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Not too bad looking mtb at all that, i have seen a couple of this sort of frame here and there lately and they do look rather cool ☺
halfrauds is ridiculously priced really, I have found that Wilkinsons do some good bike stuff very cheaply, esp by comparison.
Though i must say i think i am getting envious of your parts stash PP! I keep managing to flog bikes i should really break so i have very few spares! As epitomized by the fact that i have non of the bits needed to restore my new dawes project! Ah well, i guess i must take aleaf (not too big a leaf swmbo would kill me) out if uour book and buy more bikes!
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Last Edit: Feb 3, 2017 22:54:02 GMT by s1105117
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Feb 27, 2017 18:41:57 GMT
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I must say s1105117 my parts stash is pretty good. It's not all my own collecting though thats built it up, i inherited a fairly big parts stash after my friend died and his wife didn't know what to do with it all so asked me to clear his shed, he had been building his parts stash for nearly 70 years! There was a lot of really cool stuff there, and a lot of stuff that i had no idea what it was for!I managed to re-home some of it with other cycle enthusiasts, and kept some for myself, and sadly some of the really obscure stuff ended up being thrown away!  I hate chucking stuff like that away, but when you've no idea what something is for, or if you're ever likely to need it, and you can't even give it away, then what options are there? Anyway, if you need anything and can't find it anywhere else, if i happen to have whatever it is you need then let me know. So then todays find, and it has to be said i don't need this at all lol.  It's got to be said that it's been slim pickins at the dump lately, and this is the only thing thats caught my eye in ages!  I have absolutely no idea who makes this, however the frame itself bares a striking resemblence to the previously mentioned Coca-Cola bike, and it weighs about the same too!  Why did i buy this when i have no practical reason to have such a bike? I'm pretty sure that there's no way that i'm going to be able to ride it, and as it's only got 16" wheels i think that even my youngest Pistonpoppet will be too big for it, plus she's already told me that there's no way she's swapping her Mustang for it! But the funny thing is that when i was a kid in the eighties i always wanted one of these bicycles dressed up as motorcycles, i thought they were really cool, and still kinda do! I wish it was bigger... And lighter! Apart from this as i have had plenty of time on my hands i have been messing around with the previously mentioned Murray Timber Mountain...  This is easily as bad a bike as the Magna Fugitive was, however like the Magna i picked it up because i thought that nobody else would want it, and i couldn't let it just go in the skip. I really believe that they were probably made alongside one another in a factory in Taiwan despite having a sticker on it that said 'Proudly Made In The U.S.A.' When i picked it up originally the wheels were rusty, and the tyres were ruined so i put on another set of wheels and new Orange tyres. I then further updated the look...  As no doubt you can see i have removed the 26" wheels with faded orange tyres on them, and replaced them with 700c wheels, also with orange tyres! Personally i think it looks all the better for it! The thing is, this looks fantastic in my opinion, the larger 700C wheels and orange tyres suit the bike completely, but, i've rummaged through my stash, i've rummaged through friends stash, and i can't find any brakes that will work with the 700c wheels, and a frame designed for 26" wheels. Therefore today i admitted defeat, and dug out a pair of 26" wheels and tyres from my stash, and bolted them to it.  I know, and i agree, i've let myself down badly there, and like my school reports always said, "Could do better, must try harder!" But the fact is that once it is finished, it won't be worth anything to anyone, and i'll probably try to sell it because i've just got no room to store them all. Therefore the plan is to build it up, make it rideable, then sell it. It's pretty solid, and very similar to the Magna Fugitive so i reckon it will give a similar ride, and i'm actually looking forward to riding it. However i still have a few jobs to do, mainly make the brakes and gears work as all of the wires have corroded in the outter cables and nothing moves sadly. I think i have some used brake and gear cables in my stash so i'll put them on, although sadly this means that the cables won't be red like they are now, and were originally. I'll probably put some new calipers on it too if i can find some as the ones on it are really rusty. As for my Raleigh Mustang, well work on that has stopped for the moment, this is because i need some shifters for it. I have obviously got several sets in my stash, but none of them look quite right to me. The problem is that i'm not really sure how i want them to look, but i know i don't want