Four Bike Co Battletech

[Midschoolfool]

This will mostly be a build. I do need to do some minor resto work to the cranks for example, but the rest will all be techy build sort of stuff.

So last week Mike posted a load of frames on a Facebook group. In there was a Dirt Bros Trail R Park. I initially put dib dobs on it, then had remorse instantly. It was spray bombed in purple, and I can't paint more frames. And tbh? I don't want to either. I am getting too old for all that.

So I apologised, we got talking and he offerered me a Quamen flatland frame. I almost bought that, but again it just wasn't getting me that excited. I then spotted this.



And was instantly drawn to it. I had seen it before, a few years ago. It was on Ebay. And I almost bought it then, but got beaten to it. By Mike no doubt  It was the bars that did it for me. Any freebie when doing a complete build is a god send. Kinda like how I got those bars for the Trail Boss. Any way, I paid up and it arrived at mum's a couple of days back.

So now I started thinking about what parts I needed.

The first part I always want sourced and in place are the wheels. These are the most expensive and hard to get part of every build I do. Well I had these. I was going to use them on the Boss, but they are 14mm so no chance.



I am going to remove the decals. This is the front, and hilariously in this pic it is bolted to the fork I am going to be using too.



The next part you want sorted is the cranks. Again, these are usually expensive and hard to get decent ones. I have three options here. I have not decided on which yet... I bought these RNC first. They are alloy, with a Ti axle. 22mm.



They have been repaired but properly.



They need restoring. Bit of file work on the rash, small bit of JB weld on any gouges and a blow over with satin black. The second option (and the least favourable) is these.



I made a late night Ebay offer on those and when I got up it had been accepted. 18 quid, I shit thee not.



United 19mm 48 spline. Now the reason I made an offer on those is because I have these in my loft.



KHE Erlkonig. Their most expensive, lightest cranks. Problem is I pressed a Profile axle in there and it jammed in one arm about half way. Profile axles are not metric, and thus a tiny bit bigger. So, if that will press out (need to send it to my mate) then I can use those also. Choices.

For the drive disc. Well I had nothing tbh. The guy that sent me the Eastern said he would send me the Kink bash guard for it. This one.



And he has. So the KHE one I got for the Eastern is now spare, sorted.



I bought a 43t from Source (steel but it's fine)



That's just a reference pic of the smaller ones. Will get an actual pic later. I then needed steel bolts.



Double. IE double length for two rings. The reason is you always use spacers or your chain chews up the inside of the bash. I got this pack of 10 2mm spacers, I will use two per bolt giving me 4mm, meaning I can use an 8mm wide chain with no binding.



I got this CNC BB on special a while ago (Ebay pop up discount, 8 quid)



22mm. For the RNC.

OK so I needed a stem.



I wanted to rob that so badly. Problem is I would have felt bad. So, I found something even better for that.





And now I can steal it without feeling bad 

Tyres. Always wanted a set of these, but prices have been daft for ages. I got them for 28 each. Not terrible.



For brakes. I will use a Springfield on the rear in black, and I got this for the front.



I am doing that because I have a pair of levers I want to use and don't want to split them up.



Those bars are still fully built like that. Will rob the levers off of them and sell the rest.

Seat and post should be this.

[Midschoolfool]

OK, I now have it all. Got this for 3 quid on sale. SRAM apparently, nickel plated. Whatever, I just don't want to run into issues with the bash. So getting some big old fat half link chain for tons of money was out.



For pedals I went back to the past. I got these in silver for my Schwinn last year and was bloody stoked with them tbh. All sealed, alloy pedals. Got black this time on sale for 28 notes.



One thing I was stuck on was bearing cups. I didn't feel like spending 40+ quid on a US BB to rob the cups from, given I had the rest already. I also didn't feel like paying 45 quid for a 22mm euro BB so I asked around. Adey to the rescue ! got these for nothing.



Quick clean up and a lick of paint and sorted. Have decided to use the RNC cranks. I mean F it, I may as well they only cost me 45 sheets.

[Midschoolfool]

OK so one of the last orders is in. I am trying to find a killer seat, but nothing is jumping out at me. I can't find any leather that I had in mind, nor vinyl, so I think I'ma find something else. We will see. The frame looks like it has double barrels for the cables, so I got these earlier.



