And there's more......

You know how it is. Nothing for ages and then two posts in two days!

So not only have I fitted the wheels, tyres, and crank I have put the stem and handle bars on!

They are lacking bar tape. And brakes, but you get the idea.

 It was a bit of a faff to fit the handle bars to the stem. I had to open the stem up a bit to get the bars through.Just a quick tweak with a flat blade screwdriver to open the clamp up a bit to get the corner through and its done!

The tyres are Schwalbe delta cruiser. They have a puncture resistant design which I suspect I will test to the limit! 

Next will be the brakes. I will need to get the right ones as I have a large drop. Woof! This is the gap between the mounting hole in the bridge and the centre of the wheel rim. The rear brake needs to have a drop of around 73 mm which is quite a lot. I suspect this is because I have a 26" wheel in a frame which would have taken a 27". I know I can get the correct brakes from the joy that is Ebay!

So next pay day....! 

Catching up......

It's been a while since the last post so, in answer to the literally zero requests for update here we go.
Since the last payday I have fitted the bottom bracket, front and rear tubes and tyres.

The bottom bracket was a challenge to say the least! The unit itself is a good bit of kit. Its designed to fit into a bottom bracket shell with damages threads so its perfect for older bikes with older raleigh style cup and cone bottom brackets.

This is it fitted hand tight. As you can see the shaft is longer on one side which if it was fitted to a 68 mm is not a problem. As the shell on this frame is 71 mm it means that there is a slight difference in length between the left and right hand side of the shaft. This is because the bottom bracket tightens up on one side only so the fixed side stays the same length while the other side slowly emerges as it is tightens. Basically I had to install it the wrong way around to ensure the crank and crank arm didn't catch on the outside of it.