Technical disaster day

Wow, 12698 articles unread, I've been lax. oh well. Think of it as
time saved.

Today I set out to fix the main Huffy that had a bottom bracket
disintegration last December, that had been sitting in the garage
while I rode my backup Huffy. Still, it was pleasant weather,
there were no bugs, I had no pressing job-work task for a change,
and it would be nice to get back that 3mph that the nicer Huffy
gives me through its more aerodynamic riding position with the
flat bar ends below the seat and straight forward, so I set to work.

I had all the parts - it needed new BB everything : spindle, R&L cones
and races, R&L cranks (chainrings come on the R crank); since the
chainrings are being changed (they're pointy shark-tooth shaped anyway)
the chain has to change, and the freewheel has to change. I have those
too. And the rear derailleur is all rusted, so I have the spare out.

I figure an hour and a half.

Well, the R crank won't extract. It strips the threads on the crank
(not the tool, fortunately). L crank is okay, and that lets me pull
out the spindle on the right side, with R crank attached. Drop
in waste basket. Pound out old races, discard. The L race was in
several pieces and really bent up, cause of the disintegration.

Pound in new races, put R crank on new spindle, try to guess whether
bearing retainer back should face cone or race (decided cone),
assembled the rest, added L crank.

WTF? the big chainwheel is out past the front derailleur limit by
about one chainwheel. They lengthened the spindle!

Disassemble, compare with old spindle in waste basket. Yep, not the
same part. Apparently after 5 years Huffy forgets what part fits
what bicycle. Oh well, too late now. The old spindle doesn't
even have the same geometry so it couldn't swap even if it weren't
stuck to the R chainwheel.

At least the pound-in races & bearings are the same.

Remove wheel, remove freewheel (addition of vice has permanently
solved this difficult job making it child's play). Screw on new
freewheel. It binds against the spoke protector. No two consecutive
freewheels are ever the same. Spent an hour looking for a junk wheel
with a spacer, disassembled it and retrieved spacer, applied under
new freewheel.

Remove chain, uh... where is the sram power link? Spend 15 minutes
inspecting each link. They're all the same. Find ancient rivet
remover, remove a rivet, take chain into bright sunshine to satisfy
open curiosity. Sram link recovered and tossed in junk drawer.

New chain with new link goes together easily - at least something
shows professionalism in this job.

Replace rear derailleur, piece of cake. Old one falls off in heap
of rust.

WD40 up derailleur cable until it works again (bike died in salt
season long ago and everything is frozen). Gears change up and
down nicely.

Front derailleur is frozen solid. WD40 it and work it back and forth
for 15 minutes until it's free again. No way to get it to reach out
to new big sprocket. Try bending. Nope. Remove front derailleur
entirely, it's back to the old days where you just pick up the chain
and put it on the ring you want. Make note to get salad tongs.

Ride to store goes fine, 3mph has returned. I go out on the big
chainwheel as it's more downhill than up, and come back on the middle
chainwheel. That will work okay. Tighten up L and R cranks slightly.

Total work time, 5 hours, still washing grit off my hands. Enough time
to pay for a new high end Huffy, more or less.

It's on the hairy edge of too many parts at once, where I go to a new
Huffy, but I happen to like this model and frame, and the prospect
of adding fenders and luggage carriers to a new one make it less
attractive to spring for a new one.

A close thing though.

One amazing thing, the kickstand resurrected itself. It had been
frozen solid and somehow freed itself up enough to WD40 it the
rest of the way. Maybe salt rusted away an obstruction.
--
Ron Hardin


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Ron Hardin wrote:

(addition of vice has permanently
solved this difficult job making it child's play)

You're lucky. It seems that life gets tougher every time I add a vice.
And it's usually a delayed reaction -- add vice now, pay later.

Remove front derailleur
entirely, it's back to the old days where you just pick up the chain
and put it on the ring you want. Make note to get salad tongs.

Salad tongs as FD! That's awesome. I gotta remember that one.

--
Dave
dvt at psu dot edu

I'm still stuck on the "back up huffy " part. Why would anyone buy a
mated pair? That would only leed to breeding, and more little huffys
running around all over the place.

Repair parts? Mulch that sucker. for the price of parts/labor you can
buy a brand spanking new one! Or just wait around for the next brood...
m

bikeguy11968 wrote:
Repair parts? Mulch that sucker. for the price of parts/labor you can
buy a brand spanking new one! Or just wait around for the next brood...

