Project: Peugeot Revival - Part 2

We've spent many hours thus far on the Peugeot, and things are starting to look good.
The frame was stripped and inspected. Very little oxidation in the frame, so we proceeded to clean the frame and parts.

There was a lot of surface contamination of the paint, but we were able to buff out 90% of the flaws and brighten the yellowed paint.

In the interest of keeping the bike in retro form, many of the parts were cleaned and polished, some to a sheen brighter than new!

The front Campagnolo hub was cut from the old tubular rim and was dismantled and rebuilt with fresh grease. The rear wheel won't be suitable since we're creating a fixed gear out of this old bike.

The hub cleaned, greased, reassembled, and polished. Note the torch in the background -- lots of seized parts. The heat, when used properly, coaxes them free.

Much more to come, see you soon.

New! Photo Gallery!

Take a look at some of our recent visual history, and check back in a week or so for updates!

Behold the gallery

Project: Peugeot Revival - Part 1

Deep winter slush.
That about sums up today. Though our walk-in customers were non-existent today, we were still working on current and future bike projects.

There are quite a number of old projects I am delinquent in writing about, but to avoid falling behind on this one too, here's the fresh meat.

Lugged Reynolds 531

This bike was last rolling on road about 15 years ago

Not salvageable, but most of the bike is in decent shape

The owner has requested a fixed-gear conversion. I've got some plans that take the project a little further than originally planned. More to come, but if you're impatient, drop in on us and see what's cooking. We'll keep the coffee on for you.

Welcome to our projects page.
Over the last 2 seasons we've been collecting photos of all of our interesting projects. As time allows, we'll start posting write-ups of the past, current, and future bike build projects.

New Gear

(originally published on http://twosixinch.blogspot.com)

After a year of solid abuse -- despite being built as a race-only wheelset -- my rear rim had to be replaced. Running a 350 gram Olympic ZTR rim makes good sense when trying to build a 24-hour race wheelset. Lightweight is priority one.
I became so addicted to the quick acceleration and nimble fee that I couldn't go back to my ugly workhorse wheels.


When I say a year of abuse, I mean serious abuse. Aside from milage, the wheels have withstood mini-hucks that would leave long-travel contemporaries shaking their heads. Abuse enough to blow my fork 4 times, but I'll get back to that in a bit. The rims stayed relatively true but I would check them for true every 2 weeks with only a few 1/4 turns needed here or there. The problem that eventually grew out of hand was with the super-thin sidewalls where the tire bead seats. I worked dents out each time I put fresh tires on , but the last one showed a fatigue crack in-line with the dent.
Since Stan's NoTubes systems run a lower pressure than a standard tubed setup, the tires will bottom out against the rim more often. Normally a pinch-flat would result, but since we're tubless, its a non-issue. The Olympic ZTR rims' claim of superiority in a NoTubes setup is due to the lowered sidewall height in order to create a tighter seal witht the tire. As a longtime Stan's devotee, I can say their claim is spot-on. I would almost never burp air, even when landing a drop with the rear-end askew. Just based on visual inspection, tires seat faster and better than on conventional rims.
The new rear rim laced up, though was difficult to get round. I'm not satisfied with the wheel being less than perfection, but at 347 grams I can't expect every rim to be an ace. If I can get another year out of it, great.


Along with wheels being abused, the RockShox Sid World Cup that has been on my bike since day-one is being retired. After 4 months of use the for was returned under warranty for a problem witht he Pure damper leaking oil where the remote lockout attached. Due to incorrect front brake routing though, the techs a SRAM wouldn't do the work without getting me to pay for the steerer/crown/uppers assembly first, since the brake cable rubbed a groove into them. I agreeed, and the fork was like new, until 4 months later when I blew the floating piston in the damper . I rebuilt the fork, and life was good until January of this year. Exiting the trails via an old leaf-covered fire road, I struck a rock that ejected me directly off the bike into the gravel. I was fine but the dropout on the right side fo the lowers cracked badly, with the oil leaking all over mother nautre. Again, repaired at SRAM but they wouldn't waranty the fork. At least I got rid of the hideous bright blue lowers.
The fork blew yet again 3 weeks ago while singlespeeding. I'm going to rebuild it and sell... I already have a new Manitou R-Seven Platinum (80 mm, in black) handling the sproing duties up front, and so far so good. The bushings need more break in, but that is to be expected. The Platinum is the top dog of the R-Seven line-up, offering Manitou's Snap Valve SPV dampening. Taking the proven SPV platform dampening to a new level, Manitou recognized that a firmer platform was needed for people on the XC end of the mtb spectrum. As advertised, the R-Seven is surprisingly stable, yet perfectly plush the moment it needs to be. I'm still toying with air pressures, but right now I think I'm riding with SPV @ 100 psi and will go up more since I am currently singlespeed. For the Vermont 50 I will increase the main air pressure 5-10 psi to account for all the added gear and roll with 100 in the SPV