it to just have the lever type sat up on top of the handlebars, or the rev-o-shifter type, because i hate them. I have several pairs that are intergrated with the brake lever, and look pretty cool, but i don't want them, i want the gear and brake levers to be separate. Hopefully something will turn up soon, on a bike at the tip or something and i'll go there they are, thats how i want it to look! Then end up buying a whole damn bike just for the gear levers!! I know its a bit OCD, but it has to be right as i'm planning to keep the Mustang in my Collection for a long time (Much like the other Mustang, i'm my other collection!) Of course the trouble with the Raleigh Mustang sitting there, almost finished is that my lack of patience wants me to just bolt on any old gear shifters to it and go riding, but i know if i do that i'll end up hating it as it's not quite right, almost there... But not quite right! No i must be patient, tinker with the Timber Mountain, step away form the Raleigh Mustang until the right part shows up!  |
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Feb 27, 2017 22:22:59 GMT
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Ahh i see, a mountain of useful stuff is always good non the less! It's the definition of useful that i suppose can be tricky... 😀
agreement here re the frustrating nature of having to throw stuff away, especially the obscure stuf, for sure though cant keep everything! (Back to Mr Trebus again!) To be fair SWMBO helps me a bit in this regard (though fortunately, at 4' 10" she is too short to heave anything major into the big outside bin! 😅), she likes her allotment and that place seems to have no end of uses for obscure bits of metal. Radiator mounts as plant pot feet, very bent shopper bicycle basket as an 'interesting' hanging basket etc etc... at least they find a use!
Oh and Cheers for the offer re parts, I may send you a list when i finally get round to building the Dawes up 😊
Re shifters, the Dawes has some of those thumb shifters under the bar? Early rapid fire style maybe?
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Last Edit: Feb 28, 2017 12:03:42 GMT by s1105117
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jpr1977
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 659
Club RR Member Number: 18
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My Klunkerz. jpr1977
@jpr1977
Club Retro Rides Member 18
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Feb 28, 2017 17:03:43 GMT
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What shifters are you after? The original SIS ones or just similar? I 'might' have something in the old stash of parts in the mother JP's garage...
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This is half the problem, i don't know what kind of shifters i want. I'm fairly sure that i don't want the old lever type that sits on top of your handle bar. I think i want the type that hangs underneath! I know one thing for sure though, i don't want the rev-o-shifter type! Here's a couple i looked at today.  I'm pretty sure that i want something like this, except i want it to be separate from the brake lever!  Maybe these ones, i nearly bought this bike today just for the shifters! Thing is i've got an eight speed cog on the back, so i'd have to change that if i bought this bike. Having said that though, i only ever use three gears at the best of times, so it wouldn't be much of a hardship to only have a seven speed cog! I might go and have another look at it tomorrow! Of course, it'll be gone by then lol. |
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I like those shifters! quite modern though? I had them on the Pinnacle bikes and a giant that I briefly possessed (iirc aren't they called rapid-fire shifters?) My Dawes backstreets has something like this underneath the bars,  like an older version of the rapid-fire type maybe? i must remeber to check what exactly they are! |
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(iirc aren't they called rapid-fire shifters?) You are most correct, these are indeed called Rapid Fire - I have them on my Gary Fisher Marlin:  They were also fitted to my older Raleigh HT3 (Google image):  I'd removed most of the Raleigh logos and stickers and replaced with Anuimal and nudey-ladies. Not sure why the guy above has a disc and V brakes setup on the rear wheel. Or those horrendous mudguards. |
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I've got to say that Raleigh is possibly the ugliest bike I've ever seen! It looks like a disaster with scaffolding! What were they thinking? But did it ride nicely, and how heavy was it? Don't diss the mudgaurds though, they're fantastic   |
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I know what you're saying - looking at it now it does look a bit of a weld-fest! But it was fairly light and rode lovely. My mates uprated HT1 (full suspension version) is currently residing in my garage loft space as he's moved in with his gf and her pad has zero storage - bought back memories when we stashed it. I had that HT3 about 15 years ago, sold it 9 years ago and got the Marlin - which is a great bike.
