She's finally arrived - Changa Build

[brettypeeps]

Love it when you see a good chrome job.  This is going to be a beauty 

[Picklez]

So is that the same chromer Glynn used for his DP ?

Top drawer that - looks nice and "thin" full detail on the welds coming through - no "drippy" look to it..... very nice 

Sure is buddy. Super pleased, really didn't want that 'plastic' look, and he's delivered  .

[Picklez]

Love it when you see a good chrome job.  This is going to be a beauty 

Thanks, much appreciated. He's doing the cranks too, attention to detail is top drawer. He's found a couple of minor 'pits' under the last owner's re-chrome job (which was peeling to a very minor extent around one of the weep holes), so is now copper plating, filling, then polishing back before finally giving them their new chrome. Can't wait to see them, but happy to wait given the quality of work. A great guy who's friendly, knows his stuff, & cares for your parts to boot, can't be bad.

[Chilli Rinse]

Love the cable guides on the forks, new to me but so cool. Shall we all just agree now you've got BOTM whenever she's finished 
Can't wait to see the wheels appear 

[BMX1973]

Looking great. 

Who was the Chromer?

[Picklez]

Looking great. 

Who was the Chromer?

Thanks,

Same guy who did Glynn's Dp, member here called Jonnyb. Though he only does it in his spare time, he also has quite a backlog at the moment, and so isn't taking in any new work for a little while... I guess I got lucky with the time that I asked him.

[Picklez]

Sorry, being lame on updates, now I'm up and about mobility wise my wonderfully tolerant good lady is expecting support, help, and chores doing  . Shouldn't grumble really, she's been amazing whilst I've tolerated 12 wks of24-7 immobility & pain.

Anyway, today's update is really more of a parts presentation than build update, for the reasons mentioned.

So (hoping the conventional image uploading works well), here's the current consideration for wheels for the build:
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NOS Zeds from Rainers. Now, I'm not 100% on these yet, but I'm trying to steer clear from my go-to choice for this build, which would be gen2 Skyway Graphites. Purely because whilst a very nice and natural choice for me (nearly always rode tuffs BITD), I wanted the build to have a predominantly chrome aesthetic,  and feel black tuffs would distract from that. So, next choice for me personally is Zeds. But, black again. So, I'm planning to progress with these at present, but may also offer up some chrome/silver rims later. If I ultimately decide on changing it up on the wheel front I'm thinking it would be similarly spec built silver Araya 7X  .

Both wheels are going to be built with new DT Swiss Stainless steel spokes, and the as-supplied 12mm nipples are making way for 16mm options.
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Up at the front I've located a "never laced" Bullseye:
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But, due to the chrome black theme sourced a reproduction chrome-black decal to replace the og red one, don't shoot me.

On the rear I'm going to run a Suntour coaster:

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Tyre wise I'm having a little trouble at present. I'm obviously wanting to run freestyle tread pattern, and want black-tan finished period correct examples. But, all I've currently got in stock is later era (late 80's) CompST's. I know some may  think this too OCD, but it's not as harsh as "everything on this build has to be 84'" or similar, but within a 2-3 year window, and the ones I have are more like 88' onwards, or around that date frame. So, they'll be ok for now, but I won't be happy that the build's complete until I source something along the lines of earlier ST's (green/blue or yellow/red labels), Panaracer Freestyles, Maximisers, Early label GT freestyle, or something of that ilk, but man it's challenging, I've been scouring eBay & the Museum for months - don't do social media.

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[Picklez]

The coaster was proving quite a challenge to source. It's not that they're overly rare, more a case of see loads when you don't need them, then when you do want one there's none of suitable condition around.

I was wanting a mint or easily salvageable one, and there just didn't seem to be any around for realistic money. There was one on eBay but the guy was selling it with a random front hub, and wanting 80+ for it. Condition wise it looked fine, but I just didn't want to weigh in to around ?90 when all I wanted was the Suntour.

So, after not seeing anything of certainty for a couple of months I took a plunge on one listed by a US guy on eBay, much better price, but a bit of a risk on whether restoration would be just a good clean, or strip & polish/rechrome requirement:
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Thankfully, after stripping it down and giving it a good clean it appeared the 'gamble' had paid off, not massive amounts of rechroming required:

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As I've got a nice female axle Bullseye on the front end I want to run the rear with trimmed down axles and Suntour domed axle nuts. So, to start with I'm reassembling the coaster devoid of much grease, just enough to get it together, but appreciating once I mock it up to the F&F I'll be marking off the final 'built' axle length & pulling it back apart to trim said axle to length before final assembly:
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[Picklez]

