DIMcyclist

Finally done!



It took me about two and a half years, but the restoration of my '84 Panasonic CityBike (the CB-620) is finally complete... and 650B all the way, baby!

Here's how it looked when I found it, in a trailer park in Vancouver:



Stripped of paint...



And now, with many details!



I've been riding it around to the exclusion of my other bikes for the past six weeks, and the ride is really quality quite surprising, not at all what I'd expected- it rides as well as it looks.

Special thanks go out to Dave Levi & all at TiCycles for modifying (and modernizing) the frame; to Dell & LeeAnn at Class Act Powder Coating (and wishing you both a happy retirement!); to VeloCals; and to Mike & all the guys at Cyclepath for encouragement & sorting out my front derailleur. It was a real trick marrying a modern(ish) derailler to the old-style cable routing, and I'm a better wheelbuilder for taking your advice with the rear hub spacing. As far as I'm concerned, you guys are the best in Portland (and that's saying a lot since we've got some great people & great bike shops here in Bridgetown).

Phamilton

That's a lot of time, love, and presumably money to sink into a bike you expect to have poor ride quality. Beautiful bike, though.

ColonelSanders

Always great stuff to see a bike restored and the owner being able to put on exactly the parts he wants.

SteveP223

Beautiful!

Robofunc

Really nicely done. Did Michael build your wheels?

DIMcyclist

I suppose I should clarify that remark. I expected the bike to ride a lot more like my 650-converted Trek 820 (which is very cruiser-ish), or- alternatively- to experience the kind of frame flex usually associated with the long chainstays found on older touring bikes like the Trek 620 (on this bike, they're cruiser-length; 47cm to the dropout spacer, and 48 to the back of the dropout). Not a bit of it, however. It's quite lively & reasonably stiff while climbing. Surprisingly more like my Soma Smoothie than anything else. I expected it to be fairly nice; I didn't expect it to be THAT nice.

I suppose that might be some kind of a bizarre virtue of its mixed tubeset... It's kind of a weird frame. When we had the paint off, we found the CroMo main triangle to be butted; the seat stays are apparently Mangaloy; chainstays are Hi-Ten. I kinda wonder if the kickstand plate & bent chainstays contribute to the rear triangle's stiffness?

(Edit): Also, as far as the cost goes, the whole project, custom frame mods, new paint, decals, the complete build, + the initial $25 for the bike (paid to the guy who rode it with no brakes & a 700c wheel in front), came to just under $1100, spread out over 29 months. That's with doing (mostly) my own work and being very, very patient while scrounging up the parts.

No. I built the front wheel but my friend Rich built the rear. In the past I haven't been too keen on building A/S rims, and unfortunately this rear wheel turned out to have some chain/ cassette clearance issues after the fact (mostly due to my decision to keep all of the old-style cable routing intact, along with JIS standards, as a deliberately retro touch). Mike encouraged me to to change the hub spacing and re-dish the wheel, and once I did-- I dunno; something sorta 'clicked' and fell into place. Unless it's physically damaged, I don't think it will ever take me more than 45 minutes to build & true a wheel ever again.

m3rle

Sweet build. I hope to say that about wheel building one day. Will you now use all your "new found" (29 months!) skills on another project?

DIMcyclist

I'm content. For now.

I might trade out my Torelli for a nicer Basso or Casati at some point in the future, but not anytime soon.

Neverseconds

really nice bike

Lascauxcaveman 

Lovely bicycle; almost too clean and pretty to ride. I wish you many happy miles together.

But, to be a little pedantic here, as always in cases like this; "restored" is the wrong term. What you've done here is a really nice customized update & upgrade. A restoration would have you remaking the bike back to factory spec, to closely as possible as new from the bike shop.

gugie 

Very nice!

I just had a frame painted at Class Act just as they were selling the business. The transfer of ownership added a couple of weeks to the job, but it came out nice enough. LeeAnn's daughter did the painting, but she said she was only staying around until the doctor told her to stop working (she was pregnant at the time). I'm not sure if they'll still have the staff to trust a bicycle with.