I have a set of those 'motorcross' style m/g fitted, or at least a rear one - the bracket snapped on the front and i never replaced it.
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Apr 19, 2017 23:08:43 GMT
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So the search for a decent set of rapid fire shifters continues for the Mustang. I am starting to think that i'm either being just too damn picky, or, the shifter i have in my head never existed in the first place. I have found a set of combined brake, and gear shifters that i liked, but i don't want a combined set, the shifter bit was ok, but i didn't like the brake lever bit! In the meantime i have been out and about on this little beauty...  Yep, the Murray Timber Mountain. I've given it a good ride about, and i have decided that i don't actually like the thing. The thing is, i can't quite work out why, it is so similar to the previously loved Magna Fugitive they could've been made along side one another (and probably were!) But for some reason it is not as enjoyable to ride as the Fugitive was. Wierd, perhaps i need to dig out my rose tinted glasses!  My feeling is that maybe the Fugitive was better to ride because i went through my parts stash, and collected the nicest parts i had for it (that wern't earmarked for the Mustang!) Whereas the Timber Mountain has been constructed with better parts than it came with, but not quite as good as either the Fugitive, or the Mustang have been adorned with.  A good example might be the brakes, which are good, not rusty, and stop it very well, but they were donated by this...  A small childs Universal GPX bicycle. A bike that has been designed for the cyclist who is not yet old enought to attend primary school! But i had nothing nice in my stash, so these brakes were donated to the cause. Like i said, they're big enough, and they stop it quite well, so i think they'll be ok. Trouble is the same bike also donated these...  Yep, the brake levers, and the grips! Again, it all works, but the brake levers are plastic, and if i'm honest, the grips are not quite wide enough! I dunno, maybe it is because i just sort of threw it together, maybe it just is never going to be quite as good to ride as i was hoping, but whatever the problem is, i'm not loving it, i want to, but just don't so i think before long it will need to be re-homed! I've even spent money on it, because i had no good tyres in my stash, and because i thought i'd proabably hang on to it for a while, i splashed out on a pair of new tyres for the damn thing, i doubt when i sell it i'll even get the cost of the tyres back!  Plus, it also has quite a nice pair of rims on it now! Oh well, no matter, hopefully the next owner will love it! And in other news, i've not really found anything worth buying just lately, i don't know if my enthusiasm levels have dropped, or i'm just very un-inspired lately, but nothing has really spoken to me at the local dump lately, they've had plenty of bikes, but nothing i've liked enough to try and drag home! Never mind, it's probably for the best, i need to have a good clear out really before i acquire anything new! Perhaps with the arrival of Spring (possibly!) things will start to perk up a bit, i've been stuck indoors far too much, and i have decided that it's time to take the mudgaurds off my bike and get out there in the sunshine! Although i've just said that i've been a bit un-inspired lately, i did see something i quite liked the look of the other day.  A Coca-Cola bike. I must say it's a lot better looking than the Coca-Cola bike i had! I wonder if the guy that bought mine is still riding it, he must have leg muscles like Arnie "I'll be back" Schwarzenegger if he is lol. Anyhoo, as i looked at the bike in the picture above i quite liked the way it was done, and i wonder if it was something Coca-Cola had produced for promotional reasons. I like the bottle shaped chaingaurd, the cooler back box, the red and white colour scheme. Everything about this i liked, and i wonder how hard it would be to replicate something like this? However i don't think this bike gets ridden much, it has a five speed rear cog, but no derailiur, and worse than that, no chain! It also has no gear selector. For that matter it has no brakes, or brake levers either, still, it has to be said, it's a cool bike in my eyes! I wonder what it is. |
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Apr 20, 2017 14:27:00 GMT
