Discussion
I took the picture at night, with only marginal lighting plus the flash. In the day it looks better - the chrome shines better (looks dull in the pis) - and will sort of match up with the Flight cranks which are chrome too. But ultimately I want a white one. I've seen a white one on the BMX museum - I'm pretty sure he had it powdercoated rather than buying it already in white. It does look the Daddy. Something to think about once I've got it all together.
I have a dispatch notice regarding my crank which I previously rearranged from a "home" delivery to a "work" delivery, because I kept missing the home deliveries (being at work, as I was). The consequence of ill-timing is that I'm on a day's leave tomorrow and the bloody crank is likely to arrive at work then. 
Anyway, question: How to put grips onto the bars? They're due soon too. What techniques? Application of water/soap/lubes?
Answers/experiments gratefully received.
Anyway, question: How to put grips onto the bars? They're due soon too. What techniques? Application of water/soap/lubes?
Answers/experiments gratefully received.
Roman said:
Leave to soak in hot soapy water.
I've always just used hot water, very hot water, nearly boiling hot, leave the grips in there for a few minutes, they expand & with a few twists will easily slide on the bars. With soapy water I find they slide about for hours.Either way, as long as the buggers go on & stay on
They look f'ing gorgeous, where did you pick the flights up in the end? I was driving home yesterday from Poole train station and saw some 30-40 year old on a chrome Street beat, looked spot with some graphite Tuff II's Tried to get his attention but he had headphones on, he looked happy as larry and why the hell not. Be nice to see this completed, well done and quite rapid progress.
OK, then... major update time.
So you saw the crank arrived earlier. Well I never got to do anything with it until the light was fading because of looking after children and remedying the issues with their bikes first. But eventually I got my time and started work.
The first thing to note is the BB construction involves there being an internal tube, designed to prevent you from torquing up the crank arms so much that you pop the bearings out, or unduly stress them. This internal tube comes in at a rather precise 52.6mm but it was far too long. I had no way of measuring the over-length so I took the decision to remove one bearing from its cup, then by inserting the other complete bearing on one side, and the empty cup in the other side, I could keep lathing small lengths off the tube until it was perfectly aligned with the internal back face of the cup. See here:
Lathing teeny slices off at a time:
It's useful that I've recently learned how modern headsets work, using a compression washer system. The flight crank is installed using exactly this same principle. See the alan bolts in the end of the axle:
So you saw the crank arrived earlier. Well I never got to do anything with it until the light was fading because of looking after children and remedying the issues with their bikes first. But eventually I got my time and started work.
The first thing to note is the BB construction involves there being an internal tube, designed to prevent you from torquing up the crank arms so much that you pop the bearings out, or unduly stress them. This internal tube comes in at a rather precise 52.6mm but it was far too long. I had no way of measuring the over-length so I took the decision to remove one bearing from its cup, then by inserting the other complete bearing on one side, and the empty cup in the other side, I could keep lathing small lengths off the tube until it was perfectly aligned with the internal back face of the cup. See here:
Lathing teeny slices off at a time:
It's useful that I've recently learned how modern headsets work, using a compression washer system. The flight crank is installed using exactly this same principle. See the alan bolts in the end of the axle:
Next I installed the AWESOME DMR V8 pedals (I'm 42 by the way - and shouting "AWESOME" over an over makes me look a complete idiot. Did it a lot this evening though).
Then spent ages getting the chain to the right length. I wanted it as short as poss, but you need to be able to get it on and off from time to time, so the wheels need to sit in the middle of the dropout to afford you that flexibility. Or you use one of those easy-off chain links.
Anyway, I got this far. I'm still waiting for the grips and calipers. Didn't stop me from taking it for a ride around the garden and although I KNOW there's no brakes, I still panicked when I needed to stop. Idiot.
Then spent ages getting the chain to the right length. I wanted it as short as poss, but you need to be able to get it on and off from time to time, so the wheels need to sit in the middle of the dropout to afford you that flexibility. Or you use one of those easy-off chain links.
Anyway, I got this far. I'm still waiting for the grips and calipers. Didn't stop me from taking it for a ride around the garden and although I KNOW there's no brakes, I still panicked when I needed to stop. Idiot.
OneDs said:
Was always such a lovely and well proportioned bike the TA. Looks even cleaner without the brakes, many thanks for keeping the updates coming.
Yes, you're absolutely right. I bought my original one without having ever seen on in the flesh - only in the magazines. It always looked ready for racing or tricks, and it had that little bit of "special" in the frame tubing. It made other BMXs seem so "normal" by comparison.It was lucky that I completely loved the geometry. I could have picked a Ripper which never suited me - the top tube is quite a bit longer than the TA and made it much more difficult to wheelie.
Did I mention wheelie? This was from ~1988:
Hey Mars, found you a white seatpost. Its got a slight layback on it but looks minty fresh :
http://cgi.ebay.com/NOS-1980s-white-Tioga-seat-pos...
http://cgi.ebay.com/NOS-1980s-white-Tioga-seat-pos...
allegro said:
Hey Mars, found you a white seatpost. Its got a slight layback on it but looks minty fresh :
http://cgi.ebay.com/NOS-1980s-white-Tioga-seat-pos...
Postage to the UK is a bit steep but thanks, I've put it on my watch-list. I'm sort of coming to terms with the chrome post but I might get some white sticky-plastic to "wrap" it with, just to see how it looks in white. Might also help with clamping it up.http://cgi.ebay.com/NOS-1980s-white-Tioga-seat-pos...
Y282 said:
coming along beautifully. love it.
What do you think about those tyres? I only really want "street" tyres (that'll be my MO), and the white wall style sort of "punctuates" the edge of the wheels. But they're quite a bit fatter than I was expecting. I look at those original ones (wheelie pic) and recall they were 1.75". Normal BMX tyres from the period were 1.75" or 2.25". I always thought the 2.25" ones looked fat but felt there was room for a shade more tyre than the 1.75". These new ones are 2.0" so ought to be perfect but now they're on, I can't help think they're a bit on the lardy size too.Ah well, they suit their owner I suppose.
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