RVL's Ugly Ducklings

Cheers mate - what's happened with Harry O? has he gone flouro yet?

So good of you to return the motor reen, I'd love him to paint the Donobru, man's got skillz.

The new forks really are a sensational improvement.

Funny you mention Harry

He has had a once over and some new (old) bits and is ready for Mondays commute.

^^Thanks Tom,
René is indeed a paint genius and he has plans to make these paintjobs more of a full-time thing. The Kagero took him 3days so it's a pretty labour intensive process, and the finish is impressively durable he's riding/locking that kagero on a daily basis for the last 12 months and the finish is still splendid, If you're serious about it, it'd be worth getting in touch with him.

Quick update on the chaos of my shed...
Current bottleneck seems to be wheelbuilding and I'm finding it difficult to get my arse into gear on that...
Bob Rat's waiting for 2 sets of wheels, sexy summer TT wheels (sprint) and boring winter/long distance ones (clincher). The chainrings are in the pipeline with the machineshop but things are monstrously busy at work and time-critical stuff is getting priority.
Similar story on Commencal - just waiting for me to finish building the wheels and then it'll be complete.
The DeRosa and Duratec are running fine and I did a quick build on the Percy Stallard which confirms that it's still too big for young rosie - shelved till next year.

I got a memo on Friday from the big boss that my lab's a tip and cupboards must be clean by the time he returns from hols... In my initial lab inspection I uncovered almost enough for a 70's/80's TT machine in various states of dilapidation... I thought this was rather exciting....
Later that day I was emailed by my bro (girodibeniamino of this parish) wondering if I could lend a bike for the wiggle mendips thingy at which the RVL brothers will converge from the various corners of the known world for a day out in the hills.
I've offered the DeRosa which leaves me until August to clean the rusting and knackered contents of my lab and assemble a race-ready dream machine.

We start with a Chas roberts 531c TT frame with no forks, a seized seatpost/shifter/front mech/Fixed cup.

I began this lunchtime by hacking-off the seatpost and trying to ream it out. I didn't have the right size reamer so that didn't go well and I gave up :(

Next step was trying to remove the BB shell. I got all confused and disoriented and turned the fixed cup the wrong way - I think I've fooked the threads :(

So far so good.

I then fitted a hatta swan with a vice - which given my form thus far today I'm amazed I didn't split the headtube!

I'll get some pictures of the brutal mess I've made. I'm not feeling proud of myself I must admit but it's early days yet and I'm sure that something beautiful will emerge phoenix-like from the ashes of this lunchtime's vandalismus.

Such poetry. Can't wait for the less than final reveal!

As luck would have it the cross threading was only the first turn of the BB thread and turning the frame the correct way in the vice quickly resulted in success.

From there on my luck seemed to pick up somewhat and I found a 7/8" drill bit so I was able to get rid of quite a bit more material from the stuck record seatpost....

Here's the swan headset in situ.

I need to sort out some forks next, finish seatpost removal and free-up the front mech./shifters
Also thinking about aesthetics.... long term i'd like to have a go at Chromovelato ghetto style, but for the time being it'll probably be a polish+linseed oil job just to get it on the road!

Had a good go at the remains of the seatpost yesterday and managed to drill/file/poke everything out.
Drillium BB shell comes in handy when you're trying to poke out butchered remnants of a seatpost - I prodded it out with a 1m length of M8 studding!

I then removed front mech & shifter band and had a go at clearing some rust, it's pretty bad, so I won't appall you with the workinprogress pics, you'll have to wait for the final 'dazzling*' reveal

(*for dazzling, read "deeply underwhelming")

The day began well today - I stopped on the way in to talk to an elderly gentlman in eyecatching red socks crouched outside the newsagent feeding chocolate eclairs to a well groomed Shih Tzu... I perceived this to be a good sign and so at lunch today I began work on the forks (also in my Lab locker).
They're a bit bent (freecycle from WillPalmer-cheers man) they're columbus slx from a Batavus Professional)
For those of a nervous disposition, the bending of forks is not as scary as one myight assume...
According to the infallable internet "if the fork blade is bent once more in an accident, it can be re-straightened cold with complete safety as long as the tube is not kinked or rippled".
The article goes onto say "The good thing about a steel frame is that it will rarely fail suddenly, but a crack will appear first and the frame will start to feel “spongy” as a warning before it fails completely". the writer (a mister D Moulton) is very much my kind of chancer!
Being a bit of a ponce (and no relation of my dear departed chum sir Alex), Mr David has a rather fine welded apparatus for the bending of the fork...

