jdawginsc 

1992 Cannondale R600 rebuild. This one is going out the door for sale but I wanted to keep it. A bit of a mixture of RSX and 600 parts. Didn’t have a crank that would fit the build or the bottom bracket. Too much splay potential.

Just needs cabling, tape and off she will go.

Better pictures once complete. Had to touch up quite a surface area under the down tube and on DS chainstay.

Mad Honk 

I spent about an hour this afternoon working on some hubs. I created a jig to polish the hubs using a small motor a vacuum cleaner belt and a pair of rack plates. I can bring a hub to mirror finish again with the right polishes. A picture of the hub torture device:

I use this contraption to polish hubs to like new again.
Smiles, MH

VintageSteelEU

Andre Reboul Superator is coming up nicely. Today I decided not to put the front reflector on the stem, after all, I think keeping just the spacers will give it a cleaner look. Haven't had time to do much, really, just put the new wheels on to check the clearances. The front derailleur should be OK, but it looks like it's the first frame where I could use brakes with shorter reach. I'm planning to use standard Weinmann Carrera brakes with it (when they arrive) and I will be able to use them for sure, but the pads might be sitting at the very top of the adjustment range. Well, that's a bridge I don't have to cross righ now. I left the frame be until I have the seatpost and stem ready and got on with the rear derailleur. It looks like it was overhauled not too long ago, but I'll give it a clean anyway. Mostly to know how it works, but it's also going to get some proper sparkle it deserves.

cjefferds 

Some of the tasty bits from my recent 84 Stumpjumper overhaul

IdahoBrett 

I wish I would’ve taken before pictures. Prior to Bar Keepers Friend, mineral spirits, isopropyl alcohol, blue Scotchbrite, brass brush, and a soft rag I was browsing ebay for a set of wheels for my Schwinn Continental. I really thought the wheels weren’t save able. But the idea of spending more for a set of wheels than the bike was worth caused me to break out some elbow grease. Wah-la…



The wrenching part was greasing the hubs. The wheel spins awesomely.

RCMoeur 

This morning I had my triennial endoscopy, and after a nice late breakfast and signing all those papers my wife asked me to after the procedure, I decided that working on a couple bikes might be a good way to recuperate from the sedation.

First up was this not-very-C&V Specialized Sirrus, which was rode hard, put up wet, and left in the sun way too long by a prior owner. Fortunately, the shifters degunked nicely in a relatively few cycles, the hydraulic brakes are fine, and it came back together nicely. Which is good, because it's being donated to an friend of an acquaintance whose bike was flattened recently in a crash. Good to see it going to a good cause.



Next up was this pretty late 80s Miyata that decided to be a pain in the butt. The decal says "Triplecross", but it was definitely doublecrossing me in that the left shifter disintegrated during cleaning, and then my thoughts of making it a 1x7 city cruiser were thwarted as I can't pull the aftermarket crank to change it (no Octalink puller in my box). So it's off to the side until I dig out some matched shifters to finish it as a 3x7.



The Miyata did have this Avocet Gelflex saddle on it, but the original cover is sagging too much to try to salvage. I'll eventually recover it, and reinstall the side bumpers to restore a bit of panache.



After all this, I circled back to the pair of mid-80s Trek 850s I obtained earlier in the week. These two pose a dilemma, in that the bikes aren't really collectible, plus someone here in another thread was cruelly mocking their rather, um, pinkish hue. And they currently have a 120 rear overlock with 5-speed freewheels. But they also have some rather nice componentry - rollercam rear brakes and Suntour XC derailleurs, stem, sealed bearing hubs, and power ratchet shifters.






So, I pondered, could I harvest some of the cool parts and substitute others to keep a pair of completely usable bikes in service? The rear hubs are nutted, so they could be respaced and redished to 130-135 for use elsewhere. The derailleurs are in fine shape. And the shiny ratchet shifters are oh so very preciousssss, oh yes I can keepses those, my prec

OK, where were we again? Ah yes, retrofitting parts. I found a 5-speed indexed thumb shifter and tested it with a derailleur made for that pull, and tried it with the original Shimano 600 14-32 wide-range freewheel. Wow, what a racket, and the shifting was execrable. Not giving up when I should have, I swapped in a 14-28 5-speed freewheel, tested that, and it actually shifted acceptably well. Now I just have to decide if it's worth all the work to harvest the wheels for another project or just leave them, given all the respacing I'll have to do on these and the replacement wheels. Plus I might feel like I'm breaking up the band a bit too much. Another option is to respace the rear triangle, but I don't want to mess up the rollercam mounts.

