Welcome To Ed's Cycling With Coyotes. This is a channel where I share my mishaps in restoring bicycles so viewers can learn from my mistakes and save money. I hope my videos help you.
When I remove a freewheel on an old wheel like that I stick the too into a vice then sit the wheel down onto the tool and engage it, then grab the wheel on each side and with a quick push and pull turning the wheel to the left, it will pop loose then you can just spin the wheel until it comes off the freewheel.
Also I soak the back side of the free wheel with penetrating oil, getting oil down into the slot and usually it will free up and start spinning. I guess it depends on how rusted but I have never not been able to loosen one up and get it freewheeling again. You can even take them apart and there are a ton of small bearings inside which is not fun to deal with. Its interesting to take one apart and see how they work with the prowls that keep it going only in one direction.
Funny Thing! The rim tape was old cloth type. I cut out a small strip and put in Gorilla tape to make the the air valve work. There's no way the old rim tape could have shifted. I think who have pulled out the old innertube just moved the rim tape without thinking about the air valve hole.
Wow, did he pay you to do that? I would do a bike like that in that condition only if paid and paid well, like $150 plus parts and then It would still be a hard sell, I would have to be very bored lol I do enjoy tinkering with bikes though like you so I do get it. The problem with a low end rusty bike like that is there is no value in doing it for resale. A bike like that in my area you would have to give away to get rid of it. Its unfortunate but that is how it is here these days. I have a hard time selling a good clean decent newer bike. I thought for a minute that was one of those old Shimano Positron shifting bikes, ever see one of those? Shimano made those for like one year. The free wheel was in the crank not the rear wheel so the rear cog was like a fixed gear and the bottom bracket free wheeled so you could shift while not pedaling as the rear cog always moved. The shifter cables were stiff so the housings would bust open as they aged. Super strange set up and I've only seen two or three of them, rebuilt two of them but parts are super hard to find, mostly the cable and housings is what goes bad. If you never heard or seen one with Positron shifting, google it. Its cool to learn about and interesting. It was kind of a cool concept but they started them out on the lowest end bikes which they learned was a bad idea, always start at the top and move it down as once people think its cheap it can't move up to be high end, its much easier to move high end products down the lineup. I rebuilt a late 70s Vista road bike last month which was probably a slight step up from that bike. It was brutal, I relaced the aluminum hubs to a set of aluminum rims I had lying around, 27 inch 36 hole as I hate steel rims with a passion plus they were toast. The bike turned out nice looking but to me was horrible to ride. I hate the brakes and the shifting it was just horrible to me. I did put a nice set of wider drop bars on it so it had a pretty good feel but overall it just was not something I would even consider riding, way too old school for this old guy. I do hate to see bikes go to the dump so I just gave it away to a friend. All I really had in it was tires, tubes, those bars and I guess the rims which I would never need for anything anyway. Got rid of some parts, killed some time and moved a bike along and kept it out of the dump. #win in my book. I should have started a bike youtube channel years ago, oh well.
I know all about Shimano Positron, worked on many in the bike shop years ago. Yea that particular bike looks like a scraper. At free bikes for kids, we get some really weird stuff donated like Autoshift bike and Nordic Track bike. When I get a chance, I'll make a video on the Nordic Track bike because we decided it really wouldn't be of value to just give away. Belongs in a bike museum of weird bike stuff. Fun stuff though.
Never to late to start your own channel. You got the bike experience. Go for it. You got nothing to loose. I have yet to work on a Positron, but Googled it--interesting! I'll keep a look out for one. One of the things that's nice about fixing up old bikes, it that you get to test them. I've had the same experience as you. I put my heart and soul into the bike and the end I just didn't like it. As for the bike I fixed, I worked out a trade where the fella I fixed the bike does some house painting for me. I hate painting. When I was a teenager, one whole summer, my father had me strip off all the old paint paint on our two story clapboard house, then repaint it. I've hated house painting ever since. I got fair trade for sure.
@@edscyclingwithcoyotes I made several video's, some on bike stuff, some on flying model airplanes and other things. I think I'll try to do more that would be helpful. Take care!
I built one of these bikes up for a friend a few years back, it was the pink and yellow version, he is a big guy, 200lbs or so. Anyway he rides a lot and at around 5000 miles on the build the bottom bracket cracked at the lugs so I looked around found another one and built it up for him. (this was his dream bike as a kid working at a bike shop) anyway he put around 5000 miles on that bike and the bottom bracket did the same exact thing. Thought that was kind of strange that both of them did it. He is hell on rear wheels and bottom brackets apparently. He ended up buying a brand new bike finally.