That's my usual policy, but the inconvenience factor owing to a shuttered
Kmart is pretty high now, and a new one means adding fenders and luggage
carrier arrangement (= regular rack supported underneath by a stripped
seatpost rack beam for stability side-to-side), and the new ones are
all some kid style that are being carried these days, and I had the parts.

The air-shock ones won't take a decent rain fender & mudflap.

So those considerations floated around in my head. 5 hours was a little
long though.

The job drew no blood, which was unusual.

--
Ron Hardin


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

dvt wrote:

Ron Hardin wrote:

(addition of vice has permanently
solved this difficult job making it child's play)

You're lucky. It seems that life gets tougher every time I add a vice.
And it's usually a delayed reaction -- add vice now, pay later.

Remove front derailleur
entirely, it's back to the old days where you just pick up the chain
and put it on the ring you want. Make note to get salad tongs.

Salad tongs as FD! That's awesome. I gotta remember that one.

I pressed the salad tongs into service that I used to teach the dogs
scent discrimination for Utility (to avoid getting your scent on any
article except one when you place them), a wire thingy with square
working end, and coat-hanger quality wire.

It loops easily over a front brake cable, bending the cable slightly
to hold tension as it hooks over each handle loop.

The first dozen tries shifting by picking up the chain and putting
it on another chainwheel worked easily, with no practice. I deduce
that a front derailleur is completely unnecessary. More invention
will be required in deciding where to hang the thing than in how
to use them.

This is assuming you don't shift much with the front derailleur, I
guess. Not for half-step gearing, but who uses that any longer.

Also not for when you can't ride looking down for a few seconds at
a time.

But the tongs don't freeze up from underuse. I see a bright future.

Look for the Nashbar salad tongs.

--
Ron Hardin


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

"Ron Hardin" wrote in message
...

But the tongs don't freeze up from underuse. I see a bright future.

Look for the Nashbar salad tongs.


Nope.

You're too late.

Campagnolo already has them out as part of its line of kitchen accessories -
peanut butter knife, wine bottle opener, skishkabob skewers, and tong
shifters.

And who said the Italians were slow to improvise?

Lee

On Mon, 20 Jun 2005 18:40:07 GMT Ron Hardin
wrote:

I pressed the salad tongs into service

The first dozen tries shifting by picking up the chain and putting
it on another chainwheel worked easily, with no practice.

The first derailleur geared bike I ever rode was a circa '64 Schwinn
Continental. It had a front der which consisted of a lever that ran up
to the top of the seat post so you could grab the top with one hand
and push the chain sideways with it's bottom end. I assume this was
all made by Huret, but it's the only one like that I've ever seen.

I'm pretty sure it was coupled with that marvel of weight and
sluggishness, the Huret Alvit rear der.

Can anyone tell me what this front der was and when it was made?

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

On Mon, 20 Jun 2005 22:54:07 -0500, Jim Adney
wrote:

On Mon, 20 Jun 2005 18:40:07 GMT Ron Hardin
wrote:

I pressed the salad tongs into service

The first dozen tries shifting by picking up the chain and putting
it on another chainwheel worked easily, with no practice.

The first derailleur geared bike I ever rode was a circa '64 Schwinn
Continental. It had a front der which consisted of a lever that ran up
to the top of the seat post so you could grab the top with one hand
and push the chain sideways with it's bottom end. I assume this was
all made by Huret, but it's the only one like that I've ever seen.

I'm pretty sure it was coupled with that marvel of weight and
sluggishness, the Huret Alvit rear der.

Can anyone tell me what this front der was and when it was made?

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

Dear Jim,

Judging by page 192 of the 2nd edition of Frank Berto's "The
Dancing Chain," your Schwinn Continental was probably using
a Huret Alivet rear derailleur worked from the downtube and
probably a Simplex Competition front derailleur worked by
the rod going half-way up the seat tube.

The pictures and captions show that the 1960 Schwinn Varsity
8-speed used Simplex fore and aft, but the later model
Varsity switched to the Huret Alivit rear derailleur,
apparently keeping the rod-operated front Simplex
derailleur.

The top-of-the-line Paramount used Campagnolo.

Carl Fogel