billnuke1 

billnuke1 

rickrob 

Built new wheels for this 78 Moto Le Champion. It was running Mavic GP-4 tubulars. Owner wanted clinchers.
It now has Shimano 600 Tri Color HB/FH 6400 Hubs, CR-18 Rims and Sapim DB Spokes.
Added a Soma long cage to the Nuovo Record Rear derailleur.
Took it for a 20 mile ride. Really nice frame -- I'm not sure, but I think it's all 531. At least the forks and three main tubes are.

billnuke1 

Poguemahone

Today I started the slow and gentle process of putting the Alain Michel together. There's a box with some parts coming from chain reaction in England, due Wednesday. I sanded down the stem and overhauled the wheels (not pictured) and cleaned up the mechs (also not pictured). It's spring, the weather is nice, first this, then the (other) Eisentraut, then some upkeep type stuff. As always, the Queue is full for the next few months, the way I like it.

billnuke1 

SurferRosa

billnuke1 

3speedslow

noglider 

On Saturday, @wilfried came over, and I helped him with his bike. It's a Tern Verge folding bike with 20" wheels and a 2x10 drivetrain. Very nicely designed and built bike. The derailleurs work great. We changed all four cables and all four brake pads. The brake padss were a big pain, as whenever we tightened the nuts, the adjustment went out. I don't know why. It took a long time, but the outcome was good. I trued the wheels slightly.

Wilfried, I suggest you overhaul both hubs before long. Also, replace your rear tire.

We took a test ride up the river path. The wind made riding very difficult until we turned around. We tried each other's bikes just for fun. We were happy with the work we did on his bike.

wilfried

Thanks for all your help! New tired ordered. I may need your help again with the hubs. I've done them once before on the Brompton, but it's been a while...

capnjonny 

Been on a roll lately with ItalVega and Univega's
did 4 different ItalVega's then a couple Uni's . Just finished this one, A Univega GranTech 6400 .
Very similar to the Vitus 979 that I just finished except the Uni has Cromo stays and fork .

Here are the specs :
Univega GranTech 6400

S# m8c 33952

Wt 23.3 lb as below

Equipment

Aluminum bonded frame with Cromo forks and stays

Mavic Ma40/G40 wheels w/ Specialized Turbo tires

Sakae GT bars

Nitto stem

Shimano tricolor 600 Brakes, levers, front derailleur, cranks, bottom bracket

Sakae 49-38 tooth chain rings

Deore DX rear derailleur

Shimano (13-28) 7 speed Hyperglide freewheel

Shimano 600 index down tube rear shifter ( friction front)

Fizik Wingflex saddle

and pics

capnjonny 

Oh , And then there is this Raleigh SuperCourse I just painted

3speedslow

noglider 

The rear axle on my Viscount fixie was bent. A kind BFer sent me a replacement QR axle which I was willing to use, converting from nutted to QR, but the threading was wrong. I don't know what I have, and I know two common threads are 24tpi and 26tpi. My local bike shop had a complete axle set for only $8! What a great price! It came with cones, spacers, locknuts, and axle nuts. I used my old cones. The set is cheap, but so is my hub. I straightened my dropouts, the probable cause of the bent axle. Lucky I have the Park dropout gauges. It takes some muscle to work them.

I realized I'm working with all cheap materials. It's satisfying to get a nice rideable bike from cheap materials but stuff might go wrong. The frame is cheaply made, too. I'm coming to appreciate good components for fixed gear. They seem more important than for geared bikes. I'm envisioning more things going wrong on this bike. Maybe I'll sell it eventually, but I'll see how it goes. I started to feel "upgrade-itis" i.e. the urge to switch to fancier hub and cranks, but I would still have a cheap frame. It's so cheap that I don't trust my adjustment of the dropouts will stick. I'm better off not upgrading the bike and selling it if something further goes wrong. I have a genuine track bike, and I could keep that as my fixed gear street bike. The fun thing about the Viscount is that, being cheap, I can take short trips on it with low stress, as I don't very much care what happens to the bike if I lock it up on the street.

2cam16

Did a bit of maintenance on some of my bikes today. Finally had a chance to put some period-correct derailleurs on my Novara Ponderosa Scot Nicol:

IMG_7391 by 2cam16, on Flickr

IMG_7390 by 2cam16, on Flickr

abshipp 

Put together the preliminary build of my 1976 Grand Jubile

Eventually I would like the drivetrain and brakes to be totally French, right now I have Shimano 600EX cranks, brakes, and levers that were laying around from my Trek 716, but it's at least rideable. Once I get the correct spacers under the headset locknut at least

SurferRosa

^ @abshipp, can you lengthen the chain a little, or does doing so make the jockey rub the large cogs when in the small ring?

abshipp 

Oh no, I definitely need either a few more links of chain or something smaller than a 52 for the big chainring

The chain, like the brakeset and crankset, were a take-off from my Trek 716.

This was purely a build just to see how it rides, I have a looooooot of work to do still!

There's a reason that I posted it here instead of in the "Show Your Grand Jubile" thread, I feel like this is a much more appropriate place for works-in-progress.

52telecaster

i know the feeling. In a state of flux often

SurferRosa

Yeah, that's what I did recently with a 52/39 set I was using with a short cage rear derailleur and a 14-28 freewheel. I went down to a 50t big ring, which really helps get to a few more low gears when in the big ring. I never use the 52/14 anyway on any of my bikes.

gomango

Just arrived at home and received my VP Thin Gripster pedals.

Going on the Weigle.

Just in time for the opening of Sea Salt, a restaurant across the Mississippi from us.

Bring on the shrimp tacos.

noglider 

My Viscount fixie still needs work on its chain line. As I was riding in the street today, my chain jumped off. Lucky it wasn't in a hairy location. It happened when I was going over a street that had just been scraped for repaving, but still, it shouldn't happen.



I also dusted off (literally) my 1971 Raleigh Pro Track, which I hadn't ridden in years. Before I put it in the dust pile, I had changed the saddle but not tried the new one. I pulled the bike off the wall storage hook and put on some new (to me) SPD pedals. I'm not interested in SPD-SL any more. So having changed the saddle and the pedals, I thought I should check the saddle height. Waddya know, it's good.

The bike has 22mm tubular tires, Continental Sprinter. The thread about why-tubular-tires was one of the impoti for trying this bike again. And I did not find it to be a harsh ride. I had pumped the tires to 90 psi.

The bike has a very high gear ratio. I'll check what it is, but it might be around 90 inches. That gave the bike a heavy feel, since my body's mass was ahead of and behind my cranks, so to speak. Once I got up to speed, it felt nice and totally controllable. I have a front brake on it, which is good for street use.

Spinay70

73-74 Kolbe 10 Speed (donor fork, original was bent)

SP70

deux jambes