Planet Bike Mud Flaps

Those following my 1972 Fuji Finest build will recall that I opted for 45 mm SKS silver chromoplastic fenders.  There were a variety of reasons for this - they fit the look of the bike, I've sort of had my fill of metal fenders for a while, and so forth.

I ended up being pleased with these fenders with one exception - the front fender doesn't have a mudflap and doesn't extend particularly low.  So while this is good enough to protect the rider, it provides only a minimal shield  from the abrasive laden gunk that sandblasts one's drive train when riding in the wet.

The chromoplastics are strong enough to support a leather mudflap, of which I have several lying about.  However, just as with metal fenders, I'm a bit cool on leather mudflaps these days.  They look sharp when first installed, but after some time being put to their intended purpose - i.e, being sprayed with mud - they get limp and floppy.

The sleekly shaped mudflaps on the Planet Bike fenders recently installed on the 1981 Fuji America weren't helping the case for leather mudflaps either.

On a whim, I went looking around the Planet Bike website and, goodness gracious, they sell mudflaps (and other replacement parts, such as stays) for their fenders.  So I ordered a 45 mm set, a deal at USD 5 with free shipping.  For informational purposes, they sell these in sets of two with plastic attachment rivets.

Planet Bike must have sensed that I was having a serious mudflap crisis because only two days later the mudflaps arrived on my doorstep.  I installed one on the front fender this afternoon in about 5 minutes:

Since I only care about myself (ask Mrs. Otaku about this sometime), I didn't put one on the rear, although I may should I ever feel an unfamiliar stirring that I identify as concern for others.

Anyhow, these are very nice looking mudflaps at an unbeatable price and, if this is what one is after, much more form-fitting than a leather mudflap. They come in a number of sizes.

Being aware that many readers do not share my current ambivalence about metal fenders, I test fitted one of these mudflaps to a Velo Orange 45mm aluminum smooth fender and it was quite a nice fit. Although I didn't have samples to test, I expect they would work with hammered and fluted fenders just as well, as the mudflaps are rather flexible.

Sometimes the good things in life might not be free but are at least cheap and have free shipping.  Kudos to Planet Bike for selling these as individual parts.

1972 Fuji Finest Slides Down The Ways

Finished up my 1972 Fuji Finest today.  Well, these things are never finished, but I got v1.0 up and running in time for the the traditional late afternoon picture taking and shakedown ride.

The Suntour V Luxe GT rear derailleur didn't want to play nice with a 7 Speed 13/28 IRD freewheel.  It didn't seem to have enough travel to get to the low gear and when shifting to the biggest cog, the derailleur cage interfered this the spokes.  I still want to use a derailleur of this type but I didn't have time to investigate or test another one, so I just installed a Suntour Cyclone GT I had handy for the time being.

I ended up using a set of 27" wheels with Sun CR19 rims laced to Campagnolo Croce d'Aune 36 hole hubs.  In a previous post, I described how I saved the rear hub from a possible dumpster fate.

Campagnolo C-Record and Croce d'Aune hubs have the most elegant spindle of any hubs I've ever seen.

The previously cut rear fender stays are a little short for this wheelset, but I think I can swap them out with the some of the fender stays on my 1981 Fuji America.  These haven't been trimmed yet and it looks like the America can use shorter stays than the Finest.

The relatively short 54 cm top tube has me wondering whether I should have used a stem with more extension or whether I am just not used to this position.  Time will tell on this.

The Finest has a very plush ride.  This is the first bike I've been able to ride Specialized Armadillos at 100 psi on gravel without my teeth being shaken out of my head.  My 10 mile test ride had about 6 miles of gravel, so I had plenty of time to make this observation.  My thought is that if I were doing a towpath century, this would definitely be the go to bike.

I ended up going with Dia Compe DC510 brake calipers rather than the Dia Compe Gran Compe ones.  The biggest reason for this was the DC510 are slightly exotic and unusual, although the brake pads are easier to adjust.

The small pulley on the nifty Dia Compe straddle wire hangers gives a lot of mechanical advantage.  At first blush, this feels like mushy brakes, but it is quite easy to lock the rear wheel.  One just has to pull the lever far enough.  The upside of the is very fine brake modulation.  Again, time will tell whether this needs to be addressed.  One simple way to do so and still retain the blingy hangers is to use slightly shorter straddle wires.

