Ladies' Favorit 1981

[dimrub]

Not to be confused with a ladies' favorite.

Favorit is a Czech company, founded in 1901 in the city of Rokycany, here's more about its distinguished history. The company still exists today, and still produces bicycles.

This is the bicycle:

So this is a lugged steel frame with single-speed coaster brake rear hub, cottered crank arms and what appears to be hints of original crimson-red paint job. But there's more. Well, a bit more:

Yes, a preparation for cable routing, either gears or brakes, possibly both. Why is it there? Was this bike a multi-gear at some point in its past and then converted to single-speed - or do they put these braze-ons on all of their frames, to streamline the production process? I suspect the latter.

It would be relatively easy to just bring this bike back to life: strip it, clean it, repaint it, replace the tires, the seat, some of the spokes (I hope both of the rims are salvageable, although there are some doubts about the rear one), put on lights, cut down or replace the ridiculous handlebar bolt - and hey presto, a single-speed coaster brake ladies' bike is reborn. Nah, I don't want that. I see it as a 3-speed internal gears bike with proper (central pivot, obviously) brakes.

So what would that entail? First of all, naturally, figuring out the dropout distance:

It's 109mm, but let's call it 110, shall we? So now I need to either source a 110 OLD hub, or cold-set the frame to 120mm which, according to S.B., is the common distance for internal gear hubs. So the algorithm seems to be:

1. Figure out whether 110 OLD hubs exist in this timeline, and whether one can buy one without involving one's bank's mortgage department.
2. If successfull - goody. Source the aforementioned hub and proceed with cleaning the bike.
3. If not - cold-set the frame to 120mm
4. If successfull - source a 120mm hub
5. If not - abandon the project, since lack of success probably means that I've ruined the frame.

 

[dimrub]

Ok, here's one such a hub. I like everything about it. It has the correct number of holes, of course. It's width is 114mm, so just 4-5mm difference to eliminate. It has a nice looking shifter even, and it looks nice too. Is there anything I'm missing here?

 

[biggs682]

I would say that is the original hub

 

[Chris S]

It's got the wheel nuts, anti-rotation washers, toggle-chain, etc so it looks complete.

The only thing is that a 14T sprocket will give you really high gearing. Assuming you've got a 46T chain-ring and 26 inch wheels they're going to be 64.1, 85.4 and 113 inches. I suspect it came from a much smaller wheeled bike.

You can remedy the situation by fitting a 21T sprocket. This will give you much more usable 43, 57 and 76 inch gears.
Sturmey Archer sprockets are readily available on ebay:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371178337699

Incidentally Sachs, SRAM and Shimano 3-speed sprockets will also fit.

 

[Chris S]

PS The hub that you've linked to doesn't have a coaster brake. You're going to have to fit conventional calliper brakes as well.

 

[dimrub]

It's got the wheel nuts, anti-rotation washers, toggle-chain, etc so it looks complete.

The only thing is that a 14T sprocket will give you really high gearing. Assuming you've got a 46T chain-ring and 26 inch wheels they're going to be 64.1, 85.4 and 113 inches. I suspect it came from a much smaller wheeled bike.

You can remedy the situation by fitting a 21T sprocket. This will give you much more usable 43, 57 and 76 inch gears.
Sturmey Archer sprockets are readily available on ebay:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371178337699

Incidentally Sachs, SRAM and Shimano 3-speed sprockets will also fit.

Ah, excellent. Yes, this might have been for the Bromptons and the Dahons of the world, 16 to 20 inch wheels. This one is 27 inch, I believe. So I'll have to add a bigger sprocket, seems reasonable. Thanks!

PS The hub that you've linked to doesn't have a coaster brake. You're going to have to fit conventional calliper brakes as well.

Yes, that was my intention: a side pull center pivot calipers front and rear.

 

[dimrub]

You can remedy the situation by fitting a 21T sprocket. This will give you much more usable 43, 57 and 76 inch gears.

@Chris S , is there anything that makes 21 teeth special? I found this item, they have the 20T and the 22T, but not the 21T. Also, it seems that some of the sprockets there are flat, and some - concave, so I wonder what that means - remove one washer for the concave ones?

