I'm just popping up here to express a certain frustration with changing standards and sizes... particularly in the world of bicycle parts. This is a familiar story to anyone who plays around with old bicycles.
I am currently working on restoration (to usability, not showpiece status) of a mid 80's Raleigh Touring bike (the text="kodiak/" if you're interested). The chainrings were pretty chewed up, so I intended to replace them and went into my local bike shop (LBC), to order the new ones. We both took a look and guessed it was a standard 110/74 B.C.D. arrangement and ordered based on that. Unbeknownst to us, there were stumbling blocks in the works.
I discovered on getting the new shiny chainrings home that the small one was really too small for the crankset I was intending it to adorn. I returned the next day for a second measurement and hopefully reordering. It was not to be, as we discovered upon pouring through parts catalogs, and my later internet explorations, this lovely Takagi crankset uses the now obsolete text="86" for the inner chainring (just browse around at that link to find the answers to questions you may be having like "what is B.C.D?", "what is a chainring", "just what, when you get right down to it, is this guy talking about?"), and this size is no longer available. It's not made no more.
I checked ebay and looked elsewhere around the strange and mystical world of NOS bike parts on the internet. I'd be paying more than $50 no matter where I went it seems. So, plan #2! The outer chainrings are 110, and that's lovely. I think I'm just going to find a new crankset in the nice, safe, modern 110/74 format and re-buy that 26 tooth chainring I ordered and be done with it (can't even get 26 tooth in 86 B.C.D. I'd be stuck with 28 as the smallest available size, and I'd be hard pressed to find another replacement in a hurry). This is, to some degree, kowtowing to the modern age I guess... but really, sometimes the whole thing with all these different standards and sizes just seems calculated to annoy (or rather, to get you to buy a particular company's parts rather than mixing and matching to your own contentment). Maybe it isn't always reasonable, but I sometimes wish bike and bike part makers would just get together and agree to use a single set of standards for everything so everything would interchange nicely and smoothly, and then just don't change anything... this of course does not solve the issue of all the old bikes out there sporting a wide array of parts in all shapes and, particularly, sizes.
Props to the LBS by the way. In no way is this an indictment of the service available at text=Chain Reaction.
Showing posts with label projects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label projects. Show all posts
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
flip-flapping in the breeze
... actually, currently flip-flapping in the basement...
It's:
My latest finished project!
Good thing, since that's what this thing was pretty much intended for. The cultural criticism and nature writing is well and good, but I'm supposed to making stuff. I have been, and I'm gonna tell you about it.
Hobby Lobby. I don't know quite what it is about Hobby Lobby. I don't quite like going there. Some of it is that it's a chain store, but there just aren't many local craft stores of that sort around. There's a nice yarn shop a mile from my house, and local places to get paint and assorted art supplies... but I think all the fabric shops are chains of at least some size. Anyway, there are certain things for which Hobby Lobby is indispensible. One of these, for some reason, is yellow rip-stop nylon... about which more in another post or two. Two of these is scrap leather. They get these bags of cast off bits of a variety of shapes and sizes and colors from... I dunno, saddleries and cobblers and purseries and whatnot. They stick a bunch of bits in a bag and I go and pick up a bag or two and try to decide what to do with 'em all.
First thing I've done now is to make up a pair of leather mudflaps for one of my bicycles. The venerable Brooks of England makes leather mudflaps... they cost $30 a piece. One can also get some through Velo-Orange, for cheaper. Now you can get them from me! I decided, since I had the leather, some punches, knives and leather treatment stuff made out of bee secretions I should just make some myself.
First I figured out a good size based on measuring my fenders and checking the listed sizes for the Velo-Orange and Brooks styles, figuring it's best to copy what's out there first of all. I also was limited by the sizes of leather pieces I had in colors that roughly matched one another (for front and rear flaps). So I came up with a pattern, and made a template on some lovely green paper.
That's the negative shape of course, I traced the positive shape on the leather, but either would work, I think the positive shape was probably wandering around somewhere out of reach when I took this blurry photo though.
So then I cut out my trapezoids (not trapeziuses... that would hurt), and punched holes for mounting, like so:
Aren't those lovely? They did have that type in metric, but only in black, and I'm a sucker for shiny bits of metal.
Next order of business was cleaning and weather-treating the things since they're going to be catching lots of mud and dirt and water and gunk and stuff and ambiguous goo. Behold the stuff:
It's:
My latest finished project!
Good thing, since that's what this thing was pretty much intended for. The cultural criticism and nature writing is well and good, but I'm supposed to making stuff. I have been, and I'm gonna tell you about it.
Hobby Lobby. I don't know quite what it is about Hobby Lobby. I don't quite like going there. Some of it is that it's a chain store, but there just aren't many local craft stores of that sort around. There's a nice yarn shop a mile from my house, and local places to get paint and assorted art supplies... but I think all the fabric shops are chains of at least some size. Anyway, there are certain things for which Hobby Lobby is indispensible. One of these, for some reason, is yellow rip-stop nylon... about which more in another post or two. Two of these is scrap leather. They get these bags of cast off bits of a variety of shapes and sizes and colors from... I dunno, saddleries and cobblers and purseries and whatnot. They stick a bunch of bits in a bag and I go and pick up a bag or two and try to decide what to do with 'em all.
First thing I've done now is to make up a pair of leather mudflaps for one of my bicycles. The venerable Brooks of England makes leather mudflaps... they cost $30 a piece. One can also get some through Velo-Orange, for cheaper. Now you can get them from me! I decided, since I had the leather, some punches, knives and leather treatment stuff made out of bee secretions I should just make some myself.
