Headset Removal and Replacement

The great thing about vintage steel bikes is that you can work on them yourself with a few simple tools. Here is a job I will walk you through, namely the removal and replacement of the headset cups and bearings. I will explain how you can do this with a few simple items picked up at your local hardware store.

To remove the bearing cups from the frame I purchased a piece of copper tube. I found a ¾ inch repair coupling that was ¾ inch diameter inside and slightly under and inch outside. These come in various lengths; 12 inch long worked fine for my needs and the ends were already machined nice and square.

All I had to do was cut four slots down the length of the tube about 4 inches long, using a hacksaw, and bend the four pieces outwards as shown in the picture above. These squeeze in to insert through the headset cup and then spring out again inside the head tube. With a hammer or mallet, the cups can be safely knocked out of the frame.

This worked in exactly the same way as the professional Campagnolo tool that costs a great deal more. To remove the lower ring from the fork, I turned the fork upside down resting the threaded end on a wooden block, and drove the ring off with a hammer and flat punch.

It is necessary to tap first one side of the ring, then the other to get it to come off straight. The bottom ring was hardened steel so the flat punch did not damage it in any way.

To press the cups back into the frame I bought a 5/8 dia. nut, bolt, and several large flat washers. I pressed the top cup in first, which again was hardened steel, with the bolt facing up and the nut on top. Tightening the nut on the bolt squeezed the cup into the frame.

Then I removed the nut and bolt, reversed it and pressed the lower cup in. (See picture, left.) The bottom cup was light alloy so I placed the lower steel fork ring inside, upside down.

This brought it flush with the outside edges of the cup so the washers were pressing on the inner hardened steel bearing surfaces, rather than the soft alloy outer edge of the cup.

Don’t press the cups in with the ball bearings in place, or you may damage the balls or the bearing surfaces.

Finally, to drive the lower ring on to the fork. I found a short piece of one inch black iron pipe. This was slightly bigger than an inch inside so it slid easily over the steering column.

Holding the fork in one hand, I drove the bearing ring onto the crown race, using the piece of iron pipe as a sliding hammer. (See picture, right.)

Once again, because the lower ring is hardened steel the iron pipe did no damage.

The piece of iron pipe does not have to be threaded as shown here. It just happened to come that way, in the length and weight I needed to do the job.

Finally, use plenty of grease in the inside of the head tube. It will help the cups slide in and prevents corrosion in the future.

My Wish for 2023

I have struggled for days to find suitable words to express a New Years' message. Then at this late hour I remembered the words to a song I wrote a few years ago:

I always try to help my fellow man

Hurt no one by thought word or deed.

Do to others as I would have them do to me

Is my philosophy and creed,

But there’s someone I find hard to forgive

Though Heaven knows he should be my friend

If I could only show some understanding

Forgive forget and try to make amends.

I resolve to show this man compassion

Lift him from his self-made Hell,

Help him if he should fall or stumble

I resolve.... to be kinder to myself.

If I could only show myself forgiveness

Show tolerance for mistakes I make.

Tell myself I’m only human,

Give myself an even break.

But I’ve always been my own worst critic

So many times, I curse the fool I see

If I could show the patience, I show others

Open up my mind and set me free.

I resolve to show myself compassion

To lift myself from this self-made Hell.

Forgive myself if I should fall or stumble

I resolve.... to be kinder to myself 

My wish for 2023 is that we can all show compassion, not only for ourselves but for each other. I give thanks that I live in a free society but cannot in all honesty do so unless I allow others their own opinions.

I cannot change the world, I can only change my world, or rather my perception of it. The world is in a sorry state, environmentally and economically. I can fall into a state of deep depression over it, or I can learn to adapt and deal with it. 

What is the alternative? If I go on social media to complain and blame others, it not only adds to the sorry state of the world, but I also still have to deal with this sorry state while in a deep depression. 

My wish is for “Peace, Love and Understanding” to come back into fashion. May the Joy be spread to my fellow countryman, rather than the joy it must bring to my enemies to see us fight amongst each other.

A Child’s Christmas

Often this time of year I revisit childhood memories of Christmas. For me it is the years 1941 to 1944, when I was between the ages 5 and 8 years old. Possibly the age that Christmas means the most to any child.

Christmases spent during the tough economic times of WWII. I always think how much harder it must have been for others my age in countries like France, Belgium, and Holland where the actual fighting went on.

Times were tough economically in England, but at least the country was not invaded so although I never understood what war meant, I never knew what the financial hardship was because I had known nothing else.

Whereas children my age on the continent of Europe faced the actual horrors of war, bullets, explosions, and people dying.

I can remember exactly what was in my Christmas stocking each year because it was always the same thing. First of all, my Christmas stocking was one of my actual knee-high socks that I wore every day. It did not take much to fill it.

In the toe of the sock there was always an orange. Yes, an orange, was a treat because oranges did not grow in England, they had to be imported from Spain or some other Mediterranean country.  

In the foot of the sock there would be and item of clothing, usually a pair of socks or gloves hand knitted by my mother, from used wool unraveled from an old sweater.

In the leg of the sock there would be a rolled-up coloring book with crayons or color pencils, and a special Christmas edition comic paper, usually featuring, Mikey Mouse and all the other Walt Disney characters.

There were few toys being manufactured due to the war, so any extra toys received were either refurbished used toys, or hand made by a friend or family.

For me Christmas was never about the material things received on Christmas morning, but it was about the season’s activities. Decorating our home and school with holly branches and paper chains and paper lanterns we made ourselves.

