Tag Archives: Eastern Woods Research - Page 2

EWR Project – Phase Four

Posted by on 21/09/2009 No comments

Sorry for the lack of recent updates, have been busy and got a little sidetracked on riding bikes instead of building them

I’m still on the hunt for some NOS Mavic 231’s to lace to the NOS DX hubs I have in transit but in the meantime I’ve switched back to the Campy rims I was playing around with before. They were drilled for Presta but a little encouragement with an 8.5mm drill and now they fit my stash of Schrader tubes.

The idea with this stage of the build is primarily to find out where the bottom bracket height is as I want to re-create the exact ride experience the bike was designed for. As a result of this I have grabbed the first pair of tires that came to hand that are going to be similar in height to the end product. I don’t think it’s quite where it needs to be as it currently measures 12.5″ to center of BB axle and I think the measurement should be to the base of the shell (I’m just checking this out with Kenn and Jay from EWR). I figured I would be about 20-25mm out with these forks anyway so it’s no real surprise.

This is the first time I’ve been able to throw my leg over this bike since I bought it and its great to have gotten this far. I’m part way through setting up the brakes and next on the list after that is fitting the gear cables and chain and taking her out for a test ride

It’s bike shaped Jim, but not as we know it

The sun sets over my yard….my OWB basks for the first time 🙂

EWR Project – Phase Three and a half :-)

Posted by on 09/09/2009 2 comments

Not much to report today, ran into several problems that I need to resolve before I go any further

The tyres I had down for this are too big (certainly for the back anyway).
I bought some Mavic/DX wheels from RetroBike and when I fitted them they were very badly out of true .
So I tried a spare set of Campy/LX rims I had stashed in my shed but these were Presta drilled and all my tubes are Schrader .
Also my rear hydraulic hose is about three inches too short so I’ll have to make up some fresh hoseline and bleed the rear brakes.

All this is a drag because I was planning to take it for a test ride this Thursday in my local forest……..you don’t mind while I scream a bit do you?

I’m off to find some Zen like calm (and some more bike parts…..)

My big steel pig is putting on weight…

But doesn’t she look cool…?

NOS DX Thumbies and Magura ‘Tomac’

Overcrowded looking Answer Accu Trax

EWR Project – Phase Three

Posted by on 08/09/2009 1 comment

Finally after a few quiet weeks some progress with the EWR Project

The temporary Accu-Trax are now fitted and I want to see where the Bottom Bracket height ends up once it gets some wheels on, then take it for some test rides and see how it handles. The steerer has intentionally been left long for now so I can try out a few different stems and bar height combinations, then I will cut it again when I have picked a stem/bar height. Apologies for the poor pictures, I was losing light rapidly, wanted to avoid using the flash and the camera produces poor pix when you turn it off

Steerer/spacer mock up prior to trimming the steerer

Saw guide time!!

‘Test’ stem configuration (lots more to be cut, don’t worry!!)

Handlebars…..finally !!

 

EWR Project – Answer Accu Trax Re-wired…

Posted by on 07/09/2009 No comments

If you’ve been following this you will recall I wanted to use an Answer Accu-Trax fork on this build. I wanted a rigid EWR and I believe this fork suits the frame well as it has nice chunky legs and is made of the same 4130 Cromoly as the frame, another thing I dig about Accu Trax is having the offset in the dropout as it gives a nicer ‘straight’ look to the forks, as opposed to the alternative which was a Kona Project 2 which have the offset at the crown.

I picked these up from the USA via eBay and got them for a great price as they are 1″. Also they were threaded so I had a bunch of work to do getting these converted to threadless (see HERE FOR DETAILS) . The whole thing is a temporary fix cos the EWR is 1 1/8″ and is suspension corrected so these 390mm forks might drop the front end too much.

Long term I will get the geometry/BB height 100% with a cunning plan….

I got a fellow RetroBike member to strip and repaint them yellow so they matched the frame better, I didn’t leave the frame with him so all he had as a reference was a tiny chip of paint. The result, plus some repro decals is ok for me and when I go for the permanent solution I will leave him the frame so the next set of forks can be matched 100%.

Some progress shots of the work:

Back from Dave Yates Cycles with ahead steerer conversion

Sandblasted ready for repaint

First coat of yellow over white base coat

Finished article with repro decals

EWR Project – Phase One…Remixed with Bonus Tracks

Posted by on 21/08/2009 3 comments

A Groundog Day update, didn’t I just do all this shit a week ago?

EWR Project – Yard Trauma Compact vs. Standard paranoia story (see below) now put to bed
A quick switch to a 122mm BB cured all the woes. Everything from Phase One has been stripped, replaced and rebuilt, nice clearance now on the chain rings…..my Q Factor looks ok so I won’t end up walking like John Wayne and pedalling like a duck on valium…… The Magura spares I was short on last week arrived in the mail so the rear is complete and the front set are prepped and ready. A sweet Chris King ‘Classic’ headset has just been freshly pressed in and the elusive cable-stop-widget-thing has been attached to the Front Mech so I don’t lose it…..

No chainstay on the breakfast menu today


Fit-Kit graduation….My Q-Factor is ok, is yours? (Macro shot disaster…)



Mmmmmmm Chris King


Jay DeJesus killed my downtube…(I’ll forgive him)


Magura’s with new Cool Stop pads

More Magura

Even more Magura (fronts ready for forks)

EWR Project – From the horses mouth

Posted by on 11/08/2009 No comments

Cussing and critique-ing the EWR ‘Cable-stop-noodle-widget-thing’ and then inviting the EWR boys to look at my Blog was probably not a smart move but as a result I now have the answer from Kenn at EWR himself….and it makes perfect sense

from    Kenn <*****@*****.com>
to    ********<*******@*****l.com>
date    11 August 2009 17:33
subject    Re: Watch this (EWR) space….

Hi ****,
That is really cool!  You know, I had totally forgotten about the
cable stop thing-a-ma-bob for that generation of frames!  Glad you
found one though.  We used that thingy because we didn’t want to run
the cables underneath the bottom bracket.  There were two reasons for
this:
1. We do a lot of winter riding here in PA, and that obviously
means snow and ice.  Bikes of that era that the cabling went under the
BB were prone to having the cables freeze.  Not a lot of fun
2. We were trials riders and bashed the hell out of our BB’s with
rocks and they would have certainly been smashed at some point or
another.

 

Keep at it, I really like the follow along.
Kenn
Kenn Rymdeko
EWR Bikes, LLC
610.659.4430
www.ewrbikes.com

Keep coming back Jay and Kenn….any progress will get revealed here…

Here endeth the search…..eureka moment!!

Posted by on 04/08/2009 No comments

Sometimes the smallest things are the biggest pain in the ass and this is no exception. For reasons best kept to themselves (and not fully understood by this poster) EWR omitted a downtube cable stop on the Original Woods Bike and opted for this weird little widget instead to get a Bottom Pull front mech working as if it were a Top Pull .

Anyways, I didn’t have one and have been trawling the Net trying to find one for the last two months…..well I struck double lucky in that not only did I find one but it was THE widget that was originally attached to the yellow beast below and came as a Karma Present

This does mean I guess that something yellow, heavy and steel might now be unleashed on the world.

Pennsylvania Steel – Eastern Woods Research

Posted by on 10/07/2009 No comments

I have a big bunch of bike projects and I’m slow at building them, something I get ridiculed about at RetroBike .

To make things worse I recently picked up my ‘Dream Bike’ a 1994 Eastern Woods Research – Original Woods Bike.

The EWR has now pushed itself to the front of the queue and is consuming most of my spare time hunting down parts.

This is the bare frame…..watch this space for updates.