Bike Project #4: Caveat Dumbass

Yep, the fork I bought is totally unsuitable. The problem here is the spacing. I want to put in wheels with 100mm hubs, the standard size for road bikes. The spacing on the fork is 94mm, probably because it was bent at some point, intentionally or not.

I can’t see why anyone would have a 94mm fork, since I don’t see that anyone makes hubs that size. Regardless, the fork is of no use to me with its current spacing. So the search begins again.

Bike Project #3: Fork and weird crankset

Got the fork. It’s pretty ugly, and may not actually be what I need. That will require some more research. But even if the fork is a total mistake, it’s only a $10 mistake.

The current mystery is how to remove the crankset and bottom bracket. The research I did suggested that I had one of two types of bottom brackets: square-tapered or splined. And the type of bottom bracket I had would determine how I’d get the crank arms off.

However, for all I can tell I have a totally different type of bottom bracket. This makes no sense and I figure that I’m just looking at it wrong. So I’ve sent a query to people far smarter than me at Minneapolis Bike Love. Hopefully they’ll straighten me out.

Project totals:
Days: 4
Money spent: $50

Bike Project #2: Damn pedals

I’ve located a fork, but I haven’t picked it up yet. I may have also located a cheap bike that I can scavenge for parts. If so, that will make the whole process easier and cheaper.

To prepare the frame for sanding and painting, I need to remove the crankset and bottom bracket, but I don’t have the right tools. Also, they are attached in a way dissimilar from all the examples I’ve looked at. So I want to have a more experienced eye take a look before I start messing around.

In order to feel like I was doing something, I removed the old pedals. This was probably not strictly necessary. But, whatever. To remove the pedals I needed a Pedal wrench as none of my tools were quite up to the job. So now I have one of those. I’m sure that’ll come in handy every day of the week.

Project totals:
Days: 2
Money spent: $40