pepsi bike update
See, I sucked you all in with the title, and now you're thinking I've actually done something with the Pepsi bike other than leave it sitting in my living room with two flat tires and a disconnected handlebar. Wrong! The update is this: on Sunday, I had a conversation with Andy, and it went like this.
Andy: So, have you started working on the Pepsi bike yet?
Annie: Uh, no.
[miscellaneous bike-nerd talk that I've forgotten]
Annie:........so if anybody is looking for a big box of ancient Suntour crap, I've got it.
Andy: Does it have [mumbo jumbo, blah blah, something about BMX]?
Annie: The what huh?
Andy: Does the chainring have a big thick protector thing on it? ["big thick protector thing" is a paraphrase]
Annie: Uh, yeah.
Andy: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!! Have fun!
Now, I could turn this post into a whole post titled Andy Is Mean, but then he could be like Lance and sue me for libel, so I won't. But I would like to point out for the record that the number of times I typed "HA" up there was not a true representation of how long Andy laughed at me, I just got tired of typing "HA." It actually went on for a pretty long time. Anyway, a minute ago I thought I could Google this quickly and find a definitive answer so that I wouldn't have to paraphrase Andy as saying "big thick protector thing" (see how nice I am to him?), but I failed. The closest thing I did find was a link to some guy's conversion that he'd posted on Fixed Gear Gallery, which includes the following: "[Suntour] crank with 40t chainring and a nifty integrated 52t large ring/bash guard - all one solid piece with the cranks, so they're staying! Plus, they keep the pants out of the chain!"
I'm all for keeping the pants out of the chain, who isn't, but that thing kind of looks like a pie plate that somebody glued to my big ring, and I was hoping to get rid of it. But dang, you guys, I don't really even know what a bottom bracket IS, precisely. I mean, I know WHERE it is. But I'm not going to change my crankset. It is looking more and more like the friendly folks at Freewheel will be seeing me soon (but not until my bank balance is positive again, whoops, did I say that or just think it?), or the Pepsi bike will never see the light of day. Except for what comes in my living room windows.
posted by annie @ 12/13/2005 01:38:00 PM
9 Comments:
That's a chainguard. Or at least that what we called it back in the day. My old Schwinn had one in 1972. I took it off. It wasn't part of the crankset on that bike. And no, it didn't work to keep pants out of the chain, but the fact that we all had enormous flared pants in those days may have had something to do with that.
Sun Tour is not crap. In general, it was very high quality - the Shimano of its day. You should think twice about discarding it.
Anyway, I'm really getting sucked in to this Pepsi Bike saga.
Yeah, yeah, I know. I was actually thinking I could sell it on ebay, since there seem to be other people doing so.
I'm glad I can provide such gripping entertainment. It's quite suspenseful, isn't it? Will she ever start working on it? Will she lose all the skin on her knuckles as Tim predicts? Will she give up and strangle someone with a disconnected shifter cable? Or will archaeologists one day find the Pepsi bike deep underground, buried in the ruins of Annie's living room? Stay tuned to find out.....
It's a chainguard.
And it's not libel if it's true.
Ergo it's not libel. I was talking about the bottom bracket, not the chainguard, and I didn't laugh nearly that many times.
Yeah, it's tough to convert a bike with that kind of crank/BB. You can do it though. I've seen it done with BMX cranks/BB many times. It might be awkward, but I have faith in you Annie.
Plus I want to see bloddy knuckles.
...and I didn't laugh nearly that many times.
so that part is libel, right? tee hee. It's okay, Andy, lots of people get libeled on this blog. Don't feel bad.
Anyway, after careful inspection I am pretty sure the chainguard (which does not guard the chain, I don't get it...) is not actually part of the crank, so all my fears were for naught. But that leaves me not actually knowing what the conversation was about, since I thought it was about one piece crank/chainrings/chainguard cranksets. Hmmm.
tim knows what I am talking about. the bottom bracket/crankset on cheap bikes (common on BMX bikes) is often one piece. the BB shell (which is part of the frame) is larger in diameter than on normal bikes (e.g. your Salsa or even your raleigh thing).
It's going to be either a.) tough b.) expensive or c.) funny looking to convert it to a singlespeed.
They make BB converters. I've done it before with an old road bike. The name "beartrap" rings a bell. I don't recall that it was expensive at all. Look it up on the net.
BTW, I just might have some parts that could help you out. Suntour cyclone crankset, derailleurs, brake levers. I even have some older MA40 wheels with a 6 speed freewheel that I'm not really using.
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