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So, long term sufferers may well remember way back in August last year i spoke about 'Monty', to jog your grey cells... 'Monty' is some sort of road bike that has been languishing in a shed on the grounds of a property that my friend owns about 100 miles from Pistonpopper towers. Well, back when i first clapped eyes on it i thought i'd have it, but was unable to take it away that day as i was in the Talbot, but i promised my friend that i would return to collect it someday soon! Well last night we were chatting and he says to me, that he would really quite like it if i collected it sooner rather than later as he was planning to dismantle the shed at the weekend! So this weekend i have a little job, dismantle one shed and take to the tip, bring back 'Monty' It should be good! Well, as long as it's not raining, and the brambles havn't grown up and over the shed again! |
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Apr 23, 2017 22:03:57 GMT
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After a three and a bit hour drive this morning i find myself somewhere in the middle of nowhere preparing to take down a shed, and apparently help to remove someshrubbery and other garden type rubbish. My reward for such work? One possibly custom built road bike called Monty. W. When i left home this morning it was somewhat overcast, dull and chilly. So i thought nothing of taking a hat with me as i jumped into my little ute and headed off, dreams of a new bike in my feeble little mind! By midday my feeble little mind was getting fried inside my bald head. Tonight, as i sit here writing this the skin on the top of my head feels a little warm, and tight, tomorrow i have a feeling i might look like i've had a facelift! Although i am trying to combat this by applying lots of moisturiser (yes i know, very manly) The stupid thing is, i even have hats, i bought one the other week, a pith hat, but the trouble with that is that i'd probably look like 'Lofty' from It Aint Half Hot Mum! But atleast my head wouldn't be sore. Anyway, enough about this, you probably arn't that interested that i look like a baked bean from above, and neither will you be interested in how prickled i got from the brambles we cut down, right? You want to know about the bike. Well after spending the day hacking our way through the brambles (again) and clearing them away finally the bike was released from it's hiding place of, who knows how many years. It stood there, covered in a thin layer of dust in the late afternoon sun, and upon first inspections, it's pretty good. The frame it self is in remarkable condition. The chain is a little rusty, as are the handlebars. the wheels have some rust, but you'd probably clean them up. The tyres, although flat, look ok, presumably because it's been stored in the dark. I'll see what they look like once i've pumped them up. Anyhoo, i forgot to take photos right up to the point when i had it in the back of my little ute and was tying the thing down ready for the drive home this evening. So I got my camera out then, and now here for your perusal is a selection of photos of Monty. W.     I must admit i am still at a loss when it comes to identifying this little bike, i've done quite a lot of searches since i found it initially and i can find absolutely noithing out about it, or indeed who is Monty. W.? If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to clue me in! The frame is made from quite small diameter tubing, and is quite light. The handlebars i believe are just roadbike handlebars turned upside down. It only has a single brake, and it's on the rear, a caliper type brake of a design that i've not seen before, and the front forks have a very unique design. I shall try to get a few more photos of it soon showing these items in greater detail. I'm hoping that the tyres are as good as they look, and that they will hold air so i can take it for a bit of a spin one day over the next couple of days. |
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duncanmartin
Club Retro Rides Member
Out of retro ownership
Posts: 1,320
Club RR Member Number: 70
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My Klunkerz. duncanmartin
@duncanmartin
Club Retro Rides Member 70
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Apr 28, 2017 21:22:45 GMT
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That's a real bitsa bike. Looks pretty cool though. The bars look like regular riser bikes turned upside down, the seat looks relatively modern, but the frameset looks fairly old. The rear brake is a real curiosity - I'd love to see some more pictures of that. IT also seems to have a rear deraileur, yet I can't see a shifter? And are the cranks BMX ones?
