raymond1354

Curious as to why? Is it because of possible distortion of the headtube? Thanks.

r

juvela

yes, indeedy do! have seen it happen.

btw - when using it on the fork crown race seat the better way is to employ a pointed punch to make dimples in the vertical face of the seat, evenly spaced all the way around. the parapets of the dimples have the effect in increasing the effective o.d. of the seat.

VintageRide

Bike now has a decent alloy frame pump and a Stronglight 49D crank arm installed on the left side. Hope to have the drive side together fairly soon but i do not mind riding it as is for now. I will be using T.A chain rings. By the way, anyone else have a frame with similar geometry? Seat tube 73.5 and head tube at 75 degrees - gives a trail number of 18mm and a wheel flop of 5 mm and does make it easy to keep a straight line though a bit light feeling it is pretty good overall, corners well enough and I can't help but think some weight up front might be a good thing so will be searching for those handlebar water bottle cages.

juvela

thanks so much for this update. she is coming along very nicely.

this has been a most enjoyable process to follow.

btw - have been meaning to mention that one item you may wish to keep an eye out for is a set of 240 course or 460d pedals with the letters p and l in the plates. these of course stand for pedales lyotard and were current back on the lady from nice's birth day.



thank you again for the update!

VintageRide

Juvela, you're quite welcome, and after showing me those Lyotard pedals I can just see myself trying to find a pair of 240 Courses since they are a bit wider, and I really like how the pedals look with the letters in them, wonder if they were available with English threaded as well? I was kind of hoping I could finally stop looking for components for the Urago and have it finished, especially since I have decided to take on that P. Peschi frame. It comes with older Normandy hubs with holes in them rather than slots.I know that they date from at least the '60's, also curious about dating the Mavic rims by the decal style. Not sure if they came with the Peschi originally and although I was thinking of going the clincher route it deserves tubulars. It should be a lot of fun bringing the frame back to it's former luster. I will update that thread as soon as I have the frame and some components. Since they are both from Nice and apparently have some connection with frame building for one or the other I should take some shots of them together, for now here are some from a seller in Edmonton, Alberta before he sold it to the person I am buying it from. It was brought from France originally and I do not think normally there was anyone importing them in to North America. Although it does not have an integrated derailleur hanger the dropouts look to be forged as opposed to stamped looking at the one closeup.

Salubrious

All Lyotards were available with English threads but they are a lot harder to find!

VintageRide

Good to know, and I should have realized they produced them in both versions. The harder to find part is what worries me!

juvela

the pedals were just a thought, not even a suggestion.

two small things you might think about in conjunction with the 49D set are to replace that bardon/rewax lockring with a stronglight one and to keep an eye out for a set of old pattern dustcaps. makes more sense to run them without caps than to use third generation ones.



look forward to following developments with the P. Peschi.

thanks for your response.

exmechanic89

Beautiful bike there OP, just gorgeous. I bet it rides really nice too. It's funny I've often tried to explain to people that a high quality bike will always ride well no matter how old - it doesnt just become a bad ride or junk because newer bikes have come out. It's why I ride older mountain bikes, I like chromo moly frames, and you can buy excellent older models for pennies on the dollar these days. In fact I plan on putting together a road bike soon too, and will go that same route I have in the past.

It's sad but in our throwaway society people think of bikes as being just like computers or phones - use 'em for a few years then toss them out for a new version.

juvela

thanks for gluing in les images VR!

this will be fun to follow. is what is shown in the pictures as much of the mount as you are getting?

while one usually thinks of Nice as a seaside resort town there is or was at least some manufacturing there. the espresso machine manufacturers Gaggia and FAEMA both had assembly facilities there for a time in the 1950's. the milder winters may have made it attractive to locate one's plant there rather than in a provence such as Picardie...

VintageRide

I have come to truly appreciate these older French bikes, though the same holds true for British and Italian, many have interesting and ornate lugs and I prefer the longer wheel bases that were the norm back then if only out of necessity . Took the Urago out for a ride today around 20 miles and stopped at one local bike shop where some employees were quite fascinated by the components in use back then.Being so used to wider tires of 35 - 42mm it is obviously a less forgiving ride with the 25mm tubulars but still, the Urago does surprise in being a pretty decent rider, and I find the stability and handling quite good. Very easy to keep riding at a good pace and climbs well, just, as I noted earlier, a tad light feeling in the steering but at the same time easy to hold a straight line. Basically it feels light and lively. I just need to change out those old brake pads as stopping requires some forethought and a bit more effort than my more modern bikes. It is unfortunate that more people do not appreciate how good a properly setup vintage bike can perform, guess that leaves more for us!

Juvela - the Peschi will have the wheels and hopefully a stem, handlebars, derailleurs and bottom bracket but I will need to source some components online, especially a seat and seat post. I have to go over a list with the person I am buying the frame from and see what he can include. I have a few more images from the ride, nothing you more or less have not seen before but it was a good ride, and I could not help notice some individuals out walking obviously were checking out the bike as something a bit different. First image is a shot of the Urago with that French icon of the bike boom years, a Peugeot U 08 ( rode one myself back in 1972 - 74 ). When you think about it the Urago was likely 20 years old or more when that Peugeot was sold and was already vintage.I need to get more inventive with taking pictures but these will have to do.

repechage

Like it very much. Concerned about the chain routing through the jockey cage though.
I want to see it the other way around.