First I figured out a good size based on measuring my fenders and checking the listed sizes for the Velo-Orange and Brooks styles, figuring it's best to copy what's out there first of all. I also was limited by the sizes of leather pieces I had in colors that roughly matched one another (for front and rear flaps). So I came up with a pattern, and made a template on some lovely green paper.
That's the negative shape of course, I traced the positive shape on the leather, but either would work, I think the positive shape was probably wandering around somewhere out of reach when I took this blurry photo though.
So then I cut out my trapezoids (not trapeziuses... that would hurt), and punched holes for mounting, like so:
I also needed some mounting bolts, so I went to the hardware store (the little local one) and got these slick and shiny fellas. They're SAE, not metric, but come close enough that I can use my metric bike tools to mount them without ruining everything.
Aren't those lovely? They did have that type in metric, but only in black, and I'm a sucker for shiny bits of metal.
Next order of business was cleaning and weather-treating the things since they're going to be catching lots of mud and dirt and water and gunk and stuff and ambiguous goo. Behold the stuff:
Yeah... that's all. And then the flaps looked like SO:
but rather less blurry...
And then I drilled holes in the fenders to match the holes in the flaps like SO:
And assembled with the bolts like SO:
(with and without flash)
And that was it really.
Now they are sitting in the basement because the bike they are intended for is in a hundred pieces in the basement as well. But they're pretty cool I think and I wanted to share.
Hope you've enjoyed it.
but rather less blurry...
And then I drilled holes in the fenders to match the holes in the flaps like SO:
And assembled with the bolts like SO:
(with and without flash)
And that was it really.
Now they are sitting in the basement because the bike they are intended for is in a hundred pieces in the basement as well. But they're pretty cool I think and I wanted to share.
Hope you've enjoyed it.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
What flies through firmaments
Somehow or another I got it into my head, this past winter or autumn, to try my hand at kite making. Just one more craft in the ever-growing list of things which take up space and time in my life. Not that I complain, these are good things that I enjoy, and I've learned which are wise to adopt. I can catch onto simple mechanics and construction like bicycle mechanics and kites. I never had much luck with electronics beyond splicing wires together. Enough talent I had at that to put together a contact mic, but no more.
Anyway! My original intent had been to get a kite done in time for Fly A Kite Day, handily marked on the calendar I recieved for my birthday this year. Failing that I decided to get one ready sometime before the end of National Kite Flying Month. This did not happen either, but I now have a complete kite... which has been sitting waiting for me to actually take it out and see if the darn thing'll fly, or if I'll have to start again. I haven't done any decoration yet. I'm holding off in case it bursts into flame once aloft. Don't want to waste time. If it flies I'll decorate it. If it flies, but poorly, and survives the attempt, I might still decorate it and keep it as non-usable art.
So, here is the unpapered frame. I got the bamboo from TJ Max. It's not the best quality stuff, and it's probably rather overpriced, even at TJ Max prices, as craft bamboo since it's sold as a decorative sheaf. Anyway, it's something to play with for now. I've been looking into various purveyors of bulk bamboo for building. The above photo is of the second attempt, since on the first attempt I made the cross, then attatched the sail, then tried to do the bend of the cross piece, which broke. I checked out a number of books from the library with names like KITES! Make Them! and decided on the Eddy kite for my first project. It's much like a typical diamond kite, but with a curved crosspiece that adds stability and control that the flat diamond kite lacks without the addition of a tail.
I then covered the frame with newsprint paper, as you see. I didn't have large enough pieces on hand to cover it with one piece, so I had to glue various seems. We'll see how that holds together.
Materials are bamboo, hemp twine, wood glue, elmers glue, and a bit of shellac over the knots. I gessoed the paper for strength (?) and a better decorating surface, and attached a bridle of hemp twine with a fishing sort of attachment of a name I've forgotten to connect the line to.
[as an aside, I'm just learning about this
blogger thing, so I'm experimenting with
format here]
Well, that's about all I can write until I've actually tried flying the thing. If this one works I will move on to more elaborate designs.
Thanks for reading.
Anyway! My original intent had been to get a kite done in time for Fly A Kite Day, handily marked on the calendar I recieved for my birthday this year. Failing that I decided to get one ready sometime before the end of National Kite Flying Month. This did not happen either, but I now have a complete kite... which has been sitting waiting for me to actually take it out and see if the darn thing'll fly, or if I'll have to start again. I haven't done any decoration yet. I'm holding off in case it bursts into flame once aloft. Don't want to waste time. If it flies I'll decorate it. If it flies, but poorly, and survives the attempt, I might still decorate it and keep it as non-usable art.
So, here is the unpapered frame. I got the bamboo from TJ Max. It's not the best quality stuff, and it's probably rather overpriced, even at TJ Max prices, as craft bamboo since it's sold as a decorative sheaf. Anyway, it's something to play with for now. I've been looking into various purveyors of bulk bamboo for building. The above photo is of the second attempt, since on the first attempt I made the cross, then attatched the sail, then tried to do the bend of the cross piece, which broke. I checked out a number of books from the library with names like KITES! Make Them! and decided on the Eddy kite for my first project. It's much like a typical diamond kite, but with a curved crosspiece that adds stability and control that the flat diamond kite lacks without the addition of a tail.
I then covered the frame with newsprint paper, as you see. I didn't have large enough pieces on hand to cover it with one piece, so I had to glue various seems. We'll see how that holds together.
Materials are bamboo, hemp twine, wood glue, elmers glue, and a bit of shellac over the knots. I gessoed the paper for strength (?) and a better decorating surface, and attached a bridle of hemp twine with a fishing sort of attachment of a name I've forgotten to connect the line to.
[as an aside, I'm just learning about this
blogger thing, so I'm experimenting with
format here]
Well, that's about all I can write until I've actually tried flying the thing. If this one works I will move on to more elaborate designs.
Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
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