Any feelings on how they'll do once the "old crew" is gone?

DIMcyclist

Thanks! And actually, I totally agree with your assessment. My XO-3 was a 'proper' restoration; this one really is a vast improvement over factory spec. I'm still torn on one issue, though: should I 'restore' the 'world champion' stripes to the seat tube? I've got them (along with the tubing decals, which I haven't gotten around to applying), but I kinda like the clean seat tube; it shows off the new color really well.

What do you think?

I'll miss Dell & LeeAnn; they could be gruff, but once past that, they turned out to be good folks who definitely knew what they were doing. As for the new owners? Time will tell. I initially found Class Act by word-of-mouth; Vanilla's 'Coat' is the acknowledged best in town when it comes to bikes, but you pretty much had to have an 'in' with Sacha to get a frame painted there (I don't know if that's changed over the years, but that's how it was at the time; the Speedvagens kept them pretty busy). That being the case, I went with CA, since they had some pretty good cred (aside from the Olympic team bikes, Ira, Tony, & Dave Feldman have all had frames coated there); I figured that couldn't be a bad thing.

hopwheels

That's a really great looking build. Congrats on a beauty!

Prowler 

I agree. Beautiful bike and well thought out build but HOW do you keep it that clean - for 6 weeks? My bikes looks this clean just once a year (in the late winter) then get all spooged up after just a ride or two in the real world. It would take me a few hours to get them this clean again for a photo shoot. Yikes, you do nice work. I'm impressed.

The Golden Boy 

That is a really beautiful imagination of that bike! I LOVE the color

What would be the difference in the cable routing?

phughes

Beautiful. Great job!

DIMcyclist

These pics were shot just before & during its first shakedown ride; so, it hadn't had a chance to get dirty.
Still- I'm not worried about nicks & scuffs; that happens. And eventually you repaint it. Again.


Thanks! The color really is great, isn't it? LeeAnn actually found that one for me- I described more-or-less what I was looking for; she pulled out a handful of swatches, and that color immediately stood out- it's kind of a transparent sea-blue with an emerald green pearl.

With regard to the F Der, it had to do with the angle of the cable as it came out of the guide & the respective leverage & tension it exerted on the upper pivot, which is designed for a more directly downward pull. If you notice it, you'll see that a lot of derailleurs from that period had a little guide-notch built in to the backside of the clamp which, at low tension, kept the cable at just the right angle so that it couldn't slide over far enough to slip out from under the main guide; but modern down-pull der's don't have that little notch; they're designed for under-BB routing which, innately, elegantly prevents the cable from going anywhere when it isn't under tension, so it's never an issue. But combining the old-style routing with a newer der. was kind of a tricky ballancing act between overtensioning the cable or having it slip out of the guide when shifting to the granny gear, yet the guys at Cyclepath found the sweet spot I couldn't (despite three days of wrangling with it) and it now works perfectly.

In the case of the R Der, the cable runs over the top of the chainstay, which creates some clearance issues on its own relative to the crank spacing, the angle of the stay, & distance between the chain and the shift cable while on the middle & granny rings, while in the high range of the cassette. However, my main difficulty was actually the der. tab thickness: it's about 2mm thinner than a modern tab, which moved the entire mech that much closer to the cassette and directly into the chainline in a way that exceeded the capacity of the Hi, Lo, & B tension screws to fully compensate. Both of these issues together meant that I had to add a 1mm spacer between the tab & the RD pivot bolt (which kept the end of the bolt itself from rubbing against the chain), and respace the hub about 2mm further to the left & accordingly re-dish the wheel (which moved the chainline over far enough to eliminate any risk of the chain rubbing against the cable, and gave me the clearance needed for good adjustment & tuning); once done, though, it shifted like silk.

exmechanic89

Very nice work all around. Real sweet ride now.

The Golden Boy 

I would have never have thought it.

The only thing that I don't really dig about the over the BB cable routing is that you can't run the 'criss cross' cable run under the downtube (actually, you can, but you shouldn't).

Congratulations!!