Ultima Yamaguchi Mixte

 

Hi

A few weeks ago, the bike shed where I volunteer was having a cleanout, and we removed many bikes from the shed. Some were to go to scrap, others to be fixed. Behind a lot of bikes was a mixte frame - I quite like these bikes and have documented fixing  them here and here. 

The frame had most of a headset but no fork, and the centre pull brake on the frame ended up not fitting on my rebuild with 700c wheels.  I grabbed the frame during the cleanout and have been fixing it off and on ever since. I managed to find one other Yamaguchi frame Mixte on the internet, here is the link. However the brand name Ultima seems to have disappeared without a trace. There is a Figtree Cycles sticker on the bike, and I found that Figtree is a suburb of Woollongong  - a large town on the New South Wales south coast.

To get a working fork, I needed to put in extra thread onto the silver fork I had - this was a first use for an oversize tap I bought a while ago and am happy with results. Another custom job was making a rack stay.

Looking on the internet, I found that Yamaguchi bikes are also branded "Record" in Australia.  I'm happy with the results here. The bike will probably be sold for Wecycle, and there's still a bit to do. This was fixing, not restoring - it's to be used and there's been no slavish devotion to using original parts. Hopefully soon it will be back on the road and in use soon. 

Regards

 

Steve Nurse 

CLWBFWD PART 3

Tubemitre profile stuck to steel tube.

 

Tubemitre marked up on fork extension piece. The black line is above the blue lines where I cut with a hacksaw.

 

 

Very temporary arrangement with the bottom bracket tube taped to the fork extension

2 views of the...

clamping before brazing which tries to get everything square.

Brazing done. The donor bikes mudguards can be seen in the background.

Frame without seat.

The first time I went further than round the block. When the power was out one morning I went to a local caf and also to the nearby church op shop.

The bike in current form. I'm currently overhauling the tailbox.

Hi

After some work, my compact longwheelbase, moving bottom bracket front wheel drive bike is now on the road. It works way better than the proof of concept bike I had several months ago, and I am (gingerly) using the bike for regular commuting and shopping and junk hauling tasks. Post test rides, I have changed the brake position and fitted a 180mm disc brake rotor.

 There's still a way to go with this. The fork is quite heavy, the bottom bracket looks slightly out of alignment and there's the occasional clunking, but overall I'm pleased. Will report more soon and get some better photos.