Tikibar
Finally riding a big boys bike
And so it begins...
Been wanting to join the 'Roadster Club' for a while now and had picked up this double bar frame from a fellow Caber. Looks like house paint over not much og paint, so I could go either way - keep the house paint and build up a crusty rider or go all-in with a restore and paint.
Looks like it had an oval badge. I have something in mind, but will wait until the end to place a badge.
First I'll do an initial assembly and see how well I did collecting parts. There's always a few surprises along the way and a dress rehearsal assembly of the parts should sort out what's here, what doesn't fit, and what's missing.
The serial is S7977, which I think dates it to 1936. I'm aiming to make a Model B67 out of it. This is an earlier model Roadster, with a drop stand, crossbar handlebars, flat fender braces, and a skiptooth phantom style chain ring.
I noticed that the seat tube is cut down about an inch, so a longer seat post will be needed.
To start the assembly I began cleaning the chrome parts on the fork. Turns out the bottom ball bearing race was broken and was only being held together by some old dried up grease. Had to raid the parts stash to find another one that would fit.
Got the fork assembly on, but there was another surprise which is that the frame's head tube was a little bit smaller than the cups I had planned to use. Again back to the parts stash, until I found a slightly smaller pair of head tube cups. It's a tiny difference in diameter, but enough that the bigger cups won't fit. I've noticed this before, the earlier '30's frames can have smaller head tube cups than the later frames. This also goes for the cups on crank in the bottom bracket.
Next, it was time to clean the parts in the bottom bracket. Only had a sweetheart chain ring on hand, so that will have to do for now, until I can source the other style of skiptooth sprocket shown for the Model B67 in the catalog. Also going to go with prewar Torrington 8 pedals.
I made sure to use the correct bottom bracket for this model year, so the bearing cups would fit the frame. Had to do some scraping and cleaning of old grease to prep for the cups. They went in smoothly and fit like a glove.
Since this is just a dress rehearsal assembly and I plan to pull it apart again for more cleaning and possibly painting, I decided not to grease or lube it for now. I have a motto when it comes to building parts bikes...'first, make it go, then make it pretty'. The pretty part will come later, for now I just want to make it go, to check if I have all the parts and if they are working together.
The bottom bracket assembly came together without a hitch and spins nicely. The Torrington pedals also went in, but the left feels a bit sticky, so may have to disassemble that later to check the bearings. I keep some NOS bearings on hand in case of replacement. The pedals are a great design, but if the lube isn't maintained and dries out over the years, water can get in and rust the bearings until they fall apart. I almost always have to rebuild pedals, whenever I pick up an old set.
I got the truss rods on ok, but these had been house painted silver long ago. Fine for a crusty old rider, but may need upgrading if I go the route of a full repaint.
Realized I don't have any ballooner tire tubes on hand, as we used the last set on my wife's Panther last weekend. No sense in putting on the wheels without tubes, so I'll stop here. More to come...
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