Resurrecting my Yo!

sketchy

New member
Hey all, new to the forum but really digging it. I just started resurrecting my Yo Eddy I've had since I forget when. 91 or 92 maybe? It has the press in BB bearings and a completely rusted out seat tube. I plan on cutting out the BB shell, replacing it with a threaded BB, cutting off the seat tube above the rust and welding in a new section.

All I've done so far is strip the frame and fork. It's cool to see the bike without paint, because you can see stuff like the scribe line used to drill the water bottle bosses.

I have a couple of questions. Does anyone know the RAL number for the maroon Yo's came with? And also, one of my brake bosses is messed up and I would like to replace it with something like the original one. Any ideas on where to source one? I've never seen anything like them from the usual sources.

I will try and put up some photos of the rebuild as it happens.
 

fat-tony

Moderator
Staff member
Are you planning on doing the rework yourself? It sounds like it. If you sourced the rework out, I am sure that they have sources to find the brake boss. As far as the maroon color, do you have a fork painted that color so the painter could just match it?
 

sketchy

New member
I'm doing the work myself. I can put on any number of brake bosses, but I've never seen one that is similar to the one on my Yo. Maybe I just need to look around a bit more. As far as the color goes, I stripped the fork along with the frame. I was going to have it powder coated, not wet painted, because I have a buddy that does it who owes me money ;).
 

sketchy

New member
Got the BB cut out last night. Because my seatpost is also stuck and the rust has been trapped for years, I got to empty the entire rust load at once. There was a nice little pile.

Next up is cutting the seat tube above the rust and then putting it all back together.
 

sketchy

New member
Had some time today to work on the bike. got the seat post out, cleaned up the BB area and then welded in a new BB shell. The seat tube was so rusty I had to cut it above the water bottle bosses but I welded in a new piece there too. Just have to chase and face the BB, check the alignment and do a couple of small things then it's off to the powder coater.
 

sketchy

New member
Got the BB chased and faced and checked the alignment. Cleaned up the weld on the seat tube. Having trouble uploading my pics to Flickr though. New decals are on the way. Toughest part is going to be deciding what color to go with.
 

I-ROBOT

Active member
Just checked out your repair sequence and looks pretty good! What filler wire did you use to weld the BB and the replacement tube? Those brake mounts were made by Paragon Machine Works for us. The stud mount is threaded into the boss with an ACME thread and the spring retainer plate is stainless steel that is sandwiched under the stud. The studs are just plain carbon steel if I remember correctly. I may have a couple in my stash of parts someplace.
PM me with your shop location.
Thanks
Scott
 

vintagerider

New member
Wow!
Speaking as a new Member of this Forum..... All I have to say is your dedication to that frame is truly inspirational.
 

sketchy

New member
Scott-thanks for the offer but I got everything straightened out tonite. I used some sort of cromoly wire-80S maybe? Can't remember. Had a bit of trouble because I forgot the down tube is unvented, so when I went to weld the ST/DT it spat out at me. Drilled a small breather hole and everything was fine but the weld is ugly.

It's definitely worth the time and effort to fix this thing up. It was a revelation after riding crappy bikes for so long to jump on this thing. It sat in my Dad's basement for about 10 years after I discovered the crack, and then I couldn't find the fork. I was going to scrap the frame but when we were moving my Dad to assisted living, we were cleaning out his house and my brother walked by with a garbage can and the fork was sticking out! I grabbed it and the rest is history.
 