Project Titus

(originally published on http://twosixinch.blogspot.com)

Going to iron out the kinks tomorrow afternoon.
2006 Titus Racer-X


I was handed a matte black Racer-X frame and tasked with creating an XC race bike, specifically a bike made to tackle the 2006 Vermont 50 on September 24th. Also of importance is durability, since this bike will likely see a lot of milage and all-conditions abuse over the next few months.



Front to back and top to bottom, we start with a 31.8 carbon FSA K-Force riser bar mounted with Gripshift XO's and Magura Marta SL stoppers. The cockpit is mounted to the bike with a Thompson X4 stem complimented with a matching Thompson Elite set-back seatpost in the back. The stem/bar combo is pleasantly stiff compared to the flexy weight-wieny setup on my personal bike.
The front end is currently suspended with a temporary fork taken from another bike. The 2007 Fox F100X is still a few weeks away. That's why we have the silly stack of spacers... if we cut the steerer, the fork would be useless on its doner bike. Oh yeah, its a 2006 100mm Rock Shox Reba Race.
Gold Chris King headset. I added a Chris King Owl T-shirt to the order for myself and then built the wheels.

Anchored by Salsa Flip-off skewers (steel), the DTSwiss 240s hubs spin a featherweight wheelset. I utilized Stan's slightly heavier Olympic ZTR rims (about 30 grams heavier per hoop than the real-deal ZTR's) and laced them with DTSwiss Competition spokes and alloy nipples. After the last half-dozen wheelsets I've built I've really come to love Wheelsmith's Spoke Prep, which comes in 2 colors which aids in maintaining some sanity when dealing with different spoke lengths. It doesn't hold nearly as strong as blue threadlocking compound, yet still provides confident friction when tensioning and truing. Kenda Kharma DTC tires sealed by a Stan's NoTubes kit & their lightweight (they claim a scant 5 grams per wheel) yellow spoke tape. When talking with the sales rep at NoTubes, he said that it is possible to run their sealant with only the yellow tape and their valve stem. If no rubber rim strip is used, you can save about another 60 grams of rotating mass. I might beta-test this on my own bike, but am somewhat skeptical about the long term airtightness of this setup, not to mention questions about durability. Why even bother selling a rim strip then? hmmm....



The drive line is almost 100% SRAM, with a pc59 chain linking a carbon Truvativ Stylo crankset and a PG-990 cassette. We opted to splurge a bit and put on a pair of Crank Brothers Twin Ti pedals to first round out the the look of the bike, but also shave a little more rotating mass. Just shy of 50 less grams over the Eggbeater SL's, though avoiding the titanium spindle that renders max. rider weight to under 185 lbs. and keeps an extra $125 in our pockets.

Shifting is handled by XT front and X.9 rear derailuers. I used Avid's Flakjacket sealed cable system for roping everything together.

Rider-specific suspension tuning to follow shortly...

Ian's Gary Fisher Cronus Singlespeed

(originally published on http://twosixinch.blogspot.com)

BEHOLD!

97.68% done, the bike still needs a 1/2 link in the chain and a tensioner. We're using my Rennen as a stopgap measure and the remaining parts will be here Thursday.

Working with an eBay purchased steel frame ($40) we did our best to keep the parts under $1000, including wheels built by me.



DT Swiss 450 rims laced to Surly New Disc hubs


Salsa Moto Ace bar & stem, WTB headset, American Classic post




Truvativ Stylo SS cranks & BB