Nice man at Stolen says yes if you prise off the outer cap then you can just unscrew some nuts and strip the pedals completely. At which point I discover that the inner race is missing about a third of the bearings.
Debating whether to return to CRC for a replacement pair, or get something like the Wellgo KC001 (smaller, lighter, but not purple).
Of course now I'm wondering how much it would cost to custom anodise two pedals...
Gusset Slim Jim's come in a nice purple.
I'm going to order a set of those 152mm cranks, presumably square taper? Any idea what bb I need to match? Cheers
Yes, square taper. The original BB from my Blast was destroyed in removal and it's in my LBS's recycling box, but several posters on page one here said you want 118mm wide.
Someone on Amazon (mega-bikes or something) has the cranks for £18 plus a few quid shipping, but it took almost two weeks to get here. xxcycle.com want a few pounds more but I think would have shipped quicker and were very helpful when I asked to check the chainrings can be removed.
Cheers Ross,all ordered. Our build will start when the 75€ cube frame gets here from bike discount.
Does anyone know if I can swap the 7sp cassette on the blast to an 8sp without changing the rear hub?
My one at least is a 7 speed freehub which are smaller than 8 onwards.
rossburton - Member
My one at least is a 7 speed freehub which are smaller than 8 onwards.
Thanks. Looks like its rear wheel rebuild time and a new hub.
Just finished this
[img] http://imgur.com/FINahsl [/img]
12.3kg
Not telling how much the parts cost, because I don't want to know!
Very slow building so far. Put the wheels in without cassette or rotors to check saddle height and reach. He [i]just[/i] fits so this will last a while.
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Should have a good hour of building with the boy tomorrow afternoon so hopefully it will be finished this weekend.
I really like the Spank Grom grips, thin and narrow for little hands, and good colour accents on the lock rings too. Still need to sort out the reach on the brakes obviously.
[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3724/32653542994_5e05667ed2_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3724/32653542994_5e05667ed2_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
These anodised skewers were a good find on eBay for £5 the pair. Can't remember if the skewer should be on the brake side or not though!
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Ooh, I like those grips, think I'll get a pair of those for the lads bike.
They come in a range of colours but the green ones are basically impossible to find in the UK, the distributor is expecting stock next month. bike24.com (German) had some in stock and I was ordering tyres from there anyway so the postage wasn't too expensive.
What cassette are you putting on that ross? I'm also thinking of sticking with the stock wheels in the short term, but 1x7 doesn't sound like much of a range of gears for little legs. Can you get a decent spread of cogs at the back?
chainreaction have the grips in black, blue, and red, but out of stock of green at the moment. £9.99.
Wow, totally transformed that frame Ross!
Nice work.
Wonder if this thread will be cached somewhere 20 years from now so you can show your lad the work you went to building up one of his first bikes?! 😀
poopscoop: even if the forum is gone, I'm keeping the photos!
Garry: my cassette is a 12-28 or something, which paired with a 32t chainring and little 24" wheels shouldn't be too bad and isn't unusual for quality single ring kids bikes. SRAM do 12-32 for a bit more range, but my long term plan involves the spare hubs I got from eBay and learning how to build wheels... whether the plan is "next month" or "at some point" depends how the first few rides go.
What cassette are you putting on that ross? I'm also thinking of sticking with the stock wheels in the short term, but 1x7 doesn't sound like much of a range of gears for little legs. Can you get a decent spread of cogs at the back?
The shimano MF TZ31 cassette (14-34) is the widest you'll find. Pair it up with either a 30 or 32 tooth chainring depending on how hilly you regularly ride and it'll be enough. The only downside of this cassette is that your kid may spin out on faster rides, but you don't need to go single ring at the front if you don't want to.
Love those grips. Great project build there.
Isn't 12-32 a bigger range than 14-34?
Yeah 13-32 is better, but I've not seen it available for a threaded sprocket (thinking of short term solutions re: Garry_Lager's post on p.3)
However I've just noticed that sunrace do a 13-34 threaded.
Personally as our 24"er is only going to be used by one member of the family, I'm not going to invest much in it, relatively speaking, so the wheels aren't going to get changed (unless there's a lotto win or large inheritance in the next few months)
My Blast's stock freehub has a standard (but narrower) splined cassette holder, so the SRAM 12-32 will just slide on.