I-ROBOT

Active member
HI Sketchy

My Dad just moved to assisted living too. There are several wires in the E80 family. ER80S-B2 is a chrome-moly wire that is very close to the composition of 4130. Typically this wire is used when the weld is heat treated which our frames were not. The ER80S-D2 does not contain chromium and has better fracture toughness in the as-welded condition. I had the good fortune to meet Dennis Klingman a number of years ago at a Welding Society meeting. Dennis was the motorsports director for Lincoln Electric and he ran the welding garage at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Indy cars of the 70's and early 80's used 4130 in a number of places - especially the suspension pieces and he recommended the ER80S-D2 filler wire since it worked better for 4130 welds that were not heat treated. I'm sure the wire you used will be fine since the BB is not a really highly stressed area of the frame. Pedaling stresses are nowhere as high as the impact to the head tube since the head tube - down tube junction has such a sharp angle and the fork / wheel assembly makes a nice long lever to pry at the bottom of that joint. Most BB area failures are caused by corrosion and 4130 is very susceptible to stress-corrosion cracking.

Good luck with the rest of your restoration.
Scott
 

sketchy

New member
Scott,

What is my Yo Eddy made of? I assume the rear end is Dillsburgs finest, but what about the rest of the frame?

Also, can you tell me how the box crown forks were made? I would love to try my hand at making a replica. Thanks!
 

I-ROBOT

Active member
Scott,

What is my Yo Eddy made of? I assume the rear end is Dillsburgs finest, but what about the rest of the frame?

Also, can you tell me how the box crown forks were made? I would love to try my hand at making a replica. Thanks!

The Yo Eddy frames were constructed of all 4130. The down tube, top tube and seat tube are all custom drawn True Temper - either double or triple butted depending on the tube.
The 0.75 seat stays and chain stays are also TT - single butted - I believe 0.035 to 0.028 at the domes. The domed ends of the stays were hot-formed on our little doming machine and slotted to fit the dropouts. The bridge tubes are .625 x .028 aircraft 4130 from Dillsburg that were laser-mitered. The headtube is 1.375 x .035 aircraft tube with machined 4130 inserts that were welded to the tube at each end. The seat tube also had a welded insert and those were welded using a small turntable. Copper heatsinks were used in the head tube and seat tube to minimize distortion during welding and to prevent excessive burn-through which would eat reamers. The pizootie tab and seat tab were laser cut from 4130 sheet. The brake mounts (last edition) were machined by Paragon Machine Works and had replaceable studs and spring plates. The dropouts were usually plain carbon steel Shimano. If they came with eyelets, those were cut off. The downtube gussets were originally punched and folded from 4130 sheet but later ones were laser cut from 1.375 4130 tube and fit much better. Some people like the look of the creased gusset plates but I liked the laser cut ones better.
I used ER80S-D2 filler rod which is a manganese - molybdenum steel alloy for all 4130 welding.
The box crown forks were made from 1" square 4130 aircraft tube, with Tange Prestige fork blades, Columbus steerer tubes which were rifled on the inside, and Campy dropouts (which didn't always weld very nicely - they were made for brazing and I could not get their chemical composition but I guessed that the sulfur content was high because they tended to undercut even with the TIG welder). Later models had gussets welded into the insides of the fork legs because we had several fail where the fork blade joined the bottom of the crown. That was mitigated some on the Yo Eddy fork that had the crown tubes pointed down somewhat instead of making a right angle like the box crown does. The box crown was easier to build but the Yo fork performed better and most people liked the handling characteristics better.

That's the best I can you for now.
Scott
 

I-ROBOT

Active member
You guys seem to know how this site works better than I do. I'm just a welder (or used to be)
See if you can copy and paste it somewhere.

Maybe I can make a PDF of that with some illustrations for everyone.
Let me know.

Going to France on the 14th. Are there any Tour de France museums in Paris anywhere?
 

mainlyfats

Member
You guys seem to know how this site works better than I do. I'm just a welder (or used to be)
See if you can copy and paste it somewhere.

Maybe I can make a PDF of that with some illustrations for everyone.
Let me know.

Going to France on the 14th. Are there any Tour de France museums in Paris anywhere?

I don't know about the Tour, but next time I go Paris, I'm going to the Alex Singer shop.

http://www.cycles-alex-singer.fr/

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...48.894518,2.298203&spn=0.138589,0.385208&z=11
 
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