And, like Chilli Rinse, I actually get more pleasure sourcing NOS examples of the smaller parts of a build, so was able to reassemble with some lovely NOS Cone Nuts:
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Now, the whole 'idea' with the rear hub is a little homage to Woody Itson. I'm not mad enough to spend north of 5K on a beautiful Race Lace Coaster SST setup  , so the next best thing for me was to recreate earlier examples. In the Summer 84 edition of Freestylin magazine there's an article where the publication interviews Woody and Buff when reviewing the soon-to-be released Trickstar, and they do bike reviews of Woody and Buff's rides. In that review this is woody's rear hub:
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So, first off was to hunt down a pedalPower decal. But as Del's currently offline I had to resort to offer avenues. It actually proved relatively easy in the end, found one with that guy from OZ on the bay selling loads of repo stickers. So, after waiting over 2 months for it to arrive I finally got it in hand and offered it up to the hub, only to realise it was about 30% smaller than the one woddy would have run back in the day. It just didn't fill as much of the hub body as the one pictured above. So, thankfully, it's subsequently been sent off to Steve at esemdesign (good guy actually), who's kindly scaling it up by 39% for me.
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Coaster arm wise, well, that was one part of the hub that does need a rechrome, so I'm currently waiting for that to come back, but at least once I get the larger sticker (should be any day now) I'll at least be able to build the wheel.

Reading the above article it became apparent that Woody used std 14g spokes on the rear, but laced the hub race-lace, so I'll be doing likewise, but also fitted small washers to the head of the spokes to provide a wider interface surface area between spoke head and hub flange interface. So, next was to hunt down some suitable washers.

That proved more hassle than needed. 14g spokes are around 2mm in diameter, so I initially just ordered 50 M2 washers. When they arrived they fitted over the spoke body well, but at the head end just didn't sit right. So, next I order 50 more, but M3. When they arrived they fitted the head end fine, but just didn't look right (compared to the original mag image), they look too large at the hab-flange interface. So, take 3, I order 50 M2.5 washers, and thankfully they look about right  .
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[deeman]

Hell Yea Pete, this is turning out awesome,,,,top parts choices as usual! 

[Picklez]

Coaster arm wise, looking at the article it's obvious Woody mounted his in the less conventional position, on the upper side of the seat stay, rather than lower side of the chain stay. Stating it was to try and reduce induced stresses on the frame. Now I'm not confident of the validity of that logic, if you think about the forces and direction thereof when applying the 'brake', but for the sake of the build I'm planning to bend my coaster arm similarly and mount it the same.

The only thing I'll do differently is the anchor. Woody's used an Addicts seat clamp. But for two reasons I'm choosing not to, 1. I'm not an Addicks (plastic/composite) fan. But 2. I plan to try something a little different regards the seat post clamp fitting. I'll use the more conventional Dia Compe MX. But rather than padding out the over-size gap between the outer of the seat stay tube and inner circumference of the seat post clamp I plan too cut/engineer the inner diameter of the seat clamp to match the outer diameter of the seat stay as best as possible. And I could not bring myself to 'destroy' an og Addicks clamp. Or come to that matter even an OG Dia-Compe one.

 Taking this kind of approach will also allow me to engineer the coaster arm pick up area better too.

So, seat post clamp in question, a repo Dia-Compe MX twin bolt:
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And here it is after a first pass, to test the idea. I basically removed the 'new release' text these things have embossed on them, not to fool anyone that it's OG, just to fit the build theme better (most parts are og etc.), and then set about trimming down the inner edges of the mating faces of the two halves so that when mated back together the inner radial clearance between the two halves would be reduced to be approximately equal to the outer VDC seat stay tube diameter. Hopefully you get a better understanding of what I'm doing with a piccie. Here it is when i've shaved 1.5mm off of one end of each inner faces, doing so to give me an extra 3mm of clearance at one end to house the coaster arm pick up, whilst maintaining equal torsional force on the two seat clamp bolts when it's finally tightened up on the frame.

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Now I just need to trim an extra 1.5mm off of all four faces, to get the inner diameter to better match the outer diameter of the seat stay. But, man it takes some patience, a steady hand, and a decent Dremel.

But, again, for the moment I've paused with these final mods on this until I receive the coaster arm back from the chromer.

Cog wise, I'll either run with the og 16t one that came with the coaster, or the Bendix 14t one I have as a spare. Basically chain fitting will dictate that at a later date.
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But, that's probably more than enough waffle form me for one day, so I'll sign off for now. But be back with the front wheel build up soon, and by then maybe even all the bits in hand to do the rear wheel too.

Cheers guys & stay safe 

[Picklez]

Hell Yea Pete, this is turning out awesome,,,,top parts choices as usual! 

Cheers Damo, good to see you around a little more lately bud 

[bobafett]

Great update mate.... Coming along very nicely and great attention to detail 

[Picklez]

Great update mate.... Coming along very nicely and great attention to detail 

Thanks buddy. Forgot to add, found out the coaster is an April '83. Suntour date stamps are two letters:
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See "Japan Z-D" on the inner arm...
And found this on the web:
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[Chilli Rinse]

This can't end ! Please take it slow... I love this build thread. A mention from a pro    Those little bits add to the bigger picture of the build, this I think will be a masterpiece, full stop ! 

[Picklez]

This can't end ! Please take it slow... I love this build thread. A mention from a pro    Those little bits add to the bigger picture of the build, this I think will be a masterpiece, full stop ! 

Thanks Toby  . Appreciated.

BTW, there's a few more 'fun' bits to come with this thread, and in the background (in parallel) the next build (& therefore thread) is in the planning (been sourcing the parts and thinking it through for a good few months now  ).

