Chrome Molly

Spent this rainy day on a number of small projects that I've been intending to do for some time. Nothing special, as my bigger projects for the winter are proceeding slowly and waiting on wheelsets. I did find a neat way to repurpose a 54T Nervar ring onto my new "burb-bike". I had the SS dressed as a roadie for awhile, but it will get more riding time as an SS. Many of the original parts were passed along to another forum member for a Sports Tourer restoration, so this is making use of the parts I have lying around. All it needs now is a front rack for the 12 pack.

Thought I'd get crafty, so I went to the craft store to pick up some leather lacing for grips. By the time I priced everything out, it will be cheaper to order some cork grips along with my next parts delivery. This way I didn't need to wait in the store long line either (People, it's the 22nd. If you don't have your holiday brickabrack from the craft store, it's time to give up). Anyhow, I digress...

kunsunoke 

I've several projects in the works right now, and most involve upgrades to the current stable:

- Bridgestone MB-1 gets 9-speed thumbshifters (Dura-Ace SL-BS78s on Paul Thumbies) and a low-miles Mag-21 fork to replace the original Mag-20.
- Stumpy gets new XT V-brakes and levers and a gas fork built from two Mag-20 junker forks.
- Both of the above get new DT Alpine III spokes on drive-sides of back wheels.
- Bridgestone RADAC gets new Ti Eggbeater clipless pedals - thereby reducing the weight by a few insignificant tics.
- Wife's old Vista will get ersatz bar-end shifters, assuming I can build them from the parts I currently have (shouldn't be that difficult).

The latest project, though, is a Trek 8000 mountain bike in the coveted Lunar Blue shade. The frame was just sitting there in Colorado, listed on e-Bay, doing nothing - and as it turns out, was in nearly pristine condition, with none of the usual deep gouges in the drive-side chainstay. Not that the gouges would have made any difference anyway (Easton frames are pretty stout, for aluminum) - but it's nice to not have any touch-up work for once. This particular bike is going to be set up as light as I can get away with. I'll post pics at some point.

Yes, I know. Mountain bikes are a dime a dozen. Even though it's old, this one will run circles around modern 29er bikes in the single-track here in southeastern PA.

Salubrious

I just picked up a Bates with Cantiflex 531 tubing and that diadrant fork. I feel pretty lucky to find such a thing in my size.

The serial number suggests that it must be one of the very first from the Westclliff by Sea facility- 17000, so must be early 1954?? Just found a set of TDC BB hardware and I have had a NOS TDC BB spindle sitting in the bins for a while, which fits a cottered Stronglight crank I picked up recently... I expect to fit an alloy Sturmey Archer hub to the rear. Having a bit of difficulty turning up a set of alloy vintage 27" rims with 32 holes in the front and 40 in the rear...

Should be a righteous ride when done.

Italuminium

SJX426 

I had an hour today to fool around and got this far in building up the frame. Don't really know what I am going to do with it.
[IMG]P1020690 by superissimo_83, on Flickr[/IMG]

mountaindave 

Finish it and ride it. Looks beautiful!

bres dad

where to start...

1. Rebuild Trek 400 I bought my wife as a Christmas present
2. Rebuild/upgrade my old Schwinn 974 w/ 10 speed Ultegra
3. put my Trek Domane back to stock & sell to buy another road bike
4. upgrade my Specialized RockHopped to 10 speed SRAM

and that's just the bike stuff...

uberprutser

I bought this 197x Batavus Champion Intercycle in the Dutch national color. It needs some polishing a bit of re-greasing some new cables and a different saddle and steer.
Could be nice, to bad it's a little to big for me but with a different stem it will probably work just fine.

Highgear

Ride it, but please change out that stem for a more traditional one

repechage

I see Masi graphics but the metalwork looks different.

SJX426 

I have a couple of Cinelli stems to choose from. I agree that this one looks a bit top heavy but may be the only way to have a cap over the HB's for easy replacement.

dweenk

I have a couple of those clunky stems in two lengths that I use while deciding which bars to use on the bike I'm building. They're ugly, but very handy (and cheap).

Bianchigirll 

I love that strapon there!

Johnny Mullet

I only had one winter project to do but I ended up with 2 projects. Surprisingly, I got them both done already. One was to build me a heavy duty commuter bike out of my beater bike and the other was to replace the beater bike.

SJX426 

@rootboy product. Very professional workmanship! Those are the rings aquired from you too @Bianchigirll!

SJX426 

@rootboy product. Very professional workmanship! Those are the rings aquired from you too @Bianchigirll!