Interesting about the bottom bracket cracking. My guess is metal fatigue after repeated stress. I like my Ironman. It's stiffer then other road bikes I've had, but the steel frame takes allot more abuse I guess until it can't take any more.
Protip: you can reuse those, just get something like a sewing pin or the tip of a slim knife to put in the ratcheting mechanism of the ziptie the same way the tip went in, and simply pull back slowly 👍
I'm pretty sure they still go on the outside, otherwise it will loosen the hub when you take the wheel off. You could just remove them if they're annoying, they don't do anything
One of the viewers has a similar bike and he told me it came with the safety clip on the inside of the lock nut. When I thought about it, It made sense because the lock nut has a raised portion on which the safety clip spins. When you tighten the lock not, it's this raised bit that is pressing against the cone nut leaving the clip free to spin while still putting pressure against the cone nut. The way I had it before, every time I dropped the wheel in the fork I'd have to hold the safety clips and washers in place. I can't image the bike maker doing it the way I had it originally because people would always be fighting the safety clips as they put the wheel in the forks. Having the safety clip on the inside makes sense for that reason, too. Thanks for watching.
I'm interested in creating a non-profit bike flipping shop because I think it would be a very enjoyable (even though sometimes frustrating) experience - thanks for the video
Hello Ed, looks to me that the way the axle was set up was correct. The locking tabs should freely float on the axle between the cone and locknut I have a Schwinn Impact Pro mtn bike in my basement with this same set up but the cone has a small raised shoulder for the locking tab that it rotates on instead of the locknut on your bike. I'm assuming the locknut was never tightened causing the cone to back off and drop a bearing. In the image at 40 seconds, the spacing on the left side looks too much compared to the spacing on the right, should have 1/4"-3/8" axle spacing on each side. Good luck.
You are correct. That makes sense. The raised edge on the locknut puts force on the cone nut but still gives the locking tabs free float. Otherwise like I have it, it works, but the locking tabs have to be held in place with your fingers ever time you put the wheel on--which is a real pain. As for the spacing, I adjusted it correctly when I put the axle in the hub. You can see that at the very end of the video when the wheel spinning. Thanks for your help. I really appreciate you setting me straight.
I changed the wheel safety clips around. I'll add a card with a short video to the old video to show the change. Thanks again. By the way, where is your fb4k program starting?
One more thing Ed when doing rim swaps the most important thing I do if Not replacing with the same exact rim is to measure the depth of the rim, with my calipers most rim companies call it profile. If you are within a mm. you are probably close enough as it is only half a mm. on either side. If you are just buying the hoop and no spokes, what a huge savings.
A viewer who rebuilds wheels turned me on to a book by Roger Musson, its in its seventh addition, called "Professional Guide To Wheel Building." It has 130 pages and he devotes 13 pages just to spokes. Until I read his book, I didn't think anyone could write 13 pages just about spokes. If you don't have it already, I recommend taking a look at it. I learned allot of useful information. Thanks for watching my video.
Many older so called wheels that have been damaged are fixable, I have fixed dozens. As a retired general contractor I have several clamps. If you have a wheel that is way out of lateral true, basically 2 things will happen when truing, you will either round off the nipples or you can pull a flat spot on the rim. Solution is to find the greatest deviation, then mark it. Next go on either side of the mark and pull the calipers in where the rim is in between the calipers. You will mark those on the rim as well. Next I go to my pic nick table as it is clamp time. Put a 2x4 or 6 whatever you have for scrap on both of your marks on either side of the deviation. So now your rim is supported on either side of the greatest deviation, then the deviation being in the center with a bar clamp is pulled down to the table. How far to pull down comes with experience, you do not want to go to far but you really need to crank on it. This gets it very close to where it needs to be to put the finishing touches on it. Most wheels I can fix in 1 hr. or less. I also employ the same methodology to fix flat spots, but here you need to remove a nipple or two and get the spokes out of the way. I remember getting one wheel from a bike shop and had what they thought was garbage fixed in 1 hr. And not all wheels are fixable but many are. My least favorite wheel for fixing is the paired spokes, they almost always get hit in between the spokes. I run a garage based bike shop and fix many older road bikes. If you have an expensive bike you want matched wheels, I can help to achieve this by repairing them. I also do many rim swaps per yr. But sometimes they no longer make a rim to put on your existing spokes and hub. Even if you have all the tools building wheels is still very expensive. I have done these type of repairs on both older single wall 27 in. wheels as well as newer 700c double wall rims. And mt. bike rims.
