Roller Cams On The Brain: Update 2

Some oddball standards have redirected me.

 Last time I left you with an update on the old Dorado MTB I am building back up, I was showing you the wheel bearings. I needed to order new ones, and I did. 

Only I ordered the wrong size because I misread my calipers. Doh! 

So, I had to re-order the bearings and while I was waiting I got busy building up the rest of the bike.  Things started out a bit rough. That's to be expected after a bike has been neglected for years. 

I have mentioned that this was pretty much sat in a barn for a certain number of years. The bike is probably a 1987 model. After closer inspection of the parts, I am going to say that this bike was parked in the late 1980's and never ridden again. Sure, I could be way off on that, but regardless, this bike hasn't seen much action. 

Well, other than a process of slow decay. Time has a way with that. The evidence of decay was to be seen here and there. Rust on the handlebar. Crud on the components. Even the quick release seat mechanism was not working right. 

So..... What do you do? Today you'd most likely just toss that old quick release and get a new one, right? But back in the 80's, lots of components were serviceable. Yes - Even quick release seat binders. So, I tore the component down and found that, to no surprise, it was bone dry. No lubrication and lots of oxidation and dirt. A bit of clean up, some grease where it belonged, and reassembly later and the SunTour QR was working smoothly once again. 

The rear derailleur was indicative of the amount of crud everywhere.

Now the bike's frame could be hung in the work stand and things went smoothly for a bit with the install of the new bottom bracket and the old crank set. The serviceable bottom bracket that was in the bike originally was just too pitted to be reused, so I found a suitable cartridge style bottom bracket to use instead.

The crank set was so clean I didn't bother trying to do anything to it yet. Another reason I feel this bike was ridden very little. There is a bit of oxidation, but I'll spiff things up if I decide to keep this bike. I won't know that until it is built and I've ridden it.

The next check came when I looked for a quill stem that I could use a drop bar with. I'd like to use a drop bar, but I wasn't sure that the seated position would work out.  Only one way to find out, right? Well, about that.....

Derailleur overhaul time.

That stem, which was in the bike originally, was an oddball Sakae forged "Bull Moose" style stem and the handle bar was clamped in at two points with removable clamps. This meant that the handle bar is a proprietary design too. This was one of the reasons I was thinking about a drop bar as well. 

But nothing I had would fit, even though they were "one inch" stems. That's because there are two one inch stem standards. The lesser common of the two is actually .833 of an inch, or nominally 22mm. 

So, yeah.... This was going to get complicated and I wasn't about to buy anything yet for this project. Remembering the "fix what ya got first" mentality, I decided then to go with the original parts. 

That meant I had to clean up the handle bar which had a good amount of rust on it, but a little elbow grease brought back most of that chrome shine, so it'll pass for the test of the bike just fine. I sure don't know where I'd find another handle bar to work with this stem right now, so it'll have to do. The good news is that the stem is fine and works as it should. It is a bit homely looking, in my opinion, but you sure won't see another one coming down the trail either as well. So, there is that. 

The jockey wheel on the left is not clean yet here.

I have the head set overhauled, the stem and handle bar on it, and the derailleur back together after a thorough cleaning. The lower jockey wheel is a bit stubborn yet, for my tastes, so I may pull that out again and polish up the bushing some. If that doesn't work I'll find something at the Collective I can replace that jockey wheel with. 

The wheel bearings should be here by the time you read this. Hopefully I ordered the right size this time! Ha! Anyway, if those go back together smoothly, and if I can find the dang axles again (!!!), I should have a rolling chassis and things will be a lot closer to being done. 

The next step will be overhauling the brakes and I think at that point shifters, cables, and throwing on some tires, a saddle, and a chain I might have laying about. Then I'll have this thing ready to see if it is worth my time to pursue as a bike for the stable, or whether it is going to get donated to the bike collective. So, stay tuned! I don't think this will take very much longer to figure out.