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crack on please :)
Thats the kind of incentive I need. thank you MrHilly Ben :-)
The oily covering had protected the bikes well but did attract a lorra lorra loft debris...
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z109/davethebass1/Dawes%20SS%20conversion/CIMG0116_zpsc9bcd875.jpgI had trouble turning the bars on the Dawes, the headset bearings felt 'crunchy', the bottom bracket was also devoid of precisionness (new word that).
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z109/davethebass1/Dawes%20SS%20conversion/a53de3ee-f96e-4c9b-be49-fd0e037d6741_zpsecc3da97.jpgand yucky BB...I think it'd been got at but unskilled yoots judging by the state of the plastic nut covers and looseness of the pedal crank which wobbled on the square taper...
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z109/davethebass1/Dawes%20SS%20conversion/CIMG0122_zpsf2684058.jpgand
Yucky. Lets have a look at the headset shall we? Hmm, doesn't look too bad..
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z109/davethebass1/Dawes%20SS%20conversion/CIMG0141_zpsff68b9fa.jpgBleuuuckkkkkk! I want my Mummy!
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z109/davethebass1/Dawes%20SS%20conversion/CIMG0145_zps292fdf48.jpgand the BB, yummy, "crunchy"...
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z109/davethebass1/Dawes%20SS%20conversion/CIMG0136_zpsd925fc40.jpgInterval time. Pausing for a beer.
Hungry for more?
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I'll go get one myself and when I get back, I expect more!
Woaarrrh! An audience. I'm on it.
So... I knocked out the cups (correct word? I'm new to this despite being almost 48yrs old) with a long drift...
...and replaced the headset with a new 1" threaded head set from my LBS.
Cleaned everything up, the threaded part was undamaged thankfully.
From this...
To this...
Next up was to remove Chainset from the Girly bike and fit it onto the Dawes, its a 48T 'Silstar', the pedal crank appears integral to the chainring, only the trouser flare protector (!) ring comes off so I'm stuck with it for now. That all went smoothly, I've cleaned and polished everything and coated all bearings in fresh grease too natch. So, now we've got forks that turn without pain and a smmmoooth BB from the Girly bike which was in superb condition so I swapped that over to the Dawes too. Pedals from Girly bike were removed and fettled with new grease and given a buff. The chrome is pitted a bit but I'dlike to change these later for maybe some toe clip variants or summat. I've never ridden with toeclips before.
Next up was clean and fettle the wheels which have come from the Girly donor bike. They're German (it says) and made by Schurmann, cleaned up nice.
They're 27 x 1 1/4, I bought some tyres and new tubes. Beige sidewalls, caramac loveliness.
Next up I unseized both of the original Weinmann brand Dawes brake calipers by totally stripping them down and re-lubing them, I fitted modern brake blocks too. They look like this.
Back...
Front.
I've got another pair of brake calipers from the Girl bike that are Centre-pull design, I'm toying with giving them a try in place of the originals. They've cleaned up nice too. Jury's still out if they'd be any better, any advice greatfully accepted here BTW.
Beer break.
More?
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Yes, a good thread for us middle aged folk.
The Vainqueurs are a much better brake than the 730s, which I find impossible to adjust for an equal pull.Whahey! Glad its appreciated, thanks for the brake advice Mr 57Hawkes. Middle aged...pah! I'm still 15 in my brain. :-)
I'll get a couple of cable hangers and try the CP brakes. I think I've lost th rear hanger from the girly bike and the front one is too rusty/manky (even for me). The sub-title to this thread should also be "SS on the cheap and whats to hand".
I'm off on a 44 mile ride today on the interim-finished item, I'll post more picks and the current state its in later.
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Well, I did a fave route which is 44 miles on it today and TBH I'm less knackered riding it than my go anywhere 15 gear bike. Odd. But happily odd.
Back to the build, After getting the brakes sort of working I set about getting the bike rideable. I wanted to build a SS bike after seeing how popular they'd become in Lundun. I commute via a small cc motorbike from NW Kent to Holborn everyday and notice so many SS bikes. I haven't ridden one since I swapped my Puch Mini Sprint for a clapped out Raleigh Chopper in about 1975 so wanted to see what itfelt like again.
The most obvious and cheapest way for me to use this...
Like this...
The chainline is OK (I think).
I've experimented with different cogs on that 5 sp freewheel using 11-14 mile local rides and found 48T up front and 18T at rear suits me nicely. I'm not light or even super fit but combo feels 'nice'.
The bike currently looks like this.
and
The bars are from the girly bike. They're too wide for me and I can't ride through those metal bike width restrictors thingys you see on cycle paths around Rainham so the bars are gonna go.
I've chopped and flopped the original 'drop' bars from the Dawes....
Just waiting for bar tape and levers to arrive to try them out.
18T single freewheel arrived today, gonna try replacing the 5sp freewheel soon. Had a good chat with a helpful fella at Island Gardens today re fettling and tweaking what I've done already.
A few pics to finish for now....
"Handbuilt in England" and brought back to life down my shed...
Awww... pretty detailing...
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Here it is in "touring trim"
...and to prove it and me got to Greenwich from Dartford (and back again too I might add... :-)
All thats left of the Kahlkoff :-( Free to a good home if anyone can collect from Dartford. EDIT! FRAME AND FORKS HAVE BEEN TAKEN).
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A nice shed project!
What size is the kalkhoff? It would be a good frame for the girlfriend, if I can get it back to se21.
Ta, I'm enjoying it.
No prob's, What measurement would you like? Centre of BB to top of seat tube?
Dave.