Learning to sing Christmas Carols in harmony at school, and performing them in a concert, and going house to house singing carols, in evenings during the week before Christmas. The parties at friends’ homes with all the wonderful home baked food. Christmas cake and pudding, and mince pies.

In the years since WWII, I have witnessed Christmas turning into this ever increasing frenzy of shopping, and conditioning our children for a lifetime of consumerism. The notion that material things will buy happiness.

In these current world-wide economic hard times, there are going to be a lot of disappointed children this year, but will that be such a terrible thing if some of them learn to lower their expectations little.

My thoughts are with the children living in the Ukraine. I am sure all they want for Christmas is for the war to end.

Bicycling Road Test Bike

When I was building frames in Southern California back in the 1980s, my business was humming along nicely, I was building thirty FUSO frames a month. The last thing I thought about was that I would be corresponding with people about these very same frames 35 years later.

I certainly did not foresee the Internet and my writing on this blog, a weekly journal. Had I known, I might have kept a few more records for a start. When I started building the FUSO in 1984, I stamped each frame with a simple in sequence serial number, starting with 001, 002, 003, and so on.

At the time the number was a simple way for me to keep track of how many frames I was building. It gave each frame an individual identity, a number that could be written on an invoice when it was sold.

I kept no record of where each individual frame went, apart from copies of the invoice, which are long gone. There was no reason at the time for me to keep that stuff.

In 1989 I built a 56cm. LUX frame number 1650, it was assembled into a complete bike using Campagnolo C-Record components. The bike was shipped to “Bicycling” Magazine, as they had agreed to do a road test, and write an article about it. The article appeared in June 1989 issue. (Picture above.)

The bike was subsequently returned to me, and I took it the Atlantic City, New Jersey, Bicycle Trade Show, in the Fall of 1989. As was customary, when the show closed the bikes were sold off to bike dealers at a discounted price.

Recently, the original owner of this bike sold it, and the new owner contacted me to ask me to authenticate that this was in fact the very same bike that appeared in Bicycling Magazine.

As mentioned, I did not keep records. However, here is a frame that was built in 1989. You can look at the FUSO registry and see other frames close to #1650 with original owners who also bought them in 1989.

It is a LUX frame, the color is pink with blue decals, it is a 56cm. frame built in Columbus TSX tubing.

I even stamped TSX on the bottom bracket shell, which is unusual.

The LUX frame was built to order only, there could hardly be another with the exact same specs. I can safely say, this is indeed the same bike.

Bikes like this have added value because they have a story attached to them. At some point someone will pay big bucks for such a bike, it will be a valuable addition to any collection. I hope the new owner will appreciate that I have just added value to his purchase by authenticating it.

That may sound a little mercenary to hint that someone owes me but let me explain. I always had a “Love/Hate” relationship with cyclists, until I realized that cyclists are just a cross section of people, that come in a whole range of personalities,

When I had my bike business in Southern California, I had a strict “No visitors” policy, because people would hang out all day, and I could not get any work done. I had a business to run, orders to fill, and a living to make. Then to make matters worse, the people who took up most of my time, were least likely to actually place an order.

It really is no different today. Believe it or not, my whole life does not revolve around bicycles. I have moved on to do other things. However, writing on this blog, and answering people’s emails, takes a disproportionate amount of my time.

Don’t get me wrong, I choose to make myself available. I could just quit, but I appreciate the interest, it gives me a great deal of satisfaction. However, there are expenses like monthly hosting fees, not to mention my time. A few good souls donate on a regular basis that helps defray this cost, without them I could not continue.

I will never put a “Pay-Wall” on my blog, that would be annoying and counterproductive. I will not charge for answering emails, but rather rely on voluntary contributions.

As with any gift, “It is the thought that counts.” If someone makes an unsolicited donation of a few dollars, it shows they took the time to actually go to my Registry, and clink on the PayPal “Donate” button.

It shows people care, and ultimately that is all we can wish for in life.

Footnote: Go to my Registry PDF files and download a copy of the Bicyclig Road Test article. Scroll down the page, second below the pictures.

Adopted

Parents of an adopted child will often tell them. “We chose you, and that makes you special.” I came to these United States in January 1979, in a few weeks’ time I will have lived here 44 years. That is longer than I lived in England, the country of my birth.

I adopted this country, which makes it special. I do not take this country or it’s people for granted as I might have done had I been born here.

A country and its people are one of the same, The USA being so large often feels like several different countries. To understand this, a person has to travel and live many places, as I have done. 

From New Jersey, close to New York City, to San Diego, California. Then gradually northwards to Riverside County, to Los Angeles. To Eugene, Oregon, then back across this country to South Carolina.

Throughout my travels, on meeting strangers, because of my accent as soon as I open my mouth I am viewed as a foreigner. Just as it is unwise for an American to travel overseas and express a political opinion, it is also best I remain neutral.

By taking political opinions out of the equation, I tend to see others as either good or bad, which is all there is really. If I choose friends based solely on some political leaning, I miss out on some good people, and allow others closer than they should be, taking my best interest into account.

I have no room for negativity in my life, either people or obsessing over it in the news or social media. Sadly, the media thrives on negativity, but I have come to realize if I look at the perspective of it, the goodness in the world, far outweighs the bad.

For example, I read about a mass shooting somewhere, and five or six people died. Not to make light of such a tragedy, but out of a population of over 300 million, the ratio of evil as opposed to good is a tiny percentage.

My point is, I can do little as an individual to stop these heinous acts, but when the good far outweighs the evil, why would I dwell on the bad?

You can define a country as the land mass it occupies, but the real spirit of any country, its heart and soul, is its people. As long as good people far outweigh the bad, and love outweighs the hate, there is hope.