Zet's Segain' Bike Worklog

[zeturi]

I've got a nice old bike frame, and I'm gonna make into my main form of transportation.

The frame is a an early 90's Specialized Allez Transition. Steel frame. It was originally painted hot pink, then was painted yellow, and it's currently gray. The paint is pretty terrible. I'm going to strip it all with some good ol' acetone and sandpaper, and paint it burgundy and black.

I like simplicity, and my commute to work is relatively flat, so my plan is to convert it into a single speed bike. I'm going to order this kit: http://www.amazon.com/Nashbar-Single-Sp ... 467&sr=1-4

I like that it comes with several different cogs and even a chain tensioner. I plan on shortening the current chain to use with the bike for now, but I might end up buying a newer type specifically for single speeds. I may or may not end up changing the chainring out for something with more teeth, I'll have to wait and see how I take to the new gear when I install it. My current chainring has 46 teeth, and my lowest gear has 16 teeth, but it's still fairly easy for me to ride.

Ultimately, I want something that I can use to pedal up to ~25 mph with a lot of momentum. Since I ride before dawn during my commute, there's hardly ever anyone out driving so it'd be totally safe to fly about the streets early in the morning.

Anybody here work on bikes, or have any input?

 

[βeta]

Is it a 10 speed? You should keep the front two gears, I've never seen anyone do that before. Then you can have a starting gear, and a cruising gear. You can put on a smaller rear sprocket to compensate.

 

[zeturi]

I'm not sure how many speeds it had before. It had 5 sprockets on the back wheel before, so I guess that would make it a 5 speed? I really want to keep it a single gear for this build, but that does seem like a good idea to have an easy starting gear. I might do that on my next one.

Also, I managed to remove all the old sprockets off of the hub without a chain whip, now I'm just waiting on my spacers and new sprocket to arrive. I'm not sure as to whether or not I'll need a chain tensioner yet, but just in case I have one on the way as well.

Progress will halt until I get my stuff in the mail. Once I get it, I just have to fit everything onto the back wheel and shorten my chain. Then I can start stripping off all the old paint, throw on a few nice coats and I should be finished!

EDIT:
I forgot to mention that I ended up buying a different single speed kit and tensioner. The one that I was going to buy off of amazon seemed to have mixed reviews, so I went ahead and got these two instead.

The price is the same, and I think this setup will end up being better. The downside is that I don't get all those other sprockets to play around with, but I always have the old ones that I can use if I want to fiddle around with the gear ratio.

 

[zeturi]

I just bought my primer, paint and paint remover. I need the remover sit on my bike frame a a while, and then I can strip it clean.

Question: How much time should I wait for each coat of paint to dry before I apply another? My frame is being kept in a covered patio outside, with little humidity in the air.

 

[vskid3]

I would just do what the can says.

 

[zeturi]

So I used this stripper called Citri-Strip. It's supposed to be for breaking down paint, and I thought it'd be easier than buying acetone or paint thinner. *Can'tSayThisOnTV* was I wrong. It did manage to break through the gray and yellow coats very easily. They melted off within a couple of hours. However, the original pink was almost untouched. I used the rest of the can on it in hopes to loosen it up a bit, but with no success. So I broke out my paint scraper and went at it for 5 hours, three yesterday and two today. The results:

I have removed 95% of the paint, but there are some problem areas that I'm not able to reach.

That's the hardest to reach with the scraper. I have a lot of sandpaper, but I am tired of scraping so I'll probably waiting another day to sand it down. It's a steel frame though, so I need to hurry up before it starts to rust.

Oh and sorry for the crappy pics, but the only working camera I have is the one on my 3DS. I figured crappy pics were better than none, though!

 

[ttsgeb]

Acetone loves you, and you should love it back.

 

[zeturi]

I bought a product called Jasco, it was some pretty amazing stuff. It's pretty much like a gel form of acetone, that doesn't evaporate quickly. It ate the *Can'tSayThisOnTV* out of that pink, it's all gone now. I was dumb enough to work with wearing boxers and a tank top, so it also ate the *Can'tSayThisOnTV* out of my legs.

I've taped off my fork and bottom brackets and begun painting. I've already primered and painted my first couple of coats of black. After this next coat dries, I'm going to sand it smooth and finish it off with one final coat of black. I decided against the burgundy paint, I was only planning on doing a few stripes on the top tube anyway. I should have my bike assembled tomorrow or the day after!

Before I painted it, I played around with the gears and decided to go with a 46-17 sprocket setup. It's effortless for me to pedal, and I can hold a decent speed. I can't say how fast I'm going at top speed because I don't have a way to measure it, but a calulcator I found online tells me that I am running a 2.7:1 ratio.

I can't wait to finish this up! ;D

 

[bud]

Awesome! I'm a fan of black, but I've always wanted to paint something with Krylon red X-Metals.

 

[zeturi]

Re: Zet's Sega' Bike Worklog

That actually sounds pretty cool, Bud! I totally forgot about that stuff. I'm using Rustoleum Professional Gloss for it, with a coat of some Rustoleum Anti-Rust Automotive paint. I wonder what X-metals would look like on a bike.

It looks pretty good, but I want to sand it down a bit where the paint ran. Also, I rushed the handlebars, and the paint came out flaxty, so I coated them in Jasco and wrapped them in aluminum foil. In the morning, everything should just fall right off.

The only thing I'm debating is whether or not I want to clear coat it. The clear coat will probably make it shiny, and I don't really want that finish. But I want to protect the paint from getting chipped off, so I'm not sure what to do. I guess I'll decide tomorrow.

EDIT: Whoops, the anti rust stuff is the primer I used, the professional gloss is the black that'll be going over it.

 

[zeturi]

Re: Zet's Sega' Bike Worklog

Well, I've reassembled my bike, but I don't want to call it finished yet. I want to get a new rear wheel, a new front sprocket, a new chain and some handlebar grips. So I guess till then it ain't gonna be complete. I'll put up some pics tomorrow, when I have better lighting.

 

[zeturi]

Re: Zet's Sega' Bike Worklog

I'm one lazy *Can'tSayThisOnTV*, so I never took pics, but I have done some stuff.

I changed out my flat handlebars for bullhorns, that look a bit like this only white:

I also changed out my seat for a Fuji black and white seat. It looks light my bike is becoming more white and black themed as I go.

On another note, I have gotten pretty fit just from my daily commute. It's become pretty easy to do. In the beginning it used to take me 45 minutes to get to work, but I've managed to shave it down to 20 minutes when I pedal like a mofo. I may be increasing my gearing soon so that I can get a higher top speed.

I've currently got some stuff coming in the mail, including a chain, hand pump, a light set, a huge ass top tube bag to carry my stuff in, and a set of fenders for when it starts raining again. I want to change out my tires for higher pressure ones, I want to change out all my quick released components with nuts and bolts, and I should replace my front brake pretty soon, but my bike is almost complete. Pics... tomorrow.

 

[Abyss]

You make me want to trick out a bike. I demand pics.

 

[zeturi]

Re: Zet's Sega' Bike Worklog

So here's some more 3DS pics of my bike. They look pretty bad, but at least that covers up my crappy paint job!

 

[masterx1996]

Re: Zet's Sega' Bike Worklog

finally somewhere where 4 years working at a bike hire shop helps
if you were to go 2 speed on your next one you need to use the rear mech (tensioner with a cable)
and a front mech at least so your bethher off 1x5/6/7/8/9/10/11