Victoria Bike Upgrade

Stopped work on this in 2019

Fork and front frame done, original paint on rear frame

The bent bolt in this pic had to be hacksawed so I could remove it to allow powder coating

 

Quite a lot of complicated sticky-outy bits needing paint removed using gunky, gooey paint stripper.

Hi

I'm pleased to announce that I'm cooperating on a bike project with Ben from Omnium Bikes. We are combining to make a raffle prize for the 2026 OzHPV Challenge (in Coleraine, Western Vic, October 31 to Nov 2, Cup day weekend)  where Omnium is sponsoring the Hill climb race.

The bike will be an updated (painted and better load carrying) version of the Mule train bike I described here back in 2019. I am doing the paint stripping (some of the grunt work on the rear frame is shown above) and load carrying updates, while Ben is arranging powder coating. Looking forward to the final results, this bike has never actually been finished off properly. It has a 2 speed kickback hub and back pedal brake, and separates into 2 parts so it's easy to transport.

Regards Steve Nurse

Graecross Jackaroo MTB

 

2 mystery bosses here closest to the seat. What do they do?

Hi

Last week I was at a tip shop and as well as dropping off stuff, just could not help myself and bought a bicycle for the grand sum of $10. It is a vintage mountain bike, and they are popular in the city of Melbourne these days - even one that's tidied up still costs less than a new bike, and they can be quite stylish with interesting parts.

This one worked fine straight from the shop - I needed to pump up the tyres but there was a slow leak in the back.  Anyway, I thought I'd post a few "before" pics to show its original state. I had no luck cleaning rust from the handlebars, and a handlebar swap is all I've done except buy new tyres and tubes at more than 10 times the cost of the whole bike!

There is a police identification number written enthusiastically into the stem, frame, seatpost and cranks, and this is an Aussie made bike: with a name like Jackaroo how could it not be?

A few others have found it worthwhile mentioning Graecrosses including https://mtbtimeline.com/wiki/grae/start which seems to list almost every early mountainbike brand. "A New Recyclist" talks about fixing up a Graecross racing bike here, https://rustybikebell.wordpress.com/2014/01/20/a-garden-gate-graecross-the-pro-ten/ . A passing reference is made in Suzi's blog here https://www.suzyj.net/2014/02/ . I'd never come across this Australian blog before which is long running and seems to have morphed from making bicycles to coding and computers.

Anyway, the parts on this one seem to be very nice and durable. The covers on the shifters are missing, but what the heck, they still work! Will report more as things are cleaned and fixed up.

Painting Day

 

Hi

Today I have been painting bike bits in between other jobs. I started on this a few days ago and kept on with it today - it was 22C which is quite warm for early September here so I had every chance of finishing it well. To be quite thorough and add a bit of jazz, I've painted the bottom bracket adapters at the back. To finish things off over the next few days, I will use new 3d print material and heatshrink from Jaycar. Happy with the way things are going up to now. I put in a picture of the old bike and am currently making pretty much the same thing.

Back stopper clamped to frame - its about to be used as a drilling jig.

After drilling 

All the back detailing done in red including the top frame separators.... 

and the back stopper, wheel spacers and back plug. All completely unnecessary! But to do a good job you need to try as hard as you can.

Front stopper design just finished......

and now printing on my 3d printer.

 Update Sep 2. 2026 And here is today's bike work! I worked around emailing about tax returns, shopping at a supermarket, eating lunch at a caf, emailing an OzHPV challenge ad to a newspaper, putting out the rubbish and paper recycling and tree cuttings, painting a planter box in the front garden and having an afternoon grandpa nap. Actual bike work was modifying end stopper designs, printing and fitting end stoppers, refitting the painted bottom bracket parts, and swapping over black frame spacers for new red ones. Happy with progress.

 The bike is all painted now and I'm very happy with it. The last part to arrive was a wide bottom bracket bearing which replaced a spacer version I'd put together. During assembly I put heat shrink in 2 places on the cables to keep them altogether and slightly more aero. Its debut ride as a finished bike was over to my son's place only 2k away but no problems. Maybe a bit creaky, I'll try to tighten up all the bolts in the steering system. 

There's a lane nearby which provides a nice background  of corrugated iron, and I took a few shots there including selfies. The paint's already a bit damaged but I'll fix that as soon as I can. Now I've pumped up the tyres and can enjoy riding it.

Regards

Steve Nurse