I have a red SNAFU Mobeus and a gold Stolen Satellite. Hopefully there is some oven cleaner left, and I can get the gold one down to just silver.

[Midschoolfool]

Frame and bars in.



This thing is a proper tank. The tubing is friggin huge lol.



Will start work on the cranks tomorrow. They don't need an awful lot.

[Chilli Rinse]

I am interested to see how the tyres look on the bike, I have a pair in red that could be used on my Jane frame 

[Midschoolfool]

Wicked. Yeah nice tyres. Very light. They will look good IMO. Mostly because...



Those are 1.65.

BTW I was meaning to PM you this, but I am so busy right now it's a joke. I just finished part sourcing, and nearly all of the deliveries are here now so I have tiny bit more time. Your frame is called a Jane because of the Eastern Tarzan. Whoever thought it had anything to do with calamity jane was smoking something funny. I have the decals now dude, I will get them scanned in some time over the next two weeks and get to work.

Right, so more parts. Just need the small brake parts I ordered now.

Oh hang on. Rewind time, I missed two posts. My brain not good when overloaded. So last night I went and did some part swapping.



That is all being used. So are these.





OK. So now back to what came today.



And now we are caught up.

[Midschoolfool]

OK so finally some actual progress, instead of swapping and removing parts. I took the bars into the garden earlier and gave them a good cutting. They were hazy, as powder does, and they were riddled with surface scratches and marks. Powder, being nice and thick, is very easy to work with, hence.



The decal was made using the prototype frame.



Next step - doing the same to the frame.

[Midschoolfool]

OK decided to change a couple of parts. I wasn't set on the seat. I already have two in use, but this time it was bugging me. I tried to find the vinyl glitter leather that Primo used, but it seems it is now out of production. I could only find a yard in the USA for about 80 quid plus everything (you know? shipping, tax etc). I tried to find some blue leather, but realised it would be too much of a statement. I then thought about black leather, but what is the point? it would look 0 different. I searched for hours upon hours for a seat and came up empty. Saw a couple of very expensive ones, but again they were too brash. I then, at 2am this morning, found this.



Typical. 20 quid too ffs. Ordered !





It is typical mid school fodder. Same as the Haro Mirra saddles, and the S&M I got for the STA a while ago. Now that lay back is pissed. What I mean is, it seems to be twisted out of shape. You can't get the seat set up on it properly. So I had a dig, and found this.



Noice. I also ordered a AD 990. I don't think the Springfield would look right, and for the sake of 20 quid it is not worth chancing it.

[Midschoolfool]

Started work on the RNC cranks. Rashed up arm before.



And now.



Repaired bit before.



And now.



Both of the bottom arms were gouged badly also. They both look like this now.



This arrives tomorrow, by tomorrow evening they will be in primer.



Sorted the cup faces too. Not worth doing the back.

[Chilli Rinse]

Wicked. Yeah nice tyres. Very light. They will look good IMO. Mostly because...

BTW I was meaning to PM you this, but I am so busy right now it's a joke. I just finished part sourcing, and nearly all of the deliveries are here now so I have tiny bit more time. Your frame is called a Jane because of the Eastern Tarzan. Whoever thought it had anything to do with calamity jane was smoking something funny. I have the decals now dude, I will get them scanned in some time over the next two weeks and get to work.

Yeah they should look pretty cool on. Thanks for the idea.

Those decals just didn't seem right did they, they came off very easily though. A set of decals would be great, thanks man! No rush at all, this is a bit by bit build anyway. I might pm you and take the piss and enquire about some custom alterations 

[Midschoolfool]

Those are nearly done dude. Just have a few more little bits to do, and draw some Jane ones for the TT and yeah done. When I have something to work with it becomes very easy. I still need to take into account they are going on foil, but yeah that won't take long.



So today I thought I had done all of the nasty work on the cranks. BTW, let's talk about those a little bit. They are RNC Lite cranks. They are absolutely terrible. 

