A Very British Klunker

[yakboy]

A very kind gift from @benjabbi of 52 and 44 TA rings and a trip to Spa Cycles to refine the ratio's on the triple crankset. I genuinely want to ride this bike on more than Dalby downhills so chose a 36 and a 26 ring. So with the 14-26 3 speed rear I hopefully will have reasonable ratio's to drag myself of the hills.

I may remove the new style logo's on the new chainrings

 

[yakboy]

OK...After a bit of a stressy December and discharging our Christmas hosting obligations I have got my mojo back, so after encouragement from @Obtrusch I thought I would have a crack at aligning the frame


Turned out to be alot easier than expected and the frame seems to be fairly straight.



Fitted the original 27tpi cups from the original cottered axle with a replacement raleigh square taper axle. It does mean losing the lock ring and I will use some grub screws to secure the rings but seemed to be easier than grinding the bottom bracket tube. Crank spacing looks OK and the chain line isn't too bad

 

[Obtrusch]

Good work!

I need to get mine painted but the spray masks I bought in early November still have not arrived

 

[Synthiaks]

Good work!

I need to get mine painted but the spray masks I bought in early November still have not arrived

It looks great rusty...

 

[The History Man]

Who you calling rusty ?

 

[yakboy]

I wasn't really happy with my previous fork choice and was wanting something more in keeping with the Klunker ethos and hopefully a little stronger then the Raleigh fork. I think I may have found it a Humber Duplex fork, designed for 26" wheels with a biplane style crown
So had a little play at adapting the drum brake clamp to fit (which meant the chrome started flaking off...another thing to strip
Then started thinking how to attach the brake cable stop. My era of front drum brake does not have a cable stop so thought I was being clever adapting the mudguard eyelet
...but no the cable is too kinked to run smoothly. So I need to make another clamp to attach it further up for a straight cable run.


The frame has had a few coats of filler primer and some touching up with zinc 182 to try and disguise some of the rust pitting. It looks better but is far from perfect but I keep having to remind myself that this is a Klunker and the paint should not be perfect but tough.

 

[Obtrusch]

It won't matter much if the cable run is poor, Klunker brakes are for display purposes only

 

[yakboy]

.

It won't matter much if the cable run is poor, Klunker brakes are for display purposes only

Yeah, I'm gonna need a big pair of hobnail boots to stop

 

[Synthiaks]

I love these duplex forks....they look great, almost bought a pair a while back I stumbled upon on ebay, but had no idea what use i'd ever put them too!

Good choice, hope they work out.

 

[Nabeaquam]

If it were me I would keep the original size wheels and use a SA 3 speed coaster. Forward facing drops with a coaster break don't keep the wheel straight with vigorous braking so that would be something to work out if you go this route. Perhaps a smaller chainring welded on the crank arm of the original as a backup to try and see if you decide you need lower gearing. My smaller ring came from an exercise bike. I do love the bsa crank. These original tires are pretty good on trails, unless it’s sand. If your 26 x 2 rims gets out of true it will rub. Tires tend to get a little fatter as they weaken with age. Anything you do will be good. I like the blue and white seat. This will be a nice unique klunker. I wonder how 24 rims with + tires would fit and look? My bike here has the exercise chainring and a coaster and caliper brakes incase the chain breaks.