cycle renovation, pt. II

today after work i managed to horde some old bicycle workings with the hopes of getting the schwinn on its way. frustratingly enough, most of the 3 hrs i spent working on it after the shop closed only saw the fruits of a wholly unacceptable threadless headset assembly. this i frankensteined together from three different sets and various other randomlings hiding in our "Headset Parts" bin. (a note about "_____ Parts" bins: this is where little pieces of metal that have either been found on the floor while sweeping at the end of the day or weren't good enough to make the cut for a customer's bike in the first place go to die. these bins are the boneyards, the graveyards, the burning funeral pyres [see also: "funeral pyre"!] of the bicycle repair shop, i swear to god they are.) quite literally, nearly every cup, bearing, race and cap were cannibalized from other, far less fortunate headsets. the bearings are the rusted out nearly original pair from the schwinn resulting in a handlebar/stem/fork assembly (something which i'll be getting to rather shortly) that steers horribly at best.

though the majority of my time was indeed spent on this nearly fruitless aspect of a project that was becoming increasingly bleak with each passing minute and each passing sip (read: deep swilling) of pabst, there were a few other notable breakthroughs! notable among notables:

• one fox float rlt80 suspension fork has been acquired and installed! though nearly destroyed and severely lacking in what one might usually consider some modicum of functionality, it at least gets the bike closer to mobility. it was formerly on the dirt jump bike of one of the mechanics and had been rotting in one of the shops more notorious dark corners before i saved it, cleaned it and promptly ripped the decals. with no decals, and the paint is much more of a battleship gray than shown in the link above, there is a certain utilitarian look to the fork now - sort of like any stock communist good.
  
• while rooting about in the basement like a vagrant through a dumpster of day olds i happened upon a brand new and completely misplaced shimano deore crankset. cheap, heavy and expendable - perfect for the application. i'll be taking the outer ring and the inner ring off and replacing them with a bashguard that i already have to protect the 32t middle ring. singlespeed up front for simplicity's sake.
• a new chain has been added along with brake levers, the front brakes and rear shifter. also, a new stem, handlebar, seat and tires have found themselves suddenly useful.
  

though thoroughly miffed after the headset problems, the bike is now many steps closer to being ridable. the next big find will be a front wheel for not only cheap but hopefully free. after that, new cables and housing will be all that is stopping the commuter from wandering the streets (rather dodgily, granted, but wandering no less).

pictures to come.

oh, and i cut my hair.


-e

p.s. fixies are for the devil. as the article tells you, it's all image and rude hipster fucks with Chrome bags who've always been assholes to me (you can clearly tell that i've no personal experience with these bikes) (also! nothing personal ben, for the thought, though no more than a flash in the pan, crossed my mind.). also, they are now required by law, in oregon and many other states, to have brakes. singlespeeds, however = cool.