For some reason in the USA they are worth a fortune. The last set I can see sold on the museum was 8 years ago, and they sold for $225. However in the UK our riders soon broke or battered them, and they are not fondly remembered. What I wanted was something super chunky to make the bash ring look right. They look so weird with small crank arms on. Like two twigs. Apparently all you need to do to strip out the pedal bosses is ride down a curb  and they are a bit shitted. However, this is a show pony come carpet queen so as long as they look the part (and they most certainly fookin will by the time I am done) then that is fine with me. And they were cheap, so I have that going for me too. They cost me less than just a Ti axle for my Primos.

OK, so back to the nasty work. I thought I had done all of that yesterday, and the sanding would be piss easy. I was wrong. THREE HOURS I was out there. Became a bit of a red mist event, with me absolutely determined to have them looking pristine at the end. And I did well. In fact, I did very well.



Note those scratches. Piss boiling they are. I will come onto that later.



Like a baby's bottom.



The best bit is when you prime something and it takes back its shape.







Those bastard bloody scratches *fumes*



The reason why they are still there is because what you can't see in any of these pics is the angled machine marks from where they were CNC cut. It does that "wikki wikki" kinda sound when you sand it. As such I had two choices. File the entire face edge (fook that) or, try and sand them out. The problem was even though I could not feel them any more they are still down below that machining. As such they are still there.

So, later on I am going to (after I have had a shower) put in a tiny amount of JB weld. I mean, I guess I was taking the piss a bit when I thought I could file and sand out all of the damage, failing to consider some of it needs to go back in and not get removed.

Either way they are now a far cry from what they were before.

[Midschoolfool]

Well what a pisser 

Thought I would get off easy with this one, being all I need to do is cut and polish it. Like fook.

So the "fun" began last night. I noticed in the sale pics and when they arrived there was no sprocket bolt. No probs, I have loads of those. So after applying the JB weld last night to those tiny scratches I opened up the loft to go get one.

Now bear in mind that involves - plugging in the lights downstairs, turning them on, climbing the ladder, moving the hatch, then getting up to search and then the reverse of that.

So I come down with a M10 1.25 bolt. Looks about perfect, won't thread in. Here we go.

Go back up, repeat the above, grab a bolt I had left spare from some cranks that was different, reverse the above come back down. Too small.

Go back up, repeat the above, grab a 3/8 UNF crank bolt, reverse process, come back down. That doesn't thread in either.

At this point not only was I nucking fackered, but I was getting sweaty and pissed off. Grabbed the axle, took out one of those bolts and in it went. Problem is I had no idea what they were, nor where to get them. Decided to put my tail between the legs, as this was clearly a Yankydoodle Fukknows bolt and asked on the museum. First I uploaded this photo of a UNF bolt and the mystery bolt.



Was told to set my calipers to inches, set them to half an inch and set them up like so.



I counted 8. So that means there are 16 threads per inch, or TPI. Turns out after many hours of all this they are 3/8 UNC bolts. UN for imperial, C for coarse. So the UNF are UN for imperial, F for fine, being 24 TPI. I then begin the search, and eventually after another hour or so find these.



I bought 4. Mostly because the crap that RNC provided are steel and rusty AF. Those are stainless, one for the sprocket, two for the spindle. The washers are Ti, so I will clean those up. Good. Not.

Take the seat clamp down to try that out, doesn't fit. Far too small. Measure that up today, 31.8mm. The big problem here is 1. Trying to find something suitable and era appropriate and 2. My seat post also won't fit that I paid ?30 for. *sigh*. Thankfully I found these two for less than a tenner for both, and they are perfect (actually better than the clamp I had in mind as it is way older).





So then earlier I go down and start sanding the JB. Only to find that due to the machine marks it just rips out before you can get it smooth. FFS. So, I had to sand through those marks, and then remove the scratches. Another hour of sanding, primer completely wrecked, and of course it is pissing down with rain today.

[Midschoolfool]

OK so the cranks were sorted last night. Well, into primer. The rain stopped around 8pm, so I smacked the washing line to get all the water off and hung the arm.



Thank god. Right, so this morning I awoke feeling really ill. Like cold? flu? IDK. Doesn't feel like the rona. Took some pills, took a crap and felt a tiny bit better and then assembled the seat onto the post.



Really like the look of that. Really heavy and chunky !



I have also now painted the crank arms and BB cups satin black. Two coats over a few hours. Praying when I cut them down later they are done... Obviously I still don't feel very good (aching something rotten) but what I can do is clean up the axle (get all the grease off) and get the black coating off the titanium washers.

