Steve's old XL

[admin]

I think the pad suits the bike quite well

[capitano]

Good news and bad news this afternoon.

Firstly I discovered on a ride to the Raleigh shop for some cotter pins that the rear wheel was a little out of true.

I was also aware that the crank was a little rough when pedaling hard.

Looking at the back wheel it's missing one spoke and has another very loose. The rest look fine so it's not that big a deal to lace in a couple of new spokes and true it up a bit more but something I hadn't planned on doing.

The crank was definitely rough, even when I disconnected the chain, so I pressed out both cotter pins and undid the locking ring and one of the bearing cups to find this:-



The grease put in at Nottingham 27 years ago was now an almost solid "cake"

However the balls and bearing cups look to have sustained very little deterioration, thankfully.



Lastly I had a good check over and found that the forks were indeed bent back from the headstock.



Anyway, good news was that I picked up a true shed survivor XL today, one owner for 29 years, 20 of those inactive and in a very mucky state.

Good news is it's not only donated a proper XL chain wheel with chainguard fitted, the frame under all the cobwebs and crud is actually in better condition than the first bike, and the rear wheel is good enough to clean up and use, for now at least. The forks aren't bent back either. ;D





So, as my intention was to have a Grifter for riding what I'm doing is stripping, cleaning, re-greasing then building up the best bits of each of the two bikes on the best frame.

The crank on the second frame was still a little rough but nowhere near as bad as the first.Removing the crank from the second frame revealed the familiar "black treacle" consistency of aged grease that's never been changed.

Regreased up with Silkolene waterproof grease ('cos that's what I had to hand) the crank is now spinning smoothly and once I've cleaned up the pedal arms and chainwheel I'll move on to the front end(s)

[BB]

Good stuff. Coming together nicely, Did you get the correct handlebar pad with the new one?

[mushroom]

Ged did you want to break the other one ? I need the twistgrip shifter, and those brake block clip things

[griftergli]

excellent progress mate - that chainguard looks good! keep the pics coming!

[BB]

Sept 15, 2009 20:13:25 GMT capitano said:

Steve, top geezer that some of you may know from the Grifter forum

He is that. He is also a member here. Gripshift999

[mushroom]

Ged, took some pics of the single speed mag wheel on my MK1 grifter.
the two spacers are 13mm wide

[mushroom]

Ged had another idea, one of our kid's BMXs had a flip flop back wheel where you could fit a freewheel on one side and a fixed hub on the other. You just undid the wheel and flipped it round.
It had those large 14mm axles though, maybe them do them for smaller ones ?

[capitano]

Definitely worth a few enquiries, Dave.

Thanks for the pics, they are very helpful in visualising what's needed.

[mushroom]

I didn't dig those mags out today, I will do tomorrow though

flip flop hubs explained here => sheldonbrown.com/singlespeed.html

but I think those BMX ones are for smaller teeth freewheels according to that

[capitano]

Yay, nice one. I've read some Sheldon Brown stuff on fixies before.

The guy really knows his stuff, and is a devout Raleigh 20 fan too.

[mushroom]

Mag pics.
I've freed the hubs off so they spin ok, but the bearings seem a bit rumbly. Probably need stripping and cleaning
sorry for poor pics, it was getting dark

[capitano]

Those wheels look promising!

I've PM'd ya with a view to popping round tomorrow.

If I go for those I'll have some Grifter gripshift bits up for grabs. ;D

[jojo]

watch those wheels they have a tendecey to bend a lot !!if im correct there barndi wheels

[capitano]

I decided to build this bike up again for my mate Baz as a pressie for his 40th birthday on 31st October.

The objective wasn't an original Grifter, but merely a usable, rideable one.

So I used up the Muddy Fox handlebar pad, non Raleigh chainwheel and cranks, Halfords reflector, Taiwanese brake blocks and cables made up from inners and outers bought off the 'bay.

I just hope he likes it now. It certainly rides well. ;D