Originally Posted by b-dizzle
Hey everyone, I'm pretty much a complete n00b here, so pardon the... n00bness.
Anyway, I pulled out my dad's old road bike (It's a 1985 Corsaro Orion, looks kinda like
this but w/ drop bars, no rack, and original shifters and brake handles). It wasn't used a whole lot.
I'm gonna fix it up both to earn some dough and just learn some bike maintenance. This is my first time doing anything like this. Other than obviously replacing the split tire and leaky tubes, and de/regreasing everything, what sorts of things am I going to need to check for/replace/adjust? I told the guy at the bike store about it, and he suggested replacing what he called the "deathgrip brake handles". How would I go about doing that?
Also, it's not very rusty, but how would you suggest getting rid of the rust that's there?
Thanks in advance for the advice and for not tearing me apart.
I think he means the levers, that run from the brake handle along beside the top of the bars, you can ignore them if you want, just do not use them.
The place to start though, is to remove all of the components, clean and lubricate everything, and see what you have that still functions and what doesn't. Rust on the frame, use a plastic scrubby pad and see if it comes off, if it does, it's just surface rust, use something like fine sand paper to get to bare metal, get some rust paint like rustoleum and touch up the bad spots. Go to a D-I-Y auto place and pick up some paint that is really close to the colour on the bike, you can use spray bombs if you like. Give it a couple of coats over the primer, if it doesn't match 100% then the final coat, you spray to a gap, for example if it's the seat tube spray the whole tube from BB shell to seat post. You can also get it media blasted prime and paint the whole frame. I include the forks as part of the frame.
Before you toss the tires and tubes, note the sizes for replacement. Toss cables and brake pads as well, you may want to replace cable housings, but keep the old ones to measure against. Toss the bar tape and chain as well.
Clean all of the components well, and check them for function if they work, then put them in a pile, if they don't work put them in another pile. The ones that don't work, you can rummage around in garage/yard sales, CraigsList and Eb$y for replacements. Check with the local bike shops to see if they have any older components they are willing to part with. CL and Eb$y will tend to deal only in more expensive stuff. Sometimes once you buy a 15 year old component and get it shipped it's just as expensive as buying something new and compatable at the LBS. If your in the US then some of the places like Nashbar and Performance can have some good deals as well, if your not in the US, forget those places, customs brokerage fees and shipping will wipe out any remote possibility of savings
.
Once you have all your components, along with new tires, tubes, brake pads and cables, the fun starts