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Apr 29, 2017 15:48:09 GMT
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Yep, it's pretty odd. The crank i don't think is from it, when we found the bike the crank was on the floor near it, so i popped it on for the photo more than anything. However there was a box in the corner, and that had some random parts, grips, bearings and a crank that looks a far more likely fit, so i have fitted that crank now, and it looks far more likely to have been the one that was meant for the bike. Heres some more pics...  I would agree that the bars are probably upside down, but i don't think it looks too bad, and it's actually pretty comfortable to ride like this, which is something i've never been able to say about traditional dropped handlebars.  Brake lever is platic, i've not come across one like this before, i've seen plastic brake levers on kids bikes before but this is very much larger than a childrens bike brake lever. Anyway, there's only one brake on the bike, so obviously at the other end of this brake cable is this...  I have never seen one like it, it's very unique, but it seems to work ok. Tyres are good, as are the wheels. Frame isn't bad either. I find the detail on the front forks to be very interesting.  I really like this, but i'm unsure about how strong it might be. Having said that it has so far taken my weight, so i'm guessing it's probably up to the job! I've wondered if these forks hold the key as to the whole bikes manufacturer. There can't be too many bikes out there with front forks like these can there?  As for the rear derailiuer, yep it has one, it's a five speed Suntour unit, and there is a lever to select your gears...  Its a Huret piece, and it's probably not located where i'd put it if i were building the bike as i find it quite awkward to use where it is. But my guess is this was probably built by someone a lot younger, and a lot thinner than I!  The saddle is a SelleRoyal piece, quite comfortable despite being shall we say, under-padded! Does anyone know what the yellow and blue plastic trim signify? Does it mean anything at all, or is it just trim to make it look pretty? Oh, and other things to note, look how thin the seatpost is. I've never seen one so thin, even childrens bike seat posts are fatter than this. Again, i wonder if this somehow holds a clue to the original manufacturer of the bike, or indeed it's age. You can also just about see the gear lever in this picture, just below the seat, probably wont be comfy should you have a crossbar incident! Anyway, i've given it a quick wipe down, and put some new wind in the tyres and had a bit of a ride, and it rides ok, infact it's so ok that it's bordering on good! Which is a damn sight better than the far more modern Giant!  The Giant was re-homed yesterday. I just couldn't get on with it. I had quite a lot of interest in it both here and elsewhere told people that i wanted something like £100 for it, but it would seem that this was too much so it went on the bay of E where i got £153 for it, so happy days for me lol. Turns out the guy who bought it litrally lives at the end of the street where i work. I was going to offer to ride it to his house for him, but then i thought better of it! Anyway its gone, and so is the Murray Timber Mountain.  This got me a whopping £5.50 on the bay of E, so once they've had their cut, and PayPal have had there bit there should be just enough left over to treat myself to a can of Coke, not the real thing you understand, Tescos own brand stuff! Oh well, atleast its gone, onwards and upwards and all that shizzle! I had quite high hopes for this little mountain bike, i knew it wasn't gong to sell well, but i thought i would enjoy riding it in much the same manner as i enjoyed the very similar Magna Fugitive, but it wasn't to be. Not to worry, plenty of bikes left in my back yard. With the sale of the above couple of bikes i've been thinking about selling the FELT.  That was until i decided to take it for a little spin-a-rooney yesterday just for a change. I do actually quite like riding this bike, but i think that the thing that spoils it for me is the tyres. Pretty much all of my riding is done on paved surfaces, and so a knarly off road tyre isn't needed, infact, if anything it's detrimental to the handling of the thing. Therefore i have decided to try and get myself a pair of fat road tyres for it, i know they won't really be in keeping with the style of bike, but i think it'll ride very nicely! Maybe i'll even turn the handlebars upside down! Ha haaaaaa... Maybe not!! |
