WillWork4Parts
Cruisin' on my Bluebird
First thing I had to change on the bike...got rid of the chewed up AME grips and threw on this vintage set of Toad Stools!
When I got the bike, the stop was set on the front derailleur to keep it in high gear only. I addressed that today and lubed up the front derailleur. It was quite gummy, but snapped back to life after the oil and some exercising of the cable. Then I noticed the rear tire rubbing...after all that torque becoming available in 1st gear...and found that the serrated axle washers were installed on the inside of the frame... :-| Why would you force those on the inside?? I had to let air out of the tire it's so fat, just to get the axle out of the drop outs. Aaaand then I had to adjust the stops on the rear derailleur. It didn't want to find 5th in the back afterwards, so I lubed that derailleur too, it went into 5th on the stand and once in the driveway. After a trip around the block, I found the crank bearings were loose and the rear derailleur didn't want to find 5th again. So, a couple more adjustments... With the crank tight now, the front derailleur needed another tweak of the stop screws. I adjusted the upper seat clamp so that the seat pan wasn't bottoming out on the extra bit of seatpost and adjusted the handlebar and lever arrangement. Then I was finally off for a ride!
On the way back home about a mile out, the chain locked up and wouldn't let loose in either direction. This is a first! The chain got wedged between the large front sprocket and the guard. I had to take partial cranks to get to a bit of downhill and finally to some light where I could see what was happening and took these last two photos.
I got that unbound and had to adjust the high stop on the front derailleur again. The guard is going to need some reworking to close that gap up. Whenever I go through and do a detail I'll have to replace all of the cables, inner and outer, changing to grey if that's what I find would have been correct for an 83. I was surprised with the drivetrain and could lay the hammer down! .....until that happened. Lol