I also wonder about the spoke length - since I need to order them too. I tried using this calculator, but quite naturally it asks for the hub diameter, which I don't have. This spec file claims it's 56.6mm, but it also claims O.L.D. of at least 117mm, while the vendor claims 114mm. I'm also having a hard time figuring out the requested Ka and Kb settings. I think I have no choice but to order the hub, wait for it to arrive, then measure everything myself, then order the spokes, wait for those to arrive, and only then rebuild the wheel.

 

[Chris S]

@Chris S , is there anything that makes 21 teeth special? I found this item, they have the 20T and the 22T, but not the 21T. Also, it seems that some of the sprockets there are flat, and some - concave, so I wonder what that means - remove one washer for the concave ones?

I also wonder about the spoke length - since I need to order them too. I tried using this calculator, but quite naturally it asks for the hub diameter, which I don't have. This spec file claims it's 56.6mm, but it also claims O.L.D. of at least 117mm, while the vendor claims 114mm. I'm also having a hard time figuring out the requested Ka and Kb settings. I think I have no choice but to order the hub, wait for it to arrive, then measure everything myself, then order the spokes, wait for those to arrive, and only then rebuild the wheel.

A 21T sprocket gives the nearest gearing to the optimum 40/60/80 inch gears with a 26 inch wheel.

You've got a 27 inch wheel so I'd go for the bigger 22T sprocket.

Sprockets are flat or dished to help get a straight chain-line, you just add or remove spacers as required. I've got a dished sprocket facing outwards and no spacers which gives a straight chain-line with my 'standard' spindle.

The same hub can have different OLDs depending on the thickness of the spacers behind the locknut.

All AW hubs have the same sized shell. I can't accurately measure the distance between opposing spokes on mine but it's about 70mm. I don't think has to be exact to calculate the required spoke length. When you twist the hub in the centre of the rim you change the spoke angle and effective length.

 

[dimrub]

A 21T sprocket gives the nearest gearing to the optimum 40/60/80 inch gears with a 26 inch wheel.

You've got a 27 inch wheel so I'd go for the bigger 22T sprocket.

Sprockets are flat or dished to help get a straight chain-line, you just add or remove spacers as required. I've got a dished sprocket facing outwards and no spacers which gives a straight chain-line with my 'standard' spindle.

The same hub can have different OLDs depending on the thickness of the spacers behind the locknut.

All AW hubs have the same sized shell. I can't accurately measure the distance between opposing spokes on mine but it's about 70mm. I don't think has to be exact to calculate the required spoke length. When you twist the hub in the centre of the rim you change the spoke angle and effective length.

Fantastic, thanks. Just to be on the safe side, I think I'll buy the spokes at my LBS. I'll probably overpay, but will be able to exchange them if the length is wrong.

 

[dimrub]

Tried to look under the bottom bracket, there's some original paint still visible under the dirt, as well as the frame number:

A Reddit thread claims the last first 2 digits are the year, so here we go, 1987.

 

[dimrub]

Oh, and I should have thought of this earlier: instead of trying to Google for "ladies bicycle Favorit", I should have searched for the same phrase in Czech. It immediately brought up several bikes, including this one, very similar to mine, down to the decals. We can clearly see that it was a 5-speed derailleur setup with unindexed shifter on the downtube - that explains the single braze-on on the down tube, close to the BB, and the braze-ons on the pump fixture were for the rear brakes, which are also clearly visible. I was not that far off the mark, but for my wife, the simpler the better, so 3 inner hub gears is a much better option than the historically accurate unindexed 5 gears on the down tube (which, accidentally, would also call for a more extreme cold-setting, to fit in the 5 sprockets).

There are a few 2x5s, but those may have been after-market modifications, judging by the clamps for the cables instead of braze-ons.

 

[Chris S]

... would also call for a more extreme cold-setting, to fit in the 5 sprockets

I've just realized that you could probably get a 110mm OLD by removing the spacers behind the locknuts. All AW hubs used the same sized shell.

