Rehabing the Xtracycle donor (Lotus 3000M)

I decided a while ago that I wanted to build an Xtracycle. My plan is to use an old mountain bike that was collecting dust. Having stripped it down to the frame and collected some necessary parts, I just got started on the rebuild. Due to cash flow, the build will be slow, but I will post as I make progress.

One of the issues with the donor bike was the bearings. Both the headset and the bottom bracket had major issues. Trying to be frugal, I opted to keep the threaded fork and just replace the headset. I picked up a Shimano 105 headset from an online seller. Then I learned a bit about headsets. There are two different sizes of bottom race on a 1" fork, 26.4 and 27mm. As it turns out, the one I bought was smaller than my fork. Sooooo, I had the fork turned down to fit the race. Welllll, as it turns out, the the stack height difference between a large sealed bearing and a smaller loose bearing assembly makes a difference as well. Thankfully I live in a town rich with bike shop goodness. Kevin at River City finally set me straight. I have a new Tange headset that spins like a charm and I got to keep the fork (damn that fork).

If I had opted to update to a threadless fork, headset, and stem, I would have only been out a few more bucks and had a much nicer setup. Lesson learned.

That solved, I put it in the stand and filled 'er up with frame saver. (Hindsight: Using frame saver in my basement next to a gas water heater water heater was probably not the best idea...) Let it be known that frame saver is nasty. End of story.

Up next! Bottom bracket problems!