The Chainlink

Hipster Hunting Trophy, or, another one bites the dust.

TL;DR: The silver steed is dead, long live the silver steed. 

Seen mounted is a 1984 Trek 420 that has been 'retired' in it's current incarnation due to bent rear dropouts, a wonky BB, and cranks so old that you can't find chainrings for them. I rode it single speed, and therein lies the problem-the dropouts are bent in a way that the rear axle bolts won't sit flush with the dropouts, which leads to rear axle slippage and chain popping and all that stuff that is at best annoying and at worst really, really dangerous. BUT, there's hope: I've been considering buying a new multi-speed for light touring and road riding, and while the frame would need some work, it's light and classy, and project bikes are fun! Thanks for reading this spew, I liked the picture. 

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Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on April 4, 2014 at 10:51am

Any good bike shop should be able to straighten those dropouts. OTOH, if you're just going to get rid of it, let me know. It looks to be about my size. (But don't tell my wife!)

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on April 4, 2014 at 10:53am

Why not just have a shop align the drop outs and fix the bottom bracket?

I would have to see it and measure the BCD to be sure but that crank looks pretty standard to me, you should be able to get chain rings for it and if not cranks are easy to find.

Permalink Reply by Kevin Mulcky on April 4, 2014 at 11:18am

I'd be interested in the frameset too! Looks like a good candidate for a 650b conversion. 

Permalink Reply by Alex James on April 4, 2014 at 11:44am

So in addition to the rear dropouts, the rear triangle is also out of whack. Back in November I had an incident where the chain jumped and caught a hold of a higher cog (I still had a cassette on the rear wheel at the time), bending the axle and rear triangle near the dropouts. The shop I took it to said they could straighten them out and also ordered me a single speed specific wheel as replacement. While the dropouts were straightened for the most part, the rear triangle looked liked it was widened, to the point the frame is 'springing' every time the rear axle bolts are undone. 

What I would love to do is save up and have one of our local frame builders align everything, not because I don't trust my LBS, but because making frames is a builders trade, and I really do like this bike. Do you guys have any suggestions on who to go see? Humble Frameworks and Method Bicycles are two builders that I've been eyeing. 

DUG, the crankset is an old Stronglight with a BCD of 86mm. There's chainrings available on the 'bay, but for the sake of compatibility, I'm going to just buy a new crankset with a BCD that's a bit more 'standard'. A new bottom bracket will also be in the works once the money gets sorted! 

Skip, are you also a tall dude?! I found this at Working Bikes after hunting for a used bike for a few weeks but only finding frames in the 54-56cm range. I believe the frame has a 60cm top tube and seat post. I'm going to hold onto it for awhile because my goal is to put some gears and a derailleur back on after getting the frame sorted, BUT I will keep you in mind! 

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on April 4, 2014 at 12:16pm

It was not widened, you put an incorrectly spaced wheel in your frame.  Road frames are 126 or 130 spacing and a single speed wheel unless respaced or built on a hub made for that width is only 120 so you end up mashing the frame in every time you install the wheel.

What you need done is the frame checked to make sure the stays are still straight and the drop outs checked for alignment; any shop should be able to do that for you.  From the incident you described I doubt your frame is bent out of shape you just had the wrong wheel in it.

Alex James said:

So in addition to the rear dropouts, the rear triangle is also out of whack. Back in November I had an incident where the chain jumped and caught a hold of a higher cog (I still had a cassette on the rear wheel at the time), bending the axle and rear triangle near the dropouts. The shop I took it to said they could straighten them out and also ordered me a single speed specific wheel as replacement. While the dropouts were straightened for the most part, the rear triangle looked liked it was widened, to the point the frame is 'springing' every time the rear axle bolts are undone. 

What I would love to do is save up and have one of our local frame builders align everything, not because I don't trust my LBS, but because making frames is a builders trade, and I really do like this bike. Do you guys have any suggestions on who to go see? Humble Frameworks and Method Bicycles are two builders that I've been eyeing. 

DUG, the crankset is an old Stronglight with a BCD of 86mm. There's chainrings available on the 'bay, but for the sake of compatibility, I'm going to just buy a new crankset with a BCD that's a bit more 'standard'. A new bottom bracket will also be in the works once the money gets sorted! 

Skip, are you also a tall dude?! I found this at Working Bikes after hunting for a used bike for a few weeks but only finding frames in the 54-56cm range. I believe the frame has a 60cm top tube and seat post. I'm going to hold onto it for awhile because my goal is to put some gears and a derailleur back on after getting the frame sorted, BUT I will keep you in mind! 

Permalink Reply by Alex James on April 4, 2014 at 12:37pm

DUG, you're absolutely right-I just slipped the wheel into my other bike that has 120mm rear dropouts, and it fit perfectly. Thank you for your guidance, I'll have my LBS take a look at it! 


notoriousDUG said:

It was not widened, you put an incorrectly spaced wheel in your frame.  Road frames are 126 or 130 spacing and a single speed wheel unless respaced or built on a hub made for that width is only 120 so you end up mashing the frame in every time you install the wheel.

What you need done is the frame checked to make sure the stays are still straight and the drop outs checked for alignment; any shop should be able to do that for you.  From the incident you described I doubt your frame is bent out of shape you just had the wrong wheel in it.

Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on April 4, 2014 at 1:39pm



Alex James said:

What I would love to do is save up and have one of our local frame builders align everything, not because I don't trust my LBS, but because making frames is a builders trade, and I really do like this bike. Do you guys have any suggestions on who to go see? Humble Frameworks and Method Bicycles are two builders that I've been eyeing. 

Sure, a framebuilder can do this quite easily. Shouldn't cost much assuming all it needs is a tweak. If a chainstay or seatstay is kinked, that would be a different story.

DUG, the crankset is an old Stronglight with a BCD of 86mm. There's chainrings available on the 'bay, but for the sake of compatibility, I'm going to just buy a new crankset with a BCD that's a bit more 'standard'. A new bottom bracket will also be in the works once the money gets sorted! 

Let me know if you want to sell the Stronglight crank, assuming it's in decent shape.

Skip, are you also a tall dude?! I found this at Working Bikes after hunting for a used bike for a few weeks but only finding frames in the 54-56cm range. I believe the frame has a 60cm top tube and seat post. I'm going to hold onto it for awhile because my goal is to put some gears and a derailleur back on after getting the frame sorted, BUT I will keep you in mind! 

I don't think of myself as tall, but yeah, I tend to favor 60-63cm frames. 58 or 59 in a pinch.

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