Kuwahara klunker

This build’s turning out awesome 👏

That's a really good combination. The shim you need is something a regular bike shop might have?

This is going to be an interesting ride.

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This bike gives me weird feelings of affection.

Still slowly chipping away at this.

Tried a thick beer can to shim the stem, but no dice. After some random googling last night, I think I’ve found a proper 22.2mm-25.4mm shim that can be posted to Australia without excessive postage costs, so I’ll order that next week and was given a better wheelset too.

Seeing that I’ve been sitting on this for so long, I might cough up the cash and buy these Dia-Compe canti’s as well. I have an old Moongoose that I can steal parts from… but I might just rebuild that and sell it cheap to a friend / keep it as a loaner bike.

Still need to figure out how I’m going remove the surface rust and the painted on checker board print. 😔

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so cool, love the frame

Brakes arrived. Have everything except for the chain, seatpost, cables and grips (if I use the Oury grips). Still trying to clean off this checker board paint as well. 😔

Also need to shim the stem better and try and clean down more of the rust up. Doesn’t have to be perfect. I’m going to clear coat the whole frame before building it up.

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Well, daughter was asleep, son was content on Minecraft…

Managed to get most of the paint off the non drive side stay using methylated spirits and an abrasive cloth / scourer.

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Are you running this chainring?

And why are the brakes so sad? Did they kill their brother?

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Ha. No. I clamped the derailleur on there so I didn’t misplace it and kind of forgot it was so high.

😢

Decided to run different tyres. Ordered some Maxxis Holy Rollers in 26 x 2.4”. Frame definitely has the clearance and would be nice to have something with slightly less rolling resistance / less knobs than the tyres I have on there currently.

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I like Holy Rollers, but they are heavy!

The Ardents I have aren’t exactly light either. And this isn’t a weight weenie build. 😅

Grabbed these cheap moto-esque levers at lunch after being a bit inspired by this on the Radavist .

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Cleaned up the frame some more. Managed to remove almost all of the yellow paint (and some of the blue back to bare metal). Once I’ve got all the yellow off, I’ll give the whole frame a clear coat finish.

I also pulled brakes levers apart and cleaned them up some more. I gave the black a quick repaint as well.

Just need to get a seat post, cables, pedals and a chain and I’ll have all the parts.

Am digging the cracking downtube decals though.

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Cranks and seat post.

I’ll swap the big and middle rings out to something smaller and clean up the seat post this week.

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Haven’t installed the seat post I’m using, but I like the plastic Cinelli Unicanitor on it.

All the yellow paint is off. I need to clean all the grime off and then clear coat it all. Might be lazy and leave the forks and headset in. 😅 Also need to sand the canti bosses to clean the surface rust off.

These also arrived in the post this week.

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Lovely stuff! Well done with the yellow paint stripping!

This bike's gonna be phenomenal, great choice of tyres too!

Love the Kuwahara branded headset.

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Frame is cleaned. Gave the wheels a quick clean as well. Once the frame is dry, I’ll go over it with some methylated spirits to get any last bits of grime / WD-40 / Sugar Soap off and then clear coat it. I probably should clean the bottom bracket shell out too. Hoping to get a coat done today, but I keep getting light rain.

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First coat of the gloss clear done, but yolo’d a bit and am going to do a coat of rainbow sparkle clear as well. I had some paint left over from the Albini.

Did the forks. It’s very subtle. 🌈

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Incredible dedication, gon' be gud