RUSTY BIKE (scrapped)

I saw a Build or Bust episode where Joe Magliato finished his frame with rust. He used a welding torch to heat the frame and then wiped it with something, I suspect it was hydrogen peroxide.

/http://bigironart.com/mpc/docs/Site/Home.html/

(the site no longer exists)

I had no available torch or peroxide but I had read this article

http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/Experiments/iron-products.htm/

....and inherited some mordant solution from my Dad left over from a contract he had to paint a load of galvanized streetlights back in the 60's.

https://www.teamac.co.uk/uploads/files/MORDANT_SOLUTION_TDS_TM.pdf

I had a spare MTB frame, forks, stem and a pair of unchromed north road bars all blasted (by Bournes Powder Coaters in Birmingham)

http://www.bournespowdercoating.co.uk/index.htm

then I painted all the bits with several coats of mordant solution and left them.



Now I needed it to rust and further searching on the net turned up that the trick was to wipe the surface with warm salty water, this done the finish was perfect.

However I should have washed it with distilled water (rainwater would have done) but didn't. The frame began to revert from the dark protective magnetite to fluffy soft red rust, haematite.

By this time I had finished and was riding it. I remembered something else I read and used aluminium foil with the mordant solution to scrub the frame tubes and then wash off the residue with rainwater. That seems to have done the trick, it has lasted weeks and I now have to apply similar treatment to other parts of the frame when time allows.

Decomber 25th 2010 since that time the frame rust has developed in an interesting way. Red rust colonized the frame but then over time flaked off like a scab to reveal the proper finish I sought underneath. A further complication is that where I spaced the front derailleur with 1 mm thick lead, I created an electrochemical cell which has caused the seat tube (only) to continue to corrode in a spectacular fashion. I intend to change the spacer for a plastic one when time permits. I will also paste additional photos.

Other inspiration came my Dad's steel shovel which formed a firm oxide surface even though it's been outside in my garden for over 20 years, chains on kids' swings in playgrounds which never seemed to go red rusty. But for intentional rust, "rust is not a crime" Mike Burroughs' rusty BMW here  really was the tipping point.

Which leads me to a man with a similar name, Mike Burrows, his book Bicycle Design, describes using shorter cranks - down to 120 mm - so I've been using 150 mm steel cranks (taken from a neighbours kid's bike - after he chucked it) and I can confirm they are good fun, although your knees notice the difference.

And I just came across a whole house based on rusty steel (28/05/2011)

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/14728/endo-shuhei-architect-institute-looptecture-f.html/

I had some favourable comments about the bike, which is interesting as my other bikes are better (more expensive) and conventionally prettier (painted or chromed).

I've created a Flickr page for this and other bikes

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61001946@N06/

The experiment is ended, I dismantled the bike and took it to the tip for recycling. I felt slightly guilty as it was a working bike which rode well and had I the inclination I could have removed the rust, used some of that new-fangled paint and made it good. Sadly I am aware of my mortality and I have a huge number of unfinished tasks, I don't want this so I will have to repress the guilt and move on. Maybe I should rewrite this post in the style of a scientific experiment from school, equipment, method, results, conclusions (another task - see!) but not tonight. More later 07/11/2011

I can say in conclusion that although it was possible to get quite a nice patina, it was difficult to maintain it in a British environment. I can also say that the things that I found most frustrating were the way rust would eat away wherever water was trapped and that parts would weld together. I didn't like the way it spread, rusty water would drip and colonize areas that wouldn't rust on a normal bicycle. Sacrificial corrosion of plated items occurred which meant those parts had to be scrapped when the bicycle was dismantled. Some people reading this may think of COR-TEN steel which doesn't behave like this but it does, if you read the design guides water traps should be designed out and dissimilar metals should be avoided.

Keeping the finish is like balancing a pencil, it's possible but it takes a lot of effort; and I have other things to do. The wheels will be used for another project, they came off a Raleigh MTB.

