here's the mechanically-unsound shitheap i'm currently riding:
a friend of mine gave it to me after leaving it out on his balcony over a full fall, winter, and spring. i'd badly bent the chainstays on my previous beater a couple months before in a botched singlespeed conversion so i was happy to get something that i could plausibly get on the road
the drivetrain was in rough shape, rusty mishmash of components including mismatched crankarms and a non-parallelogram simplex forward derailleur that looked like it might be from the 60s. the frame itself had these crazy ornate lugs and devil's tail hangers for a frame pump:
i guessed i was dealing with an old european frame but i didn't realise just how european until i started rebuilding the drivetrain. ended up replacing the crank, FD, and freewheel, and in the process realised the bottom bracket was feeling kind of sandy and loose, so i decided to rebuild the bearing sets. taking apart the BB i realised it was actually french threaded- on frames not built by howler monkeys, the threads on a bottom bracket shell are counterclockwise on the non-drive side and clockwise on the drive side, so as you're pedalling the BB cups tighten against the frame. french threaded frames have the delightful attribute of being counterclockwise threaded on both sides, so the cups unscrew as you're pedalling
french engineering lol
anyway i should have paid closer attention to the BB cups themselves, whatever idiot put them in used english threaded cups (1.375x24 TPI) in the french threaded shell (1.378x25.4 TPI), which means they'll fit, but the cups strip the shell threads and end up seizing if you put much force on them, which i did in an attempt to prevent the BB from unscrewing itself and killing me while i was cycling. so now i have a bottom bracket that's seized loose and it rattles as i cycle, so everyone knows im a terrible wrench as i pedal by, clank.. clank.. clank
anyway hopefully riding this embarassing piece of shit will give me more incentive to finish the project i have been procrastinating on for a while now, which is this gorgeous 1972 Centurion Super Elite frame:
unfortunatley my perfectionist streak kicked in with this project and i've been sperging about the frame instead of just building the thing and riding it. i ended up putting 3 or 4 coats of linseed oil on the inside of the frame (FOR PROTECTIONS) and touching up every single little ding in the paintjob with enamel model paint and now i have to go over all the touchups with rubbing compound to make them perfectly smooth and ugggg
i also decided i was going to replace the "Centurion" decals because some of the letters were missing from each side of the frame so in a weekend of massive sperging i traced all the letters, scanned the tracing and imported it into illustrator, made a font (because there was no font that matches the 1972 centurion decals) and ordered chrome decals in that font. im really, really gay
discuss your bikes itt, riding, repairs, etc!!
gyrofry posted:
its fun to ride a bike as long as you don't make an idol out of it much like cocaine
i literally made an idol out of cocaine to cocainea, the goddess of cocaine, but then i took all the cocaine. this thread should be about cocaine
deadken posted:
i dont ride a bike. i walk
LA seems like a good city to ride in tho
Impper posted:
i dont actually ride a fuji feather but i thot it'd be funny to say i do. i almost bought one also
how much do they go for anyway
deadken posted:
what about, like, a cheetah. on cocaine
NOTHING WALKS AS FAST AS A BIKE
tpaine posted:
guys i cooked a pizza today, let me post a bunch of pictures of me smiling with it and you all can tell me about your pizza cooking and consuming expierences
lets also share workout tips and photos of ourselves working out while eating pizza
shennong posted:
ken's stuff is cut w/ creatine. isnt LA really flat, whats wrong w/ it
its got a wide-on
shennong posted:
ken's stuff is cut w/ creatine. isnt LA really flat, whats wrong w/ it
i was thinking more of the 'car culture' and how everything there looks like you'd basically be riding on a highway or at least some place where cars are truckin around at 40+ mph, or else in gridlocked traffic which is shitty also
shennong posted:
ken's stuff is cut w/ creatine. isnt LA really flat, whats wrong w/ it
im sure its not pure but coke never is, its really nice stuff though, the dealer is this dopey frat boy with a bunch of mexican contacts
shennong posted:Impper posted:
i dont actually ride a fuji feather but i thot it'd be funny to say i do. i almost bought one alsohow much do they go for anyway
it was actually a really great deal, the guy had put in like $800 of upgrades (yea i kno thats worthless basically but still) and wanted 350 or 400 or something. i don't remember the price exactly, just that it was a steal, and i underbid him by 150 or so just to be a dick when he was selling it cheap in the first place lmao. but then i told him i'd pay what he's asking but he was still pissed about my first thing and he sold it to someone else 
deadken posted:shennong posted:
ken's stuff is cut w/ creatine. isnt LA really flat, whats wrong w/ itim sure its not pure but coke never is, its really nice stuff though, the dealer is this dopey frat boy with a bunch of mexican contacts
all of the coke dealers here are chubby puerto rican dudes who walk their dog around to all the houses around logan square/wicker park and randomly show up at parties where they know the host or some chick who's there, they go on 10 hour sojourns and then disappear into the mist around 5 or 6 am
Impper posted:shennong posted:Impper posted:
i dont actually ride a fuji feather but i thot it'd be funny to say i do. i almost bought one alsohow much do they go for anyway
it was actually a really great deal, the guy had put in like $800 of upgrades (yea i kno thats worthless basically but still) and wanted 350 or 400 or something. i don't remember the price exactly, just that it was a steal, and i underbid him by 150 or so just to be a dick when he was selling it cheap in the first place lmao. but then i told him i'd pay what he's asking but he was still pissed about my first thing and he sold it to someone else
$800? he put a new wheelset on it or sth? anyway 350-400 seems alright, fuji makes nice frames and i wish i could work on them more. the only guy i knew with a fuji track bike got his jacked about 2 months after he bought it so i never got a chance to get it in the stand
deadken posted:
la is apparently the densest city in the country and i have literally no idea how that can be true
haha its because yuore in it
Impper posted:deadken posted:shennong posted:
ken's stuff is cut w/ creatine. isnt LA really flat, whats wrong w/ itim sure its not pure but coke never is, its really nice stuff though, the dealer is this dopey frat boy with a bunch of mexican contacts
all of the coke dealers here are chubby puerto rican dudes who walk their dog around to all the houses around logan square/wicker park and randomly show up at parties where they know the host or some chick who's there, they go on 10 hour sojourns and then disappear into the mist around 5 or 6 am
all the coke dealers in london were arabs driving volvos lol. get to know some bros i guess. im going to rush this quarter ive decided
blinkandwheeze posted:deadken posted:
la is apparently the densest city in the country and i have literally no idea how that can be truehaha its because yuore in it
heh
deadken posted:
im sure its not pure but coke never is, its really nice stuff though, the dealer is this dopey frat boy with a bunch of mexican contacts
is like 90% of cocaine in the US still cut with levamisole