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I said in the previous post that i was thinking about selling the Felt, well the thing is that i've been riding it the past couple of days and have had decided that i would keep it, and just splash out on some new tyres with more of a road tread pattern for it. Ofcourse, that is HAD as in past tense, and not HAVE as in the current. This is because yesterday, somebody else decided they wanted it more than me, so they took it... DAMN!! I came home from work about 08:30hrs yesterday morning, and as usual parked my bike down my drive by my front door. I then took Pistonpoppet the younger to school in the car. Once she was dropped off, i headed for home, parked the car, and went inside for my breakfast. After breakfast Mrs Pistonpopper decided that she needed a hand with some aerobic type activities, and trying to be a bit helpfull i decided that as it was a slow day at work, it wouldn't hurt to help her out, plus, it might also help with my own battle of the bulge! That took care of another hour or so, and so when i went back outside to ride back to work at about 10:30hrs, i found that infact i would be walking! Oh dear, thought I, some delightful person has taken my bicycle! (or something to that effect!) Damn, damn, DAMN!! I was just starting to like that, and worse than that, i'd already bought a new pair of tyres! Annoyingly, unlike when Mrs Pistonpoppers bike went walkabout, there is nothing unique on my Felt, it's as it was when it left the factory, if only i had put those damn tyres on it, then if it happened to turn up i'd know it was mine, but as it is, if i should see a Felt, it's more than likely to be someone elses. I guess we just chalk this up to living in the modern times, and try to move on. I must admit i am pretty urinated off, however, not as urinated off as i was when Mrs Pistonpoppers bike got nicked, mainly because mine was just a bike from the factory, and hers was sort of a custom build by me... Right, move on, bitter, and somewhat twisted, but still moving on! So, in my frustration i decided to see what the tip would be offering me today, and it was a good day, first up...  This lovely womens Universal Riviera Sport. I wasn't really in the market for a womens bike as i find them quite difficult to sell, but this one was in such good condition i decided that i would buy it anyway, and hopefully be able to atleast get my money back on it. You may remember a long time ago i had a mens Universal Riviera Sport which i thought was dreadful to ride, due mainly to the riding position. Well the good news is that the womens version doesn't share that riding position, and is quite nice to ride, happy days! Next up, i decided to treat myself to something i've always wanted...  A Diamond Back! I've never had a Diamond Back before, and my guess is that i've always wanted one due to the film BMX Bandits! I realise that this is obviously not a BMX, but it is still a Diamond Back. Unlike the Universal however, this has not been looked after, and infact i'd say it's been abandonned outside for a good number of years, and maybe even chucked in a river. It's solid, but it needs work, starting with un-siezing the handlebars a bit so i can go around corners!  It could also use a pair of tyres, and the good news, if you want to see it is that i have a new pair of tyres! The rest of the bike kinda looks like this...     So as you can see it needs work, but as i said, it's pretty solid, and to look at it i would think it was a bike of high quality back in the day! I must admit i am quite looking forward to riding it... Next week!! Plans are to bathe it in WD-40 for the weekend, raid my rapidly depleting parts stash, fit the brand new tyres. Then fit the parts i've raided from my stash, and hopefully, be riding it by the middle of next week... Time will tell! But i am quite looking forward to it. In the meantime, if you do happen to come across my Felt, let me know, because i would quite like that back.  |
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duncanmartin
Club Retro Rides Member
Out of retro ownership
Posts: 1,320
Club RR Member Number: 70
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My Klunkerz. duncanmartin
@duncanmartin
Club Retro Rides Member 70
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Shame about the Felt, but cool Diamondback. The brakes on that roadster are super cool. The Huret shifter is a nice "band-on" type - they are normally banded onto the down tube. The plastic brakes are something I've seen on really bad MTBs. The saddle doesn't look too interesting, but the seatpost looks like it's a bit small for the frame. The forks are really interesting - I've never seen ones with the CROWN like that before. It's a great find...  |
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It is a shame about the Felt duncanmartin but there's really nothing i can do about it, the thing is, if i dwell on it, it will eat me up and make me even more bitter and twisted than i already am lol, plus it will just annoy me, and stress me out, so sadly i've just got to let it go, and hope i find another one at some point. You never know, maybe i'll find something better! As for the little roadster, like you say it's a really cool little bike, and i wish i could find out something about it, but there seems to be nothing about it out there anywhere. I'm guessing that Monty. W. was probably the owner, or maybe the builder. But whatever he was or even is, nobody documented it! I meant to take a photo of the seatpost today, as you say it is very thin, but it fits snugly in the tube, oddly where it mates with the saddle it flares out to a more regular seat tube diameter. I'm guessing that things like this, and the CROWN on the front forks are what holds the key to whoever manufactured it. Someone knows something, but they're not sharing the info! I wonder why Klunkers? I hoped it was to do with Klunk from Dastardly and mutley in their flying machines! 