Dang Girl, You Made That?

Remember how in my last post I hinted about a lot of cool stuff happening with the bike? Well, I'll let you in on a secret, Gretta is home. I'm playing catch up. I hadn't really had time to blog about everything as it happened, but I'm so proud of the different steps of the process and the things that I learned during them so they're being included in this blog.

I know in the last post I had told you guys I had become a fabricator, and this entry is dedicated to me fabricating a part for Gretta. Gretta has coaster brakes and if you guys haven't seen coaster brakes before there's a little tab that sticks out to connect the brake hub to the bike. Once G knew that we were dealing with coaster brakes, he told me we'd have to find a way to connect it to the frame. Luckily, my wonderful boyfriend knows how to fabricate parts and suggested we fabricate our own piece. So that's what we did. In the process, I learned how to use a lot of different tools. I wish we had gotten pictures of me using these tools because I feel like most people won't believe me when I say I used them. But I did. So there!

First we had to measure around the back spoke to see how long of a piece of sheet metal we were going to need. Once we had done that we marked it and headed to the band saw. I was actually quite frightened to be using this little guy. He's intimidating. G soothed my nerves and helped me set it up. Next thing I knew we had a rectangular piece to work with. Following this we needed to create rounded edges. G helped me mark them up, and we went over to the belt sander. If I was frightened to use the band saw, I had no desire to be any where near the belt sander. When we started to get ready to use it, G noticed we needed to change the sand paper belt that was on it. The second he turned on the machine to position the belt it started tearing pieces off. I might have squeaked,but if I did I don't think G heard me. Using the belt sander was interesting, it required a certain amount of pressure and the right movement to get the edges nice and smooth. I got the different edges rounded, but G had to do the final touches because let's face it, I can only do so much.

Once we finished with the belt sander, I got to use a drill press. G figured out the positioning and the diameter of the holes, and we got down to it. Frankly, the drill press didn't freak me out at all. It wasn't buzzing and darting back and forth like the band saw. It wasn't ripping sheets of sand paper apart. Once we drilled the two holes I got to use my favorite machine ever-the sand blaster. Remember in the beginning how I used the sand blaster A LOT to take paint off of Gretta's different parts. Well, I got reaaal good at it. Okay maybe not at professional standards but at my "I've never used tools for real before" standards. I got to sand blast the part, and then it was time to bend it. G started out by bending the piece by hand, but that could only do so much. It took the power of the vice to bend it the rest of the way.

After we got it bent in the right position we hooked it up on Gretta. Here's the part where you guys get a picture. If you've read all this so far, High Five! If you haven't, I totally understand.

Dang guys, all that work for that tiny little part. I'm super proud of it though. Gretta totally needed it to be able to ride and brake properly!

On that same day, I got a surprise from G's dad. Remember those garages filled with magical items, G's dad had one of my dream items just laying around. A Schwinn bell! That's right people, a bell. I had told you all that it was on my list of eventual parts to get, and I was super excited to be given one. G's dad even had another one which G might put on his bike if we go about building him a bike.

Gretta just looks even happier with a bell on her. In case you were wondering what the bell sounds like, check out the video above.

The next entry is going to be awesome. You guys, I'm so excited to share the final product with all of you. It's been a long process, but it was totally worth it. Until then, keep the bike ridin'.

I swear I have a bike

So, it's been a while readers. I have no excuse except for being down with school and having no desire to do anything really. You know, besides try to finish my bike, cook, bake, and make stuff. I owe you guys an entry about putting together most of my bike. I do believe in April, towards the end, G and I took a Saturday to put together most of Gretta. You know, everything that I had right then.

If you remember Gretta was in a bunch of pieces at this point. The last thing we had really done was get the lady painted, find a donor bike, and start the process of finding stuff for Gretta. Well in one day we got Gretta looking GOOOD. I'm really excited to share with you guys the stuff that we did.

When we got to G's that day my chubby handle bar grips were there. Yeah. That's right they're called Chubbies.

We started out the work day by taking the donor bike apart. I got the donor bike to get the braking hub and white wall tires primarily. We took the tires off of the donor bike and learned that we were going to need to switch the wheel on the front tire. The hub it was on was too large to fit in the front. Gretta is a petite little lady. Luckily in the magic garage of everything that G's dad has collected for YEARS we found another wheel that had the same number of spokes that had originally been in the front of Gretta. We needed to take that tire off, however, because it was an ugly mountain bike tire. Nothing against mountain bikes, it just didn't gel with my aesthetics for Gretta. The whole process of switching tires was interesting. I'm glad G was there to help me along and make sure I didn't kill the tire. If you've never had to do this, it's a fun process. Trust me. First we had to deflate the tire and then get it off the original wheel. This took a combination of me holding the wheel, G pulling on the tire, and me handing him a screwdriver to get the tire off the wheel in tricky spots. Basically G did most of the work. After we got it off the original wheel, we placed it on the new wheel and pumped that tire up! It was a good thing we switched out the wheels because the new one has a front release which will come in handy when we have to transport Gretta.

After we took care of the tire, I got to get my hands DIRTY. The bushings from my bike were 34 years old and frankly needed a little grease to get them back and running. G let me have fun with this, and I got to great up two different sets of bushings for the steering column and of course in the pedal area.

See, my hands got gross. It was awesome.
After we got those greased up properly we started putting everything together.

 Handle Bars on...looking gooood.

 We decided to go ahead and put the chubbies on Gretta because she looked a little naked. I think she looks awesome :)

The white walls are definitely a nice touch to the overall aesthetic of the bike. Gretta definitely needed white walls.

Everything went smoothly until we went to install the pedals. Apparently somebody had tried to put the wrong pedal in one of the holes and had messed up some of the threads. G had to take out about a 1/8 inch of threads to get the pedal in. Thank goodness. We really didn't want to have to search out some new pedals. Our list of things to get was already long enough.

One of the other things we had to do with Gretta was pretty awesome because I got to become a fabricator. Well at least 75% of a fabricator. I still have some work to do to get all the way there. Check out the next post where you'll get a laugh out of me trying to use tools and get to share in the excitement of us finding some parts...even if they weren't necessary parts. Until then, keep the bike ridin'