I've no time for such frivolities so improvisation was the order of the day.

Once I'd bent the forks so they looked good to my eye, I sat them on a flat surface and measured the height of the fork crown on either side.

And realised that there was quite a bit more bending to be done on one of the blades. Once this was sorted, I looked around for a suitable straight metal bar and with a bit of masking tape was able to widge it into the hole in the bottom of the fork crown. I then sighted down the bar and wiggled it around till it was aligned with the steerer tube and measured the distance from inner fork-end face to bar to make sure the brake mounting hole is centred on the rim..
Finally I checked that the OLN was still 100mm

That was all rather amusing and now I have nice straight columbus slx forks for chaz.
which is nice

Looks good, although that fork will look rank in its current colour scheme - stripped and polished job?

Agreed - colourscheme will be grim.
Not sure whether that's a good or bad thing

First priority is to check steerer length/amount of threading - I've not actually measured them yet!
Main priority is to get this rolling then I can see how much I like it and decide whether it stays rat or gets pimped!

Oops, bugger.

Looks like I'll be after a die or someone with one to extend the thread a little...
I've sent email to bikefix who I'm led to believe may be able to help. The alternative is to purchase the 1" x 24tpi die (60deg thread angle) - cost for this comes out at £21.
Here's the f&f with wheels. as njsLee fortold, the colour combination is "rank".

Since it's a TT frame, I was intrigued to see how tight the rear wheel sits....

Rather slack as it goes, even with a good chunky tub on it.

New wheels for bob rat. Rear needs to be properly tensioned and a decent tub glued.
These will be the sunday best wheels strictly posing & TTs.

The bob rat is definitely one of my favourite bikes on lfgss

Seems a bit fragile!

But looking forward to seeing how this progresses.

Really like those modolo levers you've got on the BJ. And the whole bike, as previously stated :)

Cheers Russ, I also think they look wicked. They're QT-EXE's. I looked them up on Velobase to find out what they're made from - apparently it's Delrin, a Polyacetal.
They weigh practically nothing, the shape seems to work well with shallow drop/classic bend (3T Competizione TdF) and have a very strong look....

I bought the bar&stem intending a classic Black stem/silver bars/white tape combo, but the murdered-out brake levers, black FRM seatpost & black stem have made the decision for me, I think it'll have to be black tape
The stem is a ITM 120mm with a bit of provenance - it was used during the 1989 season by Chris Lillywhite (Team Banana)

Back to the Chas Roberts, @DFP I agree that the mega-drillium BB shell looks very precarious... only time will tell!

I ended up taking the fork to Evans in Woking who've cut 1cm thread for £23 - apparently 0.5h labour, but on a free re-bent fork for an £11.50 frame it feels hard to swallow.

I dismantled the front mech which was in a terrifically bad state, Predictably the stopper screws sheared off straight away so they'll need to be drilled out & retapped!


I've also sifted through the parts bins to make sure I've got everything I need for this build, and with the exception of cables, that looks to be the case....

Finally started assembling Chaz.


Results relatively pleasing thus far.

rad!

^ Thanks, I thought so too!
Looking at the top picture though, I'm not 100% certain I've bent the forks enough.

this is awesome!

maybe a little more drillium to match, seat post?

what straps are they? look beautiful

maybe a little more drillium to match, seat post?

All in good time!
I'd indeed been planning to do this - the original Campag drillium seatpost looked splendid and the SR post I've got at the moment weighs a tonne!

what straps are they? look beautiful

Yes they're lovely aren't they - Errebi Sprint - Colour "mint"

Anyone got a 6-speed freewheel to finish RobertsRaceRat?
I foolishly flogged my Dura Ace freewheel to raise funds for LloydLoPro - amazing lack of foresight!
Ideally seeking a 14-24T, would need to be posted.

As usually happens on these builds, heap of bike bits sit dormant in shed for months on end and suddenly we're 10days from a big ride with no spare cash and no bike.....
No going back now as I've loaned my race bike to someone who'll ride it like a man....

10 days and counting for the RobertsRaceRat - pictures to follow..

I've got a 6 (or 7) speed one in the garage, but I'm in Copenhagen. If nothing else works out, shoot me a pm?

Just spent a good chunk of my working day reading this thread from start to finish, thoroughly enjoyable! Has inspired me to try and build another bike as cheaply as possibly, for the pure joy of it.
Looking forward to seeing the finalised RobertsRaceRat too