I have lots of clamps, too and never thought of using them. I managed to fix the lateral deviation on my bent rim--more or less-- like you did, but was stumped on how to get rid of the bad egg shape and got a new rim to spoke. Thanks for all the useful information. I'll know better next time, but the first time for anything always has a steep learning curve. I made the video to warn people that rebuilding a wheel is not as easy as lot's of people show. I hope people who are serious about rebuilding wheels will read your comments.
When I got in the bike biz many many years ago, I thought the Sturmey hubs were so complicated that I left it to the experienced guys. After working on them a number of times, they're really easy to work on. They last forever if you take care of them.
I took the rim off my bicycle's hub when I was a teenager. Putting it back on is no joke. The spoke pattern, truing the wheel L/R and getting axial run out proper... It was a lot of work to get it exactly right. I feel for you😮
I love building wheels but the real reason for me to not build a wheel is the cost. By the time you buy everything you need, especially now days, you will have one super expensive wheelset that you could probably buy already built much cheaper. I do like how you can customize and build the exact wheel you want but its expensive, especially if you don't have the proper tools but if your at the building stage, you probably already do. Still, buying all the parts adds up super quick. Understanding how to build a wheel and doing a few will give you the knowledge to keep your wheels in top shape for years though. I have never used a tension meter and have built many bomb proof wheels. I just compare them to a similar wheel but for some reason, I just seem to know when they are where they need to be, not too tight and not too loose, wheels are really forgiving for the most part, at least the type of wheels I ride on which are typically three cross 32 or 36 spoke wheels.
Yes, it is expensive. But the way I look at it, some people play golf, or go on fancy vacations or eat out at expensive restaurants. It all depends what makes you happy. When I get in the zone building a wheel I get happily lost in what I'm doing. You're right. Once you build a few wheels, you see them differently. I saw a 144 spoke wheel the other other day. It had no crosses, I can only imagine what it takes to tune one of those. Thanks for watching.
I probably didn't explain it as well as I should, but the derailleur cables drag on the kickstand and get caught on and keep the shifters from going into gear.
Too great for Presta valves. FlatOut is perfectly designed for the universal Schrader valves with much larger diameters and simpler mechanism! I'll only own bicycles (e-bikes in my case) with Schrader valves! Keeps things simple and easy with FlatOut!
I agree. I filled my garage with FlatOut spray when I tried to put it in road bike inner tubes. The road bike tires are almost impossible to remove, and I worried that I'd get a flat miles from nowhere. I put the FlatOut in the first tire, and I must not have tightened the valve all the way. After I put in a 100 psi of air. A minute later the valve flew straight up and out along with a FlatOut geyser. Weeks later, I'm still finding streaks of FlatOut on walls and cabinets. It's funny now, but at the time I was cursing up a storm.
The pattern on the rims was designed for better braking grip in the rain....given the brake pad material back then..... Newer pads work better in the rain....
I just went through the same kind of noise . Scrolling through the internet some guy said he smoothed the ridges on the clutch cone on the opposite side of the spring.with the help of a table belt sander , I smoothed the ridges. No more noise!!!!!🎉🎉🎉🎉
When I get an old bike to restore I grab a box and take everything off the frame, everything, headset and all. I then clean, degrease the frame, polish it and wax it and one by one take each part out of the box and do the same with it as I put it back on the bike. Anything that is bad like cables, brake pads etc. I replace with new stuff. When finished I have an old bike that is in the best possible shape it can be in. I only do this with high end bikes though, never mess with super low end Walmart type bikes. I take a hard pass on those. I also typically wont mess with anything that was left outside and has major rust of any kind on them. There are too many nice bikes that were left for dead indoors so I only mess with those.
When I buy a bike for me, I do what you do. But for the rusty Walmart bikes that have been sitting outside for awhile that I'm going to donate for charity, I clean and polish them and do the minimum to make them safe and rideable. I love working on bikes and this gives me an outlet.
@@edscyclingwithcoyotes I hear you but to me friends don't let friends ride junk lol. I hate Walmart bikes, at least the old ones, some of the newer ones are a lot better but man the old ones you fall down a rabbit hole of trying to fix junk you cant stop from falling apart as you go, you fix one thing to find something else is broke so I just avoid them.
I know. I see the same things failing on all the bikes ... broken twist shifters, bent derailleurs, etc. It's like Groundhog Day. I fix an old cheap bike. People ride it for awhile. It sits in the backyard collecting rust. I get it. I fix it. The cycle starts over. What can I say? It keeps me busy.
