Vee Rubber 450A

A pair of these arrived from France today. They are Vee Rubber brand, made in Thailand. 18 x 1&3/8   37-387 NL written on sides. I see at http://sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html  450A are meant to be 390mm. I'll see how they go.
They look OK, maybe I should have found some Michelin ones.

The NS22's little sister

It's been a while...

I left the NS22 in Tennant Creek, now I am back in Melbourne.

I bought the little brother/sister. In French un velo is masculine, une bicyclette is feminine. This has 450A rims (390 mm, 20" BMX rims are 406mm). The wheel base is 825mm, cranks are 130mm, it weighs about 10.5kg. It was $20 on ebay and close to home, it just seemed too good to refuse.

The rims are RIGIDA, I can't see any date on anything anywhere. One tube has a presta valve, the other is a Woods/Dunlop. The tyre treads don't have a lot of wear, but are badly perished.

I put the seat pole up as high as possible, maybe 30mm is in the seat tube.

The nuts/bolts that connect the carrier rack to the seat stays are missing. The bell is missing the thumb thingy, it has broken, it looks like it was plastic. The seat is moulded plastic, one piece.

I notice the bolts on the rear wheel stick out a mile, a good hazard for kids to bang their legs on.

NS600 with 600A wheels

On ebay.fr I see this, asking 140 euros:

Sheldon Brown's site says 24 x 1&3/8 used on wheelchairs is 540mm,

"French 600A is actually 541 mm, close enough".

I notice the frame (just behind the head) has a hole or lug to take a cable, I guess some of these had gears. I assume the rear brake cable is in through the other side. Yes indeed, it is a tres beau velo, solide...

Vélo Peugeot NS600 motobécane 1970 pneu neuf non pliant

Bonjour, voici ce vélo mini vélo vintage PEUGEOT NS600 pour adulte, avec panier, (grande roues de 600a) en très bon état. Pneu NEUF Michelin. Livraison possible Paris . Très beau vélo solide.

Test ride with 24" front wheel.

This seems OK, the steering feels a little different to how I remember it, it is nearly a year since I last used this bike. It does not actively seek to turn left or right all by itself, but doesn't seem like riding no-hands would be very easy, it seems about neutral. It is certainly nothing like the 26" mountain bike wheel and forks I tried, then it immediately wanted to turn away from straight ahead.

Both handbrake levers were broken in the crash.

The front wheel axle is about 15mm higher off the ground than is the rear axle. This could be reduced by using a 1.5" tyre instead of the 1.95" now fitted. I even think the front mudguard might be persuaded to fit with a narrower tyre on the 24" wheel.

With the 26" wheel, it had excessive "wheel flop":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_(bicycles)#Wheel_flop

Wheel flop refers to steering behavior in which a bicycle or motorcycle tends to turn more than expected due to the front wheel "flopping" over when the handlebars are rotated. Wheel flop is caused by the lowering of the front end of a bicycle or motorcycle as the handlebars are rotated away from the "straight ahead" position. This lowering phenomenon occurs according to the following equation:

Because wheel flop involves the lowering of the front end of a bicycle or motorcycle, the force due to gravity will tend to cause handlebar rotation to continue with increasing rotational velocity and without additional rider input on the handlebars. Once the handlebars are turned, the rider needs to apply torque to the handlebars to bring them back to the straight ahead position and bring the front end of the bicycle or motorcycle back up to the original height.

Forks looking good.

I fine tuned the fork bending today, they seem OK. I think I will just put a bit of packing, 1 or 2mm or so, in above one axle to straighten the wheel a little, will hold off on any filing for the moment.

If I stick with this 24x1.95 knobby tyre, I will trim the outermost knobbly bits, they barely clear the forks and the wheel is not perfect, neither is the tyre.

I need to enlarge the holes for the rack to go over the axles, not much in it, they'll still have enough meat on them.

Fork repair

I've made a start at straightening the forks. I held various parts in a wood-working vice and bent carefully.

At present, the 24 x 1.95 tyre is about 4mm off-centre, the knobbly bits on one side hit the fork.

 The wheel also tilts to one side, the head stem tube does not follow the same line as the tyre tread centre.

And the top part, whatever it is called, is not perpendicular to the wheel.

I will do a few more adjustments, and see how it goes.  I see 24 x 1.5" slick tyres are available, they will be the go if this works out.

I needed to file the drop-outs a little wider to take the wheel axle.

Black racks and other bits and pieces

I saw this on ebay.com.au. Note the black seat pole clamp, black handlebar clamp, black racks. Is the bell black? The handlebars look different to most also, less swept back.