Okay, I guess it's time for a Big Update! I haven't had much time to work on the bike this week, so I spent some quality time with it yesterday. Good way to occupy a hot, boring Saturday, right? I decided to go ahead and re-assemble as much as I could, since I now have all the parts rounded up, cleaned, painted, and/or restored. Or do I?

I assembled the handlebars and attached the fork. Not much problem there. Greased up the bearings really well and everything seemed to go together without a hitch. Moved on to the crank. Here's where things got mysterious. I took lots of detailed pictures of the bike before and as I took it apart, so I'd know just how all the bits and bobs went back together again. My picture of the disassembled crank didn't match what I had laid out on my towel, parts-wise. Something was missing, Something important that would be MIGHTY hard to replace: the notched washer that goes into the center of the dust cap before the last nut screws on. Yikes. I searched everywhere, couldn't find it. I couldn't figure out how on earth I could have lost it, especially when I'd been so careful to take pictures of everything and put all the little parts in baggies with labels.

At that point, the garage was about 100 degrees and I was starting to get really frustrated, so I moved on to something I thought would be easy and would give me a good idea of what the bike would look like finished: I tried to attach the front wheel.

But the posts were too big for the slots on the fork.

And the tire was entirely too large for the width of the fork. It was impossible to jam up into the fork, regardless of the posts.

Perplexed, I slipped the rear wheel on the frame and it fit perfectly, plenty of tire clearance on either side between the tire and frame, the post wasn't too big.

Again, more mysteries. First of all, I don't know enough about old bikes to know whether or not the difference in post size between the front wheel and back is a common thing. I've never come across it before with the various bikes I've had throughout the years. The thing that really confounds me, though, is the tire not fitting into the fork. The original wheel and tire on the bike were the same size, a 26" wheel with a balloon cruiser tire. Granted, I noticed that the tire was jammed into the fender, but I blamed a bent fender on that. And again, I don't know enough to be sure, but shouldn't the width of the fork be similar to the width of the frame in the back so that one can use matching wheels and tires?

I suspect Dr. Frankenstein put this bike together. Doing a little more research, I believe this is what I'm working with here: a 1950's Rollfast frame, a 1960's or 70's Schwinn fork, a 1960's Rollfast chainguard, and mystery fenders (which I'm not using because they're too rusted through and bent after all). I think that fork is probably meant for 24" tires or thinner 26" tires and that someone just jammed that fatter tire in there and called it good. I'm amazed the previous owner rode the bike around like that. This is all just a guess on my part, of course. The reason I think the fork is a 70's Schwinn is because I went back and looked at pictures of a little 70's Schwinn 24" I fixed up last year and the style of fork and especially the chrome bits are exactly the same.

Anyway, after ranting and raving and having a small cow, I realised that the only way to fix this is to either go with smaller or thinner wheels and tires or get a new fork. I am choosing to look for a new/old fork because I WANT MY BEAUTIFUL GIANT WHITE TIRES, DAGNABBIT! (Not to mention that I can't afford to invest in another set of wheels and tires). It's actually for the best, though, because I discovered that the fork is a tiny bit bent and doesn't align perfectly when it's in the headtube, something I couldn't really see just eyeballing it. Randy noticed this problem before I did. I'm pretty sure I was delirious from the heat.

As for the missing washer, Randy found it in my coffee can of solvent where I'd been soaking small greasy bits. It's a good thing, too, because I think I would have totally flipped out and given up on this bike if I hadn't been able to find that part.

The good news is that the bike is really going to be beautiful. The white tires with the white frame and green and black accents are very striking. I also have some beautiful sparkly silver handgrips and flowing white streamers. And the orca whale squeaker horn, of course.

I'll be visiting the Recyclery this week, in search of a proper fork. This pushes back having an assembled bike a week or so yet again, but I still think I should have it all done by September.

Why do I have such a propensity for difficult projects? They seem to seek me out. Please wish me luck!!