😂  Sadly not s1105117 . Why Klunkerz, well Klunkerz was a documentary about mountain bike history during its formative period in Northern California. It was written, produced, and directed by independent California filmmaker Billy Savage and released on October 8, 2006. The film examines the relationships of a bunch of Marin County hippies, athletes, and entrepreneurs who were directly responsible for popularizing off-road cycling, and the birth of mountain biking. The film includes many interviews with those present during the early stages of the sport, including Gary Fisher, Charlie Kelly, Joe Breeze, Tom Ritchey, Mike Sinyard, and Otis Guy, and covers the treacherous old Repack races.  I quite like documentry films and really got into Bruce Browns surfing films, and "On Any Sunday" film. Then one of my friends recommended that i take a look at Klunkerz. I looked at it, and i quite enjoyed it, so i bought myself a copy. It's not the sort of film that you watch every day, but i've maybe watched it half a dozen times in the year or so i've owned it. It's worth having a look at if you're into bikes, which i'm guessing we all are otherwise you wouldn't be reading this, right? So, the Diamond Back. Well, looks like that wants a fight. I took it for a bit of a shakedown, and it rides quite nicely, however the seat is too low for my liking, and of course because it's an aluminium seatpost in a steel frame it is well and truely siezed in the tube! No matter i thought, bathe with WD-40, then get my stilsons on it... Nothing! Right, strip off the cables, don't like the brake levers et cetera anyway...  Dispatched, now out with the fire!  With the blow lamp set on flame thrower mode i soon had the frame warmed up! But it wasn't having it, there was much struggling with the stilsons, some hammering, and a fair amount of swearing, but nothing... It is going nowhere!  As the morning turned inot the afternoon, and the afternoon faded into evening i found that i had completely run dry of swear words, and then, my gas ran out... OH FART-FACE! The seatpost is still in the frame, i really can't see a way of getting the damn thing out. I've tried all the things that usually work, twisting it with my stilsons, heating it up, and trying to twist it, swearing copiously, but nothing seems to shift it. I must admit that i am kinda hoping the cycling fairies visit it tonight and free it off so that when i return to it in the morning it just falls out! I don't know what the odds are with this happening, but my feeling is that they're pretty slim! I think that half the problem is that the seatpost goes a good 12" into the frame, i can't pull it out, and i can't even hammer it in! More gas in the morning... I didn't really want to damge the paint, i guess that thought is now out the window! Anyhoo, as i walked home i found this in a skip...  It even still had wind in the tyres! So i rode it home. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it rides ok. I'm guessing that it was made originally in the nineties, and wasn't too expensive when it was new.  It's really not in bad shape, and rides ok too to be fair to it. But Emmelle, it's not what you'd call premium quality, but thats ok, because that means that nobody will want to steal it! Incidentally, this one's called Monty too! But i really don't think that it has anything to do with the previously discovered Monty. W. They're a completely different bike, with a completely different build quality. Anyway, i'll give this a ride round for a while, while i struggle on getting the seatpost out of the Diamond Back, and then when i get bored, sell Monty. Mind you, while i'm riding it i think i might change that seat, it's nearly as bad as the seat on the Giant racer! |
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duncanmartin
Club Retro Rides Member
Out of retro ownership
Posts: 1,320
Club RR Member Number: 70
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My Klunkerz. duncanmartin
@duncanmartin
Club Retro Rides Member 70
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May 10, 2017 20:30:37 GMT
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Dissolve the seat-tube out with caustic soda! I've done it - you need to be careful and make sure you don't get it on you (or especially in your eyes). If you make it weak it will take a week or 2, if you ake it strong it will fizz and bubble and take some of the paint off it if spills out, but it will work faster... Check out my thread on it here: yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=49321.0This is what you end up with:  Seatpost 2 by duncancmartin, on Flickr Cheers Duncan |
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May 12, 2017 21:06:33 GMT
