I picked it up this morning. My very own pre-owned portable repair stand. Every young man's dream. I met up with the seller in Bristol and hung out in the rendezvous parking lot talking bikes for a bit before moving on. Moving on, I visited a scooter shop in Plainville, the owner of which is a longtime avid cyclist in addition to selling the self-propelled variety of two-wheelers. With everyone and their bandmates trying to rock a track bike these days, it was refreshing to hang out with someone who has actually raced them on tracks.
On the way home, I stopped off at Renaissance Cyclery in Plainville, where three well-traveled looking bikes were parked out front. They were pretty well loaded, with two out of the three towing trailers. Inside the shop I met the trio known as Team Bowditch, who are riding from Maine to California to raise money for breast cancer research. Nice folks. I wish them well.
Back in Hartford, I cleared a place of honor for the work stand in the room that some well-intentioned architect once intended for dining. I have every intention of this room being used once again someday for the consumption of meals, but for now it is a de facto workshop. The first thing I clamped into place was my ratty and beloved old Trek 720. The stand will make it much easier to tackle the long-postponed annoyance of replacing the bottom bracket on that particular frame. The right hand side retaining cup captures the bracket for the front derailleur, a mid-nineties practice that was geared toward ease of manufacture rather than serviceability.
I'm replacing the worn 24-32-38 crankset with a shiny new 22-32-42 one, which means the derailleur needs to be higher, which means the aforementioned stupid bracket needs to go to make way for one of the more reasonable clamp-on variety. Unfortunately, years of northeastern rain and snow exposure has oxidized that stubborn little cup firmly in place beyond the magical powers of PB Blaster, breaker bar or an impact wrench, and some precision hacksaw action is called for. It's still going to be an obnoxious job, but the stand should make it less vexing by leaps and bounds. I've had sort of a mental block about overhauling this particular bike, but it needs to be ridden again. More on that another time...
I mean no offense by this, but just in case you don't know, the threads on the drive side of the BB are left (reverse) hand. I've never seen a steel frame that and impact wrench (are you using electric or pneumatic?) wouldn't budge, but there is a first for everything.
ReplyDeleteNice find! I assume you got this from the CList? How much did you pay, if you don't mind me asking? I have one mounted on a support in my garage but have been in the market for a portable one, too. Just haven't found one at the right price point.
ReplyDeleteNo offense taken, Salem. I did happen to know it was reverse threaded, but that fact bears repeating, as that is kind of counterintuitive (if anything, reverse thread on the left side makes more sense in my head). I was using a pneumatic impact wrench. At one point months ago, I broke down and brought it to one of the more established bike shops in the area, who were also unable to budge it and prescribed the hacksaw method. I set it aside at that point and periodically gave it a fresh spritz of PB Blaster. Apparently that did the trick, because an hour or so after I wrote that post, I gave it one more try with the breaker bar and a cheater pipe and it finally came free! Woot!
ReplyDeleteHey, good deal! Also, I should have mentioned, a propane torch works well with two rusted steel pieces. Heat and cool it a few times--the metal's expansion and contraction helps break-up the rust. I've had success with this when chemicals failed.
ReplyDeleteREM or Sly and the Family Stone?
ReplyDeleteKnowing 'Statement, it's the latter.
Nice score amigo.
Puts my Nashbar to shame....