Technical & Reference Section > Tech and Restoration
Four Bike Co Battletech
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. :LolLolLolLol:
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 :LolLolLolLol: 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 :LolLolLolLol:
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:
--- Quote from: Midschoolfool on June 17, 2023, 04:49 PM ---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.
--- End quote ---
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.
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