Publius & Co.

Victor builds a bike, Part One

Late last month, I mentioned I had purchased a new bicycle frame off eBay, because I strongly suspect my old bike may not fit as well as it should. I suspect it's too big and it's darn difficult to make a large frame smaller, while you can fart around with a slightly small frame and make it seem larger (if you want the nasty details of why I think the bike is too big, re-read the story of my last ride of last season).

Today, armed with a little experience at taking bikes apart from a county class I took close to ten years ago, a cheap set of bike tools, a copy of Zinn & The Art of Road Bike Maintenance, and a pretty good mechanical aptitude, I started transferring the components from the old bike onto the new bike. Not that I've ever done this before, but why should I let inexperience stop me?

There is one part of the job I'm not doing. The headset is that part of the bike that connects the fork to the bike and allows it to rotate smoothly. Removing the old headset and installing the new one require special tools for both procedures, and I'm not spending more than $120 for two tools I plan to use only once. I farmed that job out to my local bike shop, who sold me a $30 headset and charged me five bucks for two-thirds of the installation. They forgot one piece needs to be pressed onto the new fork (yep, another tool) so I'll take the fork and headset by there tomorrow to get that part taken care of.

I know some home mechanics have made their own headset press using a nut & bolt with a couple of washers and brass bearings, but you can trash not just the headset but the bike frame if this job is screwed up. I'd rather have someone teach me how to use a real headset press rather than risk a frame with some homemade thing that I'm not real sure how to use anyway.

The old frame, at my stopping point. The only thing of any real consequence still on it is the front brake, but since the new fork isn't quite ready (see above) I've no real reason to take it off.

Handlebars, with the bar tape, stem, shifters & brake levers, reflector, computer mount, and bits of cable still attached. The little yellow things are flags I made to help me get the cables right...just in case.

(Oh, and the reflector? My gf is a safety professional, which means I get laughed at by other cyclists, but at least my bike is legal if I'm ever involved in an accident.)

The new frame, with the rear brake calipers, front derailer, bottom bracket, and crankset installed. The reddish-brown stuff on the rear dropouts is primer. There was a bit of rust at the rear dropouts so they get repainted. To be honest, the rust wasn't disclosed by the seller, but it was almost all surface rust--most of it came off with a steel toothbrush. The bit that didn't come off was where I couldn't get at it with a piece of sandpaper; a little Naval Jelly took care of it instead. The rear derailer needs to be cleaned first, and besides, there's no real reason to install it until I cover up the primer.

Next steps will be to get the fork and handlebar installed and the rear dropouts touched up. Derailers need to be cleaned and installed, along with the front brake, then cables get run and adjusted. After that, I risk life, limb, and my neck on my first test ride...which will be about a million laps around the block in case something goes wrong.

Posted by Victor at Abril 25, 2005 08:15 PM