I ate a lot of potato chips!
They must have helped my brain cause I got the Bike With The Funny Name ready for the road.
Sort of.
I was still fooling around with the free wheel and the rear derailleur, seeing what I could do to get it to shift correctly.
Funny thing is, under load, the rear cogs looked like they were spinning true.
Still, the derailleur was doing funky things in the middle of the cassette.
Or whatever they call those diabolical thingys.
If you've been following along at home, you, the reader, know that I installed some olden days type SIS thumb shifters for the quill stem is frozen in the steerer tube.
Now after playing with the rear derailleur adjustment for like forever! I noticed that perhaps it wasn't the wobble in the free wheel causing the missed shifts.
Maybe the shifters are indexed incorrectly.
Well, the stem shifters I got initially would not go on with removing the stem:
The stem clamp won't open up.
Then I remembered the $15 bucks I spent on what I thought were down tube shifters but were actually stem shifters that had a different type of clamp.
I dug in the ole box of crap and Viola!
I just peeled that clamp thingy open and slipped it on!
I trimmed the cables and while I was at it, I reversed the brake cables that some banana head had installed incorrectly.
Ahem.
Now running through the gears was copacetic.
Except for this:
Boy when it happens, it happens.
WTF?
First of all, I made sure the chain rings themselves were flat by holding a straight edge on them.
A-okay.
So it must the crank arms.
Off they came!
Back on they went!
Off the came again!
Back on they went again!
WTF?
Turns out the bottom bracket axle was bent!
How that happened is a mystery since the cranks show no signs of any impacts or crashes.
Into the box of crap I went and got this:
Leftover bottom bracket from the Lanikai Express project.
Measuring the axle, it came up just a bit short, the original looked to be around 125mm and the new one was 122mm.
What's three millimeters between friends?
Nothing it seems for everything works great!
Except the free wheel sounds like a rusted ole tin can rolling around in a rusted ole garbage can rolling down a bumpy hill.
Still it engages and spins so I guess it's good to go!
For now.
Anyways.
Riding around out in front of Flat Tire Central showed that friction shifting is going to take some getting used to, especially since I have to summon the Jedi skills in order to shift from the middle of the bars.
Sitting up all nice and tall(that's what I'm talking about Willis!) dare I say it, is kinda fun.
I sorta feel like I need a three piece tweed suit or something.
Anyways, there are just a few more things to work out like the front brakes which feel like the pads are made out of Teflon cause they won't even lock up.
I don't have the greatest of faith in those center pulls.
They just don't seem to respond well to my kung-fu grip.
The use of the friction shifters means that if I do get some used/new wheels, I only have to worry about rear spacing and I won't be limited to five speeds.
Time to hit up the eVilness and see what's out there.
I may have to paint this thing after all.
Maybe.
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