devilinblack
10-26-06, 10:31 PM
As some of you may have noticed I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new (to me at least) road bike. Well, it finally arrived on Monday, but it arrived at the wrong apartment :eek: . I finally tracked it down and got to work putting it together and making sure everything was ok. It's an 88 and judging by the photo’s on ebay I wasn’t expecting it to be in great shape, but it was maybe a little more neglected than I’d have liked. It has more than it’s fair share of paint chips, the tires and tubes were dry rotted badly and it was rather filthy in general. I unboxed it, put it together and tried to pump up the tires to at least take it for a spin around the parking lot before starting to tear it down and replace the parts that needed it. The back tire blew out at about 60psi, loudly. I rode my commuter over to the LBS (Bike Land in Cypress) and started shopping for parts.
Well, at this point I’ve got it rideable but I’ll obviously continue to work on it. So far I’ve replaced the spokes and nipples (corroded and unable to true the wheels), the tires and tubes, shifter cables, brake cables, cleaned and repacked the bottom bracket and headset bearings, re-wrapped the bars (in vintage yellow Benotto Cello Tape) and gave the whole frame a good cleaning. I need some new pulleys for the rear derailleur and apparently Suntour used a size incompatible with Shimano (or anything modern) but after digging through the bin at the LBS I’ve got a pair that are ok for now and I won a pair of Bullseye’s on ebay that should work much better.
I took it for a spin around the neighborhood and it seems to ride very nice, but I think I’ll be replacing the bottom bracket sooner rather than later. Tomorrow I’m planning on throwing on my SPD pedals and taking it for a longer spin. Hopefully it will hold together. It’s very strange being on a roadie again after all these years, but also very nice. Hopefully I'll be joining you guys on some rides shortly.
Here’s a photo of it now that it’s done, and there are more here. (http://www.socalnets.com/CannondaleBlackLightning/)
http://www.socalnets.com/CannondaleBlackLightning/complete2.jpg
Well, at this point I’ve got it rideable but I’ll obviously continue to work on it. So far I’ve replaced the spokes and nipples (corroded and unable to true the wheels), the tires and tubes, shifter cables, brake cables, cleaned and repacked the bottom bracket and headset bearings, re-wrapped the bars (in vintage yellow Benotto Cello Tape) and gave the whole frame a good cleaning. I need some new pulleys for the rear derailleur and apparently Suntour used a size incompatible with Shimano (or anything modern) but after digging through the bin at the LBS I’ve got a pair that are ok for now and I won a pair of Bullseye’s on ebay that should work much better.
I took it for a spin around the neighborhood and it seems to ride very nice, but I think I’ll be replacing the bottom bracket sooner rather than later. Tomorrow I’m planning on throwing on my SPD pedals and taking it for a longer spin. Hopefully it will hold together. It’s very strange being on a roadie again after all these years, but also very nice. Hopefully I'll be joining you guys on some rides shortly.
Here’s a photo of it now that it’s done, and there are more here. (http://www.socalnets.com/CannondaleBlackLightning/)
http://www.socalnets.com/CannondaleBlackLightning/complete2.jpg