BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Hmmm, I like those home made brake mounts. I might be able to use that setup to rid my commuter of disc brakes if I could get another wheel.

Sanding a 22.2 stem down to a 22.0 is pretty familiar to me. This happens when you discover that there is no such thing as a new French stem available in the size you need. I blame the French thing for most of my pathetic mechanical improvs.

For a year or so I managed to keep a used Shimano Octalink bottom bracket (hey, it was free and came w/ a nice 105 crank) working in a partially stripped French threaded BB shell. I'm still not sure how I got that to (sort of) work. I think I used plumber's tape, loctite, and then finally some epoxy-like shit I found laying around.

Frame is now stripped and waiting to be given a proper threadless BB and some paint/new parts. It's just a cheap 70s bike boom frame, but has the kinda weird (62cm seattube/ 57cm top tube) geometry that fits my oddball proportions perfectly and I just can't seem to find that anywhere else.

I have a really, really beat up Bianchi Pista frameset (to give you an idea of how beat up it is I only paid $25 for it) that I want to use as my three speed, however being that it is a track frame it doesn't have a brake-mounting hole in that bar that connects the seat stays (not sure if this even has a name..?).

I am thinking about drilling a hole here so that I can mount a rear brake, and I would like to know if anyone has ever done anything like this before... Any advice?

skipdip, the more important thing would be to determine if the bar is the right distance from the wheel for a brake to reach properly. That bar is not structurally critical so drilling the hole would not be a big deal. But try and get a measurement from the rim to the bar (center to center), then look for brake calipers with the right reach range.

I love 3 spds, feel free to shoot me any questions you run into about those.

Or use a hub brake (drum/coaster/disk).

jane. internally geared 3 speed with coaster brake. and wrap around fenders front and rear. super mega awesome winter commuter.

We actually picked up a coaster brake 3-speed hub for this very project, but aren't sure if she would end up liking it.

and dooftram, most womens'-specific frames are longer in the seat tube and shorter on the top tube to accommodate womens' leggier bodies. I'm not sure if any are made with a 62cm seat tube, though.

Oh, and one other thing. I've seen a blue Pista around Pitt campus that has had this very operation done, and is using a standard-reach Tektro rear brake caliper.

Not sure if this is a jury-rigged repair...I use Velo Orange threadless stem adapters on a few of my older Schwinns and I like them a lot. They're much stiffer (less flexy) than the Nitto Technomic quill stem.

Because the adapters are cylindrical, they're ideal for turning on a lathe. A local machine shop charged me $20 to do a professional job of shaving the diameter from 22.2mm to 21.1mm so it would fit the old Schwinn fork steerer tube.

Here's a photo showing (left to right) the OEM 21.1mm stem, the VO adapter shaved to 21.1mm with threadless stem, and a stock 22.2mm VO adapter. I used the quill from the OEM stem. The shaved addaptor is still twice as thick then the OEM stem and I have never questioned it's safety.

Skip - You should not have any trouble drilling out the seatstay bridge on a Pista for mounting a rear brake. I'd make sure it is the correct distance from the rim as mentioned above, but otherwise it shouldn't be a problem. Some of the newer Bianchi Pistas are drilled from the factory.

Thanks Bill, Lyle, Colin, and Brad-- I think I will just try out the coaster brake hub that I have and see how I like it. ..I can do some drilling if I don't.

I can't wait to have a three speed again!!

I had to file down the diameter of the braze on slant tube shifter nubs to put new shifters on my old Motobecane.

I also ended up temporarily lashing the bottom of the rear rack ends to the bike with old shoelaces.

I've tried a similar rack-mounting method with zip ties. It lasted about an hour. And I used good zip ties, too.

I once made a bike out of some paper clips, a chewing gum wrapper and toothpaste. Oh no wait, that was McGuyver. Darnit, he got to do all the cool stuff.