Vintage Regina freewheel removal tool

Posted on June 4, 2014 by vintagecrank

As you may have noticed, I collect a lot of Japanese bicycles. So, when it came time to remove the vintage Regina freewheel from the whee/Phil Wood hub that came on my 1975 Schwinn Paramount, my tool box came up blank. I didn’t have the correct freewheel removal too. What a bummer that was! Then, to test my patience just a bit more, my Amazon.com Prime membership also failed me, and it took the tool a week to get here.

I took a gamble on the tool, as my search of forums etc., didn’t come up with a definitive answer as to which freewheel removal tool I was going to need. That’s the reason for this post. So, hopefully this post will gain some traction in the search engines and you won’t have to search long to figure this out.

Voila!

I purchased the “Var Freewheel Remover For Old Type Cyclo And 4, 5 And 6 Speed Regina 2 Notch Freewheels” on Amazon.com. I know, based on the description it seems like an easy find…

1980 Fuji Feather Professional BMX – Part 4

Posted on October 24, 2012 by vintagecrank

It’s been a month since the last time I touched the 1980 Fuji Feather BMX bicycle. Today I had time to throw on some very sought after, black Mitsuboshi Silver star Competition II tires, a sleek Sugino SP-G1 BMX stem, Dia-compe 2-bolt seat clamp, black anodized aluminum seat post, black anodized aluminum handlebars and the very cool Fuji Seamless YFC saddle or seat as we call it in the BMX world. And let’s not forget the Black OGK Mach grips…

1980 Feather Professional BMX Part 3

Posted on September 29, 2012 by vintagecrank

The decision is made. I am going with the black Ukai rims and black Sunshine hubs.

1980 Feather Professional BMX Part 2

Posted on September 12, 2012 by vintagecrank

I’ve got the majority of the parts laid out with a few decisions to make along the way.

One of the very distinct parts on the Fuji Feather Professional BMX bikes is the Tange Meriter headset. These are semi-sealed and were a very high-end part in the mid and late 1970’s.

When acquiring a Tange Meriter headset one of the most often damaged parts is the top-nut. I must have 10 headsets and probably 5 good top-nuts, 2 bad top-nuts, and 1 unusable. If you ever find these top-nuts at a swap, buy them!

Another very distinct part to the Feather Professional BMX is the curved Ishiwata fork.

1980 Feather Professional Black

Posted on September 10, 2012 by vintagecrank

Today I begin bringing life back into this 1980 Feather Professional BMX. I will only be cleaning; there will be no resurfacing, repainting or even removing stickers on any parts.

Bar Keepers Friend really works!

Posted on April 17, 2012 by vintagecrank

I had heard about oxalic acid and its power to remove rust from bicycle as well as many metal parts. In my research I also found out the active ingredient in Bar Keepers Friend is oxalic acid. It just so happens that I had just received a rather rusty Fuji Feather Professional Ishiwata BMX fork and have a bottle of Bar Keepers Friend under the kitchen sink.

So, here’s what I did. I got a large plastic bin I had purchased at Costco some time ago. I put one cup of Bar Keepers Friend in the bin and then filled it with hot water until the fork was completely covered. I carried the bin outside to let it sit for a few hours. Before walking away, I couldn’t help but pull the fork out to see if any thing was happening. Sure enough, with the wipe of my finger rust was already coming off! I was looking forward to the result!

3 hours later I began to lightly scrub away the rust with a Scotch Brite blue non-scratch sponge. Below are the results.

Classic Fuji Bicycle Fork Rust Removal Bar Keepers Friend

After and Before

Classic Fuji Fork Rust Removal with Bar Keepers Friend

After/Before

Final Challenges on the 83 Fuji Cruiser

Posted on April 15, 2012 by vintagecrank

Spent a couple hours this morning on the 83 Fuji Cruiser. First challenge was the seat tube and chain guard decals. These were both removed from the bicycle at some point. I am trying to get the color as close as possible to the current decals, and this has proven to be a real pain and ink waister but, I’m very close now. I used Photoshop and Microsoft Word to create the decals and then manually cut them out with scissors.

I got the sticker paper from Onlinelabels.com; quality stuff. I am finding the OL177WI weatherproof gloss white paper to work the best. The OL177CK (or clear back) seems ok too. Either way, do not touch the printed part with your fingers regardless how long you let it dry; otherwise you will leave finger prints.

The decals I got from Velocals, while a quality print job, were way off in regards to color and the spread between the two vertical “Fuji” texts on the seat-tube decal is too narrow. So, when you wrap them on the seat-tube you can never line them up on each side. Keep in mind I’m trying not strip the current surviving decals even though the frame has many chips and scratches. A survivor is only a survivor once, right? If I did strip them, then I would repaint the frame and likely use the Velocals after requesting a re-size for the seat-tube decal. Then all the decals would match, but not be their original color.

Next, I got to work mounting the chain guard. I forgot I had yet to find a 40t chain wheel and the 44t on there made the chain guard a tad too small. Thankfully I had a 42t and I can make it work with a little tweaking of the mounting hardware. Once I find a 40t gold Sugino chain wheel it should be a perfect fit.

Chain guard for the 83 Fuji Cruiser

Posted on March 26, 2012 by vintagecrank

One of the missing parts on my 1983 Fuji Cruiser was the chain-guard. After a few trial and error purchases, I found a perfect fit it. Pictured below is a chain guard and mounting kit available on ebay for $17 plus shipping.

The chain guard on the 1983 cruiser was painted white on the front face. I taped off the face with some blue painters tape and used an exacto knife to cut around the curve. With a primer base and then a couple coats of gloss white you can create yourself a very nice replica. I also worked on recreating the “Cruiser” decal that would have been on there.

I then discovered that VeloCals had created an 83 Fuji Cruiser decal set. I’m a bit confused however regarding the standard and mixte option, as there was no mixte version of the cruiser. I have ordered but not yet received a set, so I’m yet to see how accurate the recreation is.

Vintage Crank

Vintage and classic bicycle collecting and more.. Questions, comments, appraisals; email creator@vintagecrank.com

Category Archives: Restoraton