[Chilli Rinse]

Those are nearly done dude. Just have a few more little bits to do, and draw some Jane ones for the TT and yeah done. When I have something to work with it becomes very easy. I still need to take into account they are going on foil, but yeah that won't take long.

Nice dude and thanks, sorry about the late reply, I had a busy weekend and so did you by the look of it. Good progress as usual from you. Honestly man, you are the master of your own time so absolutely no rush. I will leave colour choices totally to you as they are looking good. I'm putting a few different colours on the bike so anything goes.

Because yours I think is a US frame set and mine is one of the first Taiwanese made I was thinking this on the fork decals 🤣

[Midschoolfool]

Hmmm. Well firstly I didn't realise you had the fork. I wasn't going to bother with those, but you just gave me an idea. Will work on that later, once the painkillers and coffee start working. I think I have the fooking rona again

I finished the crank arms yesterday. They came out incredible, as one would hope from 5 hours of work. The bolts arrived today too.



Worth the work, though it felt like I had done twenty sets of cranks when I got done



Literally have to clean that up, and strip or paint the washers.

[Chilli Rinse]

Oh no man, hope it's not covid and you're better soon, take it easy for a bit Those cranks look factory fresh, nice job indeed.

Yeah I got the forks, I think they are the right ones for the bike. No cable guide though, so not 100% sure.

[Midschoolfool]

Yeah pretty sure mine are the same. Will have a look later. Your down tube decals are done, as are the small ones.

A few years ago I bought this really expensive printer and scanner. Like, pro series. A3 printer. Every time I scan it basically ass fooks your image. First their app only scans to 300 DPI, which ain't great, but secondly the only image option to save it out is JPG. Which was shit at the best of times. So basically whatever you scan then gets compressed and ruined before you can even start on it which is frustrating to say the least. What I like to do is image trace which converts them into vectors, meaning I can scale them and alter the DPI increasing it to insane levels. Problem is if the image is shite you end up with what you saw in the pic I showed on everything BUT the down tube decal (because it is much larger. So as an example here look at the two small round decals and look at what it has done to the text.




It has mullered them basically. That said, whoever drew these decals either did not draw them in vectors (because the aliasing is awful) or, the printer wasn't great. I think it was the former.

Any way. So I wondered if my scanner was actually a good one in disguise, or, truly limited to 300 DPI. Meaning it is a shite one. Didn't sit well with me due to what it cost, though. I know scanners are no longer anywhere near as good as they used to be. I know that for a fact. I have one somewhere that can scan at 9000 DPI. It is a SCSI interface, and uses a PCI card. Which I can no longer run. So 300? you can see just how shit that is in comparison. Any way, I figured I would poke the hardware using something else. Sure enough, if I use Photoshop? I get a 1200 DPI option. Four times higher resolution. As such look at these compared to the ones above.



BTW that mock up you did?

[Midschoolfool]

OK sweet so the washers were actually alu. Meaning I could do this to them. And assemble.



Mind blowing !

 

All they needed was some company.

[Chilli Rinse]

First of all, that crank set up looks friggin awesome. Top work man, this ride is gonna to be insane 
You have to chill soon though, bmx burnout is imminent 
The decals you have produced are bang on, I'm now going to have to upgrade my build from tank rat to as good as I can afford 
Seriously though, thanks for all of your time, effort and RADSPIRIT man
 

[Midschoolfool]

I'm going to send some parts with the decals, so don't buy anything yet. That part will be a surprise.

So earlier I thought I was going to have a headache on my hands. Though it turned out to be the opposite.

It's hard to put into words just how heavy that Mosher Fork is. IDR who I got it from. Was it Pickle? god it was so long ago now. But it's easily the heaviest fork I have, and I got some seriously heavy forks. Even heavier than those Kink Empires. Any way, I realised there is no brake hole. So, I armed myself with my punch set and some cobalt bits and.... First punch literally exploded when I hit it. I thought "Oh god, this is going to eat bits and take forever" but like I said, the opposite happened. Bits went straight through, brake now on.