YoKev

Hardly C&V, but I'm building a 26+ "half fat" bike. The results should be interesting

Numbskull

Not a Masi, though similar color. It is a Marnati, mid 70's I'd guess (126 spacing, no braze ons). Interesting, Milan builder following his father's trade, still in business, a one man operation (but only speaks Italian so communication is difficult). It appealed to me more than a bike built by a bigger famousItalian company. A frame actually brazed by the man whose name is on it means something to me. The bike also probably has a less aggressive geometry than a Masi GC (although I am uncertain). Overpaid to get it but am happy I found it.

gomango

This one definitely got my attention.

Any full frame shots of this beauty?

Where did you ever find it?

repechage

Masi of the period had pretty conservative geometry actually. It would have to be 72 parallel to be less aggressive.
The follow on images look very interesting. A make we don't see very often. Paying too much is all relative. A size most likely to make me a bit envious. Obviously, before Allen key brake attachment... The earliest I saw that being explored was 1975, early 1976. Looks like long dropouts too... While sometimes those lagged to use up stock... My. Hazard guess would be 1975 at the latest.

KonAaron Snake 

Very, very nice. I think a lot of folks on this forum are familiar with his work and it does come up. I am biased - I picked mine up at his shop.

PugRider

There are some gorgeous bikes in this thread. And then there is this: a 1987-ish Peugeot Iseran. I guess I would put it in the "it followed me home category." Twenty bucks from a woman who said she rode it with her then-boyfriend, now husband all through college. She said she bought it new while worked at Gamache's, a LBS near her college that has long since closed its doors. Here she is all stripped down. Has some in-nice-shape Rigida 27's, Shimano friction, and an Atom Compact 77 6-speed.

I had already tried to use my car's scissor jack. It broke. by Eat More Plants1, on Flickr

So when I picked it up, the woman said she didn't have the keys anymore to the Kryptonite U-lock. At the time, for some reason it looked like the lock was just attached to its mount on the seat tube. I said "fine, no problem!" and realized only long after that the lock was, in fact, locked between the the two mixte-tubes. Googling "how to break a U-lock" makes you feel like a total thief. We're all adults here, so I figure I can let you in on my methods lol.

Sawzall? Nope. Scissor-jack? It experienced catastrophic failure. Now I need a new jack. Surprisingly enough, it only took $7 bucks or so worth of Dremel reinforced cutting wheels and two days of alternately cutting and charging the battery (on my awesome little Dremel--at least 12 years old and still works like it's new!) and victory was mine.

So my plans? Well I'm going to brush up on my touch-up skills, since it's nicked up all over. The bearings all still had decent grease, and besides the surface rust and nicks, it's in decent shape. The crankset, an old Nervar double, didn't survive. The crank removal tool worked fine on the nds arm, but stripped right through the ds. Could be a Swiss threading thing? The bb is Swiss threaded. Thankfully it will only need a cleaning and will go right back on with fresh grease. You never know when you bring home a French bike. I'll probably keep my eye out for a close-to-period correct crankset, but other than that, the touch-up, tubes and tires and cables and housing, an it will likely be sent on its way. It has a 21-inch center-to-seatpost opening measurement, which I suppose makes it bigger than most mixtes, but I think it's still a little small for me.

neo_pop_71

Hey bres dad,

Your avatar looked familiar but when you mentioned your 974 in line #2 I knew I recognized a fellow member, I admin the Schwinn Aluminum Series group on FB. I own the bumblebee yellow 974 with Dura Ace 8 speed. I'm looking forward to seeing photos of your 974 and hearing what the final weight is when you're done.

My new winter project is a lugged Paganini cyclocross frame and fork (came with a Chris King 2Nut headset) that I picked up last weekend. The tubing is unknown as the prior owner began sanding down the frame, thankfully I do have the original color on the fork should I decide to match when it goes to the painter. The frame has some very nice lug work with clean cut aways, plenty of pantographed "P" on the lugs as well as the fork crown, and Campagnolo drop outs front and back. The frame came with a Campagnolo seat post that is drilled for routing the rear brake cable. There is some info on the web about Paganini being a Dutch bicycle house brand with frames made in Italy but there is debate over who made the frames. Everything I've found thus far has been road or touring related, nothing yet for cyclocross bikes. Are there any Paganini owners out there that could help date this bike? Anyone have a catalog or catalog info to share? Please let me know, I'd like to nail down some details about the bike such as the original component group. Now I need to decide whether I stay with the stock blue color or go in a new direction... it is a nice blue.

bres dad

Cool. Figured you were in here somewhere. The components are mounted on the 974 & the Trek Domane, just need to run the cables.

Highgear