Project Incognito

[Smoker]

Ordered a crazy set of pedals.

Magnesium with (my favorite) polished titanium screws, then gold titanium nitrided. On each pedal, you can see 10 gold screws on the top and bottom. Magnesium is black. So perfect for my bike.

Received the pedals, and one is fucked. Blown out bearing leaking oil/grease onto one pedal. Not clipless, and no cage. Dangerous situation at 34mph around cars.

[Smoker]

Forgot to mention that I couldn't find a retailer that had these pedals. Went to the manufacturer. None available in any of 5 colors.

Found this one place that sent the fucked set. They had 3. Now they had 2. Ordered another set. Got the same leaky shit again!!

Realized that I have 2 sets. One that leaks, and one that doesn't. Will be returning the leaky set.

[JonW]

haha, perfect!

[Smoker]

It was only a few minutes after my last post that I had another "Oh, shit!!" moment.

I'm not a bicycle person, so it took a minute to remember that the right pedal has right threads, and the left pedal has reverse threads.

So, yeah. Of course. Had 2 good lefts and 2 bad rights. Took a chance and opened one up enough to see what's happening.



Later, I found this pic somewhere on the net.



So, no leaky bearing. Looks like that blue seal isn't sealing against the pedal body. Could be an issue with the machining of the pedal or the spindle.

I have a couple of ideas that might fix the issue. We'll see. I'm going to keep a set and deal with it. I just have to keep moving forward with the projects.

So, there's actually 20 traction screws in each pedal, not 10. Also, they're not titanium, like I thought. The spindle is titanium, but the screws are gold anodized aluminum. The tech is that the aluminum screws will break, and not damage the magnesium pedal body. That makes sense.

[Smoker]

So far, all good with the pedals.

[Smoker]

Been having a rough time with the bike, lately.

Got a front tire puncture. Didn't know. All ready for welding lab, and found the bike with a front flat. Didn't have tire tools or patch kit, so no riding.

Down for a few days to order fixins, and do a repair. Wasn't even a week, and it happened again. Another flat, and another missed lab.

Fixed the second flat.



Went out to the garage next morning. Flat tire. Didn't even ride! Must have missed the second hole. (That's rare. )

Fuck it, time for new tires & tubes. Unfortunately, ran into some problems I can't fix.

[Smoker]

Bought folding tires, instead of the type with wire beads.
Folding type are supposedly lighter and more puncture resistant.

Problem is they mount off-center. Bike vibrates so bad, I don't even want to ride it.

Got busy yesterday. Let most of the air out of the front tire. Took a 1/2" cotton rope and wrapped the tire and rim on the high side. Pumped it up and removed the rope. Helped a lot. Will need to do it again for the front and rear. Hope they stay in place, only running about 10 psi.

Used at least twice as much tape as this on both sides. Will take some practice to remove the rear wheel smoothly.



Found 3 bent spokes on the rear. Very sure they were bent when I bought the bike. Need to straighten them, or buy new ones.





Took off the axle retainer.



Backside looks like this.



Frame looks like this. So damn sick of this shit.



Easily fixed with a hand file. I'll touch up the frame when I get a chance.

[Smoker]

Spent about $50 usd on Mr. Tuffy tire liners.

Waste of money. Couldn't keep them in position over the tread. Probably work better on smaller tires. Ended up, just pulling them out. Get ready for more flats.

[Smoker]

Aside from all the poor quality bike issues and parts, I should say- I do love the whitewalls with the red rims. Whitewalls are definitely not my style... well, until now.

Need to stay on top of the tire fitment issue. Might need new tires, soon. Will get extra tubes and patches standing by, for sure.

Got a nice bag of gold titanium happiness. Almost 60 pieces.



Just wish someone out there could get it right, for once. Ordered 4 (matching) bolts for the H-bar clamp. Got only 3, and an oddball- like I'm not going to notice.



Bad news is, if they don't have another one, I'm going to have to ship back the other 3.

[JonW]

wow, 'good enough' prevails in so many industries sadly :/

[Smoker]

Another order of hardware arrived from a different company.

See the bag with no hardware, just 4 plastic washers? There's supposed to be 4 small bolts in there. 4 small bolts that cost around $30 usd.



A lot less custom hardware on this e-bike, than on the motorcycles. Should be able to finish it soon.

[JonW]

:(

[Smoker]

Bike was dirty and front fender wasn't on, but I grabbed a couple of pics of the gold titanium hardware. More coming soon.