It's Raining Bridgestones

I got a call from Mark, again, today. He had found a lugged Bridgestone mountain bike for a reasonable price, and he wanted to know if I wanted it. Of course, I did.

So, he brought the bike over, and I paid him back for it. Then, we found out that the seat post was stuck in the frame, and we worked on getting it out, for a bit. I finally just left it sitting with some Liquid Wrench soaking in. An hour later, I managed to get it put.

 The bike is  (as near as I can tell) a 1989 MB-3. It has Shimano Deore components, a lugged frame and, unfortunately, a unicrown fork. I will probably just leave the stock fork on this bike, though. I am thinking that I might just refurbish this bike and keep it as my vintage mtb. If I do that, I will sell my Nishiki Ariel, with the elevated chain stays. I don't really have the space, or the money, to collect a bunch of vintage mountain bikes, even though I would like to.

The MB-3 is the same size frame as the orange MB-1 650b conversion. I am contemplating building the bike up in a similar manner, with mustache bars, but keep the 26 inch wheels and running some nice, fat mountain bike tires. I just think it might be cool to have a brace of Bridgestones.

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New Saddle On The 650b Fixed Mountain Bike

I didn't have a saddle for the Schwinn, when I built it, and ended up putting an imitation leather seat on it, just to be able to ride it. I had planned to put the Frankensaddle on it, but I decided to go ahead and put a Taiwanese Brooks Flyer copy on it, instead, since I found a seller who had them priced right on eBay.

The saddle is similar to the brown one on the orange Bridgestone, but more closely resembles the Brooks B-17 in shape and size, rather than the Swift.

It is branded as a "Gyes", and it appears to be from the same factory that produces the Cardiff, Origin8 and VeloOrange saddles. I have had good luck with the saddles from Taiwan, so far, and I trust that I will with this one, as well.

I got it all set up and took a trip up the block and back to make sure that the height was close to right. It seems fine, so I think that I will call the bike complete, as of now.

Until I change something else on it, anyway...


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Bike O' The Week

When I said, the other day, that the 650b Rockhopper was undergoing some changes, what I didn't mention was that the main change was that the bike was becoming a donor for parts to build up another bike.

About a month ago, my buddy Mark sent me a link to a Craigslist ad for a 1986 Bridgestone MB-1 frameset, and I picked it up for $50.00. The '86 MB-1 is one of the the earliest (if not the earliest) examples of a "modern" mountain bike frame, with a 71 degree head tube angle, 73 degree seat tube angle and 17" chainstays (compared to the 18.25" stays on the Schwinn Sierra I just built up).

Unfortunately, it also had the latest and greatest (in 1986) unicrown fork...

I set about trying to find a lugged crown fork for the frame.  In the meantime, I contemplated what to do about the ratty paint on my frame.

The rusty spots were simply cosmetic, and I sanded them down to bare metal.

I hated to lose the original decals, but they were in pretty poor shape.

The Shimano 600 headset was stock on the bike, in 1986. Also stock was a Specialized bottom bracket. It was common, in the '80s for other companies to spec parts from the Big Red S. Trek actually used Specialized wheels on some of their bikes, if I recall correctly...

 I checked the frame for clearance with the 650b wheels and tires from the Rockhopper. The roadish tires fit fine, but there is no way that I could run the 2.3" wide Neo-Motos that ended up on the Schwinn. Thankfully, the Cunningham-designed Suntour Powercam brake actually could be adjusted to reach the larger rim.

The original head tube decal.

 I finally found a lugged fork, with a hugely too-long steer tube, and threaded the steerer down to where it would fit the frame, then trimmed it to length. Then, I rattle-canned the frame and fork with International Safety Orange paint, which I let dry for a week before building the bike up, today. I just didn't feel like I had the budget available for powder coat, right now. Maybe, later...

I added some decals I obtained on Amazon, and called it good. The decals are a nice heavy-duty vinyl, and Used a large one as the chain-slap protector on the chain stay.

The Origin8 mustache bars have mountain bike grips on them, with Cinelli cork wrap over them. I need more padding than the cork tape, alone, affords. But, I like the classic look for the tape, and the combination gives me both the look I want and the padding I need.

I masked off the "Made In Japan" decal, just because.

It's not a 1993 XO-1, but it's close enough. And, I really like the 650b wheels for a bike of this sort.

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Adventures In Bike Commuting

I have a nine mile route that I ride on my homeward commute from work.  From about mile 4 to mile 7, today, this was what I was riding in.

That was the first hailstorm I have gotten caught in, in quite a while. It was an appropriate end to a rainy, wet week of bicycle commuting. I was a bit soggy, and more than a little chilled by the time I got to the house.

Fun ride, though...

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One More Down

I decided, last week, to get off my butt and finish up some projects. Today, I got this one done:

It was originally a 1983 or '84 Schwinn Sierra (near as I can tell).  At that point, Schwinn was having their mtbs built in Taiwan, by Giant. Later, after Schwinn unexpectedly canceled their contract, Giant began selling bikes in America, under their own name. Some say that this was the death knell for the original Schwinn company, which couldn't compete with quality and price of the Giants.

It originally had a 6-speed cogset and a double crank, and has a "Twelve Speed" decal on the chain stay. (The High Sierra had a triple crank). I bought the frame and fork off of eBay, a while ago, to use the nice lugged fork on a project. Unfortunately, the steer tube was too short, and I ended up having to source another fork, which left me with this frame set.

So, I used the wheels I had built up with disc hubs (which were on my 650b conversion RockHopper) to build up a 650b fixed gear mountain bike. The RockHopper is going through a bit of a process, right now, for which I built up some wheels with non-disc hubs. More on that, later.

The 18.25" chainstays accept the 2.3" wide 650b tires with no modification necessary. (If measured the same way as a 26" mtb wheel, a 650b mtb tire is the equivalent of 27.5", by the way.)

The sloping crown of the fork, likewise, has room for the big knobbies.

The Tektro Oryx cantilevers have enough vertical adjustment to reach the larger diameter rim, so I didn't have to make reach adapters, like I did on the 650b StumpJumper I built a few years ago.

I geared it with a 38 tooth ring and a 20 tooth cog. This gives me a 52.25 inch gear, which is pretty good for off-roading. There is a 20 tooth cog on the freehub, on the other side of the wheel. If need be, I can turn the wheel around, and use the bike as a coaster singlespeed for faster downhills.

So, that's one bike off of the to-do list.

Oh, and there was a snake in my yard, the other day...

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Oh, Snap!

I was riding to work, yesterday, on icy, rutted streets, when I heard a "SNAP" sound as I went over the railroad tracks close to the lab. I looked around, only to see half of my rear fender sliding along behind me. I don't bolt the lower end of trhe fender to the frame, on the fixed gear mtb, because I

like to have it semi-quick-release.

I turned around and retrieved the piece of fender, then continued on to work.

This is what the remaining half of the fender looked like, when I got to work.

Later in the day, I decided to make a temporary repair to the fender, so that I would have it for the wet, slushy, ride home.

A little box tape, some copper wire and a wire twist-tie got the two pieces pieces mated up, pretty well.

Unfortunately, it works so well that I will probably never actually repair it, for real. I have a bad habit of leaving well enough alone, in cases like this...

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Another Scrambler Mod

Today, I made a new fast-idle (choke) knob to replace the skull, which got knocked off of the bike during a trail ride, last summer. Keeping it local...


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