Alpina mystery bike

[dimrub]

Today was the bearings day. Took apart the front wheel hub - no problem (caged bearings). Headset - all is good (caged bearings again - hmmm... I've been told it's a sign of low-price components - shaving costs through ease of installation). Bottom bracket - now things are getting hairier, the drive side won't budge without the proper tool, but the other side obliged, and since those are caged bearings again, no problem, extracted both from the non-drive side.

That was easy. The rear wheel though... I removed the lock nut with a punch and a hammer, and off went the cogs - I took care to put something under the wheel, so all the balls are accounted for. Now I need to remove the body:

This guy says just unscrew it, catching an adjustable wrench at the indentations where the pawls are. However this guy explains the same process, but claims that it'll lead to a destruction of the body. I don't think I have a choice - I can't unscrew the damn axle without removing the freewheel, and I need to service the hub, no questions about it. So I guess I'll have to risk it - worse case I'm buying myself a new freewheel, 5-speeds are not very common today, but still possible to source, as I've established through a cursory googling.

Anyway, I could have cleaned it all, regreased with the basic grease I have at home and reassembly, but instead I'm going to wait for the ultrasonic cleaner and a new "premium" grease I've ordered to arrive, then give it a go. While I'm already this deep into this process, might as well do it properly.

P.S. Ok, ok. Upon closer inspection, the two washers there were keeping the pawls and the springs in place. Once I removed the washers I was able to extricate the pawls and the springs, and then one tag on a spanner got the body loose. So I removed the rear axle too, and we're done with the disassembly. The rear axle actually had the most grease of them all, which makes me think it was serviced at some point in not that distant past.

Spent some time cleaning the front rim, and it's better than it was, but still not perfect - little flecks of rust are still visible. I guess, not enough elbow grease (also, I heard wonders about steel wool + H2O, must get some and try this combo before giving up).

 

[dimrub]

The plan to wait for the ultrasonic cleaner for the small parts is gone by the wayside because I have no patience to wait for it. I'm through most of the parts now - except the bearings that is, I keep those for dessert.

I also planned to wait for the special grease, but that's gone too - I took apart the rear derailleur and put it together using the simple grease I have at home - it'll do for the tensioner/jockey wheels. Because when I say "took apart", I only mean that, the rest of the derailleur can't be taken apart, I can see rust inside but can't get to it. A shitty derailleur, as correctly noted above. Well, at least it's clean(er) now:

I also glued that plastic together, before it breaks completely and falls off.

I have another day or two of mucking around with the cleaning, and then it will be waiting for the parts to start arriving.

I made up my mind about the paint job. I won't be doing anything about it. The paint cleaned very well, and even though there are a few small spots of rust, they are not worth the bother. I do intend to replace the stickers, if I manage to remove them in a clean way.

There's one thing I don't understand, and that's how the gear cable housings connect to the shifters. The housing appears to be clamped shut, so I will probably need to open it up with a screwdriver, insert the new housing, then close it again with pliers - seems like a rather strange way to go about it, in all the modern shifters I've seen the housing is kept inside the shifter by the cable's tension.

 

[All uphill]

Great thread and great project, @dimrub .

You will end up with something unique that you know inside out.

Good work.

 

[dimrub]

Here's (and also here) a pretty convincing proof that my bike was indeed produced by the Germany company called Kynast - the "sporting" sticker is identical to mine, down to the same font, and the other stickers look very similar too. Kynast apparently used to be quite a household name in the 50s-70s in Germany. They sold the bikes through mail orders, and eventually went out of businesss when undercut through cheap labor in the Far East. According to their German language wikipedia page, the company has sold 15 million bicycles by 1984.

 

[dimrub]

There's one thing I don't understand, and that's how the gear cable housings connect to the shifters. The housing appears to be clamped shut, so I will probably need to open it up with a screwdriver, insert the new housing, then close it again with pliers - seems like a rather strange way to go about it, in all the modern shifters I've seen the housing is kept inside the shifter by the cable's tension.

I ended up dealing with this issue in the most brutish fashion possible. After many unsuccessful attempts to open them using a screwdriver, ending up with several near misses where I could have lost a finger or worse, a handlebar, I tore the housings out of the clamp by force, then, once the housings were no longer in the way, opened the clamps up using thin-nosed pliers. I'm not at all sure this is the way God intended me to go about this, but hey, it worked.

 

[dimrub]

Cleaning is complete. Now we wait for the parts to arrive. I moved everything from the yard, where I worked on this project, into a corner of my home office, until the parts arrive. I could have put back the bearings, but one of the things on order is the anti-seize grease, and I don't think I'll ever put a threaded component together without applying it, now that I've learned of its existence.

Time to temporarily switch to another project!

 

[dimrub]

Parts are starting to trickle in, but naturally, not in the order I would have preferred. Anyway, got the cables and half of the housings, so I reassembled the shifters - they gave me grief on the way in too, but I had my pliers on the ready, and they eventually complied. While at it, used the newly arrived tool set to remove the other side of the BB - easy. Cleaned that too. Cleaned the inner side of the rims. Done for now. More waiting.

 

[dimrub]

Change of plan: I'm not replacing the stickers. Why, after all the time I invested in figuring out how to design and print them? Because I had some time on my hands today, felt like fiddling with some bike today, and once done with the wife's and kids' bikes, rubbed some polish on this frame. The old frayed stickers suddenly popped out like crazy! Sure, you can still see they're old, but it's a Jane Fonda old, not abject and neglected old.