Time for more pondering as to what best to do with the two Bismol-beasts...

JaccoW

If you don't mind them not being period correct you can always look for some Microshift replacement shifters. They even have drop bar models.

daverup 

Nice work on the rim cleanup! I was wondering how that was going.
That thing must be about done now.

IdahoBrett 

I wish. I’ll probably get the rear wheel done today. Then there is the decals. The originals were wiping off with a simple cleaning solution. Yes I stopped cleaning. And bought a set of water slide decals (never installed those on a bike). The rear rack is still attached. I haven’t decided to what level I’m going to polish it. I’ll do that at the same time as the calipers. And bars n stem. After all that I’ll be on the home stretch with cable installation and bar tape(couldn’t locate spicy chestnut, going with brown).

Still plenty to do…

daverup 

If the decals are old, use caution. I've had some very fragile old Schwinn decals in the past. The original Schwinn markings usually don't hold up to much cleaning, I've damaged some of those myself.
Good luck with the rest!

Murray Missile 

Found that out the hardway on the '67 Varsity dump rescue. The paint isn't any too tough either.

jamesdak 

Still bad weather so messing with some of the bikes more. Yesterday I touched up the paint some more on the Miele. Probably one more coat on the spots I'm touching up before I wet sand and clear coat.to blend them in well. I"m toying with the idea of painting the fork orange or even maybe just putting an orange stripe or some other kind of detail to help tie it in better to the rest of the bike.



I also got the Raleigh Racing USA Prestige ready to list locally for sale. With the state of the market I know I'll get little in any interest on this. So I took the Mavic wheels back off and put one some classic silver ones. Dialed back in the 7 speed shifting, swapped out my Keo pedals for silver flat ones, and swapped my Kurve saddle for a Avocet Air O2. It's now listed locally and if no interest in a couple of weeks it will be one of this year's donations to the Bike Collective.



I kept the Superbe/Araya rims that came with this. That will give me both a tubular and clincher Superbe option for my beloved Fuji Opus III.

Today's plan is to get the Trek 5200 out, swap out my Zonda wheels and Kurve saddle and then list that one for sale. It's one of my fastest rides but I just don't connect with it.

SJX426 

Just removed the DS cup on this 68 Frejus. Used the Sheldon Brown method with an impact air tool. Deformed the exterior washer into the cup opening where the rifling is. No damage to tthe cup.
Took a lot of time and had to wait for the compressor to get up to 125PSI before it broke free.

Bianchigirll 

Well the crew here at Trash Panda Werks is getting frustrated with the USPS! We're still waiting for some small parts to finish the Proto but we put it the stand this morning to change the RD and put on the shifter cables. The alloy pulleys on the Chorus are too noisey and unfortunately we can't get the bolt for jockey pulley loose to change it, we also can't find two of the correct type. Not sure if they fit, bolt diameter wise, can you put those fancy Shipmano Centuron pulleys in here?

We put the GPX RD back on and add some cool blue ferrules to the housings. OH..... ever leave home without your $5 FootLong!!

IdahoBrett 

Yes the ones on the fork wiped right off. No worries, there’s a feller on ebay that sells Schwinn Approved H2O decals. I’ve watched a few videos on installation and they appear to be of excellent quality. I will have to watch the videos again to shore up the process since I’ve never applied that type of decal to a bicycle. Model planes and cars, yes. But that was more than a few years ago.

I finished the rear wheel this morning.

daverup 

That Continental is going to be minty when you finish!

jamesdak 

Swapping around wheels, tires and cassettes today as I work on the old 5200 to get it ready for sale. Didn't want to give up the low mile Zonda's I had on it. Also swapped the original Icon seatpost back on and a matching Selle Italia saddle. Replaced the Zonda's with the Velomax wheels I had as placeholders for now on the Miele. I realized I have way too many spare Campagnolo freehub wheels but now Shimano.



This one listed locally now also. While it is quite honestly one of my fastest bikes it was also the least favorite C.F. bike I have in terms of ride comfort.

georges1

One of my favorite carbon frame but too stiff and not too comfy over the long run, but an american made one

IdahoBrett 

Two days of polishing. I’m tired of polishing! The next bike is going to be full patina…..or I’ll just take a break long enough so I forget how tedious polishing is.

RCMoeur 

Today, I figured I could ride to the hamfest, work on my taxes, or wrench on bikes. Slept in too late for the hamfest, so I ventured outside on a blustery day to do battle with the waiting bikes.