The second part I thought was going to be more brawn work was getting the shit writing off the pegs. I like the pegs, but nothing screamed "I DO NOT BELONG ON A MID SCHOOL BIKE" quite like the crap printing on them. By total accident as I was cleaning the fork ready for cutting and wax I spilled some isoprop on the peg, and the writing started coming off. Sorted  five minutes later I have a lovely set of plain pegs. I then cut and buffed the fork, which they needed bad.

I even logged onto Facebook, and noticed some guy was offering these up for sod all.



I already have a Ride decal for it (in some of the pics) but I do not have any Dragonfly decals. The frame has a few chips and scratches, so I am going to partially sticker bomb it (tastefully) to hide said scratches. As such those DF decals were like gold. Result.

I then realised that I had a lot of money in the bank. What I mean is, as mum was going away I paid into her bank account about two weeks ago for the shopping I wanted to order now. Mostly because I couldn't be assed adding all my payment details to her Iceland account. I got paid today and yeah, forgot I had done that.

So I bought a set of wheels 

Because of the finds with the seat, post and etc I started to realise that this bike is going to be killer. Those cranks coming out the way they did (mostly because I busted my ass working on them) was testament to that. Blue new school wheels? ugh. Now I knew I had seen these on Ebay a while ago, was effing praying there were some left. There were 





NOS Sun Big city rims on NOS Prolite hubs. I had to. For the sake of a hundred quid I just couldn't have lived with myself putting those wheels on there. I mean, that really isn't a lot of money tbh. Especially when it will make the build rather than break it.

[Chilli Rinse]

I've been looking at those for ages, did you get the last pair 

Free parts, you are spoiling me man, many thanks. I like surprises 

By the way, you are an unstoppable bike building machine  I don't know where you find the energy. You are putting us all to shame

[Midschoolfool]

Nah there are 3 sets left I think? gawd knows.

I want this bike to be up there with the others. And that is big boots to fill tbh, when you consider the STA, T1, Pork and the Eastern.

I'll reply to your PM tomorrow dude, off to bed now.

[Midschoolfool]

Right, quick one before I get to work on the frame.

I really don't want to file the front axle. Mostly because I am sick, and it is hot. And that is a lot of work, and something I have never done before and hence would probably fook it.

As such let's go back. Look at these.



Female. And this one.



Also female. They are trans though, as they were born male  OK, so that one actually made me laugh hard 

So I did my usual. Went to Egay, and searched. Found a Savage poopa for 20 quid but bolts missing. I have some, but it concerns me. Like, why are they totally missing? could it be because the threads are toast?

I then did my second usual. Go to all of the LBS online, search front hub, set the price low to high, pick the cheapest compatible looking one, do some research, buy.



24 quid. So 4 quid more than a battered one, with the bolts, and brand new.

Ordered.

[Midschoolfool]

OK. So, another day of frustration.

First I discovered something by accident, that turned out to be wicked cool. So you have these pegs. Nothing screams "I DON'T BELONG ON A MID SCHOOL BIKE" like the dumb writing.



Well last night before I buffed and polished the fork I spilled some iso on one of the ones on the fork. And it happened. So grab the alcohol.



Get off bastud.



Polish.



Finished fork, buffed and polished, crown race on and brake fitted. Oh and it has been drilled for the brake obs.





OK so then earlier today I took the frame out into the garden. I first gave it a good clean with hot soapy water, and then started to buff it. Unfortunately the decals were in bad shape. They were faded, but the worst part was due to the horrid orange peel in the coating (powder, it's shite) they were also lifting. This means dirt and green polish had gone under them. Wasn't so bad when the frame was greasy and filthy, but on a clean frame they looked shite. So, I started to pick at one and I managed to get it off completely. So I removed all the others (left the HT and ST, they are fine) and then put them under the scanner. In this pic you can see the green and the dirt I am referring to. I couldn't leave it  like that.



OK so I then traced them into vectors.



And then made two lots of images. One for the black at the back, and one for the white lettering. Sadly I don't have any white vinyl, but that is OK I have ordered it.



Those are all done.

Another delay, but then I am still waiting for the wheels and seat clamp etc so whatever, it will get done when it can be done I suppose.

[Chilli Rinse]

Looking good man. Great tip on the alcohol as a remover, noted.

Rest up, wait for your parts and then go again