The Story of O - A Rad Beater

At the end of the year we're moving out of current house and sofa-surfing until builders complete structural works on new gaff.
I'll temporarily lose my cycle storage facility & workshop so I'll need to rationalise the bike collection and put everything else in storage at least until May... I've sold my Shorter Lo Pro and trying to shift the L'Eroica Rat .
My De Rosa road Bike, American Cycles MTB and Chas Roberts TT Project will definitely be put into storage, but I'll need something to get to work on...
I'd considered tarting-up and weatherproofing my Bob Jackson but if I'm going to lose the fabulous patina on the bob-rat I'd rather take my time and make a really good job so I decided to put that into storage too...

When faced with these existential quandries solutions can usually be found by purchasing another bike, and with that in mind I purchased a Harry Rowland track frame from Markgee here on the forum. The plan is to create a bike to take everything I throw at it until May/June.

For the forseeable future Harry O will be my one and only bike...
(Although badged up by Harry Rowland, the frame was originally built by Cliff Shrubb for the Inner London Education Authority (i.e. a Herne Hill Hire Bike)) Harry got the contract to refurbish them back in the 80's, hence the stickers. Tubing is Vitus DB,

The primary use is a daily 15mile-each-way commute mostly on rural roads, some heavy traffic and a couple of hills.
The bike will be locked up regularly, rarely ever cleaned and I won't have access to a workshop so it needs to be maintenance free.
I don't want to spoil the paint which is in a reasonably good state of repair, but I'm not mad keen on the colour, so I'll probably inner-tube it.

So far it all sounds like a fairly conventional winter beater, and I know the sensible thing would be to put drops, brakes & mudguards on it, and see if there's clearance for 28's... Trouble is, beaters are for people that have another bike at home to put a smile on their face - for the next 6months Harry O must be both these in one...
i.e. it needs to be a cheap, durable & rad beater, something that puts a smile on your face in any weather...

To get the bike running and check that it fits OK and is fun to ride I quickly built it up with some bits I had lying around.

In addition to the known defects on this frame (small crack in seattube and slightly mashed seattube clamp lug, it also seems there's a stem expander jammed in the fork steerer preventing Slamdatstem - I gave it a good slap with a lump hammer and block of wood, to no avail, so I sprayed a load of plus gas in there and when I have a quiet moment I'll give it another slap.

The short unslammed stem with wide bars offers a high level of radness but was not efficient when you're bighting the bars into a headwind!! Bars & stem were swapped out for 40cm Profile risers on a slammed 120mm stem giving a miles better ride position, I've been on this for a fortnight now, and am pretty happy with it, the only issue is that the bars are 26.0 and the stem is 26.4, but I think I've got a Pro Chrome somewhere in the shed so I'll swap it out of that

Other things that need to be addressed are frame protection, saddle, pedals, wheels and gearing.

Found the Pro-Chrome this morning and wrapped the bars.

It looks rather classy I think, and almost slams too
Sadly the classiness does not extend to the saddle....
I read here on the forum that the bikes used to have orange saddles - A quick dig in the shed turned up a suitable candidate.

This saddles an 80's BMX one which means that although it's not black white or brown it still gets the Nice Japanese Shit stamp of approval which is essential for any beater

The Zeus/CXP14 rear wheel above is a bit too elegant for this project, and it seems wrong to use a 70's track hub on a winter beater, so I thought it would be a nice opportunity to put together a rad wheel I've been meaning to build for ages.....

Step 1: purchase cheap jump-biek front hub on the ebay

Step 2: pull out the innards and de-logo the hub shell..... (sadly naff logos are all too common on jumpbiek kit)
In this case it was not a printed logo, but seemed to be anodised into the aluminium shell so I had no option but to show it some rattlecan...

The astute amongst you may have observed that the OLN on this hub is 100mm, but the frame dropouts are 120mm - I'm on this and will keep you posted when I work out what the solution's going to be...