I'm guardedly optimistic about the Brooks Imperial saddle. There is a noticeable lack of pressure in one's nether regions, especially for a brand new saddle. Riding with non-cycling, civilian shorts, I did feel the edges of the cutouts a few times, making me think that padded shorts may be better for this saddle. However, that sensation diminished by the end of the ride, raising the possibility that this is an issue that will disappear as the saddle is broken in. Again, another issue about which time will tell.

Everything worked fine on the approximately ten mile test ride; there were no emergency adjustment stops necessary. Even the fenders were buzz free - I took a bit of care in the installation to put sound dampening bits of scrap bar tape at contact or close fit areas between the fenders and frame.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with this build which has been two years in the making. I put everything together, other than the fenders, with various parts and supplies I had in-house.

If the weather holds, I may try a longish C&O towpath excursion this weekend to further shakedown this bike.

Save The Wheels

About two weeks ago, I made a pretty boneheaded error when I was removing a freewheel.

The way I remove a freewheel is to secure the freewheel removal tool a bit loosely on the freewheel with the quick release skewer.  I then position a one inch box wrench in the wood vise at the end of the bench, insert the freewheel tool into the now well secured box wrench, and turn the wheel like a big bus steering wheel.

Most of the time this gives so much leverage that the freewheels just spin right off.  However, this wheelset had been subject to a lot of 28 chainring/34 cog hauling my not insignificant butt plus a trailer full of kid, picnic supplies, and the kitchen sink up many, many hills and over many many miles.

So that freewheel was on there and after struggling with it for a good long while, I almost gave up, but finally about fifteen minutes of grunt work did the trick.  I was so relieved at this I spun it a few turns and was idiotically wondering why it was getting hard to turn again. 

But flush with the initial victory I persevered until that dreadful realization dawned on me that I still had the quick release in place.

After removing the freewheel, I made a couple of unsuccessful attempts over the past several weeks to remount a freewheel, but even though the threads looked quite good, apparently I had munged up some of the initial engagement section on the hub.  Try as I might, I just couldn't get a freewheel threaded correctly.

And these weren't just any old wheels.  The rims are nothing special, just some polished Sun CR18, but the hubs are a nice set of Campy Croce D'Aune 36h that I've been very fastidious about repacking and consequently have many years of service left.  Back in the day when I bought these, people were practically giving them away, but they are pretty spendy now.

The reason I was mucking around with the freewheel in the first place was that this was my first choice for a wheelset for the 1972 Fuji Finest over which I'm currently obsessing.  But since I had apparently screwed the pooch with the Croce wheels, I put a nice set of wheels with Campagnolo high flange Nuovo Tipo wheels on the Finest.

I also have been making my peace with ruining this rear hub - the past few days I felt like I was getting to the acceptance stage.  I've never ruined a hubset before while working on them, especially such a nice one with such a stupid move, so this was a bit of a bitter pill.

But I hadn't accepted this fate because this evening I was overtaken with a grim determination to give it one last try.  I assembled my materials, took a five deep "serenity now" breaths and headed out to the garage.

To prepare the hub, I cleaned and then carefully burnished the hub freewheel threads with a stiff toothbrush until they positively gleamed.  Then I located two english threaded bottom bracket lock rings, one tight fitting, the other loose fitting - I was fortunate to have such a selection available.

Then with the loose fitting lock ring, I started carefully attempting to thread it onto the hub.  This was like being a safe cracker, first turning counter clockwise until I thought I felt a little bump that would indicate the thread ends of the lockring and hub had just passed by each other.

That was the sign that the two pieces were oriented to start turning clockwise and threading them together.  At this point, I could maybe turn the lock ring a quarter turn before moderate hand pressure was insufficient to turn any further.  I looked carefully at the orientation of the lockring to hub to help gauge whether it was cross threading or not.

I repeated this several times until I was convinced that I had things properly set up.  Then I took a bottom bracket lockring spanner and began every so gingerly giving the lockring a little pull and deciding from the tactile feedback whether the lockring was indeed properly threaded.