Spot the difference:

 

[dimrub]

Couldn't wait anymore, went to an LBS in search of an anti-seize and some bearing balls. Found them! So took care of both front and rear hubs today, as well as the bottom bracket. Headset and freewheel balls were not to be had, so those will have to wait some more (unless I despair and reuse the old ones). For front hub, I disposed of the cage and used bare balls, excuse me language. For rear hub, there was no cage before. For the BB, I retained the cage because I probably couldn't do without it - and also because Calvin's big blue book mentiones caged bearings for BB as the natural thing.

 

[dimrub]

Did the headset today. While at it, reinstalled the brakes, front derailleur, various cables, rack, front light, shifters. It's beginning to look like a bicycle.

 

[biggs682]

Did the headset today. While at it, reinstalled the brakes, front derailleur, various cables, rack, front light, shifters. It's beginning to look like a bicycle.

Soon be time for a road test

 

[dimrub]

Today I did the last bearing - reassembled the freewheel. Here's what Sheldon Brown recommends regarding servicing the freewheel: do not do it. Well, there are some nuances there, but that's the gist. Too bad I didn't read that advice before taking the damn thing apart. Anyway, that page does contain some useful advice for those imbecil intrepid souls who venture into this territory. In particular, it says "The freewheel bearing gets the least wear of any on a bicycle, since it only turns when it is not carrying any load", which I took to mean "therefore it's ok to reuse the old balls", even though I'm pretty sure the author wouldn't agree with that statement (in fact, elsewhere in the text he notes "Re-using old bearing balls is a false economy", but hey, economy is important, even a false one).

It turned out to be not as hard as I feared. Granted, at some point I was staring at 3 washers of similar diameter of which two, I remembered, went on top of the pawls (I didn't remember in which order), but where did the third come from I had no clue, but I solved this successfully by sticking it with the other two. The pawls did present a challenge, but nudging the outer shell this way and that solved that too. The thing rotates quietly and easily in the direction it's supposed to rotate, and does not rotate in the other direction, what more can I ask for? I put anti-seize on the threads, oil on the pawls and a generous amount of grease under and over the bearing balls. There wasn't much info on the lubrication because why? Because you're not supposed to muck around with the damn thing, that's why.

I then moved on to the other pressing issue, which is figuring out the rear light. When I got the bike, there was the headlight, the dynamo was missing, and all that remained of the rear light was a wire protruding out of two holes in the frame. I got a whole set from Ali, but couldn't reuse the old wire (well, I could, but it would be less elegant), so the first thing to do was to replace the wire inside the frame. This I did using a trick I saw an electrician one use to thread a network wire through a wall, where an old wire was already present. I wrapped the two wires around themselves, then wrapped the whole package tightly with some electrician tape, smeared with some dish soap, and pulled the old wire. It took quite some effort, but eventually it was through. I then deliberated for a while on where to put the light, and eventually settled on the non-drive side chainstay, close to the hub.

It looks cheap and flimsy, so - very authentic.

I got a notification that my taps have arrived, so once I collect them, next item on the agenda is the destroyed crank arm.

P.S. I just had an idea: perhaps the third washer is used to keep the pawls close to the body during the reassembly? Then, as the outer shell descends, it just pushes that washer out of the way, and the pawls open up? Smart, if that is the case, but I managed anyway.

 

[dimrub]

The taps have arrived! They are unmarked, except for a Chinese character on one of them, but I was ready for that, just stared at them, then at a pedal I had at hand, then at the taps again, until I was sure I had the correct one. Then I gave it a go, without even oiling it, just to see whether it will fit, trying to screw it in into the inner, undamaged end of the crankarm. Not only did it fit, but it went through like knife through butter, and the thread was like new after a single pass! I was able to screw in a spare Brompton pedal I had at hand, no problem whatsoever! So that's another item off the checklist, the one I was most worried about. I've reassembled the crankset, but didn't install it yet, because I have no stand yet, and it would prevent the bike from standing on the fork ends/dropouts.

Also attached a newly arrived kickstand, and another new arrival is a fake leather seatbag (keeping in style with faux chic of the 80s), which I can't attach yet since the seat hasn't arrived yet. And speaking of accessories, I have a set of mudguards I once bought for my Grail, which didn't work great for them - too narrow for the 38mm tires. I think I'll try to fit them on this one.

 

[dimrub]

Some packages started arriving. The tires have arrived, but not the tubes that were supposed to come with them - I complained to the vendor, but also ordered a pair of inner tubes: worst case I'll have a spare set. The rim tape hasn't arrived yet, so I can't proceed with the wheels. The cable housings have arrived, so I routed the brake cables, but haven't fixed and crimped them yet - it'll wait until the final adjustment. All the rest of the missing components (except the inner tubes, that is) are in a single package, past customs, so should arrive any day now.

 

[dimrub]

I'm a bit of an idiot. Since the thread on one of the crankarms was ruined, I automatically assumed that the thread on the pedal is ruined too, and never bothered to check this assumption. Today I thought: maybe I could take the axle out of the Favorit's pedal, so I finally took a look at the "ruined" thread - it was fine. I guess the pedals' axles are made out of a much stronger metal than the crankarms. I was able to screw them in, no problems. In fact, now that I think about it, I might have been able to use the pedal, screwed in from the wrong end, as a tap. You live, you learn. Anyway, Alpina's pedals are back on the Alpina, and the replacement pedals I ordered will go to the Favorit. Favorit's pedals will be saved for some future project.