I started buying and flipping bikes off of craigslist way back when it first started getting popular. I would buy older complete bikes for like $20 and could rebuild them and sell them for anywhere from $100 to $200 back then. I was making money hand over fist on the side. It was a ton of fun and I learned a lot. Over the years I have had well over 200 different bikes. I have photos of pretty much all of them except maybe 10 or so. Now days its almost impossible to get a bike even for free, fix it up and sell it for a profit as bikes are just super hard to sell unless your giving them away for nothing. There are exceptions but its still awfully hard to make money at it and typically you will loose money. The market is just saturated with bikes and everyone is broke it seems. I will say if your wanting to buy a bike and know your stuff you can snag some awesome deals. I just bought a 9 year old Norco Cabot that was never ridden and is about a $2k bike at todays prices and I snagged it for $200. Its pretty much just like a Surly Long Haul Trucker but Norco's version. It was a disc brake ready bike with hubs and all I just needed rotors and calipers which I had lying around already. It fits me perfect and is so sweet I still can't believe I snagged it for so cheap. My main bike is a 2020 Rivendell Roadie I bought the frame and fork from them and built it up with a 9 speed Dura Ace component set I had already. Most of my bikes are old steel frame bikes and mostly Japan made. I love Miyata, Bridgestone, Fuji pretty much any of the high end Japan made bicycles from the late 70s into the early to mid 90s. I also love most anything from that era that Trek and Specialized made as well. Never got to into the Italian bikes as they were just stupid expensive.
I put it in the vice like you had it but have it laying flat and level and grab the wheel an each side and with a super quick and hard yank I pull towards me with the left hand and push away with the right real hard and real quick and have never had one not come loose that way. The tool has to be clamped into the vice really good and tight and as deep as you can get it to go.
I have an awesome wheel building book called "Professional Guide To Wheel Building" by Roger Musson. I bought it online and downloaded then printed it out and keep it handy. It has some awesome info. I built a spoke winder tool and a dishing tool he shows you how to make. he also shows how to make a wooden truing stand but I already had one. The book is well worth buying if you plan on building wheels but is also good for just tuning up wheels and keeping them at their best. I highly recommend it. I have built at least a dozen sets of wheels and taken apart, cleaned and rebuilt about as many. Its amazing how well an old wheel can look after doing that. Listening to the spoke tension is the first thing I do with a used wheel, I will loosen all of the spokes about a turn, then get the tone even on all of them, then tighten them back up and truing it up from there. On the rear wheel the drive side will have a higher pitch then the non drive side of course due to the shorter spokes on that side. Start with a front wheel first as they are much easier to deal with then the rear but once you get the front down you can move to the rear to move forward. I can build a set of wheels from start to finish in about an hour unless its been a while since I last did one. That is if I have everything laid out and ready to go.
Great information. Thank you. This was my first wheel rebuild, and I realized I need to learn more, so I'll look for the book you recommend. I kinda went at it willy-nilly so I bought a wheel truing stand and a spoke tension checker for my next wheels. I have a tin ear so listening for the pitch of the spokes doesn't work for me. Hopefully, my next wheel won't take me three days to true.
@@edscyclingwithcoyotes Lol I understand, I have played guitar and piano my whole life so I have a great ear for it. The first time I did a wheel it was a whole bicycle. I took both wheels apart, cleaned everything up and built them back. I think I used info from Sheldon Browns website back then which was good enough but the book I mentioned is way better and you can print it out and keep it on hand for reference while building them up. Once you do it a couple of times its super easy and fast. I really enjoy building wheels. I like to put colored nipples on like the blue anodized ones and use the same blue anodized cable end caps on the ends of the cables to match it really adds a nice touch. Of course you could to red, orange or what ever.
I got it and started reading it. Thank you. I much appreciate it. My wife calls me "Over Do It Ed" because once I get my teeth into something I go full bore into what I'm doing. I love a challenge!
I just rebuilt a late 70s early 80s Vista Carrera 7 bike, it has high flange aluminum hubs laced to steel rims that were awful. Luckily I had a set of aluminum rims I robbed some campy hubs off of several years back and swapped them over. When doing that I just tape the new rim to the old rim after loosening all of the spokes most of the way then one by one move each spoke over to the new rim that is tapped to it and then truing it up. Its a pretty fast way to do it.
Isn't that a steel rim? I hate those more then anything and replace them with aluminum if I even mess with them at all. I never have used a tension meter I use my ear and pluck the spokes and listen to the tone, that tells me all I need to know.
