Carrying camping gear on a 2 wheeler

Joined
Feb 7, 2008
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Nottinghamshire England
Ok still beavering away at this so maybe a progress report is in order ?

I really wanted a Pashley PDQ however of course when you start looking anything you want is as rare as hens teeth so after weeks of fruitless looking I bought the Wavey.

Roll on a couple of weeks and a PDQ frame set turns up at the right price [ thanks Derek ;) ]



This plus seat , so how difficult can it be to add to wheels a chain , brakes and levers & cables ......

Well damn hard and this thing is fighting me all the way :mad:

Thought I would buy a new wheel from Ebay 20" S/S spokes and Shimano 7 speed - trying 1 ring at front first
Turned up and was slightly to big between axle nuts for drop out , thought no problem put a 1/2 height nut in place of one of the full height one's ? idly spun it and it felt like there was a bag of sand in it , on investigate someone assembled it with rusty cups ? why ?



So that had to go back = no time saved as I now had to build my own 7 speed 😢

tried to fit twist grip gear changer and brake levers only to find there was insufficient real estate on the handle bars for the selected hardware ?
so fitted a set of the Shimano combined brake and gear changer only to find it would not change past 5th to get to the lower gears ? what !!!

at this point I built a wooden stand for it so I could try every thing out without the bl**dy thing keep falling over ?



on investigating the changer I found a pawl in it that stopped working at 5th , maybe stiff or a broken spring ... so much else to do not looked into it yet.

so easy now just give it a front brake and I can try a ride ? well actually no !

the front forks are nicely chromed ? but when and by whom ? only when I came to fit the brake arms they would not fit on the studs without me sanding them down ? how odd ?

these style of bikes generally work best with the brake stubs on the rear of the fork , that way the cable does not interfere with the chain ? so I added to brake arms found some meaty shoes fastened and adjusted them and tried to cable it up...
Well that was a disaster as the cable runs down the left hand side through a cable restraint and then does a 90' angle to point to the rear the a 90' angle to head underneath it then another 90' to point at the brake arm and into a noodle for another 90' angle.
This is not ideal and less so when the bars are designed to fold forward and can lie completely flat on the front boom ? WHY ?
It makes the bike exceedingly difficult to maneuver and when riding they just swing forward at the most inopportune moment , is bad enough try to wrestle it under control without that.
problems:-
  1. brakes arms to long and foul on chain ? - did not realise they came in different lengths ?
  2. any movement for and aft of the bars moves the cable and so it catches on the pivot bolt.
  3. any movement for and aft of the bars moves the cable out of line and it fouls on the idler bracket.
In the end I have drilled out some arms and reversed the saddle and cable clamp however I have not had time to re-cable it yet...

A very short ride - in 5th with a snagging brake cable reveled another problem the steering was very heavy and did not self centre at all ?
Strange , I have no experience with threadless headsets although the one it came with was the one fitted at manufacture [ no great quality according to some sources ? however it should work ? ]

there is a rubber O ring stopping water getting in I assume so to disassemble I had to tap it gently with a mallet the downside was it exploded out of the frame and I had no idea where the parts came from ?
In the bottom is a roller bearing greased and seemed ok ? the top was a normal headset bearing however I found another piece ?



it is steel and the size of the upper race ? but why was it there the frame cups are steel and the upper aluminium cap had a steel insert ?
left it out and the forks now work ok.

so the bars are next up ? get rid of the folding well only sort of..

they are very simple T bars :-



with only height adjustment , I want them to be more like the Wavey bars and at least whilst find the best position be more adjustable ?

so I made an extended goose neck similar to the Wavey only to find it would not go inside the PDQ riser further than the clamp slot GRRRRRRRRRR



So on left is old riser , you can see where the pivot hole has been worn oval and someone has slugged it with some thick wall ali tubing ?

Middle is the new extended goose neck and on the right is a new riser I shall weld two extensions to the arms this bolts to and drill a 6mm hold further up for a locking bolt [ could be a Q/R if I need it to fold ]

made and ready for welding.



I need to establish the angle the riser needs to be to be either vertical or ever so slightly angled forward before marking and drilling the 6mm hole , then I can shape the extension to blend in with the existing.

Now if you have read all this drivel you are probably about as frustrated as I am with the bike/project ...

But hey look on the bright side ?

I bought the frame set and new rear wheel to save me time ..........

 
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SirJoey

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Feb 8, 2008
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My cozy little nook in the corner!
Rusty bearing cups... unreal. Well, in spite of the setbacks & problems,
it'll be worth it in the end, IMO. Hang in there! It's a way cool bent!
Clever work stand you've created there as well! (y)

***
 
Joined
Feb 7, 2008
Messages
4,575
Location
Nottinghamshire England
Rusty bearing cups... unreal.


Especially as there was grease in it and the balls were not rusted !

Well, in spite of the setbacks & problems, it'll be worth it in the end, IMO.


Also forgot to say this is the shortest head tube I have ever seen [ threadless again ] so at the moment I can't dump the threadless as I don't have a single fork that fits.
I need to either increase the headtube length - best as other forks will then fit ?
or
custom shorten a fork stem - limiting as still cannot fit any fork without shortening that one.

Proof of the pudding is in the riding ? not done ANY of that yet :(

Hang in there! It's a way cool bent!
Thanks JS however I having this nagging feeling it should have been better

Clever work stand you've created there as well! (y)


Yes it almost works as well , just the bike wants to turn turtle at the slightest provocation , now held with a re-usable cable tie ;)
 
Joined
May 31, 2013
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South Benfleet, Essex, England, UK
Thanks for sharing Paul.
Me and my friend Mr. Schadenfreude are relieved that it isn't just us that have these little obstacles thrown in their path.
It IS progressing, and you WILL get there. :D
 
Last edited:
Joined
Feb 7, 2008
Messages
4,575
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Nottinghamshire England
Ok done a bit , increased the size of the ears on the existing handle bar stem clamp :-



Also the new stem is mounted on this ...

Now I have to build the bars so I can decided what angle the stem will need to be at and then I can drill another hole somewhere around the red spot and lock the thing in place.

It is not obvious what angle this stem needs to be because there are so many variables ?
;)
The bars will hopefully look like these when finished.



The horizontal piece of the bars need to clear the knees either infront of or behind them , if the knees are directly under the bars they have to be higher than needed.

The pieces coming back towards me need to be the right length so I can reach them easily , the Wavey bars are probably to short and I find I am rising out of the seat to reach them at times ] however if I make them to long it makes mounting the bike harder.

So plenty to do however the Python needs repairing/improving and that is a priority as winter is approaching and these 2 wheeler's are a bit to exciting to ride everyday ;)
 
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