Although the bike has met its maker a long time ago evidenced here,  http://www.flickr.com/photos/61001946@N06/7573669300/in/photostream  you can go up a level and look at the collection rust in the landscape.

In 2013 the topic still interests me and I came across this article today http://phys.org/news/2013-01-scientists-iron-eating-bacteria-electrons.html the bacteria only respond to electrons of the same frequency, others aren't so tasty perhaps.

It never stops, The first recorded use of rust as a color name in English was in 1692. A search on that lead me to http://www.beautytrainingstudio.co.uk/History-Of-Nails.html it was Cleopatra's favourite colour apparently. 05/10/2013

I sent an email to myself back in July 2012, I have just rediscovered it.  The word is pyrophoric (fire-carrier) and here is the link http://survivaltopics.com/flint-and-steel-what-causes-the-sparks/ it turns out that there is a layer of rust slowing down oxidation but the temperature of the sparks is a factor of the surface area to volume ratio. 01/01/2014.

Since those heady days, I discovered electrolysis to remove rust from iron and steel and have used it extensively restoring lathes and tools.  This album contains some interesting photos. I have noticed that as the steel starts to rust again after treatment it often forms the right type; magnetite. 25/09/2017

Just updated the entry due to broken links. 2021 May 4th. Bill Gates' divorce is the news of the day but there is an awful train crash in Mexico due to a bridge failure and India is suffering greatly due to COVID.

R. T. SHAYLER (sold)

I picked up my R. T. Shayler for the princely sum of £10 at the local tip. The frame was chromed but rusty, the fancy lugs, wraparound seat stays and the cast dropouts caught my eye. I also spotted the wrong diameter seatpost and some shims bodged to make up the difference. It had cottered Milremo cranks, steel rims (700c), flattish bars and was pretty much the worse for wear.

I gutted the bike and kept only the frame and forks, both were stamped with matching numbers 621. There was swarf in the bottom bracket, I'm guessing from when a seat post was machined out - but I don't know. The 21" bare frame weighed about 4lbs 8oz and had seams so I guess it's 501 and some of that weight is the plating. The seat post diameter is 27mm.

The seat post bodge had caused damage to the top of the seat tube. I machined a 27 mm diameter slug of steel about 8" long with tapers at each end and tapped it into the tube. To move it back up, I drilled a 10mm hole in the bottom bracket and used a long drift. I also used the steel for support as I attempted to tap the tube circular again. If you hadn't read this and didn't look too hard you wouldn't notice it on the seat tube. But you have now and I can see it. Functionally there is no problem.

The wheels are the originals from my Dawes Galaxy, which were still fine. The rear dropout width on the Shayler was 123mm whilst the Galaxy rear was originally 126 so I machined some aluminium spacers and did some redishing which solved the problem. Hunting through my box of screw-on freewheels, I found a five-speed block. The largest sprocket was standard but because I like a very low bottom gear, I disassembled the 5-speed block and a 7-speed block and replaced the largest sprocket on the 5-speed with a 34-tooth sprocket from the 7-speed. Because the 7-speed was hyper glide, there were slight differences in the splines which I removed with a disc cutter.

I cleaned the frame of oil and grease and thoroughly masked it, screwing in sacrificial bottom bracket cups (with a machined internal spacer), sacrificial head set, stem sleeve and nut and 5mm screws in appropriate places (but they are 2BA! I now know), and then took it to Birmingham and had it blasted and powder coated in satin black.

http://www.bournespowdercoating.co.uk/

Putting it on the road, the wheels were done already. One complication was that the bike was built as a five-speed, with a braze-on on the right of the downtube for the rear derailleur.

Initially I had a home-made suicide shifter for the 50/34 double you can see in the first photograph, I had to reach down and operate the shifter by hand. Since then I have changed the front chainring twice, first with a triple and lately (17/07/10) with a 42/28 Stronglight Impact double. It's whatever I have in the garage at the time. To make shifting slightly safer I now use a spoke to pull and push directly onto the derailleur. There is no return spring and its position is maintained by friction (from the cable tie). It is kept in place with a guide I made from various bits.