Can't wait to see how this turns out.

when I work out what the solution's going to be...

This + this + this?

I've checked, it won't work axle's not threaded - it's more like a Hope Tech.
There's a turned 12mm aluminium axle onto which sealed cartridge bearings are press fitted up against a shoulder.
There's a short portion of thread onto which the "lock-nuts" are screwed.
The "locknuts" keep bearings from moving outward and have an O-ring to seal the bearing cavity.
Looks like I'll need to extend the 12mm length portion of shaft outside the bearings to accomodate some axle spacers...

Compressing the image has lost the resolution to read the notes but you get the idea.

I know it would be more sensible to buy the Deore hub but where's the fun in that?

I've been scratching my head a bit and think I've come up with a solution....
It needs to be strong and easy to implement without machine tools.....
If I buy a length of M12 stud and cut it to a suitable length, press the cartridge bearing in at each end and poke the stud through and centre it, the 12mm OD of the stud should be a reasonably good fit with the inner diameter of the bearing (M12 stud should be 11,966 - 11,701 my vernier says the hub axle is 11.9mm) , but I'll fill the thread with araldite for good measure!
Not sure whether I need the shoulders on the axle to define the space between the bearings, but if I do, I've got a length of 12mm ID Stainless pipe that'll do the trick.
I can then re-attach the "lock-nut-bearing-seals" to each end of the hub and Fit some M12 nuts as spacers - An M12 full nut is 10mm across, bringing the OLN up from 100 to 120mm - bingo.
The only issue now is how to get the M12 axle into the rear dropouts - Looks like I'll need to file a flat on either side of the axle to get it in....

Sorted.
Just need to check if it fits the dropouts - if not I'll be putting a file to it.

Still not found the time to build the back wheel owing to a plumbing emergency, but I have wrapped the frame tubes.
First of all I clingfilmed them and then covered them up in a layer of Gaffer tape.
I've never tried this technique before, back when I used to race, my winter bikes were usually covered in innertubes, I thought I'd do something different this time.

I quite like the effect, it's appropriately ratty and with the clingfilm beneath will hopefully cause no long term damage...
Anyway, an evening with clingfilm and gaffer tape is a joy in itself...

The plan was to try and avoid using the nice wheels from the bob-rat, but I had a puncture this week and being a lazy toad I grabbed the front wheel from the DeRosa, a 28h aero rim (CXP33) radially laced to a hope mono...
I thought it looked rather nice. Trouble is, rather than making it thief resistant, it really has the opposite effect.... I then picked up a hideous flouro Halo Aerotrack for £5 at a bancrupcy auction near my office and laced it to one of those Miche magnums they sell on CRC for £5.50.... The only suitable spokes I had hanging around were some DT Alpine Single butted monsters which were a bit too long for a radial so I laced them 1x, which is something I've never done before.
The effect is suitably horrific and further adds to the theft-resistance of the biek.

Everyone I've met so far hates it... Not sure whether it'll be adopted or not!

Disc cogs are available in sizes down to 16T, which combined with the existing 44T chainring gives 72.5" which would be about right for winter riding/hills. Sadly however, this will only give 4 skid patches. This and the fact that all my other bikes are running 135mm bcd had me looking for a new chainset.
I managed to pick up a pair of Miche cranks and a 52T ring, which I'll run with a 19T disc cog to give a similar ratio but with 19 patches - much more appropriate for the low-maintainance ethos of the build.

VeloSolo do make a 15T cog. It's slightly more expensive, but it is available.

Ah yes, I'd not spotted that one, cheers.

Still not found the time to build the back wheel owing to a plumbing emergency, but I have wrapped the frame tubes.
First of all I clingfilmed them and then covered them up in a layer of Gaffer tape.
I've never tried this technique before, back when I used to race, my winter bikes were usually covered in innertubes, I thought I'd do something different this time.

