Rebuild of Hobbs pre-war frameset

[Drago]

I'd rather see it on the road with apehangers and frilly tassels than scrapped and melted down, which is the fate of 99% of old bikes.

 

[carpenter]

sort of, but not sure about the frilly tassels

 

[Outlaw Hobbs]

Your bike, so you should do what makes it good for you to enjoy riding.

I've got one or two ideas about what I'd do (down tube shifters, large flange hubs, lots of chrome/raw alu stuff, white cables) but that's neither here nor there.

Whatever you fancy doing is what you should do.

No friction shifters or bacon slicers I'm afraid but there will be plenty of silver; crankset, wheel rims, seatpost and pedals. Cable outers are black.

I've bought a gold finish KMC chain which I'm hoping will complement the gold Hobbs transfers.

Pretty sure the headset and associated spacers and adapter will look less 'wrong' when built up with the stem and bars. Before starting on the refurb I tried a silver alloy 'A' head quill adapter and it looked a lot 'wronger' to me. The benefits of the present conversion are that it permits the use of the parts I already have and alternatives wil be easy and inexpensive to find, plus it's easier and simpler to adjust.

 

[DRM]

I think it’s great that it’s going to be used,rather than becoming a museum piece that’s too rare to use, I reckon your dad would be chuffed it’s going to be ridden again it’ll be doing what it was intended to do.

 

[Roadking]

I'd rather a bottle was secured to the frame with set screws, rather than one of those strap-on retro-fit things you can get.

There seems to be an assumption about what I would suggest as an alternative, a strap on isn't one I'd go for. On my older bicycles, those without bosses, I use a Tacx fitting that bolts onto the underside of the saddle - unobtrusive.

Also, if I were adding bosses to a frame (period incorrect for example) I would ensure they were non invasive.

 

[Drago]

Handlebar mount is the obvious, period, non invasive, and very practical answer to that conundrum.

 

[Outlaw Hobbs]

Unfortunately the palaver associated with Christmas and the NY meant that I wasn't able to get around to start the build until last week:
Started with adding a few patriotic touches.



Also found a Flandria decal that looks nicely, 'period', to fill some of the blank space on the white panel. It is easy to get carried away with decals so stopped there.

Argos had recommended covering the frame to protect the paint from dropped tools etc. during the build so I covered it with bubble wrap.

The build was remarkably easy and all the parts just seemed to bolt on with no issues at all but I'm sure that is a testament to the care and accuracy of Gary at Argos who has many years of experience.

In what seemed no time the box of parts and frame soon resembled a bicycle:

I carefully coated threads and joints with Cera Tec made by Textar an automotive brake manufacturer. Apparently the absence of copper (as in copper grease) reduces the likelihood of metal to metal electrolysis - and it is certainly more pleasant to handle and clear so leaves no nasty marks.

The seat post was a bit of a tight fit at first so after much honing with abrasive paper wrapped around a long drill bit driven by my trusty De Walt cordless, it now slides in and out like a hydraulic piston.

Don't think I quite like the look of the MTB style saddle or the black stem (which is too long anyway) so a slimmer saddle will be fitted and a new polished silver 60 mm stem with a smaller angle of rise is on it's way from Planet-X.

On the whole I'm pleased with the look and looking forward to fitting the chain and pedals.

A bit of a dilemma over the tyres which are unused 'Vee Rubber' 25 mm items - anyone have any experience with these? It seems a shame to bin them so I'm inclined to give them a try and replace with Contis if any problems. Maybe even go 28 mm?

Updates to follow....

 

[Outlaw Hobbs]

Found time to do some of the fun bits today. Fitted a length of thin poly tube over the exposed cable inner running under the top tube. Fitted a couple of doughnuts to each of the gear cables running down the front tube. Red cable ends to all cables. Made up a chainstay protector and some cable rub patches from helicopter tape.
Finally fitted the new polished alloy shorter stem and racier looking saddle. Nice to see that is a weight saving of 188 gms
I think the look is much improved.

 

[Outlaw Hobbs]

Bit of a frustrating day last Saturday on this build. I fitted the clipless pedals without problems and replaced the front mech gear cable that had frayed slightly on first fitting. All fine, but then the problem came along. I had an unused but slightly tarnished chain that came with the groupset so decided to see if I could set it up for length and get eveything working before fitting the nice new KMC gold chain. Once set up and adjusted I found that everything worked smoothly except there was an awful slipping graunchy noise when on the small (11 tooth) sprocket at the rear. No amount of adjustment of the cables or limit screws or the B screw made any difference. In all the other gears everything was smooth. I even tried changing the chainline at the rear by swapping spacers on the axle from one side to the other. Still no improvement but of course the rim wasn't centred in the frame so looked wrong.

After much head scratching and searching on forums for post about similar problems I found a suggestion that the cassette lock-ring might be too big a diameter and touching the chain. Sure enough - the lock-ring did indeed seem to be doing exactly that. Following morning a quick call to my local bike shop was met with a helpful response and they found me a small lock-ring from a Shimano Ultegra scrap cassette. No charge and problem solved! The difference in diameter is only a couple of mm but obviously that was enough to really mess things up.

Gold chain now fitted and if only the roads were not covered in salt I could in theory have gone for a shake down ride. I'm still waiting for a bottle cage to be delivered and have ordered some decals for the rims for purely cosmetic reasons.

When its been tested and any teething problems sorted out I'm looking forward to taking it on at least one ride with the FNRttC group.

 

[rogerzilla]

Ironically the old 1" threaded headset will probably be around for ever but the 1" threadless headset never quite caught on. I had a 50s clubman converted to threadless (also with a new Argos fork) and sort of regret it now. Having said that, it had a 26tpi Raleigh fork which would have needed replacing anyway, since good 26tpi headsets don't exist. My advice would be to buy a few spare bearing cartridges and store them well. They last much, much longer than loose-ball headsets so two pairs would see you out easily!

Garry made me a new fork for a Harry Quinn track bike last year (nothing wrong with the original except that it couldn't take a front brake - clearance is in fag-paper territory) and I had that one made with a threaded steerer.