(not) creating a 5 speed

[ffoxy99]

Hi folks.

There is a brand new Bomber frame on Ebay right now (ending soon) for a good price and someone else is selling a pair of 26" Bomber wheels for around the same price.

The rear wheel is a 5 speed type.

My question is. Did the 5-speed Bomber have a special/different frame with lugs for the derailleur cables etc or could these 2 Ebay items be the basis for a 5-speed re-creation?

[mushroom]

I think the frames are identical, I'd need to check i nthe shed in the morning and thats too late for you to bid on it.
You'd need some rear stays too

[ffoxy99]

Hi mushroom. Thanks for the reply

I bid on it and won.

Not sure if it's a good thing as I don't know much about these bikes and have lots of other projects to finish (motorcycles/cars) but from a quick look on forums/Ebay looks like the crank/brake-calipers/headset/3 speed hub might all be shared with the Grifter (easy to find) so I need to find rear-stays/handle bars/seat-post/seat/26" forks

I see there is a good 3-speed hub on Ebay so, if a 5 speed replica isn't an option, I could buy those wheels and fit the 3 speed hub to the rear.

I'll learn along the way

[mushroom]

The 5 speed was a superchromed frame if you wanted to be authentic.
Finding an original seat is probably the hardest thing to find. Although they share the same seat as the black super grifter
I did have a frame and a pair of forks for sale ages ago, but I'd got them local and were cheap as anything.
Sometimes you get lucky, keep checking gumtree and www.re-buy-cycle.co.uk/

[ffoxy99]

Thanks again mushroom. Not much coming up on Ebay this week so I'll have a good look at that other site

[ffoxy99]

ok. So am about a month down the line and have a nice 3 speed hub and a pair of 5 speed wheels (well the front is just the same as any other Bomber but the seller sold them as 'coming from a 5 speed' so I'm gonna call them that too).

I've changed the name of the thread as the original idea seems too hard to achieve because of the rarity & difference of the BB parts for the 5 speed, in comparison to the 3 speed.

I believe you can get a 1.47 K1 Tange bottom bracket cups set, which afaik was the original fit for the Bomber 5 speed, but I've no idea what the axle and cranks were.

More importantly. Even if you could get all the original parts, or parts the same spec, it wouldn't work on my frame as the BB shell on the 3 speed has a 26TPI thread and the 5-speed has 24TPI.

There is chat on the net about being able to cut a 24TPI thread into a 26TPI BB shell but I wouldn't fancy that.

My plan therefore was to take the 5 speed hub out my wheel, get new spokes and build the (26 x 2.125) rim onto the 3 speed hub. Nice & simple

However. When I got the wheels I slipped it into the frame no problem and was thinking 'why not just use it with a normal Bomber chainwheel up front?'. A bit odd I suppose but you'd still get 5 different gears. I'm guessing they'd all be quite low tho as the front chainwheel would be smaller than a proper 5 speed one.


2nd hand 3 speed AW hub came with an extra spacing washer which I don't need


5 speed rear hub made in West Germany. wonder what brand 'U' is


fitted in frame without any trouble

[mushroom]

I fitted a cottered 2 chainring crank off an old racer when I had my 10 speed bomber
Some pics have gone missing but I do have these ones

[ffoxy99]

Nice work Mushroom. I've read your threads on this before and found them pretty interesting.

So basically you could use any cottered type BB if the cups were 26TPI?

Would it matter much what the spindle length was?

[mushroom]

I used a whole 3 speed bomber bottom bracket and cranks from a spare bike
Twin chainring was from ebay