Riding home I was impressed by the well mannered ride, typical of good sport touring bikes of this period. The deficiencies were in the components.

A new bar wrap, and off we go.



The handlebars felt too narrow the entire ride. Randonneuring bars are especially narrow when you ride mostly on the tops. The brakes were routed "motorcycle" style (front right), but I got used to that quickly. The oxidized Weimann brake pads gave only adequate braking. I'm sure this would be corrected with new pads - or perhaps just sanding down through the old surface? I put new cables everywhere, but the original, old ribbed housing was a bit rough.



Shifting the plastic Simplex derailleurs left me wanting. The front derailleur was too low. Shifting into the big chainring meant rubbing on the chain guard. I could raise it to eliminate this issue, but then the shifting would suffer. The middle cog was noisy - the chain was pinched between cog and pulley. My high school friend Bob subbed French for Japanese - SunTour VGT derailleurs with micro-ratcheting levers made a big difference. The Simplex models on this bike were the opposite of smooth.

Bob and I called these Satan Cranks - five point stars - I haven't found anyone else remember them that way. I guess we were just little devils



This Brooks B17 came from @nlerer (as did the chainring guard). A bit worn, but still useable.



The few short hills on my commute were easily conquered. Cornering felt a bit squirrely, perhaps due to the raised center ridge 27 x 1-1/4" tires, which were quite the opposite of supple.

The white and lagoon blue paint job, along with the chrome socks make this quite a looker, even today.