The build
After tearing this bike down, cleaning the frame, regreasing the main bearings, straightening the frame and fork a bit, and torching up a 7 o'clock stop on the Huret rear derailleur hanger, it was time to pick out some bin parts and rebuild it. Having already blown $50 on the bike, I had to decide what I could live with. The foam handlebar grips were a bit off-putting, but the OEM brake levers were on them, the stem wasn't seized, so what the heck, I can live with that. My knees took one look at the 52/48 TA 3 arm cranks and vetoed. Luckily my bins had a vintage Stronglight drive side compactish double, 48-32. The non-drive side arm was cracked, so I reused the SR oddball that came with the bike. I have a few old Cyclone MkII long cage rear derailleurs and a bunch of random fronts, I found two broken rears to make one good one and pulled an old ARX out of the pile that looked useable. Brakes were reused, new cables and housing applied. I was lucky, a local person wanted a bit of framework done and was switching wheel sizes, so I took in his 27 x 1-1/4 wheels as partial trade, mostly for the wide Gatorskin tires on them. The wheels are "eh". Since labor is free in this game, that makes the wheels free. Oh, and since someone once said you should have at least one Campy part on a vintage bike, I'm reusing the NR clamp on levers that came with the bike. They look to be in bad shape, but they cleaned up ok.
I took it up and down the driveway and the cul-de-sac I live on. The gears shifted fine, and the brakes worked better than expected, as they appear to have some not too old Koolstop pads.
The total:
Bike: $50
Pedals: $22
Chain: $2 (used)
cables and housing: $8 (I buy them in bulk)
Worn out drive side crank, used derailleurs: $15 (I took two broken rear derailleurs to make one good one, I'll be lucky if the cranks make it 100 miles, and the front cage on the chain slapper is on it's 8th life)
Vinyl Avocet Touring I saddle. Free. A Touring II might be worth something, but this is the type of saddle they give away for free at the co-op. I hope it's not an a$$ hatchet....
Total: $97
From 10 feet away it looks pretty nice! Closer and you'll see that the chrome is fairly shot. I'm riding to work on it tomorrow and Friday, so I'll have 36 miles in before @
Andy_K's 62 miler to Vernonia. I'll ride to the start, which is more than 4 miles, so by Saturday evening, if the bike doesn't fall apart, my a$$ gives up, and the creek don't rise, I'll get in 100 miles. If someone has a vintage Burley trailer I can borrow, I'd consider bringing my torch for roadside repairs - we'll have a total of 4 people clunking away on this ride.
More pix
Man plans, God laughs.