Education We Like to Ride Bicycles

Ha!

Got the kenevo today. Seems good so far.

 

Oh that is nice! Now you can get that push up the hills like you got when you a were a wee one on a swing being pushed by your mum or dad

 

Did this, it suck’s, turns out they do a 203mm in the same disc I purchased so I’ll be getting one of those for the front and finally calling it a day. Lesson learned? Pissing about with brakes is time consuming, expensive and a ball ache.

 

Wow what a headache.

So I finished the sanding yesterday. TBH it was one of those deals where you could have gone on forever, but I had to call it. Any way, I put the first coat of etch down and it started going pink and patchy. WTF? my first thought was that it might have been some of the lavender paint left, but there just wasn't any. At all. My next thought is that it might have been rust. TBH the only way to get rid of all of it would be to bath it in OA and that is not practical for me.

I let it dry for about an hour, then switched to a more aggressive and much darker etch by Upol. This worked, and sealed it. Phew. I then switched back to the lighter etch, and gave it a really good wet coat or two. There are a couple of drips from the Upol (that was why I stopped using it before) but that is easily sanded.









It is now raining hard for the whole day. At least it won't do any more rusting, that is for sure.

 

Looks like you've done a great job

 

It's getting there. If it was a rider I would have done less work, but with it being in a lit up display yeah, it needs to be sort of close to perfect.

I bought another frame today

That may sound like utter madness and really it kinda is. However, I could not pass it up. See, this one has a long story and a lot of emotion attached. I doubt I will do it this year, but when I do it will be frame only.

In 1998 I met my to be first wife over Yahoo chat. I worked in a computer place, and we had an email server where businesses would pay us for email accounts which we used to host. This was around the time of Hotmail and etc, but yeah these were for schools and educational places. I was in charge of keeping it up and maintained, so I had a lot of time to sit on the net. MSDN was it? double the speed of dial up eee.

Any way yeah, I met her then. In 2000 she came over to me, and spent 3 months in London. She hated it (I knew she would ). So in the October of 2000 I flew out there. Loved it. At the time she asked me not to ride street BMX any more. It was dangerous, and I used to get hurt a lot. So I said I would sell up my bike and buy a race bike just to ride and keep fit on. That turned out to be a 1984 PK Ripper that had never been built. I got it from a mate whose dad used to run a bike shop. Any way I packed it all up and flew it out freight to Philly. Three days after getting there it was 85f, and perfect for riding. So my ex took me to the cargo place in Philly and I brought it back and built it. Problem was there was a lock nut missing from the rear wheel but I was desperate to ride as I hadn't done so in ages. It went bad. I got out onto the main street which is like grade 1 sandpaper. It is like that so the tractors and so on can get grip during the winter. I ended up flying over the bars, landed full smack on my elbow after wrapping my arms around my face, and yeah one destroyed elbow that needed 3 surgeries. I had to have a tube fitted, then have it removed, then have it cleaned and sewn up.

Any way, I lived here.



The crash happened out on the street about 40 ft to the right. I came out, accelerated hard and yeah the back wheel moved and jammed. So I sold that bike on as it was very valuable and after coming back to the UK for 7 months to apply for a fiancee visa I went back out there. A few months in I was miserable, so I bought this bike. Not mine, but identical.



I then got out the digger from the pole barn and made some jumps in the furthest right part of the field. It used to be all fenced in apart from about 10ft so we could mow. It took a long time to get back my confidence but that bike made it happen. I then sold it when I got my driving license. Here I am on the front step just before the wedding with my baby F1 bengal.



He was my wedding present. Here I am a year later with him outside the garage in the snow.



So yeah, many happy memories of warm days dirt jumping on my SGX. They are not easy to find in the UK, but a mate of mine turned up this last week.



Frame only, cost £30. It will be another frame only resto. Not this year though I doubt, but one to put away and visit next year. I don't know if I can replicate the engine turning with candy over the top, but I will give it a damn good go. I think I will stick with the root beer candy though, either way.

 

Yay. Whilst digging through drawers today I found this.



It's an Odyssey hanger. It is the type that comes with the high end Evolver brakes, not the Springfield. Well it was the perfect test subject, and.



It is now incredibly pink, if a bit whiffy.

 

FYI - If you have a small compressor, you can add a sandblaster kit to it for around £50 these days. It would make de-rusting a lot easier on your joints.

 

I have nowhere to do it sadly. The garden is tiny, and that would have my mother stab me in my sleep

It is done now. TBH I would have been surprised if sand blasting could have even got the rust off, given it was so rock hard. I was tempted to go at it with my belt sander, but it would leave marks.