You might also be able to reuse your existing spokes if you use a 4 cross lacing pattern.

 

[dimrub]

I've just realized that you could probably get a 110mm OLD by removing the spacers behind the locknuts. All AW hubs used the same sized shell.

I have an update on that, in a moment

You might also be able to reuse your existing spokes if you use a 4 cross lacing pattern.

Those spokes are due for replacement anyway. It'll be my first time rebuilding a wheel, I'd like to keep the complications to the minimum.

 

[dimrub]

It's stripping time!

Once I started removing the rear wheel, I felt the rear triangle spring as if out of jail after a long term imprisonment. Suspicious, I measured the O.L.D. again:

123 farking millimeters! Someone just skimped on a bunch of washers, and overscrewed the hell out of this axle! Not only don't I need to expand the gap, I might have ordered a different hub, or else I'll need to use a whole bunch of spacers myself, to do justice with this poor frame.

Another surprise awaited me inside the front wheel:

A possibly original inner tube, from a country long deceased. It was patched in a couple of spots, but still, 40 years is a respectable term for an inner tube. The rear one was from Thailand.

And here it is, fully disassembled:

It took quite some time - I think 2.5 hours. Some of the parts were quite stubborn. I'm afraid I ruined the thread on one of the cotter pins - out of frustration, I grabbed it with a vice pliers and banged on them, and I managed to destroy one of my cheap plastic tire levers - not a big loss, but other than that - here we are. The mismatched array of bolts, nuts and occasional washers made me feel nostalgic - yes, this is how we rocked in the old Warsaw pact, you used what you had at hand, and hoped (with good reasons) the quality control will leave it be.

Oh, the rear axle proved the most stubborn of the bunch. I just couldn't release the locknut on the drive side, so I removed the nut on top of the coaster brake. I don't need to deal with this, since the new hub comes with a new axle - this is all going to the trash bin.

Next is taking the wheels apart (yep, I want to rebuild the front one too, don't trust these spokes and nipples) and then it's cleaning time.

Oh and speaking of socialist assembly quality. I went back and forth on that digit on the bottom, and I think it's not 87 but rather a 81, with 1 being hammered into it at a strange angle, because who cares. I was 7 years old in 81, living in Moscow. I believe I had a kids bike, I think it was called "Orlenok" (a baby eagle), and it was pretty much a kids version of this one, also single speed. I loved it. In summer we hired a cabin in the village outside of Moscow, and there I managed to get lost riding my baby eagle on the very first morning of our sojourn there: just took off riding before anybody else was awake, and couldn't find my way home. Good thing the whole village knew my violin teacher (the reason we lived there was that he wanted to oversee my practice over the summer), so a good Samaritan loaded my bike on the roof of his Zaporozhets and drover me over. On subsequent summers we didn't take my bike there, for some reason, so I had to rummage the various sheds and produce this or another adult bike, and if I was lucky it was a ladies bike - I was too short to use the saddle either way, rode standing up, but it was less fun riding over various tree roots and shoot while in contact with the top tube.

In short, this is all very nostalgic for me.

P.S. I reread the article on repainting the frame on S.B.'s site and it's as scary as I remembered it to be. I need to urgently find a more optimistic, breezy article on the subject. Basically, the approach there is "yeah, sure, you can repaint yourself, here's how to go about it, but it will turn out ugly, and also, you'll be breathing out of oxygen tank for the rest of your worthless, miserable life, so better find a reputable frame builder and let the pros do the jobs". Well I don't have any pros around me, so I think I'm going to do it anyway.

 

[Chris S]

Once I started removing the rear wheel, I felt the rear triangle spring as if out of jail after a long term imprisonment. Suspicious, I measured the O.L.D. again:
123 farking millimeters! Someone just skimped on a bunch of washers, and overscrewed the hell out of this axle! Not only don't I need to expand the gap, I might have ordered a different hub, or else I'll need to use a whole bunch of spacers myself, to do justice with this poor frame.

I'm fairly sure I've used M10 washers as spacers in the past. They're a lot easier to get hold of.