Bare Beaver!

Don't tell me you thought I would actually post something untowardly? I disassembled the bottom bracket on the Bianchi this evening and found that the bearings looked nice and shiny but had absolutely no grease on them. Had a little help from Harpoon's Octoberfest Beer, too.

Close up, sorry for the blur, it wasn't because of the beer, honest! As you can see ballbearings are pretty dry.

So, I lubed them up with some Phil Wood and put it all back together. In order to accomplish this little feat, I picked up some tools from the Bicycle Goodie Shop in Bethel. I got a really big cone wrench for removing this plate but it wouldn't budge. I was, however, able to take off the other side with that tool from the first picture.

We'll see how it performs tomorrow when I try to ride 30 miles round trip to work. Now that I am getting fixed riding down, which by the way, I am loving it totally, it's time to had some distance.

It ain't no Pista but ...

... it's my Bianchi Classica Fixed Gear on Craigslist. I might even be able to sell this and move onto my next project, another SS/Fixed Gear commuter, which is a larger frame with drop bars. I traded my Magellan Explorist for a Rolf 700c wheelset. It's geared but I have a spacer kit and single Shimano styled cogs that I can use till I get find a good deal on a track wheelset. All I need for this next bike is a new set of tires, tubes, bar tape, new brake cables, and aero brake covers (forget what they are called).

It's not a 59 cm, rather 58 cm. The allure of my next MonsterCross project has motivated me into selling this bike and hopefully with the proceeds I will be able to get a decent 29er frame for the build. The other carrot of my motivation is this ad on the Long Island CList: Kona Jake the Snake 59 cm. Man, I want this bike! If I can get between $4 and $5 hundy for the Bianchi I could get it.

It won't surfice my MonsterCross needs but I have always wanted this type of bike from Kona. Not sure what the allure is but that bike speaks to me! Sent the seller an email to see if would be willing to meet in Port Jeff. Take the ferry without a bike. Buy it, ride around Port Jeff for a bit and then take the ferry home with the bike. Could be fun.

The Friday Fix

It just dawned on me that I haven't posted about my new (to me) but older model Bianchi Classica single speed/fixie commuter bike I built a couple of months ago. I thought I would make it the feature of this week's Friday Fix, granted it's not a mountain bike but I have it configured more like a cycle cross bike, so that's close enough.

I picked this bike up on the side of the road after someone try to sell it at tag sale for $10 and there were no takers. It is a Bianchi Classica and I think it made in the early 1990's. It doesn't have the engraved CLASSICA at the start of the seat stays as the first production year model did, in fact I thought I read somewhere that this bike was the first of the Bianchis to be mass produced in Japan.

The addition of this bike to the stable prompted the sale of the Cannondale. That was a sweet bike but just too small for me. This bike, with the longer stem feels just right for me, although the seat tube measurement was smaller than the Cannondale's. It was fun stripping down the bike, though. I was able to pass on the cables to a buddy who was refurbishing an old mountain bike and needed specific suntour cables that you can't buy any more. The drop bars went to the Cannondale and the pedals were pretty cool.

Back in March, I purchased a 700c Alex Rim flip flop wheel that I was going to put on the Cannondale but you might recall, the rear drops on that bike were true vertical drops and I just couldn't get the enough chain tension with this wheel. For the longest time I kept scouring Ebay and Craigslist for a 700c front wheel but never found anything. Just when I was about to breakdown and buy a new wheel from NYC bikes when I found someone on Crankfire.com that was willing to trade a 700c steel fir wheel set for a pair of Crank Brothers' Candies.

I got a pair of Bullhorns from Profile Designs and the levers are Cane Creek 200TT, both of which, along with the cork tape I bought at Pricepoint. This was the first time putting tape on bars. In fact, I do have a post about bar taping in which I use the Bianchi as an example, called How to Tape Your Bars. I started out by first using electrical tape to keep the brake housings underneath the bars and then wound the tape onto the bars. I was able to tuck the ends in on themselves for a very professional look.

I played switcheroo with the pedals. I decided to put my CB Acids on the Fixation, thus moving the Candies over to the Bianchi. I am going to try riding clipless but it seems most fixie riders use toe clips or no clips at all. I think that may be so that if they have to loose contact with the pedals in an emergency it's a no brainer. Clipless might be another story so I will try it for awhile and see how it works. I can always go back.

The last couple of things I need are better brake pads, fenders although running the 700x42 tires might not fit with conventional fenders, so I might have to get creative, and the last thing is good mirror. So far, little jaunts around the neighborhood, the bike feels really nice. The 42:16 gear ratio feels really nice on asphalt and I can't wait to tackle the Route 25 climb into Brookfield with that gearing.

Can't wait to start riding this to work!