This is a bike I saw at a yard sale that I asked the list about last year. Ted Ernst and a few others were able to help with some info at the time. I forgot about the bike until today when the owner dumped it on me for twenty bucks. I have no great restoration dreams for it, but intend to make a rider out of it. Even though it has the 20,000 leagues under sea patina it's actually coming apart without too much issue. The seat-post and stem are out and the bars are out of the stem. The BB and headset turn reasonably well, and I expect them to be seviceable. Which brings me to my first question:
How do you remove this crankset, the non-drive arm in particular?
And what would be the best method to deal with the rust? The frame appears to be nickel plated underneath, which you can see on the seat-tube where a piece of tape was wrapped around it. I do not want to paint the bike, just leave it with the patina showing. But I would like to nuetralize the surface rust as much as possible. As bad as it looks the frame feels very solid with no thin spots or areas that seem like they would fail. So far I used a wire-wheel in my die grinder to get some of the loose stuff off, but I think chemicals may work better?
Also, I would be intrested in any comments as to the possible brand/builder, year, construction (fillet brazed?), etc. There's a "4 diamond" mark on the BB shell, and a serial number 17469 can be seen on the right dropout. Last time I posted Ted thought it was not a true race bike but a roadster used as such. It was set up with wood tubular rims but they are completely fubar. But now with some better photos of the frame maybe there will be more opinions. The chainstays seem awful narrow for a roadster?
Anyway, this is way out of my normal rebuild zone, so any info would be much appreciated. And if anybody has a saddle that will work with this type of post please let me know. Or if there's somebody that can rebuild the saddle on on the frame I have?
Cheers, Jon Williams Grants Pass OR USA
Here's some photos:
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