It costs how much?

I have just finished reading an article on "Bike Radar" about custom resprays. When I first started the rebuild project I did consider getting a professional paint job, but decided that the aim was really to get a cheap mountain bike on the hills, not a labour of love. If you remember, the paintwork on the frame was OK if alittle stone chipped. So to keep the additional damage to it down to a minimum, I did a quick and dirty cover up job. It would have been possible to just about do a strip and respray in the shed I have, but it would never have been clean, and besides the bike didn't need one.

At first glance the prices quoted in the article are really reasonable, and I would say I'd happily keep a specialist frame builder afloat with a respray. At £120 for stripping and £45 for one colour, its not too bad. I could have added extra cable guides and had a front mech and even fitted disc brake mountings to the frame. Bootstrap evolution would have occured on the old P3 as it's DNA was tweaked with small biochemical changes. Then I totalled it all up and the price came to close to £300, rather defeating the object of a cheap rebuild as I could get a decent hardtail for the final build and spray price with all new shiney components on. Even having a simple clean and respray adds significant costs to the project.


I can see the attraction, but I can also see the article writer's point that this is something you do for a one off frame or a frame to which you have some deep emotional attachment. I suspect if it is the latter you should probably stick the bike on the wall where you can see it everyday, because otherwise you may leave it in the shed and never appreciate it's beauty.

Storm in a H cup

Certainly they had a go at wrenching it off

Finally, a few moments to work on the bike today. Boy does it take a long time to complete the work when you only go at each stage bit by bit. The frame came with a set of FSA cups still fitted, but they looked pretty beat up. I guess the previous owner had tried to remove them, but without the correct tool. Cups are an integral part of the headset of the bike, this is for want of a better description the linkage between the bike and the forks that hold the wheels and the steering bars. Without them, you are going to have a pole that rattles around inside a tube. It is quite a clever bit of engineering linkage, and overtime has evolved different methods of holding the fork steerer to, eventually, the handlebars. The setup we are going to use is a threadless headset, I am not going into the details, of stuff you can look it up on Wikepedia and several other websites if you are interested, but the whole process is, in theory, quite simple.

not a wing pylon, but a cup remover inserted into the steerer column

First you need the correct tool, the cups are simply slotted in the frame, so you could rip them out with a strong arm and a pair of pliers, something I think the previous owner had tried. As alternative, you could tap them out using a hammer and and an old screwdriver. It would be a slow job as you would need to go round moving each side evenly to prevent the whole thing getting wedged. Otherwise buy and cup removal tool, or borrow one. The cost a tenner, which isn't so bad. It's about the same amount you would pay the workshop to do the job for you. The tool is simply a split tube that fits in the steerer column, but the split will flange out to rest on the internal face of the cup to allow you to tap it out with a hammer. How simple is that? Feed in, tap and off it comes, the repeat for the otherside.

Two removed H cups

Now the problem comes in not planning for fitting the otherones on to the frame. Simple investigation of the the cup and the frame reveals, that these are going to have to be set level and true. That means, you guessed it, another specialist tool. Simple enough to build, as it is only two flat plates on a screw column with some method of pressing both cups onto the frame e.g. a wingnut. The parts though probably cost as much as a secondhand precision engineered one. So I will need to look into that for the future, and see if I can borrow what is needed to get off the ground sooner. In fact, borrowing appears to be the order of the day as, I am unsure of the quality of other parts of the headset assembly attached to the existing fork. My first idea was to replace the fork with a better one, sooner than later, but pennies predict that this will not be happening any time soon. So I will try and not change, star nuts and crown races, but you never know. See what happens when I have a go.

Cassettes and remasters

It has been a while since I have had a chance to do any work on the project bike and I have begun to get itchy to get on with it. Sadly, my youngest is now at school full time and the list of jobs that need doing round the house have got measurably longer. I often joke to the wife that since we have reversed roles it is her who is supposed to approach the DIY etc, but sadly she insists on baking cakes so what can a man do? It is true that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.  This then is the reason that I am back on the bikes.


So today have completed my allotted set of chores and kept house, I find I have half an hour spare. Time in which to change the cassette on the rear wheel. This consists of unlocking a nut on the rear wheel and swapping over all the parts without dropping any of them. The theory is that providing the cassette (that's the selection of gears at the back of the bike) and the freewheel (which connects them to the rear hub) are compatible it is a simple replacement job.


I start first with the removing the tyre on the wheel, not because it is necessary, but because I wish to check how true or straight the wheel runs on the axle. The wheels have been sold as no visible wobble, but it is probably best to check now and tweak the wheel into shape rather than find out when it is on the bike. While I am doing this I read the wheel size on the tyre 26x2.4 hmmm that could be problematic finding replacements. Note to self when buying secondhand rims check the tyre dimensions.  It also starts to try and rain, I pray it will hold off long enough for me to finish the job outside.

The lockring on the original 8 cogs is a little stiff but the with a little shimmy it opens easily enough and allows me to slide the original cassette of the freewheel. I put this in a bag for later. Maybe I can use them or sell them, either way they will need a clean. Which is what I set about doing to the freewheel. It is not particularly dirty, unlike the rime which is shedding black stuff all over me and the light coloured T-shirt I am wearing. However, I think that if I am building from the ground up it is best if the whole thing is as clean and dirt free as possible. Some degreaser and a good scrub and all is clean. Now to add the new cassette.

