Technical & Reference Section > Tech and Restoration
Manuel The Bandito. 2001 S&M Dirt Bike NG
Midschoolfool:
It's been epic tbh. I don't usually restore old parts. Mostly because I don't really have any lol. I usually buy NOS. Talking of NOS.
The brake lever looks far too big on those bars. I was going to leave it tbh, as I didn't want to spend stupid money but it turns out Alan has a bum load of these for a cockel. So I grabbed one eh.
Right hand too. Not sure why I want right hand on this bike. Maybe because every other bike has them on properly ;D
Any way the cranks came out superb.
I was worried for a minute because I was getting some haze from it literally drying as it hit, so I just went heavier. God it was hot yesterday.
I just need to degrease the loose ball BB now and paint those cups there (that have been all done and prepped last summer). So yeah, nice easy day today. And it's 10c cooler, which is good. Because yesterday I was all like this.
Midschoolfool:
Oh and I PMed my buddy Delores and said "Come caca de changito!" she laughed. Then she asked if I knew what it meant. I said "yeah, eat little poop!"
Then she corrected me. Apparently a changito is a small monkey, and it actually translates to "Eat monkey shit"
Much laughs were had.
Midschoolfool:
OK, so I degreased the correct BB set today :uglystupid2:
The bearings are new. They had some tiny rust spots on the frame of the cage, so they have been dunked in vinegar with the rest. I will take them out tomorrow and blow everything but the bearings over with black paint. Just to stop it wanting to rust again.
I also had to work on the seat clamp. It's quite nice as it goes, but it had a half rubbed off Huffy logo on it in white. I considered stripping the anno, sanding it, primer paint etc and then I had a brain wave. Tcut metallic :D
And off it came. Seems it was only screen printed. Saved me bloody ages that has !
Midschoolfool:
:D
I.had.to.
Midschoolfool:
OK so it cooled down. Sadly the weather has been total pants. Raining and gale force winds. Last night I got up into the loft to start the part gathering and put some stuff away, then I realised I had not sourced a headset for this bike yet. Now that's no issue right? just buy one. Problem is any sort of reasonably priced sealed external headset comes in from China now. Which would take forever. Not that it's a huge problem, but they are crap too. I know, because the bike had one on it when it arrived and even though it is sealed it was gritty and crunchy.
I did get a proper Aheadset with the Huffy I broke for parts, but the bearings were shot and the replacements I ordered were totally the wrong size FGS. After a long dig in the loft I found one of these.
In white. Gosh it runs beautiful. Then I looked it up, RRP was ?35. That would be why then. It's a bit grubby and it is white, but I have a butt load of parts to paint black as soon as the weather gets better any way. So that was that sorted !
OK. So the one thing that has been really bothering me through all of this is trying to remain era correct, or, repops of things that are era correct. The seat and post (pardon the pun) just have not been sitting with me. I dunno, I am trying to create a proper mid school era bike and a pivotal post and seat just don't seem to fit. The problem is S&M shield seats (which are red and yellow) sell for a lot of coin. Like, ?120. So OK, what was the next best thing? the haemorrhoid. Only problem? some ripped old shit sells for ?60, and a NOS one? about ?150 if you can find one. And that has been pissing me off for weeks.
And then I had another light bulb moment, right. I remember seeing these genuine mid school seats on Ebay ages ago. They are pretty much an exact clone of the haemorrhoid. In fact, I used to sell these things to customers BITD. So I went looking. ?8.99. No seriously, ?8.99.
Bargain. Just don't expect it to look anything like that when it goes on the bike. I'm currently looking at crocodile PVC, snake skin PVC and mexican blankets.
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