fifteen dollar bike-how fun! - Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More

06-21-2004, 10:17 PM

Ingredients:

One 1971 Raleigh Grand Prix completely covered in rust that my neighbor
dropped by to see if I wanted the parts. One new chain: 7 bucks
One cheap childs seat: 8 bucks

My friends ten year old wants to learn to ride a bike with handbrakes so
this is going to be his neighborhood loaner and for folks that stop by and
need a simple ride. It was also a challenge: this was the worst looking
bike I'd seen in a very long time. No chrome was visible, just rust. I saw
the Raleigh badge and figured there might be something decent underneath.

First thing, I took it all apart to the bearings, save the hubs which were
amazingly fine! The freewheel wouldn't turn so it got soaked. Paint was
scrubbed with rubbing compound to remove the rust bloom and chrome and
aluminum received a vigorous steel wooling.

Simplex derailleurs [well, the bike-boom era plastic ones] suck, so I
removed them and rebuilt the stronglight cranks with only a 42. Gearing is
42x20. Old chains are horrible, and take forever to clean so a new cheapie
Tava with quick release link was added.

Old neat cast alu stem with "GB" stamped in it for you patriots.

The Weinmann brakes are actually very nice to use! I resurfaced the brake
pads with a box plane to get at some soft material. Levers have custom
white "carlton" hoods. Ohh la la!

Original Wright saddle was unrecoverable due to dry rot, rivet failure
can't be jerry rigged. Replaced with dep. store crappy vinyl jobber.

This is a $15 dollar bike, so no nice bmx freewheel and new tires--the old
IRCs were actually fine and virtually new! The handlebar tape is the
factory original--really neat groove-textured plastic.

The ancient Sturmey Archer freewheel has totally flat thick and
unchamfered sprockets which keep the chain from jumping off. You wouldn't
want to try to actually use a derailleur on it. I used the middle cog,
perhaps I'll remove the others when I can scare up some chain whips.

I repacked the headset, bb, and pedals and needed no tools other than
degreaser, grease and two wrenches--aren't old beaters fun?

The thing is silent and smooth, no drivetrain noise and the cranks are
buttery. I raised the saddle to a rediculous height and went for a fifteen
miler in my racer boy duds yesterday and got quite a few stares, not the
good kind. LOL.

I want one in my size now! Only thing I'd change for mine would be to
rebuild the old large flange hubs onto a set of fresh Mavic 700s and add
some fast tires and a bmx freewheel--would still cost under $100. I can't
wait...

a couple pics from my horrible webcam:
http://home.earthlink.net/~maxotterl...h/image002.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~maxotterl...h/image015.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~maxotterl...h/image005.jpg

anybody else a total cheapskate?

06-22-2004, 01:39 AM

Tue, 22 Jun 2004 05:17:03 GMT,
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>, maxo
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

>Old neat cast alu stem with "GB" stamped in it for you patriots.

"GB stands for Gerry Burgess." Made brakes and handle bars too.
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
--
zk

06-22-2004, 01:39 AM

Tue, 22 Jun 2004 05:17:03 GMT,
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>, maxo
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

>Old neat cast alu stem with "GB" stamped in it for you patriots.

"GB stands for Gerry Burgess." Made brakes and handle bars too.
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
--
zk

06-22-2004, 01:39 AM

Tue, 22 Jun 2004 05:17:03 GMT,
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>, maxo
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

>Old neat cast alu stem with "GB" stamped in it for you patriots.

"GB stands for Gerry Burgess." Made brakes and handle bars too.
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
--
zk

06-22-2004, 01:39 AM

Tue, 22 Jun 2004 05:17:03 GMT,
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>, maxo
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

>Old neat cast alu stem with "GB" stamped in it for you patriots.

"GB stands for Gerry Burgess." Made brakes and handle bars too.
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
--
zk

06-22-2004, 01:39 AM

Tue, 22 Jun 2004 05:17:03 GMT,
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>, maxo
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

>Old neat cast alu stem with "GB" stamped in it for you patriots.

"GB stands for Gerry Burgess." Made brakes and handle bars too.
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
--
zk