First up, a misbegotten Crossroads with gummy shifters and a subtle top tube dent. Pulled the shifters, and then realized the rear derailleur return spring was snapped and flopping around, so yanked the derailleur along with the shifters.



Put three pair of shifters in the ultrasonic for cleaning, with all the removed parts neatly arranged in bins on the patio table for eventual reassembly. Went inside for a moment, and then heard a loud CRASHHH. Uh oh. Raced back outside to see that a gust of wind had overturned the table, bending the umbrella and sending all those tiny parts everywhere. Language unbecoming of Easter weekend may have ensued.

After cleaning up that minor disaster, I switched over to a yellow Sorrento with (all together now) gummy shifters and a couple other malfunctions.


This bike didn't put up too much of a fight... until a routine brake adjustment resulted in a snapped spring. Grrr.



Now to get my most weather-worthy bike ready for tomorrow's ride - I'll probably take the chrome cruiser, as it has an internal gear hub, fat tires, full fenders, and wire baskets for drainage. We're expecting heavy rain in the morning, so maybe the taxes will get done as I dry off. Maybe.

Murray Missile 

Finally got this one put together after having the frameset hanging in the rafters for several years. Kind of thrown together, mostly with what I had on hand as much as possible because I'm in "N-1" mode and it's just not a keeper.

VintageSteelEU

Well, I'm not quite sure what I'm building anymore. The plan was: Superator - as light, as possible, with Superbe minigruppo, shifters and brakes, SR extra super light crankset, stem and handlebar, possibly seatpost. It seems it's getting more and more French as I get on with it. Firstly, the derailleurs got replaced with Huret Jubilee and the shifters with Simplex SLJ. That can always go onto the next build, Moto C5, if I change my mind. But the brakes I was planning for it, and all the other brakes I had, are slightly too long. I would have to get Suntour CB-4000 and that's another 50-100 bucks (when I already have two sets of CB-4700).
So I have Spidel brakes on the way. And looking for Spidel / Mafac brake levers to match. It's very tempting right now to get it all French (except for the rim, there are no French clincher rims worth considering, other than Module 3, and these are not readily available and not in 32H configuration anyway). But that means weight calculations will go out through the window. If I use Spidel 105bix crankset I have, that adds probably 50g to the project. That would require another set of pedals (another 100g). Stem I have (Belleri forged) is good 60g heavier than SR R-ESL. Belleri handlebars add another 50g to the build. Any pedals I can get are another 100g... Not that the weight actually matters that much, but 250g when you're trying to get below 8kg mark does make a difference. Not mentioning that I took on these projects to downsize the collection of parts and components and now have several more things on their way...

Whilst I think what to do about this problem, I decided to do some parts inventory and cleaning. Firstly, going through the 35x1mm bottom bracket cups I have (one Swiss, the rest are French) and see whether any BB axle I have would work with Sugino cups I have to use with Spidel Crankset. The answer is no, I seem to have Italian versions of Suntour Sprint and Sugino MW. In the first case, the taper doesn't fully clear the cup, be it with caged bearings or loose bearing balls. This was meant for my commuting bike with Swiss threaded SR cups, but thankfully I do have cartridge bearing Tifosi carbon, which is just a little bit longer and still ISO, so it should hopefully work fine with the Sprint crankset. I also have another SR Royal spindle on the way and that one should be nearly perfect, providing it's not pitted too badly. Sugino MW fits the crankset very well, but this one is a bit too short at 114mm. And the taper barely clears the adjustable cup. I've got a TA Specialities 116mm spindle, so here's hoping that one will work with Sugino cups.




Belleri handlebar and stem, whichever bike they go on, will need different brake levers and normal handlebar tape. Motobecane rubber covers had to come off. Thanks heaven I've done it before and figured out the technique, so hopefully this time I won't be getting blisters. Now it will be time to get on with polishing all this stuff. Something I don't look forward to...

jdawginsc 

The bar tape was...inspired by the least of evils...had silver but that stuff sucked. The white Cinelli Cotton just didn’t hit me.

milesfromhome

Like the top of the Chrysler building! I will have to try some or all of that on my 24" steel rims - I have been scrubbing them with tin foil and it helped a lot but some rust remains :-)

jdawginsc 

Wow. Great job! Looks fantastic. I enjoy polishing to a point, then when I find myself causing elbow joint pain, I usually stop.

Usually...