Rebirth of a hardtail

bvibert · May 23, 2009

Here's some pics of the rebuild of my HT after my FS met it's unfortunate demise.

The old HT, stripped and ready for new parts

Ready to be dismantled

A fond farewell

Everything ready to be reassembled

Pile-o-parts

More to follow when I finish...

Greg · May 23, 2009

It's gonna look sick when you're done.

bvibert · May 23, 2009

I actually got the fork mounted and wheels on last night, but it was too dark by then and the pictures didn't come out...

thorski · May 23, 2009

That's a nice jeep.

GrilledSteezeSandwich · May 23, 2009

wow..I have trouble putting together Ikea furniture..

severine · May 23, 2009

thorski said:
That's a nice jeep.

That's MY Jeep. 78 Cherokee S.

Once Brian has time to fix it, I will be bidding farewell to the Blazer and that sweet ride will be mine. Only 100K miles on it and it was a 1 owner vehicle before we got it.

Brian's outside in the rain working on the HT again.

o3jeff · May 23, 2009

Good choice in HT, I have the same thing, but holy shit that frame is HUGE:-o

bvibert · May 23, 2009

o3jeff said:
Good choice in HT, I have the same thing, but holy shit that frame is HUGE:-o

Yeah, it's a pretty good frame, I rode it for a few years before getting the FS as a hand-me-down. It is a bit on the big side, even for me, it's a 23"

It's finished now. Luckily I had some new deraileur cable hanging around, so I was able to cable those up using the old housing, which looked to be in decent shape. Being that the frame is so huge the hydraulic line for the rear brake is a bit on the short side, but I think it'll do. The only weak link is in the chain, being that it's a shimano, with no power link, I had to break it the old fashioned way. Those pins aren't supposed to be re-usable, but I didn't have a new one to use, hopefully it'll hold up until I can get a power link.

I couldn't get any pictures of the finished project tonight, because it was too dark when I finished, but I think I took some pics of the progress. I'll post them later, if they're any good, not that I think any of you really care...

RootDKJ · May 23, 2009

I'm pretty good with a wrench, but I don't know if I'd attempt that.

bvibert · May 23, 2009

RootDKJ said:
I'm pretty good with a wrench, but I don't know if I'd attempt that.

Bikes are really simple machines. There's a few special tools you need to have to do some jobs, but other than that it's really not that hard. Just take your time and pay attention to detail and you'll be fine. There's tons of resources both online (free) and in print to help you out if you're not sure what you're doing.

RootDKJ · May 23, 2009

bvibert said:
Bikes are really simple machines. There's a few special tools you need to have to do some jobs, but other than that it's really not that hard. Just take your time and pay attention to detail and you'll be fine. There's tons of resources both online (free) and in print to help you out if you're not sure what you're doing.

When I was younger, I used to do a lot more bike work. I'd ride all over town on salvage day scrounging for good spare parts I could strip off bikes people were throwing away.

I think my patience (or lack thereof) would get the best of me now. Then again, if I just cracked a frame and wanted to get back out right away, I'd probably find a way to get it done.

bvibert · May 23, 2009

RootDKJ said:
When I was younger, I used to do a lot more bike work. I'd ride all over town on salvage day scrounging for good spare parts I could strip off bikes people were throwing away.

I think my patience (or lack thereof) would get the best of me now. Then again, if I just cracked a frame and wanted to get back out right away, I'd probably find a way to get it done.

I've always been a tinkerer, I love taking stuff apart to see how it works. I used to do quite a bit of work on cars, I still do all of our maintenance, but only when necessary. Working on bike is sooooo much easier than ripping into a car, I love it.

If you used to hack together pieces of bikes then you shouldn't have any problems working on your bike now.

RootDKJ · May 24, 2009

bvibert said:
I've always been a tinkerer, I love taking stuff apart to see how it works. I used to do quite a bit of work on cars, I still do all of our maintenance, but only when necessary. Working on bike is sooooo much easier than ripping into a car, I love it.

If you used to hack together pieces of bikes then you shouldn't have any problems working on your bike now.

I do some maintenance, as needed. I should really get a bike stand, cause once I start drinking, I get all confused if the bike is upside down or I am:dunce:

bvibert · May 24, 2009

Here she is, all finished.

Took her out for her maiden voyage today and she performed well, aside from a rear brake alignment issue. The disc mount tabs haven't been faced, I thought I'd be alright because of the CPS mounting system that the Avid's use (it's meant to make up for non perfectly aligned disk tabs). However, the paint that's on the tabs makes the adapter stick out too close to the rotor, so I can't align the caliper correctly. I also have a warped rotor (that I haven't had much luck straightening) which was actually hitting the washers on the mount since it was so close. I stopped to re-align it once (while someone else was changing a flat) and bent the rotor a bit with my hands another time and it was alright for the rest of the ride. I'm gonna file of the paint on the mounting tabs, which should fix my alignment issues.

Greg · May 24, 2009

Really looked awesome today. And it seemed to ride well.

bvibert · May 24, 2009

Thanks for the props. It did ride well today, but there's no mistaking that it's a HT.

Maybe it'll be good for my riding, to teach me how to be smooth again, without the FS crutch.

I gotta find the right tire pressure. It's nice to have it soft so that it sucks up little bumps, but I don't like how wishy washy the rear end is with it too soft. Of course, the pinch flat sucked too. :roll:

severine · May 24, 2009

Now you need to take it down the rock gardens at Meriden so you can see what I was telling you about riding that with a HT.

Nice job getting that together in such a short time! :beer:

bvibert · May 24, 2009

severine said:
Now you need to take it down the rock gardens at Meriden so you can see what I was telling you about riding that with a HT.

I'll spank the crap out of those rock gardens.

severine · May 24, 2009

bvibert said:
I'll spank the crap out of those rock gardens.

Are you sure that won't be the other way around?

bvibert · May 24, 2009

severine said:
Are you sure that won't be the other way around?

Yes

Rebirth of a hardtail

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