I took off work a couple of hours early and rushed home to work on my Takara touring bike. I need to swap out the original cantilever brakes for a modern set with lots of height adjustment. I'm going to convert this bike from the old school 27" wheels to 700c. You just can't find a 27" tire wider than 32mm. As usual it didn't take long before I ran across some problems.
The front brakes fit just fine with no problems but I came across an issue with the rear brakes.
The little spring pins on the back of the brakes wouldn't reach the hole on either brake boss. A little work with the drill eventually solved the problem.
When I moved the cranks I noticed a fair amount of lateral play. I tried to adjust the bottom bracket with the cranks attached but it just wasn't working. I made the rash decision to remove the old style bottom bracket and replace it with a sealed unit. This annoying piece (whatever it's called) wouldn't come off. Of course the proper tools might have made things easier.
The combination of a humongous crescent wrench, spray lube, and brute force finally yielded success. Now I need to find a 127mm Shimano UN-72 sealed BB if I want to use the original crankset.
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Changing gears here:
I plan to replace some of my screen printing equipment over the next year. I really miss printing t shirts. I found this video over at the Northcoast Zeitgeist blog. What caught my attention was that this guy is buying white t shirts, which when you are buying bulk are significantly cheaper than colored shirts, and then dying them himself before printing. Labeling the shirts with an ink stamp is pretty cool.
