I'll skip the ebay bit - it wasn't too interesting. What I ended up with was a Nottingham-built 5-speed 1977 Carlton Cobra, in chrome with red and black lacquer sprayed over and around the lugs. It was probably a magnificent beast when it was new, and it still looked good at a distance, but time had not been kind to it. The tyres were cracked, the tubes were knackered, one of the wheels had a broken spoke, the chain was made of rust, the chrome was heavily pitted with rust, and the lacquer was very scratched.
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| 1977 Carlton Cobra (rust not obvious) |
The plan was mainly to modernize the bike to make it a comfortable commuting machine. In this case, it meant new drivetrain, wheels, and tyres. I got distracted, though; I didn't like the chrome. My old bike was brushed aluminium, and I'd grown to dislike it, especially after seeing the bike that I mentioned previously. It didn't help that the chrome was mostly rust. For a little while, I considered keeping it chrome in a bid to keep the original look alive, and even tried restoring it using chrome restoring pastes and lots of wire wool, but my heart wasn't really in it. I wanted it resprayed!
After some research, it turned out that powder coating is the cheapest and hardiest route to re-colouring a bicycle. To have it coated would require stripping absolutely everything from the frame, so I started on stripping it down. The wheels, handlebar, seat, brakes, shifter, and fork all came off easily enough, which left me with the cottered crank and bottom bracket. They proved slightly trickier..
I started on the non-drive side first.
- Plan A was to hit the cotter pin with a hammer. Repeatedly. When the pin started to mushroom, I stopped.
- Plan B was to apply liberal amounts of WD40, leave it 24 hours, heat it up with a heat gun, and try again. It still didn't budge.
- Plan C was to take it to the local bike shop, and get them to do it. They were too busy, but suggested...
- Plan D was plan B, with added cola. It worked!! Sort-of. The drive side pin was having none of it. aaargh!
- Plan E was to drill out the cotter pin. I drilled and drilled, but couldn't remove enough of it to allow the arm to come off.
- I returned to plan C, but with a different bike shop. He sawed it off. Success!!
So, the next part of the plan was to get it coated. During my research, one place had constantly popped up as the place to go; North Manchester Powder Coating. There was a slight hitch, however - their phone line was disconnected. There was no other number, no other contact method, and nobody on forums seemed to know if they still existed. They were too far away to warrant driving over there 'just to check', so I had to find somewhere else. Only two other places came up in searched. Only one replied to my email, so they got the job - Stockport Powder Coating.
It took them almost 2 weeks to finish the job, and I'm still not sure about the final result. The bike looks good, but my understanding of powder coating is that it's tough. Mine doesn't seem tough - it seems more scratch-prone than paint! I've added a coating of turtle wax, which is supposed to help protect against scratches, but I'm suspicious.. I think they didn't coat it properly, but only time will tell, and I haven't ridden it properly yet.
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| Not a very good photo. |
The people posting about singlespeed bikes weren't hipsters - they were proper, grown up men, whose only slim fit clothes were made of lycra, and they seemed to be very enthusiastic. The more I read, the more I wanted to know why they were so enthusiastic. What was so great about singlespeed? And so, the plan changed. I had gears on my MTB.. why not try out this singlespeed malarky, and get use out of both bikes?
I ordered some cheap 700c singlespeed wheels with an 18 tooth freewheel, tyres, tubes, a replacement 48 tooth chainwheel, a crank spindle, and some ball bearings to replace those that had rolled off into the undergrowth when I'd pulled the fork off. Oh, and a seat - the old one may have been Brookes, but it was hideous! The front wheel gave me some issues. Apparently axle diameters have increased since the 70s, and so it was 2mm too wide for the front fork (the rear was fine). I ended up widening the fork dropouts with a file, which was a bit scary.
After everything was attached, I was faced with the chainline. Raleigh only made one size of spindle for 70mm bottom brackets, as far as I know, so this was something that had been worrying me. Sighting down the chainwheel didn't seem as reliable as I'd been led to believe. One time it looked like the freewheel was 1cm to left, the next time it was 2mm to the right, then dead on, then to the left again.. in the end, I figured that it was pretty close.. maybe only a couple of millimeters out. That'll do!
And so, last night, I put the chain on, and the bike was complete! Of course, afterwards I found a different way of determining chainline, and I measured it with a ruler. If I measured correctly, the rear is 40mm, whereas the front is 48mm. That means the chain is 8mm out of alignment, so I expect the chain will explode off of the chainwheel sometime soon. 8mm is a lot, though.. I'm not sure how I'm going to fix that - I really don't want to take those BB cups off again, and what would I put in there? Raleigh didn't make shorter spindles. :s
I was supposed to cycle the Cobra into work this morning, but the rear tube burst open when I pumped it up. I'm not sure of the cause yet.. over-filled? Manufacturers fault? Pinched between the tyre and rim? I'll find out when I remove it. Whatever the cause, the hole was right on the valve, so I don't think it's fixable. I bought a pump with a gauge on it today, so I won't be able to over fill the new tube.
At least this means I can give it a short test run over the weekend!
Stuff bought for this project:
- A Carlton Cobra.
- Powder coat, in green.
- 700c singlespeed wheelset, inc 18 tooth freewheel.
- Vittoria Rubino 700x23c tyres.
- Vittoria 700x19-23 inner tubes.
- Raleigh A12 126mm spindle.
- Raleigh 48 tooth chainwheel (to replace the arm that I'd messed up with my drill).
- Charge Spoon saddle.
- Brake cables.
- Pedal clips.
- Chain.
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