 

Soak it in penetrating oil. Heat it with a heat gun to 250c - 300c and then ice bath it.

Lightly sand. It’s not hot enough to change the state of the metal but it is hot enough to provide a coating that is rust resistant even after the craps flaked off.

Think of it as a rubbish stainless treatment. With a strong oil based primer anything with then stick to it and it’ll last forever.

 

Well the weather is poop so I can't paint the frame any more. I decided to use the cheapo acrylic clear on the brake hanger.



So that's that finished.

 

Progress is progress. If you keep chipping it’ll eventually come along.

Rad colour by the way!

 

Aye. I have the stem to arrive yet....



Tis a used one of those. That will be getting the pink treatment also. Sadly the pictures get absolutely mashed by compression no matter where I upload them to as well. The camera just does not know what to do

Pretty amazed at that paint. It was £4 on Amazon. All you need to do is follow the cardinal rule, and that is to put it over white or be prepared to use an entire can on a 1" sized piece.

 

Mercian has been saved by 4 cyclists

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4ngzzl655yo

 

White.

 

And so it begins…

 

Again......

 

I'm not complaining, I come to bit-tech mostly to see what's going on here, I find it less intrusive and more fun than many of the bike forums. Go figure..

I'm sad, the Codes just cant be used on that Cooker.. Even if 160s which oddly catch, its still too much power.

I have a 203mm coming for the front and the crocks of **** are going back on. Ive also gone and bought from Aliexpress.. A pair of MT200s whihc are the wrong way around LF, RR rather than LR, RF. Hoses off at the lever and swap. For £22.46 delivered and new I should be grand. In the interim, the nasty Tektros and that larger front disc will go on and I shall just have to bike more slowly

 

So I am building another bike

It turns out my Mongoose SGX is not an SGX. Well it is, and it isn't. Bear with me.... Basically in 1998 they made it as a Supergoose.



And if you look at what I bought.



You can see it was white underneath. Pearl white to be exact. So that makes it a 98 Supergoose, not a 99 SGX. The reason I know this is because the 99 SGX was green.



And so it begins.. Instead of trying to restore it to original I decided to go down the killer restomod path. IE, put modern race components on it. So the first thing I wanted was wheels. To digress a bit.. About a month ago I offered £390 for a set of wheels worth £500. It was rejected. I then found the exact same rims from a seller I have bought tons of NOS 90s gear from. These are not 90s though, they are literally cutting edge modern.



Bit of rub on the letters, I will make decals and cover that. The rear is pristine.



Obviously spending stupid money on all sealed cassette hubs would be very daft. Mostly as I will never ride it. So I dug through his other items, and a few messages back and forth later for £120 I had these.



They are coming tomorrow. I also bought some decals.



"You stupid bark why did you buy pink stickers?" Well...



"OK you are now full dumbass, why buy a pink plate?" well...



Only this time I am going full send. IE, buy two paint kits (I can haz two) and do the frame, fork (got, Landing Gear from the 90s) and bars (Got, SNAFU). Hence why I just got these.



From Aliexpress, with this.



For £75 shipped to me. I bought this the other day for £12, again from Ali



And yeah. Pink and blue explosion !

 

I just bought myself some pink 100% Brisker to replace a set with a hole in the palm (dont ask) that were black. I figured iw otuld go well with my puke yellow helmet and Bright yellow accents on my Bike. It turns out I was wrong but I dont care, they are cool!

IMG_2720 by andrew8200m posted 18 Jul 2024 at 18:22

IMG_2719 by andrew8200m posted 18 Jul 2024 at 18:22

I also have a set of 100% Geomatics in black arriving tomorrow that a little more bike park and hot weather friendly.

On an unrelated note, I run 22% approx sag on my Fox 36 160mm however being a 200lb chonker I get a little more flex then I would like. After searching high and low I found a Rockshox Zeb (38 stanchions) that apparently reduce flex by around 21% compared to the Lyrik (essentially a fox 36).

The issue is, this Zeb is an 190mm fork... If I run sag at around 30-32% I should get a similar sat height level. Fox 36 @ 22% means 125mm of travel above sag. Running the Zeb @ 32% means 129mm of travel above the sag as sucn I wont notice a change to the Geo.

For those who know what I am talking about (mostly @Cookie Monster), my man math is about right on this and I shouldn't experience any issues only a more plush and forgiving damping stroke with more rigidity?