VintageRide

But Monsieur, zat is the how it waz intended, in it's time it waz, how you say? Magnifique! Or words to that effect. It does limit the gearing options but I can live with it, I spin out easily enough with the 42T inner and a 14T rear but will get a bit more with a 46T outer once I find some of those TA chain rings. The 53T on there at the moment is useless and too much for this old guy anyway. A four tooth spread with a 42/46T front is about the limit with the chain wrap available. I realize many do it knowingly or not but I decided to keep it as designed, and it does shift quite nicely as a bonus.

CMAW 

Excellent! I might have a 49D DS crank with rings avalaible, let me know if you're interested.

KenNC

Very nice job, your patience is clearly paying dividends! A question: What type of frame pump is that? I have similar pump mounts on an early 70s Jeunet and the pump that came with the bike just doesn't seem to fit them correctly.

VintageRide

KenNC - I found this particular frame pump on Ebay, it was one of two being offered and was made by Velmos in Czechoslovakia. It is quite well made and was fortunate to have found it as these longer ( 20" ) pumps for hook style mounts are not very common. I do not know what happened to the other pump as it appeared to have never sold, it was most likely on consignment as that is part of what that particular ebay Seller does.

MZilliox

the build is coming along nicely, thanks for sharing.

SJX426 

Great bike and thread! Congrats on your efforts!

My interest in older bikes, older than 60's, is increasing with these very C&V threads. I will start looking for the older ones more carefully now. It also inspires me to do something with the 1972 Bottecchia Giro D'itlia hanging in the garage untouched since acquired. It too has the Nervar crank, which looks great cleaned up on the Urago! My concern is the 54 tooth large ring!

In 1963, my family moved to Japan where I purchased a 5 speed bike. It was my first derailleur bike and had a RD that looked much like the Simplex RD on the Urago. I realize it was a low end bike but it worked well for me. I used a drum brake with a leather strap around the drum on the ND side. Sometimes I wish I had not disposed of any of my bikes from my youth through today!

IIRC many European bikes of that vintage had the front brake controlled by the right lever. The CLB's even have the calipers oriented to support this configuration. Is you preference to configure the opposite for consistency?

I keep thinking of comments to add! I really like the combination of the new stem and the brake levers. They look like they were designed as a set!

VintageRide

SJX426, very glad to hear you have an interest as well in bikes from this period,and hopefully you will share with us some images of your Bottecchia, as they made some very nice looking bikes back then and earlier of course. You could get some different period correct Stronglight 49Ds for example which allow a much greater combination of chain rings so that the bike will be a more useful rider. I find a 48T is pretty well the maximum these days and tend to prefer a 46T. By the way, thank you for pointing out that interesting fact about the brake lever orientation, I set it up using the left lever for the front simply out of habit, I am now thinking about changing them around after you brought that up and making it more historically correct but with three other bikes ( and two more frames coming soon including the Peschi ) I might find myself forgetting and could run into some trouble one day if I forget they are reversed!

I also really like the design of those CLB one piece levers, and was also fortunate in finding that particular stem, still have not found any information on the manufacturer, DFV. I wish there were more builds going on here with older bikes such as this, they are all quite fascinating, especially if you manage to get some background on the bike's history.I would have liked to see what the Urago looked like originally but at least I am trying to be true to the period it was built in as I reasonably can, a little more difficult when on a tighter budget but worth it I think. If you have not perhaps you might want to try Ebay France as there are some good deals still to be had there on bike frames, although a complete bike would be most likely less expensive when considering the cost to build up a frame.

VintageRide

Just saw your Giro D'Italia on that dedicated Bottecchia thread and looking past the wear and tear it looks pretty good, I have always had a thing for chrome, so having the lugs, fork and stays treated with it is always nice to see. I tried finding out something about an all chromed frame I should be acquiring at the end of this month. It is a lower end Italian make from what had been made of some of the construction details I posted in another thread, perhaps a Chiorda but despite not being high end I think it is worth building into a decent ride. It should also prove to be another interesting budget build. Perhaps you could start a build thread on yours since Bottecchias seem to be rather uncommon.The head set design is unique and looks elegant along with the fork crown design.

Big Block

Simplex were clear on this Scroll through to the bottom of p.4

VintageRide

Just a minor update - temporarily using a V.O. 46T single chain ring while I try locating a reasonably priced pair of either Stronglight or TA Cyclotourist chain rings, prices lately though seem rather steep. Had to remove the front derailleur cage as the chain was rubbing too easily with this setup. Hope to find a 42/46, 40/44 or 35/42, something along those combinations.If anyone has something please let me know - hoping for something more reasonably priced.

juvela

1952 Urago brochure from their U.K. agent in London:

https://veterancycleclublibrary.org.u...20Library).pdf