ben's bike: a rebuild

Pal Ben had his bike stolen recently -- hey, times are really hard now -- and needed a replacement to get around on. I scored this abandoned bike some months ago and dragged it home by carrying the front wheel in my front cargo rack and tying the fork high onto my rear rack. (It was ugly getting it home, don't ask.)

It would be a perfect size for Ben, so with his go-ahead, I tore it down and rebuilt it.

As it turned out, I needed the front wheel right away for another project. So I swapped in another wheel when one came along last week. The rear wheel was basically a loss -- too many fatigued and/or broken spokes -- so I pulled the cassette cogs, cleaned them up and installed them on another wheel that should work just fine.

The shock fork had to go. The stanchons were locked out and frozen, and I was horrified to discover that metal had worn away on the inside of each stanchon -- on one, whatever had caused the wear had made an actual hole (photo at left).

After pulling the old fork and removing the crown race from it, I set about replacing it with a rigid fork, all that would be needed for urban riding.

To my dismay, I noted that the one fork I had on hand that would fit was just 1/4" too long in the steer tube. What to do? I looked around, and decided to modify a headset space of the right thickness and install it under the crown race. I cut a gap with bold cutters, spread it slightly with pliers and slammed it home onto the bottom of the steer tube. Then I slammed the crown race home and it not only fit, it stayed put. An odd way of adding stack height to a threaded fork, but as long as it's a very small amount it should work.

Obviously, this is something that would never be done at a full-service bike shop; they have liability issues to contend with and that limits what kinds of repairs the service manager will take in. But that gap is less than 1/4" wide, and the stack and crown race are not going anywhere, especially after the fork is installed. (If it really bothered me I suppose that I could squirt some fast-drying epoxy in there to fill the gap. But it's fine, really. I would ride this repair on MY bike if I had no other options.)

After that, it was onto the rear end of the frame. The frame was straight (sometimes amazing when the bike looks like it had been kludged together and ridden hard by someone living outside), but the derailleur hanger was bent, preventing a good adjustment of the rear derailleur.
(Below: derailleur mounted showing bent hanger.)

 In order to straighten a bent derailleur hanger -- the part of the frame into which the rear derailleur is threaded -- two things have to be taken into account.

First, are the threads damaged? If so, it's very possible that the metal is compromised within and without, meaning that any attempt to cold-set (bend by hand) the hanger could result in breaking it off.

If the threads are in good shape, and the bend isn't too severe, then it's possible that a deft touch with an adjustable wrench may be just enough to bring the hanger back into alignment.

How do you gauge how much force is required?
We often call that, in skilled trades, mechanic's feel; a sense of how much force is needed to tighten or bend something without going too far -- by stripping threads or breaking a bent piece of metal.

Because the bend was slight, at the end of the hanger and the threads looked good, I didn't have to move the hanger very far at all.













 As a result, when I re-installed the rear derailleur it mounted easily and in line with the frame. All I needed to do after that was adjust the derailleur to line up with where the cassette cogs were spaced on the cassette, set the limit screws and hook it up.

Then I hooked everything up -- cables, housing, a new chain, and some nice old friction thumb shifters on a great swept-back handlebar. I chose to keep the old stem, so that Ben would be able to still lean forward a little even while riding with a more upright position -- most younger men like riding this way and their longer torso can easily manage the longer distance to the handlebar.

I lately had an embarrassment of riches in multiple sets of cantilever brake sets, so finding one to install here was easy. Tires and tubes came from my bike (when I decided two weeks ago to swap in fatter tires on the All Rounder), so on they went. In the end, The only new parts needed were cables, housing, saddle and seatpost, and a top-pull front deraileur I scored from Kai at Upcycles.

I test-rode it up and down my empty street several times, shifting gears and trying the brakes at different speeds to make sure they would stop the bike.

After that, a few more tweaks and checks on nuts and bolts, another test-ride and it was done.

I think Ben will enjoy riding this bike. I hope he has a good lock for it.

If someone wants to bring me a frame and some parts and turn it into a rideable bike, I am happy to do that -- though parts and labor will make this a slightly more expensive proposition than simply buying a used low-end bike and tuning it up. But buildups are fun and can give you a bike that comes a lot closer to suiting your needs. If you build it with decent parts, it can also last longer (though tires, tubes and chains all need regular checking and replacing no matter what).

Happy, safe, SOLO riding!