My hope is that I would be able to hand the Blast down to my daughter after the son has grown out of it, but at the rate she's growing I'm worried that I'll be doing all this again next winter...
Cool, didn't realise that they had freewheels. I just assumed that they were threaded jobbies.
It's going to be so much easier when they're on 26'ers 🙂
Thanks both - that 12-32 looks right.
Might just stick with the triple in any case until I can sort the wheels out properly.
Great build thread and I'm following with interest. I built up a Scott Spark 20 Jr a while back (build thread is on STW if you're interested and I've added a full parts list) so I appreciate the work these labours of love take.
I'm hoping to get more done on my current project this weekend - a 24" bike.
Another hour before the boy got distracted and wanted to play on his iPad. Not quite the father and son build experience I was hoping for but what can you do.
Anyway, rear brake fully installed and hose shortened (why have I paid for this before, it's trivial). Cranks on. Still to go: pedals (in the post still), front rotor and hose shortening (need to get more olives and rotor bolts, LBS had ran out), chain. Then done!
Weight so far is around 9.5kg. I'm hoping for less than 10.5kg when it's finished.
An Islabike Beinn 24 is 9kg, but this should be a better ride on anything that isn't a smooth road.
The big open question now is how to hold the front brake hose to the fork nicely as the fork doesn't have its own clamp. A cable tie looks ugly and moves. Can you buy glue on clamps?
I've used one of these before.
[url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brake-Guide-Suspension-Forks-Colour/dp/B006WMM9JA ]Holds it on with rubber o rings[/url]
These?
www.sjscycles.co.uk/cables/mpart-selfadhesive-cable-guides-3m-pack-of-3/
Could also use one on the downtube as well.
Perfect! Went for the o-ring one to avoid gluing stuff to the carbon fork.
15 minutes of very enthusiastic helping by my daughter (age 6, so inheriting my sons bike when this build is done) and we have pedals and a chain. Now revising how to adjust rear mech as I always forget...
It's going to be so much [s]easier[/s] [b]more expensive[/b] when they're on 26'ers
[url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/the-bike-singletrack-built ]Trust me[/url]
I can believe that, MoreCashThanDash 😀
Spent a quality 30 minutes last night with a beer and the Park blue book remembering how to adjust mechs. Now mostly shifting fine although I'm still not 100% happy with the upshift from 2 to 1. Had to play games as it's a 7 speed shifter and cassette but a 9 speed mech, so the H screw needs to be really wound in. Future-proofed that bit of the drivechain though, so worth it.
So frustrating: just waiting on a delivery of a Shimano olive to shorten the front hose (LBS has been out of stock for a week and isn't expecting more for another week at least), some rotor bolts, and the jig to saw the steerer down. Whilst I'll hack the bottom off a seatpost in the vice by eye, I'm not going to do that for the steerer!
Waiting for the proper tool for the stearer wil be worth it in my experience. I made a mess of the first cut without it but with the tool it was perfect in a couple of minutes.
Either use a cutting guide or some decent pipe cutters for the steerer - both do an equally good job.
Measure, measure, measure, cut. Somehow still managed to cut the steerer 5mm shorter than I intended. Luckily I gave it an inch of spacers!
And apart from needing the cable clamp to arrive, the build is now finished.
[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2857/33447954311_a43e73d3e2_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2857/33447954311_a43e73d3e2_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
Executive summary is: replaced the suspension fork with a carbon rigid fork, left it at 7-speed for now but dropped the triple front mech. Replaced almost everything apart from the seatpost, wheels, cassette. I have a pair of spare hubs and am learning to build wheels, so I can at some point go tubeless rims and 9-speed.
The cockpit is a resprayed Answer carbon bar, unbranded stem from eBay, Spank Grom grips, Deore levers, Altus shifter, Hope Head Doctor because that's how much I hate star nuts (and for the splash of colour).
[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2842/33536568116_fb22a832e9_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2842/33536568116_fb22a832e9_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
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The forks are Carbon Cycles 24" forks, with Deore brakes and skewers in an annoying almost-but-not-quite shade of anodised purple. Replacement wheels will happen at some point, so these are the stock wheels with Rocket Ron folding tyres. A whole kilo of bike was the stock tyres.
