💾 Archived View for zaibatsu.circumlunar.space › ~solderpunk › bikes › franken-peugeot › log › agr_2… captured on 2020-09-24 at 02:12:18.
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August 10th, 2018 ----------------- My dream goal for today's visit would have been to get my front brake working completely. At that point, I would consider the bike more or less rideable. Two brakes is a very good idea, but the front brake is much more effective and is what experienced cyclists use 90% of the time, so riding with only a front brake for, say, a week, is not exactly insane. Alas, I didn't quite get to this point, but I'm close and am certain I will next week, which is exciting. I have mentioned elsewhere that the previous owner of this frame, for whatever reason, sprayed it with primer with the stem and seatpost still in place. I knew that once I had the brake levers on the handlebars, they would be a pain to remove, which would make it a pain to get the paint off the stem. So, before doing anything else, I pulled the stem out, put it in a vice and used a steel brush to get all the paint off. This was tedious, sweaty work, which ate up more of my limited time than I'd have liked, but a the same time, this is the kind of chore by which you invest a little bit of your soul into a machine, so I'm glad for the opportunity. While I had the stem out, I took a photo of the model number - SR 5355. Some quick web searching suggests this is a 22.2mm stem. Fantastic news! This is a standard stem size and not the weird French 22.0mm size. This suggests the non-matching fork is not a weird French fork, which suggests the previous owner, whatever their strange painting phiosophy, did me the great favour not only of installing a weird French bottom bracket, but of replacing the headset with a standard one (possible because, thank goodness, the non-threaded parts of French headsets *do* have standard measurements. This means I can easily replace the fork! I think I will do this next week. I'll get a nice chromed silver one - because it will make the job of eventually painting the frame easier, as there will only be one part to paint. Of course, I didn't know any of this until I got home, so right now the front brake caliper is happily bolted to the old fork, but oh well. Update: after some more searching, it seems like almost every bloody SR stem ever made is marked 5355 and nobody seems to have explained why. So I can't actually be sure it's 22.2mm after all. Maybe I'll have to just use some calipers next week to actually measure the stem. Imagine that. I've also realised that my frame is quite large (something else I should actually measure!), and in particular has a very long headtube, which means I might have trouble finding a chromed fork with the steerer tube cut to a suitable length. So the fork change is not a guaranteed thing at all yet. With the stem all brushed up, I put the handlebars back in and fitted the brake levers. To my surprise, the clamps are tightened by turning a nut inside the lever, rather than a bolt or screwhead. This was quite difficult, and only once I found a pair of semi-needle-nosed pliers with a roughly 90 degree bend in them did I have much luck. But they're on, now, in the conventional position for moustache handlebars, more or less at the middle of the curve. They look pretty nice! I think I mentioned in my last log not being able to find cable hangers last week. I asked about this first thing today, and the old guy that runs the place disappeared somewhere and came back with a set for me. The front hanger is by Shimano, and has a funky quick release lever like I've never seen. I'll admit I'd have preferred something either unbranded or from a European manufacturer to keep the build more coherent, but it doesn't really matter and I didn't want to be a jerk by making a fuss over it. The rear hanger is also unlike what I've seen on other bikes, it's quite a large pulley, but if it works, I'm happy. Only the front one is on for now because, embarrassingly, I couldn't actually get the seattube clamp bolt out, even after removing the nut completely. Not sure if there is some trick to this? Not having the rear hanger on turned out to be no great delay because, alas! The rear caliper of my Mafac Racers is designed to be mounted on a brake bridge which has been drilled out vertically, whereas mine has been drilled out horizontally. Apparently the (relatively rare) vertical mounting calipers came in two kinds, one of this is fundamentally and irreversibly vertical, the other of which has been