[Chilli Rinse]

This can't end ! Please take it slow... I love this build thread. A mention from a pro    Those little bits add to the bigger picture of the build, this I think will be a masterpiece, full stop ! 

Thanks Toby  . Appreciated.

BTW, there's a few more 'fun' bits to come with this thread, and in the background (in parallel) the next build (& therefore thread) is in the planning (been sourcing the parts and thinking it through for a good few months now  ).

Good to hear Pete and not surprised one bit
Next build... you tease 

[deeman]

Hell Yea Pete, this is turning out awesome,,,,top parts choices as usual! 

Cheers Damo, good to see you around a little more lately bud 

You can never quite get Rad out of your system! Great to see people still doing proper build threads like this one! If i am honest i have lost the love a little after last year. I can't justify building bikes any more, my car fetish is far greater and i don't have the funds for both at the moment! Maybe i will get back on it when my car is finished but for now i am happy looking at threads like this!
Building 84 bikes is actually bloody hard if trying to be 100 per cent correct!! Most of the best parts came out in 85!!! i acquired my 84 frame in early 85 used bitd so had some 85 parts on it then like the Haro tyres, the Skyway Hot Seat. DC 880 front caliper (which actually came out in 84 i have since found!)  i also had a M-Zone spinner so when i built it again in my 30's i succumbed a bit on the tyres and seat but made sure i had a pair of '84 DC 880's .... i also have chrome Woody bars and ACS tech 3 lockers on mine! The memories were more important than era correctness!

[Mikku]

Amazing attention to detail aka OCD!! Only kidding Pete, I'm just jealous that I don't have your patience and/or skills, not to mention that gorgeous frame! Keep up the good work!

[Midschoolfool]

Great work man. I rebuilt a coaster once. It really messed my head up  I was only about 10 at the time.

[Cherrypicker]

Loving this so far. Making me want to get mine built. Really wanting to see these wheels 

[Picklez]

OK, so it's been a little while, therefore it's probably time for an update. A few little projects have kept me distracted, restoring three sets of pedals & a bit of 'fettling' on some other parts. All meant I've been dragging my heals on getting the wheels sorted, well woke today and thought blow it, now or never, for the front at least, as I'm still waiting for the pedalPower decal to come back from Esmedesigns for the rear Suntour hub.

So, here we go:

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All parts gathered and first cup of coffee. I used to use Stids guide on here to build a spoked rim (don't do many in all honesty, what with having a perversion for tuffs), but unfortunately all the pics in his stickie are now gone, so, anyone wanting a good straightforward alternate can find the GSport one, which is relatively straight forward and not failed me yet.

http://www.gsportbmx.co.uk/custom/wheel_build/wheels.html

Starting out with the hub, after removing the original red/chrome decal (you may remember, the plan's to replace it with a black/silver one) I gave it a little clean (as I won't have much access to it once the wheel's built).

All was ok other than I noticed three rather annoying imperfections in the main shell body. I was in two minds about leaving as is, thinking I could cover at least two of them again once the new sticker was applied:

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But after a gulp of coffee thought on it, and couldn't bring myself to leave them there.

So, after a big brave pill, out to the shed and hit the hub lightly with a little bit of experimental 600grit wet and dry (using high resin polish as a liquid), then to the polishing wheel. After seeing that the results were that the surface finish would be ok I went for it. 240, 600, 1200, then 2000grit wet & dry (using high resin polish as a liquid at each step). The result:
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[Picklez]

Then the polishing wheel:

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And then the decal, and we can progress:

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So, the start of the process:

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Part way through:

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Any then finally laced, but not yet tensioned:

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[Picklez]

Then, after many laps round its the screwdriver, and then spoke nipple spanner, she was tensioned:

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So, on to tyre, tube and spoke nipple protector thingy:

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Tyres, as I've said previously, late 80's Comp ST's for now, but REALLY REALLY want some era correct tyres, earlier green-blue label Sts, Panaracer Freestyle, Hutch, Maximiser, Hutch, Haro, anything mint, that would have come out between 83 and 85. e.g.

https://bmxmuseum.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=828180

But for now these ST's will have to do as a stop gap. Do have something else coming this week, that is 85 compliant, and not from the above list, so when it arrives I'll show the difference and see what peop's think.

Anyway, rim tape fitted, and screwdriver trick really helps centralise these:

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Then to the tubes, thanks Damo for supplying these lovely Tioga Superlites, just the ticket:

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Then assembled ready for some air:

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[Picklez]

Now, they'll be a couple of minor updates on this front wheel in the coming days  , but for now all I wanted to do before offering it up to the build was sort a little of the 'dry rot' type white 'powder' from the tread. One of my pet hates is when sellers state 'Still has the release powder', it's NOT FICKING release powder you tw@t  . Ok Rant over  .

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Thanks to MrD

http://www.radbmx.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,194969.msg1953799.html#msg1953799

Out came the hair dryer, part way through. Top half done, bottom not):

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And after a good 'blow dry' this is how she turned out:

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Then, finally, fitted up:

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