Zeus Headset

It was stuck. It would not turn. The grease had turned to hardened tar. I'll admit to using 10W40 to degrease it and free the bearings from the grease turned epoxy. Some elbow grease, Park Polylube 1000 and the headset is as smooth as you would expect a 70's bike to be. The next step, after returning from the beach, is to install the '80's campy brake levers, calipers and pedals.

Fix-ing the Zeus

Over a barbecue, an architect friend of mine who's an avid bike commuter offerred an idea. "What if we could make a fixed out of an old 10 speed but keep the front shifter to yield a 2 speed?" Enjoying my instant flash of mechanical insight, I countered with, "nope, you need slack in the chain to stretch over the larger front gear - a sping of some sort." Mike came back a few months later and offerred the 'spring pulley' idea. So I mentioned it to a bike shop guy on a visit to LA and he produced a smile and a Burley sigulator. It's normal use is fixed conversions but it has just enough spring to allow the shift on this old Zeus.

So now I get to build another fixed rear wheel, clean up the headset, replace the lousy old brakes and pedals with some '80's campy gear. Just dusting this thing off made a difference!

Bigger Wrench and a Nice Old Zeus

Rather than drag the fixed to the shop and admit my defeat in the bottom bracket skirmish. I spent the $10 (ok, so it was $14 but I get to keep it!) at Ace for a monster sized wrench that held the bottom bracket tool perfectly. It's length gave me the leverage I needed to unfreeze the bone dry bottom bracket collar/bolt whateveryoucallit. I reassembled the bottom bracket and added grease to all threaded areas. I just tested it on the same driveway hills that give me the screeching before. Silence. Success.

Now the '70's Zeus is in the stand. It's rusted and modified with non-Zeus parts. A little cleaning here, gasoline and reassembly with a touch of eBay NOS and this vintage ride will be smiling once again. It has a Brooks leather saddle with many miles on it but still in solid shape. That stays unless my bottom rejects it.

Batting 500

Despite joyful assistance (and flattery that I know so much about mechanical things), no luck removing the drive side of the bottom bracket. It's cranked - no pun intended - so tight that my 12" channellock wrench and crank tool can't budge it. The non-drive side did come off with the Mrs. admiring my handiwork. It was dry as a bone in there. No grease ever graced the inside of this bottom bracket. The bike, rather the frame, was sitting on the floor of a cool, albeit sloppy intown bike shop in Atlanta. It's an Uno; an entry fixed frame that was perfect for my first project - building wheels - since it had everything else but.

The dry bottom bracket translates to the squeek I hear when pedalling. Back to Peachtree Bikes for advice and a stronger arm to free this sucker.

Radios and Bottom Brackets

First task tonight is to install the birthday present from my overly generous in-laws. A Bose Receptor HD stereo. Now we can't have the radio laying on top of old books seldom used. After the full reorg of the books and the shelf, it's done. Music is back and the iPod will be connected aft ter the patch cord is purchased. Gifts that encourage subsequent purchases are gifts that struck the right cord. Nice work Bose! The sound and user interface is perfect. It makes my iPod dock blush.

Tonight the bottom bracket of the fixed project needs attention. It eeks out a noise that calls dogs at 100 yards. Since I don't even have a bottle cage on this spartan ride, I can't squirt the playful fellers. So this squeel has to go. I've never openned a bottom bracket. Wish me luck.

Now where did I put Todd Downs Bicycling Maintenance & Repair book? Storage reorganizations do this. The place is neat but I can't find anything.