the side for a while. Now I want to finish it and the chain alignment is still doing my head in. I bought a wider hub for the rear wheel (130mm) and there's nothing else I can do on that end. The goal now is to bring the chain ring closer to the frame.

considering that:

— the chain cog is already mounted on the inside of the cranks
— the bb axle is 116mm
— the non-drive side bb cup is stuck and never EVER coming out

does anyone know what can I do to bring the whole crankset closer to the frame? I need to gain almost a cm.

If it was me I'd keep trying to get the bb out. Failing that I'd give it up as a bad job.

considering that:

— the chain cog is already mounted on the inside of the cranks
— the bb axle is 116mm
— the non-drive side bb cup is stuck and never EVER coming out

does anyone know what can I do to bring the whole crankset closer to the frame? I need to gain almost a cm.

Replace the drive side crank with a double one and mount the chain ring on the inside ring.

thanks, but that's exactly what I have in the picture. Tempted to consider this a failure and look for a cheap frame to put the parts on.

You could... buy a shorter bb axle / spindle or flip the BB axle around. Usually the non drive side is shorter than the drive side. I did that on the Cannondale Rack because I'm running a single chainring. It brought it a bit closer in. I'm running 1x7 though, so the chainline doesn't have to be perfect.

But your best bet is looking for a shorter axle and swapping them over, kepping the original BB cups.

try stripping the BB and soaking in GT85 overnight or longer before giving it another go. It's designed to penetrate. if you really can't get it out just use a shorter spindle.

Edit: I mean soak the BB shell, I normally would have plastic down and spray loads on with the frame lying down and repeat every 6 to 12 hours or so then try and loosen before you turn it over and repeat. I'd also start with stick end down first.

You could also probably cut it out with a Dremel. If you are careful enough

You could also probably cut it out with a Dremel. If you are careful enough

Or a hacksaw, if you've got the patience.

Something like this.

Thanks, I'll give this a shot. I already tried to cut it myself but made very little progress - the cup is really old and so bloody solid. I'll bring it to a metal workshop close to my work, let us hope the guys are not too heavy handed and the threads are still there afterwards.

I've not done it myself, but I have heard of people welding a bar onto stubborn BB cups and then using the huge increase in leverage to get them out.

Careful how you hold the frame though- it can fold the frame tubes up around the BB shell if you are not careful

it can fold the frame tubes up around the BB shell if you are not careful

good that you pointed that out, it's the kind of thing I'd easily fail to think about.