CannedPakes

ew

Murray Missile 

Thank you, you see before you the end result of 3 SOS pads, a half gallon of Zep Fast 505 cleaner and 10 sore fingers, it was pretty sad but there were signs that it might clean up nicely. That is the original handlebar tape and there isn't a mark on it anywhere, it is literally perfect. I wanted the Randonneur bars for another bike but I just couldn't bring myself to disturb the bar tape, that's when I decided to save the whole bike. I love that Pearl Blue, I have an '83 Super Sport frame in need of paint and I think that would be a great color for it.

cb400bill

Why no rear brake?

CannedPakes

I was having trouble getting them setup right, so I got angry and took them off one night. That's why I've decided to stop working on my bike when I'm tired. Luckily I labeled all the parts in ziploc bags.

cb400bill

Good idea. I do suggest you put that rear brake back on though. If you are still having set up issues, please ask for help in here or in our Bicycle Mechanics forum.

wrk101

This is a Lotus mixte I picked up two weeks ago. Unusual, as the frame is an 18 inch. All of the mixtes I have ever found were either 19 inch or 21 inch. I picked this up with a group of bikes from a local DKO flipper.

Great example of what NOT to pick up. Even if this bike was free, the list of parts replaced was enormous. I know better..... But I do have a soft spot for vintage Lotus bikes.


Before:





After:


This one hit my parts bin HARD.

Unusual as it has six speed INDEXED stem shifters (one of the few parts I was able to save).

Kactus

My grail bike. 1971 Schwinn Paramount P-13 in Kool Lemon.

Before

After

richardalan

That paint sure held on. Beautiful turn around ^

mountaindave 

What did you use for cranks, @wrk101? Very nice save!

thenomad

Another one run through my workshop this week.
Trek 500 with 30 years of grime and a bit of wear.
Completely cleaned and boeshield the frame but didn't try to address any of the paint's "patina".
Details on my blog: ridesgoneby.blogspot.com
Before:


After a complete teardown deep clean and rebuild: new wheels, bartape, seatpost, pedals (flat pedals not shown), aero brakes, cables, chain.

Murray Missile 

Bought this '83 Espree last year and decided it was overdue for some updating. Wider 23.8 aluminum bars off an old Shogun 500, new bar tape, a Mirrycle brake mount mirror, SR Laprade fluted seatpost from the Shogun, DT shifters, Kool Stop Continental brake pads, new cables and a decent saddle. Unfortunately the cool old Fujita Belt saddle was shot so I replaced it with a lightly used Terry Liberator I had laying around.

Here it is when I brought it home last year.






Here's the "after" shot from this afternoon.

mountaindave 

Aha! So that's what the little piece of black plastic was on the brake lever of my last parts bike acquisition!! The stub of a broken-off mirror. You learn something new every day.

Nice save, too.

oddjob2

Whitewalls and Northroads bars, what an original idea! . Where are the white grips? Looks great Bill. That was indeed a rusty one to start with.

browngw 

The white grips are on this Nishiki International touring that was purchased new by the owner but has sat unused for a long time. A friend of Mrs browngw, she recently asked if there was any to rebuild her old bike as a hybrid, on a strict budget of course. Using parts bin items and lots of touchup paint it came out nicely and is lightweight and a pleasure to ride. She just loves the new life given to her old bike.

Before



After

Murray Missile 

Thanks, I originally intended to keep it all original but I paid WAY too much for it initially and it finally sunk in that it would never be worth what I had in it already, original or not. I figured I may as well make it more fun to ride and it was already fun. I'm not done but most changes after this will probably be subtle. I'll probably ditch the reflectors and change the pedals but I'm keeping the dork disc. My wife says I'm a big dork so it's only appropriate.

juvela

not me project, but this fellow certainly made an interesting job of his Giuseppe Bianchi restoration -


Bici sport Giuseppe Bianchi Firenze - Le bici di Ema

[Giuseppe Bianchi is a retail shop in Firenze so their eponymous machines likely represent contract builds.]

Soody

I think i could just sit here, starve, and then eventually die, gazing at this king of bikes.

Steve Whitlatch 

She is a real beauty! As fun to ride as they are to just look at while drinking your morning coffee. Well for me anyway.

mountaindave 

1985 Nashbar Sport EX as found:


Freshened up:


Yes, I replaced the original 600 non-aero brake levers with aero levers and in-line brakes but there was a rationale: the levers are 600 tricolor (same family, just a bit newer) and the in-line levers are Nashbar (to match the Nashbar bike). It's for the upcoming Cino and the girl I'm loaning to is very happy about the in-lines and bomb-proof Vittoria Randonneur Cross tires for gravely descents.

Other than that, just expanded the cassette to 14-28 7, went as low as you can go with a 38t chainring, replaced the expendable stuff like cables/housing, swapped in Shimano SPD/platform pedals from the Box-O-Crap and a Terry saddle. Oh, and I now Fizik bar tape.

Pemetic2006

I just checked out the Cino website; looks like fun. My wife and I just spent 4 days in Bozeman, MT after being in Yellowstone for 5 days. Good times. I've been to MT many times and it is a beautiful state with amazing outdoor opportunities.
Cheers.

PaintItCeleste

I could look at this thread all day. My two recent projects weren't garage heaps when I found them or anything. The Centurion was in need of some real TLC, but the Miyata was remade simply because "we have the technology".

1986 Centurion Ironman Master
Before. Sorry, all I've got is the seller's original pic. Classic non-drive side shot:



After. I have since found a replacement set of the 105 (5500) plastic caps for the brifters:



1985 Miyata 210
For the wife.

Before:



After:

MauriceMoss

Great looking bikes! I really like what you did with the Miyata. Are those Soma C-lines?

PaintItCeleste

They are Soma New Xpress KV. Funny, I hadn't even heard of the C-Line tires, but I just looked them up and they are nearly identical. Soma's website states the difference is that the New Xpress tires have Soma's "HyperTex Casing" which they describe as:

"Tough like Kevlar, but more supple so it won't ride like a brick. Cut resistant and pinch flat resistant."

So HEY, I learned something new today! Beautiful tires and while we've not had a lot of time with them yet, they've been awesome thus far. Also, love the username!

ratfink76

I got an old Azuki 3 speed in a lot of bikes I bought and I converted it to a single speed with a Seminoles theme for a friend:

greg3rd48 

@ratfink76 That is very unique! Was your friend surprised? Really cool transformation.