I've had this bike for 3 years. I originally built it up as a 700c triple with upright bars, sort of an English Gentleman's bike, modernized.
Yes, it had beausage. I got lots of compliments for her. I used it as a commuter bike last summer, rode a few 60 mile+ rides as well over the past few years. But with 700c + fenders, I'm limited to 33-35mm wide tires, she doesn't handle well on downhills, and the toe clip overlap is bad for city riding. I just wasn't riding her much - the commute miles were replaced by a better behaving bike, the longer rides on my JP Weigle'ized Raleigh Competition. I'd like to have a fully dynamo driven lighting setup for some 200k, possibly longer brevets I hope to ride next year. It would be nice if the wiring were internal.
So here's the plan: rerake the forks to make it low-trail, braze on cantilevers and all the other new bits, and repaint, then build up some reasonably light wheels with a dyno front hub, and use some of the vintage parts that have been accumulating in my bins. Finally, make a custom front rack with low-rider attachments for rando riding and credit card touring. The chrome is in pretty good shape, I'll save as much as I can - I think about all of it with judicious use of heat during the brazing portion.
The past year or so I've been
accumulating and making tools to enable this to happen, along with practicing my skills on a couple of other
bike projects.
The first thing to do is measure all the important frame specs. I did this on my modified Competition as well - I love the way it rides, the International is the same size, so I'd like to emulate the geometry as much as possible. I used a Harbor Freight digital angle gauge, zeroed on my flat work bench, both bikes had same sized wheels and tires front and rear for the angle measurements. Here's a link to the
data on the two bikes. I'm also using this to log the parts that go on both bikes. Note that the International's top tube is 2 cm longer-the seat tube and head tube angles are more relaxed on the International, and the chain stays are a bit longer. Note that I've already mounted 650b x 42mm Hetres to check for clearance, and it looks ok.
Tonight I pulled the fork, measured everything several times, said a prayer to the bike gods, and reraked it to my target trail (to match my Competition). There's no turning back now!
I'll post pictures as progress is made.