I quite like the effect, it's appropriately ratty and with the clingfilm beneath will hopefully cause no long term damage...
Anyway, an evening with clingfilm and gaffer tape is a joy in itself...

The plan was to try and avoid using the nice wheels from the bob-rat, but I had a puncture this week and being a lazy toad I grabbed the front wheel from the DeRosa, a 28h aero rim (CXP33) radially laced to a hope mono...
I thought it looked rather nice. Trouble is, rather than making it thief resistant, it really has the opposite effect.... I then picked up a hideous flouro Halo Aerotrack for £5 at a bancrupcy auction near my office and laced it to one of those Miche magnums they sell on CRC for £5.50.... The only suitable spokes I had hanging around were some DT Alpine Single butted monsters which were a bit too long for a radial so I laced them 1x, which is something I've never done before.
The effect is suitably horrific and further adds to the theft-resistance of the biek.

Everyone I've met so far hates it... Not sure whether it'll be adopted or not!

Flouro wheels are quite popular in Modena. You could always flog it on www.fixedforum.it

Story of O

Anyway, an evening with clingfilm and gaffer tape is a joy in itself...

is it really necessary to bring your sex life into a thread about a bike build?

I had something sensible I wanted to say or ask you but that made me forget what it was.

I was wondering how long it would be before the racy title prompted comment....

(and you can't mention gaffer-tape and clingfilm in the same sentance without a snigger)

Flouro wheels are quite popular in Modena. You could always flog it on www.fixedforum.it

I rather like it actually, It reminds me of a quote from Robert Millar in a Procycling review: "When you spot your reflection in a window the bike looks so classy that it's not really vanity, just confirmation of your excellent choice"

This wheel is the opposite of that: if you catch a glimpse of yourself you nearly fall off in disbelief "Oh dear, am I really riding that"

Filed down the flats on the M12 hub axle, but still not happy with the fit between axle and bearings. Threads tend to come up shy of their nominal value sot I had to seal the axle in with araldite. This did not sit easily with the concept of a stripped down, solid, simple maintainence free sled there's no substitute for precision...

I had a Eureka moment this morning when I was looking for my overshoes and uncovered an old cross-threaded Surly Hub with no axle, I brought home an old Miche axle from my desk at work & put it all together this evening, it's not quite spaced to 120mm yet, but the bearing adjustment is spot-on, the seals work well and I have some 10mm ID stainless tube that'll be ideal for spacers.
Meanwhile I've also built up the wheel, excuse the dodgy phone pics, the Araya box section rims look ace, I've had them in my shed gathering dust since 2004... Finally found a good use for them

wheels on bike?

Here you go.
Running rather nicely.
Pretty much done now, I might make up a more stealthy front wheel and perhaps some cage pedals might be worth a try....

brakless with that chain?

I know - it's been out in the back yard all through christmas too!
wasn't exactly a premium quality job in the first place!! (I think it was a £5 KMC) - I've been riding brakeless on it for about 18months though without any ado!
Good reminder though - I do need to replace it pretty soon!

Sold garish pink front wheel and built an ambrosio hub onto the spare VX-300. Bike looks a lot better I think.

The orange Kashimax will also be replaced this week with a Flite, and I have a KMC 510HX to fit then I think I'm done.

In hindsight I don't really think this build deserves a thread of it's own, I thought the fat rear hub would pan out to be a more interesting venture, but in the end it was just a case of measuring up the bearings, and finding a donor hub for the cones, and then replacing the machined hub axle with a threaded one + donor cones.
To brighten up this otherwise slightly uninspiring build thread, here's a shot of a snow fakenger built by my daughters on Friday!

Thanks for starting the thread though, as it has given me loads of food for thought. I have a fair few old MTB parts laying round, hopefully there is a disc hub amongst it all.

Onto the next one, as they say :)

Matt

Looking better......but more knickable!

not a fan of riser bars but this looks good.