The cassette is a SRAM PG970 9 speed, and it glows with a satin finish at me from within its packet. A packet that turns out to be all but impenetrable. Not wanting to score the metalwork with a knifeblade I battle the finally wrap until it begins to give up its precious cargo. At last, eyes shining, I remove the cassette unbroken, until near the end I find a wad of plastic bag inserted in the middle. Removing this proves to be the straw that breaks the camel's back and the last two cogs come loose with the lockring. Oh well not a disaster.  I take the bulk of the cassette and start to fit it to the freewheel. It takes a couple of minutes to realise and locate the alignment spline which is smaller than the others. More a process of elimination here as I go round the set trying each one until it slides smoothly in. Now for the last two cogs, and here is where it really gets messy, because now they are separated from the rest, I really don't know which side is wheel side and which isn't. It takes a few moments of staring at how it will work for me to finally put it all together. Lockring on and tightened with the splined tool and the hole process is finished.


So there is another blind myth explored - if you create a sensible design with a finite series of combinations then the pathways are forced to accept one design over another. Oh and it starts raining after I have put the tools away. Time for the school run.

Bottoms!

Today I decided that I would tackle the bottom bracket fitting on the bike. Now I have to confess this is not entirely new territory for me as I have removed and replaced one before. Essentially, so long as you are careful and don't lose bits it is a slide out slide in job. However, you do need some specialist tools for the job one of which is a lockring spanner.

Bottom bracket shell, TT Gigapipe and TT chainset with chain retention device

The first job is to clean the gunk and paint from the inside of the bottom bracket shell. This is a simple job of toothbrush, white spirit and a cloth to clean up. I don't need to worry about losing some of the paint at the exit as a) its a cosmetic cover up and b) no one is going to see it behind the lockring tool.

Now the real reason for choosing a spare hour and a half to do this is to check out the fitting of the Gigapipe bottom bracket (BB). This is new to me as all my experience is with old square taper brackets. The first thing I notice is that the usual method of locking into place is probably not going to work here. I think I need another tool for the toolbox. I have a bottom bracket tool, but it doesn't look as if it is designed for this type of BB. Curse the world of non standard international design. Shimano are the market leaders, but they do what they like, at least everyone else tries to work from a standard. Although I suspect they wouldn't if they could get away with it. Anyway, it is a Shimano BB tool not an ISIS one. Plus I discover as I look in the tool box there is no lockring tool either. Now where did I put that? Ah Uncle Riotous has it in his garage!  Looks like this will have to wait until the tools are assembled in the same location.

So lesson, learnt I pack it all away again (Bottoms!). Time to drop a message to uncle about said tools. Not all wasted though as having looked at the set up I can see that it is really much easier than a cup and cone or square taper style BB. As an all in one there are no ball bearings or cartridges to chase around and apart from ensuring it is all greased and done up tight the job itself is as simple as pie.

First blind moment

I am faced with seat issues - not my rear but the seatpost itself. I had expected differing size seat posts, but I am left with two paths to functionality. Current seat post and a shim or a new post of 34.9cm. A larger area is better able to dissipate impact so new wins there. Current seat post is a little crappy and for safety I have already stolen the seatpost off my sons Hotrock 20" bike. So with an ex-stock EX seat post for £11 and a quick release seat clamp from Halfords I set about installing the seat post.

OK that was unexpected, despite both being the same size they are not, and we are not talking about layers of paint out of size here. The seat post clamp is clearly smaller than the post. With much effort and prizing the seatpost clamp open, it fits on snugly to the bike frame and the the seatpost itself slides snugly in with a fresh coat of grease.

Abendessen des hundes

My eye runs over the matt black frame and alights on a sudden flaw in my plan. I can see two cable guides on the top tube. One for the rear mech and one for the brake cable. Where can I run the third for the front mech? There is no room in the existing guides, so that will be a non-starter. To the batcave Robin! Several hours of internet research later and I find I have two options. Braze on series of guides - possible as there is a local bike builder round the corner from me (Renowned Chas Roberts)- but pricey as I would need to strip the frame, and respray again. Epoxy glue a guide to the frame - a sore point in forum threads on the subject. Buy a seatpost clamp that adds the guide to the bike (Problems Solvers). I look back for the post where in my early research I had read that a P3 had been converted to a 3x7 gear bike. Yes you can, but quite frankly it looks like a dog's dinner and uses the seatpost clamp. Given that the seller has been using it as a commute bike, I am not entirely sure that it will survive much of the hammering it will get from me. So we are going to have to go for a 1 x ? combination and walk up hill, no actual change there then as my current stamina level is still low.

So for a very simple parts exchange and upgrade model we are now beginning to look towards a total rebuild. The shopping list now requires

Crank
Bottom bracket
Single chainset with guide if possible
 

with the following upgrades
9speed hub
9 speed mech
brake arms
new forks if possible to return the freebies back to the pool.