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So,remember when I said the SS 18T freewheel came yesterday? Well, temptation got the better of me and I set too fitting it.
It wasn't easy.
The hardest bit was getting the existing 5sp FW off. Crikey, it'd been on there since the late 70's . I tried the 'hammer and drift' techique but nothing shifted. I didn't want to get all rufty tufty with it and damage the 2 splines so I had to do a bit of hairy chin rubbing. I came up with the idea of finding the widest spanner that'll fit in the gap between the splines (I'd already removed the cones and ball bearings + axle from the other side). A hefty 17mm spanner mounted upright in a vice fitted the bill. I held the wheel above the freewheel splines and located the spanner into them. Gently applied anticlockwise turning power via my laydee hands and whahey 'crack'.... freedom of the freewheel. Spun it off and checked the thread, schweeet.I remembered reading somewhere on the the net that the thread on the BB is the same as the hub... ergo the locking ring on the BB can make a handy spacer to improve the chainline on a 5sp to SS conversion. It did! Look...
Jobs a good 'un (I think)...
Thats it, I've done it, 5sp to SS conversion.
Whahey! (again).
sleeps soundly
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Nice work. And a fun thread. Welcome to the forum.
Thanks Mr Fist, I've enjoyed building it up out of bits n pieces.
I've got some levers on the way for the chop n flop bars I've 'done' and some tape too natch. Last thing (for now) is a replacement saddle. The one thats on the bike now is a girls saddle from that Kalkhoff donor bike, don't tell anyone its a girls saddle though... the big boys might find out and laff and point at me during playtime! I'd love one of those Brooks Leather saddles but even 2nd hand they cost more than all the parts I've had to buy to get this bike running and fettled! Oooof! Are they really uber-comfortable and worth the dosh? I dunno, never had one before.
Onwards! To comfort city, maybe.
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My pleasure, thanks everyone. Levers for FloppenChop bars cometh, that'll be the next job along with fitting CP brakes left over from the girly bike.
Prob's do another 44 mile lap on it if the weather stays nice for the weekend.
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Last night I became 'A Man'.... I taped my first ever set of 'bars. Little levers arrived too so I fitted them and the Floppenchops....
and...
and...
Quick test ride last night, I feel along way forward and down, even though I'm not. Idid seem to pelt along faster everywhere though! Odd feeling. I'll take it out for another test ride and fill in a report sheet.
Us Test Pilots do that kinda thing y'see :-)
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Well, a few months have passed and 'Aldous' has metamorphosed into a Fixed gear mile-munching-machine! I didn't find the Chop n Flops comfy (mainly due to a lot of extra upper body weight called 'FAT' ! Google it... :-) ), so I bought an adjustable stem and some more regular bars and adjusted and chopped them down until I found my ideal combo. Sorted.
Then at the start of August came an offer of an early Birthday pressie from my long suffering partner, a pair of modern 700C flanged rims and a flip flop hub. Awethumne! Initially fitted an 18T FW and an 18T sprocket but found I was happy riding fixed all the time so over time as my legs got stronger and I got fitter (no really) I dropped a tooth and just ride a 17T fixed all the time now. I've done just over 650 miles on it this summer/autumn.
Not your normal pretty fixie I grant you but its SO comfortable for me and I grin a lot when I'm riding it and love zooming about on it.
This is what it looks like now...those of a nervous disposition might want to look away :-)
Whahey!
Dave.
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Your ass must be made of rhino hide. She ain't pretty but one less car :)
My botty is about the same size a Rhino's, so yeah! :-)
Looks functional! Ain't nothing better than a tool that does it's job correctly.
May you have many more miles onboard.'Functional' = Yup's, its set up to be comfortable for me. In addition to my Rhimo sized bum I have a large Ale containment device fitted at the midriff and wrists of a Fly but made of glass. Works for me (a large bodied/short legged/limp wristed 48 yr old Hairy Hippy!).
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Update. 1600 miles so far. Still luvin' it :-)
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2600 miles and still going. Approaching 2 3/4 Stone weight loss too. Huzah!
HillyBen
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About
My Dawes of (im)Perfection.
Posted by
@FatManOnAFixie
Hello, I'm new here. This is my first thread, please treat me gently... if you must laugh do so discreetly :-)
About 19 years ago my elderly neighbour was having a clearout of his recently moved out kids 'stuff' and was doing a dump-run to the local tip. In his stash were 2 bikes, "do you want them for your kids when they grow up?" he kindly enquired knowing we were flat broke with 7 and 5 year old children. "You could probably make up 1 good 'un out of the 2" he said. I took 'em, stripped + dumped any really knackered bits and dismantled the rest and stashed what was left up in the loft where the remains have lived for almost 20 years. No point rushing is there. Funny thing is... both of our kids (now 24 and 26) have left home.
Time to build a bike then innit now I've got more time.
Down from the loft came this...
Its a 21" Dawes lightning frame from about (neighbour can't remember exact date) 1979-1981-ish. The rims on the Dawes were rusted to pieces and the chrome was all bubbly and lifting IIRC so they were dumped as was the seat and post as I can't find that in the loft either. The wheels you can see in the piccie are from the 2nd bike, a Girls Kalkhoff which are in remarkable condition. Story goes the neighbours lad rode about 10 billion miles on his bike whereas the daughter rode about 10ft. (ish).
The girly bike looked like this when it came down from the loft...
I had the foresight to drop most of the shiny bits stripped from the Dawes into a container of oil for rust free storage and covered all the frame tubes and bars of both bikes in a layer of thick engine oil...
Shall I carry on or is it a bit boring?
Dave.