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Thanks for the advice duncanmartin I read through your thread on the forum you gave me the link too, and after a fair amount of more swearing today i figured that i might as well give it a go. I started to strip the frame, and much like the seatpost, it wasn't going to be easy, and put up quite a fight. In the end, after struggling and swearing for most of the morning trying to get the crank out, i relented, and took it to the very nice young fella in Halfords. Who i might add also struggled to remove it, but it has to be said that having the correct tools, and the knowledge on how to use them put him in with a better chance than me, and after a little while it was out. Next stop, Homebase. It has to be said that there's no place like Homebase, and before long i was stood infront of a shelf featuring loads of very nasty chemicals. I picked up the heavy duty, high concentrate, extra strong caustic soda, and headed for the till. Once back at Pistonpopper towers i decided to watch a tutorial on youtube on how i should go about dissolving this seatpost. I was fairly sure i knew what to do... Step 1. mix caustic soda into water. Step 2. pour mix into seat tube. Step 3. stand well back and wait! But i wanted to see what the reaction was going to be like, so that i knew what to expect when i did it. Before too long i was sitting there, watching a ginger man dissolving a seatpost... This one.  Now the thing that struck me about this whole video is the lengths that the Ginger man had gone to in order to protect himself from something that is, lets be honest, pretty nasty stuff! Gloves, check, Goggles, check, Mask, check! Wait a minute, mask? What flamin' good is it doing him wearing it like that? Ginger man if you are out there reading my thread of mindless babble, next time you're doing something like this you might want to wear the mask so it covers your nose also. As, like your mouth, you breathe through that too! Anyway video watched and i headed off to try it for myself!  So then, out with the Plumbers Mait to plug the hole at the bottom of the seat tube, and then, outside to stand the thing in the dirt.  Right then, bike firmly held by the soft dirt around the bottom of the frame. Let's mix up the caustic soda. I read the instructions for using the caustic soda, and it suggested for most things the ratio you were looking for is one cap full for five litres of water. However this was mostly for cleaning, and unblocking the drain, nowhere on the packet did it give a ratio for dissolving aluminium seatposts out of a steel frame! I decided that i'd probably need it a bit stronger. I put on my safety goggles, and then put about 300ml of water into a jam jar, followed by five cap fulls of caustic soda! I can't stress this enough, you need to add the caustic soda to the water, and not, NOT the water to the caustic soda! I gave it stir with a stick. By the time i picked up the jam jar that stuff was hot, really hot, and steaming!  I left it to do it's thing for the afternoon. Later, after i had eaten my tea (fish and chips... Lovely!) I figured that i'd return to my frame to see how it was going.  For the most part the bubbling and fizzing had stopped, and the level was quite low, and the seat post was looking, if nothing else, quite clean! I decided to empty out what was left in there, and put in a fresh batch. What came out was a dark grey liquid, which i'm guessing was caused by the particles of aluminium suspended in the caustic soda mix. I put on my googles, and mixed up a fresh batch. In it went...  This time the fizzing was much louder, you could actually hear it fizzing from about fifteen feet away! Also,  unlike the first time when it just quietly bubbled away this time, like Cresta soda in the seventies, it's frothy man! It bubbled over in a grey froth that ran down the seat tube removing some of the paint as it did so! I watched it erupting for about an hour until it grew too dark to watch any more, but even as i left i could still here it fizzing away! come day break i wonder how much, if any, of the seatpost will be left at all! As a matter of fact, the way it was frothing, and fizzing away i wonder if there will be any of the frame left at all!  |
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Brake lever is platic, i've not come across one like this before, i've seen plastic brake levers on kids bikes before but this is very much larger than a childrens bike brake lever. Anyway, there's only one brake on the bike, so obviously at the other end of this brake cable is this... Ive got Plastic brake levers and calipers on my mountain bike, they are bloody awful, they flex so much that you cannot lock a wheel! Mind you i won the bike in a raffle and it looks like a supermarket special. Shame they are on the monty bike as the rest of it looks good quality
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I hate chucking stuff like that away, but when you've no idea what something is for, or if you're ever likely to need it, and you can't even give it away, then what options are there? Anyway, if you need anything and can't find it anywhere else, if i happen to have whatever it is you need then let me know.
