The Bluebird is complete!
I had a free day and the parts to use it.
My goals were to install the rear brake, shorten the cable housing, and install a new center-pull front brake cables right size. It was mission half-accomplished.
The rear-brake installation was rather straight forward.
The new center-pull brakes, however, don’t work. They look nice…
But the clearance is too short. This pisses me off because they cost me around $35 and the seller on e-bay gave me a measurement that should have worked, but was wrong. You can see how the brake pads end up hitting the tire. That makes them useless for this bike.
So, alas, I had to go back to the side-pull brakes.
Side-pull aren’t supposed to be worse than center-pull, but I find that side pull never stay centered as well, at least the cheap ones (The side-pull brakes on my Bianchi work just fine). And the center-pull brakes are shimano, and the side-pull aren’t.
But I had to leave on the front-brake cable hanger, because it also serves a space-taker needed on the head set. Maybe Zora can place a flower in it or something.
And I re-cabled the shifter and brakes. Unfortunately the cable holders for the chain stay are sized for the vertical part of the chain stay, which is smaller than the horizontal stays that I needed to attach them to. That means I can’t use them and have to run an entirely housed cable for the length of the bike. Not the end of the world, but aesthetically worse and not what I wanted. But such it shall be. A small compromise.
Then since they weren’t needed, I removed the snazzy little cable holder that attaches to the brazed-on part on the down tube. This leave a little bike part naked. But that’s a common sight on fixed-gear bikes and any refitted derailleurless bike, so there’s a certain urban cachet to it, I guess. Of course the removed part also cost me $15.
In the front, now all the cable housing are the correct length.
And with that, the bluebird in complete! It is April 5, 2005, about a month after a started. Meanwhile, Katie needs a bike, and I have lots of bike parts on the back porch…
2 Responses
Hi, Like the blog and the bike. I’m doing something similar, ith a mixte frame, but I think I’m about to run into trouble with the rear centre clearance on a change from 27 inch to 700 tyores, Can I ask what centrepulls you have there that didnt wor on your 650’s? Look like they’ll work on my 700c. Want to sell if I do have problems? cheers emmakane@gmail.com
You’re welcome to have them, if you want. One is a Shimano Tourney center pull from the 1970s. I assume this is a front brake, which is strange, because the one I used went on the front of Katie’s bike. The other brake is the rear of the pair that ended up going on the Bluebird. It is a lower but decent quality side-pull brake.