As with the hand threading, I backed out of this completely several times before I was satisfied with the thread engagement.  Eventually, I worked it through a full turn or so with the spanner, after which the lockring spun the rest of the way onto the hub with only finger pressure.

Having to only use finger pressure for all but the first turn was an especially good sign that the hub was salvageable, as this, in combination with the good appearance of the threads, indicated that the thread damage was limited to the first thread course.

After another burnishing and cleaning of the hub threads, I successfully repeated this meticulous process with the tightly fitting bottom bracket lock ring.

My spirits were rising, then, as I then went for the full enchilada with a freewheel with excruciatingly cleaned threads.  I was also a bit nervous, since on initial engagement, it is harder to visual judge the line up between the hub and a freewheel than it is with a lockring.  It is also a lot easier to inadvertently damage threads with a big heavy freewheel than it is with a tiny little lockring.

But to my overwhelming joy, on first attempt and only using finger pressure, the freewheel spun onto that hub like the hub just came out of its factory packaging (with a little grease applied to threads first, naturally).

So here is wheels saved by a last minute stay of execution on the Finest.  Readers who have been following the Finest saga may note that I've been fitting up some fender and to popular acclaim have gone with steel braided brake cable housing.  Better pictures will be forthcoming in future posts:

Bling O' The Day - Dia Compe Quick Release Straddle Wire Carrier

The whole reason I'm finally building my 1972 Fuji Finest frame is simply so I can use a set of these sweet Dia Compe straddle wire carriers with integrated quick release.

If there is a cooler straddle wire carrier than this, I'd sure like to see it (and buy about 20...).

After using a set on the Finest, I've still got one set plus a single orphaned one, which I'm thinking might make an Otaku-ish key fob.

1972 Fuji Finest Build

I made some progress with my 1972 Fuji Finest.  The Newbaums cloth handlebar tape took four coats of shellac rather than my customary three coats.  The cloth is a lot thicker and consequently soaks up a lot of shellac.  Similarly, the weave pattern seems more prominent.  But at four coats, I was quite happy with the feel under hand as well as the color - it is nearly a perfect match now for the maroon Brooks Imperial saddle:

It is almost ready to go, just need to hook up cables and so forth.  However, I also picked up a set of SKS Chromoplastic fenders to install, so that will add a little time before this is on the road.

The full list of bits/pieces for enquiring minds:

Front Derailleur: Compe V
Rear Derailleur: Suntour V Luxe GT
Crankset: Specialized "Flag" triple 50/39/28, including original BB
Freewheel: IRD 13/32
Headset: Sprint Alloy, JIS, hand me down from earlier Superbe
Stem: Nitto Technomic
Bars: Nitto Olympiade, 42cm
Bar tape: Newbaums maroon
Brakes/Levers: NOS set of early Dia Compe Gran Compe
Pedals: MKS Touring
Seatpost: SR Laprade 26.6
Saddle: New Brooks Imperial, maroon
Rims: Sun CR18 700c, 36h, polished
Spokes: DT straight gauge
Tires: Specialized Nimbus Armadillos, 35c
Hubs: Campy Nuovo Tipo
Shifters: Suntour Power Ratchet DT
Bell: Crane, made in Osaka no less, available through Rivendell.

And lets not forget the vintage Christophe Special toeclips adorned with VO toeclip leathers and VO toeclip straps with buckle pad.

Dia Compe Straddle Wire Carriers And Lord Of The Flies Countdown

In an earlier post, we looked at several blingy straddle wire carriers.  I mentioned that I had another set with an integrated quick release.  Today, I dug these out because I am installing a NOS set of very early Dia Compe Gran Compe centerpulls on my 1972 Fuji Finest.

These early Gran Compe brakes are only subtly different from the standard Dia Compe centerpulls.  The caliper arms are more slender, nicely polished, and anodized.  Similarly, some of the other brake hardware, like mounting bolts, springs, etc. is more nicely polished/chrome plated than on the standard centerpulls.  Finally, the lever bodies have a bit more elegant, less blocky profile.