Who is R. T. Shayler? I had never heard of him but some searching turned up this link:

http://www.beaconrcc.org.uk/open_races/lmtt/archive/mi_article.html

This is the only reference to bicycles produced by him that I can find. There is a Dick Shayler Trophy given by the Leamington C & A C.

The bike was given to a good friend Jason as a present in April 2011.
Its state at the time is shown in photo below. 32 mm tyres - there is loads of room for them with mudguard clearance and still there is no need for forming (indenting) the tubes to clear either the tyres or the chainset. Why can't you get frames like this today? Talking of chainsets there is a Stronglight 80 BCD double 48 / 32 with another version of a suicide shifter using a steel rod and some aerolastic. It works a treat! Also fitted a very light rack off a Bob Jackson tandem I owned briefly, and a plastic bottle cage.



(Carl Scheele discovered oxygen and I noted that his name has the same pronunciation. Perhaps the name Shayler has Swedish roots?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Wilhelm_Scheele)

05/07/14 Another RTS came up on ebay last week. It fetched a reasonable sum with a lot of interest which suggests some afficionados are out there.

17/09/17 Jason tired of the bike and asked did I want it back. Yes I did! It had had good use and showed some scars from this. I gutted it and started again, eventually I did it as a fixed gear using some components from the Archie Wilkinson which I retired in 2016. I have used it since, putting a few miles on the clock and it is a lovely ride, that Archie W frame was out of true and the tracking was off. Photos are in the updated album, one of the improvements I like is the bottle carriers, adapted with a sleeve to fit the stem instead of a seatpost. With winter approaching I will fit mudguards and lights. More later..

BTW since I first wrote this entry, I created a Flickr presence, the part that relates to this bicycle is here.

Update 2020 - I got it back from Jason, he had had some bother. I rebuilt it as fixed gear using the bits from the Archie Wilkinson. Rode it for a while, it's a nice ride but I sold this on ebay in 2019 for around £30. The buyer took the frame back to the chrome, changed it a bit and by accident I came across it and found he too sold it on ebay.

LIMITATIONS

The distinction between refurbishment and restoration was made clearly by the late great Sheldon Brown. http://sheldonbrown.com/upgrade.html


I do not restore bicycles for a number of reasons, there are some nitpicking bike snobs who manage to find fault with any bike they look at; it may be the finish, decals, incorrect diameter spokes or some imagined anchronism - and by doing what I do I create bikes which they consider beneath contempt.  I really don't care, people who know everything cannot learn anything.

I refurbish bicycles to create bikes that I want to ride, the sort of bikes the shops don't sell.  This hobby costs me money, I have yet to make a profit on anything.  It is something I do for fun.  Originality is an illusion; and soundbites have no depth.

The materials I work with are stuff that is cheap, currently out of fashion, second-hand, free or surplus to someone else's requirements. I have a lathe and a mill so sometimes I will make an item.

It is necessary to be brutal.  If I take a bike down to the tip, I probably rescued it from there in the first place.  It got some attention, TLC and miles.  Bikes are not alive but I give them life, perform transplants and sometimes find a caring home.  I can't afford to muck around with top-flight machines and so far no-one has been offended enough to say anything to me about what I have done.  Mostly people assume because I ride an old (dirty) bicycle that I am poor and the quality of some machines is utterly lost on them, because if it isn't shiny or new it's no good.  I don't tell the story of every bike I have owned.

I am under no obligation to restore lovingly to factory standard any bicycle I have.  Period-correct parts do not interest me, function is my watchword.  I reserve the right to give up on any project if I lose interest.  Now that ebay is charging 10% on postage more of my stuff will end up down the tip and Royal Mail will lose business to cheaper parcel delivery companies.

I also go back, edit and update entries.  If you have read an entry before it may have changed if ever you return to this blog.