Tools required to do bottom bracket on Wisp?

[w00hoo_kent]

And actually in that case the fixed cup came out really easily (so I'm crying wolf as well as being a hypocrite ). I just used a gurt big adjustable wrench which I bolted in place with a bolt through wehere the axle was and some big washers to stop it slipping off. (Sort of Sheldon-lite)

I have plenty of car tools and general crap in the garage (actually the only thing I don't have in the garage is space to walk inside) having been a petrol head on cars and motorbikes for decades so my thought was to raid the random bolts box for something suitably sized and then get the 1/2" sockets out with the 2ft breaker bar. I probably even have some weird multi-tool C spanner tools kicking about because you used to get given them with bikes. I have a couple of C spanner tools, but they are for motorbike use and the 'hook' will be far too big and I'd prefer not to take a grinder to it in case I need to work on motorbikes again.

So fingers crossed. It won't be this weekend anyway as I'm too busy.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

There should be a number under the BB shell on the frame stamped into the steel. (flip the bike over, but it could be hidden by a plastic cable guide)

I'll have a look there too, although I think the plastic cable guide may be there.

EDIT- It is the Raleigh stamped into the cappings at the top of the seat stays that makes me think it my be different to the 'run of the mill' bikes.

It's more out of interest than anything else, if I know it has a history then the impetus to pass it on to someone who cares when it's surplus makes more sense. Equally, if you are doing something that would benefit from the shorty mudguards, give me a shout. They are only there because they were already there, I tend not to bother with mudguards anyway.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Oh, leave the shorty mudguards on. They are a real period detail, as they date back to a happier, more innocent time before people realised that they were pointless.

Was there ever actually a reason for them? Like a law or a rule somewhere that said that bikes must have mudguards, and they were invented to comply with this? Like those lightweight pingy bells.

I rode a bike with them for a while because in the 70s they showed that you were a real speedster and meant business (despite the fact that my bike weighed as much as a medium sized car). IIRC they did not guard against much. I'm very much a full-guards adherent now, in my dotage.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

Oh, I wasn't going to take them off (like I did the full ones on the Wisp) because they don't appear to effect the bike in any way at all. It's just equally they don't owe me anything. :-)

 

[w00hoo_kent]

I'll have a look there too, although I think the plastic cable guide may be there.
It's more out of interest than anything else, if I know it has a history then the impetus to pass it on to someone who cares when it's surplus makes more sense. Equally, if you are doing something that would benefit from the shorty mudguards, give me a shout. They are only there because they were already there, I tend not to bother with mudguards anyway.

Gave it a look over last night when searching for other stuff in the garage of despair. Couldn't find a frame number on it anywhere I looked (which was most of the tubing and specifically around the bottom bracket and the head stock areas. It has got a cable guide riveted on the bottom, so I'm not going to move that just to stem curiosity. Also the bottom bracket area of the frame is solid (not cut out like the ones in the picture) although I don't know if that means anything, my feeling is it's nothing special.

The Wisp is very wobbly on the bottom bracket (I'm a long way from its primary rider) so I think will get stripped and repacked this weekend and with the measurements taken to know what to order will get serious treatment in the near future (i.e. cartridge bottom bracket).