However, they still used the prosaic bent metal straddle wire carriers, so I am replacing them with these:

I've applied two coats of shellac to the maroon Newbaums cloth handlebar tape.  In the following picture, the color is a little uneven because it is still drying, but we can see that it will ending up matching the maroon Brooks Imperial saddle quite nicely.  I'll go with at least one more coat.  Recently, I've been going with about three coats of shellac, which seems to seal cloth handlebar tape nicely but doesn't get the glossy frosted doughnut look. However, the Newbaums sucks up so much shellac I may need a fourth coat for the result I prefer.

As you can see, I've moved the bike into the kitchen to dry the shellac more quickly - it is still rather chilly in the basement. Since the Finest was sitting there so conveniently, I got to work installing the brake calipers.

When fitting up the semi-circular brake mounting spacers that mate to the brake bridge and fork, I apply a little grease to the contact area just as I do with anything that clamps to the frame such as derailleurs, downtube shifters, brake cable housing clips, etc. My theory is that this tends to exclude the moisture that collects at this type of interface and inhibits the rust formation so commonly found under such fittings.

I'm still debating whether to use the Gran Compe calipers or swap them out for these Dia Compe 510 calipers. In addition to looking a little more slick and offering more pad adjustability, I'd bet the arms are stiffer due to the section containing the brake pad slot being orthogonal to the direction of the caliper arm motion:

And finally, now we know for sure how thin the veneer of civilization - five weeks from Mrs. Otaku's departure for Japan to the point that I'm working on bicycles in the kitchen...

Newbaum's Cloth Handlebar Tape

I've been getting a little busy finally building up my 1972 Fuji Finest frame, which is shaping up as a rough/ready rider assembled from whatever I find on my shelfs.  There will be more on this bike in a future post when I'm done; for now I want to talk about taping the handlebars.

A couple of weeks ago my friend Kev scored a purple 1978 Fuji S12-S.  This had pretty crummy handlebar tape, so we ordered some purple Newbaums cloth handlebar tape from Rivendell.  I figured what the heck and ordered 4 rolls of the maroon featured in an earlier post.

Today, I finally got around to installing some of this.  Keeping with the spirit of this Finest build - nothing fancy - rather than any foo-foo diamond wrapping, I just did a straight from the old school spiral wrap starting at the bar ends and ending at the bar sleeve.

I also wanted to see how quick I could do this, as I had heard it was very easy to install.  So rather than my usual futzing around with wrapping a couple of turns, eyeballing, then maybe doing over, I just committed to a quick wrap, like in a production situation.

The one thing I did do was remove the paper backing from the tape and rerolled it before putting it on the bars.  I find doing this saves a lot of trouble when wrapping with paper backed tape.

Well, the Newbaums is pretty impressive.  It doesn't take much effort to make it lie flat, unlike Tressostar where one sometimes has to pull pretty hard on the tape.  It went very quick, maybe 10-15 minutes to wrap the bars.

So now, even cavepersons can have nicely wrapped handlebars. 

Here is the result, again, a little uneven, but I was trying to work quick.

The Newbaums tape is slightly narrower than Tressostar or Viva tape, but it is much thicker. Plus, the Newbaums is longer, so you don't end up in the all too common and sad situation where one runs out of tape before running out of handlebar.

The tap thickness is readily apparent when gripping the bars, as it feels noticeably plusher under the hand than with the other two common brands.

I'm trying to think of something bad to say about this stuff, but I'm pretty much of a loss other than to ask how come these guys didn't start selling this stuff years ago. And best of all, it isn't any more expensive than other brands.

How they achieved this producing this tape in the U.S. is a bit of a mystery - maybe I'll write and ask them.

The maroon tape is a very striking color that is well represented in the pictures above. I was tempted to leave it as is, but I wanted to run it through the whole shellac process as well as the fact that with shellac, this color will probably better match a maroon Brooks Imperial that is going on the Finest.

The first coat of shellac is drying as I write this. The thickness of the tape is very evident during application of the first coat, as it soaks up a extraordinary amount of shellac. My advice is to be pretty careful during this first coat to make sure that the tape is fully saturated, otherwise there can be unevenness in the color that is difficult to work out in later coats.

There will be more pictures of this in a day or two when I finish up the 1972 Fuji Finest.