[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2809/32762935773_af75ab47ae_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2809/32762935773_af75ab47ae_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
The foot end of the drivechain is Suntour XCT-JR 202 152mm cranks, with a RaceFace narrow-wide 32t chainring and matching bashguard, and Wellgo KC001 pedals. More on these later.
[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2873/33448019051_bce9f95dba_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2873/33448019051_bce9f95dba_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
The wheel end of the drivechain is a Sora medium cage mech (trying to keep the cage as short as possible, and this will take a 32t cassette) with full outer cable routing, the stock 12-28 cassette (there's a 12-32 on the workbench in case we need a bit more range), and another Deore brake. The Sora is a 9-speed mech so when the wheels are upgraded I just need a new cassette and shifter.
[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2835/33420242702_8375ceb86d_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2835/33420242702_8375ceb86d_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
Saddle is a Madison Y04, the stock seatpost (a bit heavy and rusty so will be replaced at some point), and more anodised hotness from eBay for the clamp.
[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2932/32762959133_1d884399ed_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2932/32762959133_1d884399ed_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
All in all the bike now weighs in a 10.1kg, down from 13.7kg originally. Obviously I'm now looking for a light carbon seatpost to knock that last 100g off!
So those Wellgo KC001 pedals are basically awesome, and it's a terrible shame that Wellgo appear to have discontinued them. There's a few resellers on eBay in China, the pair I got are genuine Wellgo in a proper box so I can't comment on the relabelled ones. They're a good size for kid feet, have studs but are not sharp, use cartridge bearings and look rebuildable, and weigh a svelte 135g each. The stock, huge, V8-style pedals the bike came with were 270g each.
[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3940/33536532566_893625ebf3_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3940/33536532566_893625ebf3_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
Finally as tales of woe goes I thought "non-drive side crank thread shafted, LBS had to angle-grind it off" was the winner, but almost had a contender this afternoon when taking a rotor off my bike to donate it to the Blast. This happened to my T25 driver (last time I buy a Stanley tool because "what could go wrong").
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I had visions of having to drill out the bolt on my lovely Hope hubs, but luckily a competent Makita bit got the bolt off fine.
Likes!
The bike build rather than the knackered tools.
Someone is going to mention cost. I've been tracking part cost and weight, but haven't dared to add it up yet.
It shouldn't be [i]too[/i] bad thanks to so many generous souls on here who had parts for sale. Thanks everyone!
Is it just the photo? The sweep of the handlebar seems to be forward rather than back?
Bike looks great, would have loved that as a kid.
Obviously I'm now looking for a light carbon seatpost to knock that last 100g off!
I don't know about you but I don't trust my kid with QR and carbon seatposts! Way too much chance of him over tightening..and crack!
We went Titanium ... I think we paid £20+ post... as someone had cut it short it didn't go for much on eBay 😀 and it was the right length for us so saved me cutting it.
Most cheaper carbon seatposts weigh more that a full Ti anyway as the weight isn't in the tube but the (usually steel) clamps and bolts at the top...
Saddle is a Madison Y04
187 grams and £15 and the Kevlar really seems to work .... the fact it hasn't torn in a year is amazing given the number of crashes...
Another hour before the boy got distracted and wanted to play on his iPad. Not quite the father and son build experience I was hoping for but what can you do.
It's normal... or actually you did exceptionally. Most primary schools wouldn't even TRY and keep a kids attention for a whole hour! (OH is a primary teacher)
If you want to keep a kids attention longer then you need to create an addiction to something, dopamine works great... which is exactly what game designers do... visual straight through to the reptilian brain and instant dopamine rewards... I say this as I was already worrying about my kids behaviour around the iPad... then I saw a video (not about kids but millennials in the workplace) and it all makes sense...
Sorry no answers except limiting use of iPad's etc. but it's worth watching
But on the original point.... been there and done it and that's just their attention span - it feels disappointing but 1 hour is actually really good!
Regarding bars, Yeah that's the angle of the photo with a wide lens. It's a flat bar with a small backsweep.
