French Barn Find - Buckets of Patina!
- Thread starter Woz
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Back to business. I'm in the process of the chainset transplant.
Initially I thought it would be an easy crank swap, but foolish of me to think so due to different requirements in spindle length and symmetry off-set for the "new" crank. Forced to dig deeper and find a solution the BB had to come out for a full spindle swap. With some surprises...
- the NDS cup lockring came off easy enough, but the cup could only be removed via one indentation for a dot punch. More hammering....
- Once the NDS cup was off, there was usual amount of dried grime and shit in the shell, but also a cork (to plug the seat-tiube) and a broken bit of hacksaw. WTF :!:
. I'm underlining now, it's not my hacksaw blade, but I'm glad it's out since I can't tolerate rattly frames.
- the cup diameter is larger than the old 35mm French diameter, and closer to the obsolete oversized Chater Lea. This really throws the spanner in the works as the intention was to move over the other cups to be sure the entire "new" chainset would work.
If you don't get anything of what I'm saying, that's OK. Focusing on Brigette's rear caliper is far better.
Initially I thought it would be an easy crank swap, but foolish of me to think so due to different requirements in spindle length and symmetry off-set for the "new" crank. Forced to dig deeper and find a solution the BB had to come out for a full spindle swap. With some surprises...
- the NDS cup lockring came off easy enough, but the cup could only be removed via one indentation for a dot punch. More hammering....
- Once the NDS cup was off, there was usual amount of dried grime and shit in the shell, but also a cork (to plug the seat-tiube) and a broken bit of hacksaw. WTF :!:
. I'm underlining now, it's not my hacksaw blade, but I'm glad it's out since I can't tolerate rattly frames. - the cup diameter is larger than the old 35mm French diameter, and closer to the obsolete oversized Chater Lea. This really throws the spanner in the works as the intention was to move over the other cups to be sure the entire "new" chainset would work.
If you don't get anything of what I'm saying, that's OK. Focusing on Brigette's rear caliper is far better.
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Peachy!":20vah6yw said:
Thankfully St. Sheldon is guiding me along, and I can confirm that both bottom brackets are:
NDS thread - turn to the left to remove. ie. same as BSA/ISO standard.
DS thread - turn to the left to remove. ie. opposite to BSA/ISO standard.
I've had to re-arrange my workshop bench to do the old "put the fixed cup in the vice and turn the frame" trick which was a major hassle. Romantic images of descending the Col de Croix de Fer on it where quickly replaced with throwing the whole damn lot from the summit.
The cup diameters are beating me. The larger ones from the frame in Lot #2 (which I'm concentrating on) are really weird and do not round up properly to either a whole metric figure nor an imperial one. The ball bearing sizes are the same 4/16" = 1/4" between the bottom brackets.
The only way out I see is to do a spindle swap and use the oversized cups but right now I know for fact this will screw up the chain line - the cranks are completely different beasts. To add more fuel to the fire, the bearing butt locations on the spindles are close but not the same. No markings on the spindles either. :facepalm: .
I'm going to have more wine and chill to Nina Simone to find a way forward because right now I feel I've entered a French vintage bottom bracket world of pain.
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michael franks
Retrobike Rider
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Spot on - it always helps! This is one almighty project you've taken on so I've pulled up a chair and am here for the duration. Very best of luck with it, Chapeau!
Spot on - it always helps! This is one almighty project you've taken on so I've pulled up a chair and am here for the duration. Very best of luck with it, Chapeau!
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Remember.
It’s french.
It’s french.
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Loving this thread and it’s many twists n turns / trials and tribulations
Cultural references to beautiful mademoiselle and her velo
Cultural references to beautiful mademoiselle and her velo
It's just a pile of old junk......?
If there's one thing I've learnt about this Retrobike malarky time get's divided between fiddling in the man-cave and trawling the interweb. With this build, I'm now certain there will be no looking for NOS / NIB parts.
It's exactly a week ago since I was in the barn attic and dragged out the filthy rusty old tat. At the time, I simply brushed
over the head badges didn't recognise any of it, and set about them with WD40, mole grips, hammers and hacksaws.
Without further a do, here is the head-badge of Lot #2 which I'm concentrating on - it's a De Dion - Bouton from the Puteaux factory which was based at the North-West outskirts of Paris.
If you were into vintage cars, you probably would have recognised the badge and name and promptly made a small dribble in the old pantalons. I didn't make a splash, but interweb trawling has had my mind utterly spinning. For me at least; it's jaw dropping stuff.
If there's one thing I've learnt about this Retrobike malarky time get's divided between fiddling in the man-cave and trawling the interweb. With this build, I'm now certain there will be no looking for NOS / NIB parts.
It's exactly a week ago since I was in the barn attic and dragged out the filthy rusty old tat. At the time, I simply brushed
over the head badges didn't recognise any of it, and set about them with WD40, mole grips, hammers and hacksaws.
Without further a do, here is the head-badge of Lot #2 which I'm concentrating on - it's a De Dion - Bouton from the Puteaux factory which was based at the North-West outskirts of Paris.
If you were into vintage cars, you probably would have recognised the badge and name and promptly made a small dribble in the old pantalons. I didn't make a splash, but interweb trawling has had my mind utterly spinning. For me at least; it's jaw dropping stuff.
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At this point, it's logical that I thank Colin the owner of https://oldbike.eu/ for wishing me luck with this project and
providing superb resources as well has giving me kind permission to reproduce pertinent material here with the aim to keep
information in one thread.
The wikipedia entry for De Dion - Bouton contains no mention whatsoever about bicycles. The single best write
up is here: https://oldbike.eu/1913-velo-de-dion-bouton/
The article is well worth a read - this was the tipping point for me to persevere. I simply couldn't pass on this one.
providing superb resources as well has giving me kind permission to reproduce pertinent material here with the aim to keep
information in one thread.
The wikipedia entry for De Dion - Bouton contains no mention whatsoever about bicycles. The single best write
up is here: https://oldbike.eu/1913-velo-de-dion-bouton/
The article is well worth a read - this was the tipping point for me to persevere. I simply couldn't pass on this one.
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