What the world needs. Another bike blog. But the blogspace is free, I have something to say about cycles and cycling in tropical Australia and there's an audience out there so away we go.
Above is my latest creation which I freely admit is a piece of junk. This isn't surprising because it was literally built from junk. I'm a regular visitor to the local garbage tip recycle shop where I look for new additions to the accumulation of bicycles. It can be a depressing experience. Dozens of decrepit Cyclops's, Repcos, Speedwells, Huffys and Roadmasters. A vista of rusty steel rims, broken galvanised spokes and corroded orange chains. Maybe someone loved them once but now they are unrideable and have found a final resting place in the bicycle boneyard. About one visit in four I'll see something interesting and a complete bicycle will become mine in exchange for as little as $5. A pair of Shimano 7 speed indexed down-tube shifters for $5 with a whole bike attached is not to be passed up if you happen to need them.
When I felt a sudden desire for a single speed roadster with drop bars I discovered that my accumulation of dead bicycles had reached critical mass and I was able to piece a bike together with junk parts from no less than seven other bicycles plus a few new parts I had anyway.
The donor frame was a white 56cm Shogun Selectra 14 speed which was actually the bearer of the Shimano shifters I mentioned. From online research I date it to early 1990's and that was kind of confirmed by a mid 1991 date stamp underneath the plastic Taiwanese saddle. The paint and decals weren't good enough to preserve but the decals did say that frame and fork are Tangaloy, a bottom of the line Tange CrMo tubing. Frame has very plain looking lugs but brazed lugs nonetheless while the fork is a unicrown type.
Nice forged dropouts which, very importantly are semi-horizontal. The slots aren't all that long but with the new blue Redline BMX chain tugs there's enough range of movement to adjust the chain.
The freehub is a 7 speed Hyperglide type. I pulled a couple of old cassettes apart to get a collection of cogs and spacers. One cassette was a Shimano IG type with cogs innocent of ramps and odd height teeth. All they had was twisted tops on the nice tall teeth so an unworn 16 tooth IG cog became my rear cog. I sandwiched it between a couple of 17 tooth cogs and spacers to discourage the chain from jumping off and retained a 12 tooth top gear cog on the outside of the stack to give the grippy cassette lockring something to bite on. A combination of eight and nine speed cassette spacers and a 4.5mm allloy spacer got the chainline just right. I suppose I could have used 19 or 20 tooth cogs with the teeth ground off for my guide plates but you never know when I'll need them again as cogs. Are my guide plates a dumb idea? I don't know but I copied the Wheels Engineering singlespeed freehub adaptor kit which has anodised alloy ones.
Several cranks and an alloy chainwheel came from a box of BMX detritus at the tip shop. $2. The 39t chainwheel was slightly sharktoothed but I turned it over to present the unworn face of the teeth to the chain rollers.
Cranks are alloy square taper CPI brand, 165mm long on a cheapo 110mm BB cartridge. The 39/16 combo on 700x23 tyres works out to 64 gear inches. Yes, I'm trying to improve my spin and this bike fits the bill because I can't grab a higher gear.
These calipers, front and rear, were a lovely find on a $5 no-name bike with a crumpled front wheel and forks, bent Cinelli drops and a Stronglight needle roller headset. It might have been quite a good bike once with these Shimano 600 sidepulls which I believe were what Ultegra used to be called back in the mid '90's. Took them apart, lubed everything and put them on with new cheap BBB pads and they stop fine. The crumpled bike also supplied the rear wheel, with Shimano Exage Sport hub, a black anodised single wall Araya rim and stainless spokes. Not a great wheel by modern standards but it beats paying a small boy to run along holding the rear end off the ground. Yet another $5 no-name bike supplied a nearly matching front wheel and the not very wonderful IRC 700/23 tyres, plus a fluted alloy micro-adjust seat post that fitted. The wheels on the second bike were bronze anodised with Oakley stickers that look original so I surmise it was some long forgotten Oakley promotional bike offer.
The cockpit. Hsin Lung alloy drops from a not very old Giant Peleton 7000 and Tektro R200 aero levers. The Tektro levers and Scott tape are among the few new parts and I put them on this junker just to try them out. The bars are rotated up quite a bit because I like a flat run to the hoods. These very cheap Tektros work well. Lots of bang for the buck. The Giant also provided a Selle Italia XO saddle.
It has to have a name and because Shogun decals are unavailable, this is it, courtesy of a Dymo labeller with 19mm tape. Paint is a very low class satin black rattle can job. It has the advantage that minor scrapes are easily touched up.
