3alarmer 

...one other thing that occurred to me.

If you want to ride this but are uncertain of the BB maintenance and lubrication history,
it's not unheard of to simply drip some relatively viscous oil in the BB bearings by sliding
it in past the crank spindle, with the cranks in place. You can usually get by for a couple
of months at a time using this method. Use 40 weight or Phil's tenacious oil or similar.

Clean everything off the exterior when finished with solvent or citrus cleaner.

Badge

Wrapped some new red tape over the residue glue and it worked just fine! I stopped at a lbs free cycles and they were really excited about the bike and are going to help me get it back to great riding shape . They gave me two 700 X 23 120psi slicks. Is it okay to run these at just a 100? Should it be any problems with my older rims at higher pressure? They are clincher, and my rims are aluminum super champion, possibly original (1972-3). They cracked my freewheel loose, so re packed both campy hubs today.

gaucho777 

Just make sure that you aren't using folding tires with unhooked rims, or you risk the chance the tires will blow off the rim (usually at an inopportune time). 23mm @ 100psi sounds about right or near the tire's limit. Check the sidewalls for a psi rating as it varies from tire to tire.

bikerosity57

I know that's your bike and all, but PLEASE don't turn it into a god forsaken fixed gear!!
It's getting rare to see a decent Stella in good original shape.

rootboy 

Some of those old Super Champions were hooked, and some not. I have one of each. Just check the inside of the rim sidewall and see. In any case, 120 psi is probably the max rating. Lower is OK, but be careful with any non-hooked rim, as Gaucho said. Are they wire bead tires, or other?

Badge

What do I look for on inner rim wall to determine whether they are hooked or not? I wasn't paying too much attention when I put the tires on but I will check whether they are wire bead or foldable when I get home this evening.

jimmuller 

On a non-hooked-bead rim the inside edge of the rim will simply be flat. On a hooked-bead rim the inside edge will have a lip sticking inward all along the outermost circumference.

A folding tire has a Kevlar (or similar) chord instead of a wire in the bead where it seats against the rim. They are significantly stiffer, hence can't be folded. A folding tire often comes from the shop in a small box, all folded up into a small package.

Badge

Okay, so it appears that the wheels are not hooked. Also, my front tire is folding(kevlar bead) , and rear has a steel bead.. Would I be safer to look into a front tire with a steel, bead as well? I just got these tires for free, and they seem to have a fair amount of life left. Can a folding tire easily blow off an unhooked rim or is this a rare event??

For now I have to ride my mountain bike anyways a its been snowing every day and then roads are a bit icy.

jimmuller 

A wire-bead tire can blow off a non-hooked-bead rim if it is inflated high enough. I had that happen on a bike that was just sitting in my back yard.

In the old days good vs. better tires meant 60 vs. 70psi. Then they started making 90psi tires, 28mm. I ran those for years on old rims. Now they are listed as max pressure 115 to 120 for 25mm tires. These are what can blow off, in my experience. Of course we didn't have folding tires at all back then. If you run your tires lower, maybe 85 or less, you maybe okay. Be aware that heat makes the pressure go up. Also lower pressure raises the risk of snake-bite punctures.

In the log run you should just pick up another tire, and in the longer run consider different rims which let you run whatever you want.

dddd

Certainly in most cases the bottom bracket bearings can be lubed from the outside, allowing some thick oil to drip in, down along the spindle with the bike laying down on the side.
That should be good for at least a thousand miles or a year of use in decent weather conditions.
***EDIT: I see that 3alarmer beat me to this suggestion! I also use Phil oil, but in cold weather it flows most slowly!***

So I would leave the cotter crank alone for now, it was installed correctly at the factory in almost every case I can think of.

So likely a 1971 or '72 Stella, a nice find.
Likely the Suntour derailer replaced a Campagnolo Valentino derailer, which would be for the (much) better.
Campagnolo's Valentino rear derailers were good in name only, were somewhat of a disgrace to the brand.

Tire pressure should be based proportionally on rider weight.
For my 150lbs I run a 700x23 tire at mid-90's pressure.

Festvangelist

I bought a Stella in Madison, WI. early 70’s. The bike store was owned by Bevil Hogg and Richard Burke both young men at the time.
The frame was a Reynolds double butted tube and had some nice detail with impeccable welding. As the story goes the Stella Factory ( France) burned down and the two men wanted to get out of distribution and start manufacturing. They did just that in 1975 and started a bicycle manufacturing operation in Waterloo, WI... You may have heard of it TREK.

MarkoPalo

It's been about 6 years since you posted this, so not sure you even still have the bike. But I bought the exact same Stella brand new in '72 or '73 in Sacramento California. It came with sew up tires that were glued to the rims, which I didn't want to hassle with, so I changed them out to 700c tires. Other than that, the bike was equipped the same as yours, except mine had a smooth saddle that I think was a plastic. I had the bike for about 7 years and rode it through college at UCSB. When I was 24 the bike was stolen from my garage in Sacto. Years later I saw a girl outside a convenience store sitting next to it. I told her it was my bike and she denied it saying that she had owned it for 3 years. Which was when mine was stolen. I described to her a scratch on the side of the seat facing the ground that I couldn't see. So she knew then that it was my bike. But said, I'm not giving you this bike. If I had tried to go into the store to call the police (pre-cell phones) she would have been gone. I decided to just let it go since she seemed to love the bike and was taking good care of it. But not trying to get it back has been a regret in my life and I've seen only a handful of Stella's since then, and never one as nice as the model I had. Thanks for posting your pics. It was wonderful to see again what mine looked like. BTW, I still ride old lugged bikes and still love riding.

motogeek 

In 1975 I moved to Normal, IL to return to college at Ill. State after several years in the military. There was a new bike shop opening up downtown called Vitesse. I became friends with the manager, Ray Keener, a 6'7" hippie-type who I think may still be in the bike industry. They were in cahoots with Yellow Jersey in Madison, WI and sold Stella bikes. I bought a pearlescent light blue SX73 from them for my wife and talked another of my friends into buying one also. After about a year or so they stopped selling Stellas and branched off to Sekai and and then became one of the early carriers of Trek. I frequently heard Ray mention Bevil Hogg's name (how can you forget a name like Bevil Hogg?), so I actually became aware of Trek before they hit the market. FYI, there is another thread on this forum about Stella bikes you might want to look up.

oneclick 

Wire-bead tyres can be folded, sort-of. You grab across the diameter, one side each hand, and bring your hands together and then across each other. The tyre will then be a sort of double figure-of-eight and you can make it into three overlapping loops. A toe-clip strap will hold it together.

This is a good trick to know if you are touring and taking spare tyres with you - they'll fit in a decent size pannier; if not, you can tie it on the outside.