Recent content by Freeman

I bought a new pair of these tires in 27" for a road-bike I ride a lot, sometimes putting 100 miles or more per week on. I installed the tires at the beginning of April 2023, and before the end of July of the same year one of them was scrap with the inner tube bulging out of a cut in the tread...

Sure, if you have the proper tools to cut the threads, but if you do not have them laying around, but do have the proper tools and education to quickly and cheaply do the butt weld because you are doing the same exact work on the frame also and are all set up for it, then that is what you go with.

I used to work in an industrial metal fab shop where weld testing was done, and later I worked in industrial construction where guys were welding steam pipes, including nuclear power plants, where of course weld testing was done. One of the simplest and common forms of weld testing is simply...

Cut the tube below the threads and have someone weld on the top from another fork, to any length you like, I have done it a number of times in my own garage to lengthen and shorten forks to my needs. Here is one I shortened, took 5/8" out and put it back together. Bevel the edges after making...

I took a photo of the donor for the coaster brake after I took it out a few years ago.

I bought a GT Edge of this vintage once off a crazy old bike repair guy in my town for forty dollars once, then like a moron I sold it to someone for the same price I thought would treasure, it, but he just flipped it for profit and it was gone. I talked to someone who was a mechanic at the...

A few years ago an old friend of mine pulled up in front of my house without notice, and unloaded this bike from the back of his van. He had bought it new about 1972 when he was a young man and used it to commute, a Fuji Special Racer. It had been in his attic for decades before he dropped it...

Sharp eye. I am in a city on the Great Lakes in North America. The frame is a USA-made "Schwinn" and there is nothing special about it, just a cheap straight-gauge thing. Most all the bikes I grew up riding as a child and teenager had nothing but a rear coaster brake, it is really nice to ride...

I thnk it had panaracer tires on it when I did the road race, and when I used to train on the road with it. I used to pump them up to 80psi, and yes they made a lot of noise, the riders on road bikes could hear it coming. About three years ago I crashed the cycling part of a local triathlon that...

Some old photos, me running the bike at a NORBA event back in 1997, and running it in a road time-trial about 25 years ago. Once I actually entered it in a 42 mile road-rac,e and they changed the rules for the next year so that running a MTB was not allowed. So I have had a lot of fun with it.

I picked this up at an estate sale about a year ago. A 1998 Mongoos SGX. I thought it was neat how some kid got rid of all the Mongoose identification and plastered the bike with decals of his favorite music. Also at some point he put some custom wheels and a newer seat on it. A bit of a...

My bike I have put the most miles on over the last few years. A tall frame someone gave me because they were short, a rear coaster brake hub from an old ladies bike that was rotting away in the woods, handlebars from a scrap-yard and other parts sourced cheap here and there. I have 4000 miles on...

It still has the original frame, wheels, derailluers and shifters, and seatpost. Everything else got broken or stolen over the years. Glad I got steel back then as it appears indestructable for the most part. I am tall but chose a frame as small as possible so that I could drop back behind the...

Right, this is a 500cc twin. It is one of three made by the Norton works and sent over to race at the Daytona 200 in 1962. The USA racing body had a history of banning purpose-built racing bikes, which is why the Domiracer project got started, they also banned the lowboy Domiracer frame, so to...

THe original owner was a Norton factory technician. When he put a fairing on the bike in 1965 he had to pull the clip-ons back towards the tank, so he took a two-by-four board, put it against the tank and hit it with a hammer to make clearance dents for the clip-on bars. Yes, there are plugs in...