gugie 

From the Windy City, came in like this:



Sending it back like this:



Some details:





This is getting fun!

More pix.

Craigorock

Wow.. excellent work! I really like what you're doing with old frame sets. There are so many steel frames with decent tube sets that would benefit from the full makeover. Great photos as well.

The dual sided fender mount is a smart detail. It must add a lot of extra support and stability to the fenders.

Keep up the good work!

Any reason why the customer stayed with horizontal rear dropouts instead of replacing them with vertical dropouts?

nlerner

Very cool!

daf1009

Nice work...I really like the add-on's...but...from my personal opinion, I would not have repainted it. It is a good job of repainting, but the original paint looked pretty good...and, well, it was original.

bwilli88 

@daf1009 with all of the changes and new braze ons added it needed a new paint.

Kilroy1988 

Looks great, Gugie! I count 14 new braze-ons and the removal of the top tube pump mounts. I can't imagine the original paint looked very good by the time you were done, either... Ha!

Salamandrine 

Another nice one. I always hated the top tube pump position, seat stay is much nicer. Braze on RAIDS! super cool.

Needs some gold box lining. With all the braze ons and rando type stuff in this 650b conversion, a solid color makes sense.

That said, I am actually a fan of those various obnoxious metallic green/gold shades of the 70s. A color nearly identical to the one on that Raleigh was my second choice color for the Mercian, though in the end I went with black.

gugie 

It's not something that came up, and I haven't done one yet. My winter project is to fully upgrade a frame I have - everything you see on this bike, plus verticals, and completely hidden wiring with electrical contacts in the head tube/fork ala Herse. I've seen lots of hints how this is done, but no details. I think I've figured it out. Stay tuned.

The one picture I posted made it look pretty good, when in fact, it was pockmarked with rust. Here's another:


and there's that.

Yep, the only way you kept that pump on was to strap it with some velcro, as I recall! I have a french connection for RAIDs, and have the "narrow fork crown" post method down now. If you look at the fork very closely in person, you can see that the outter edge of the posts is slightly wider than the fork crown so that the RAID arms are spaced apart correctly. They sorta mold back into the fork.

Gold box lining, yes! I'll bug the customer about dong this, my painting skills are merde, unfortunately. I've been trying to get my wife to try this, she's the artist in the family.

Chartreuse and black grows on you. It's different.

juvela

I'm concerned gugie. Are you sure those headplate rivets are large enough for the job? What hath become of her Alatet, abducted by space aliens perchance?

himespau 

Awesome.

bear_a_bug 

I'm the happy customer in Chicago.

I'm not sure why Gugie added all those braze-ons and such. Not crazy about the color either.

The plan is to file off all the extraneous brake mounts, rattlecan it flat-black, and run it fixed gear. Roads can be dangerous here in Chicago, so I'm going to run the thinnest, hardest 650b tire I can find, and "flip up" the drop handlebars for a more upright position. I think some people call them "hobo bars", but I find the term demeaning. Saddle will most likely be a comfort-style saddle. I've got a good "Bell" brand one picked out at the local Target.














Ok, just kidding. The build plan is a fairly typical "Rando" aesthetic with drop bars, DT shifters, non-aero levers, etc. I love the work Mark's done on the frame, and the attention to detail he's put into it has been incredible. 10/10, would definitely work with him again.

Pics to come in the next couple weeks....

Sir_Name 

Solid plan!! I look forward to the deconstruction.



...Nice work, gugie.

bulldog1935

riding bikes is great, but building them is even more fun...

CuttersRidge

I tried reading every post so apologies if I repeat myself, the only RSTs I've seen have been that aqua green color as in the catalogs but what is interesting is I've seen a few of the brown ones on the internet. The painted color is a bit similar to the brown.

Though, Tourer is in the name, I'm not sure if it meant for really intense touring as the original ad says for "casual touring", not sure what that means.

CuttersRidge

There was a very nice Super Tourer on the San Francisco Craig's List, it may still be up, they weren't moving it at $450. It was in very good shape.

gugie 

The screws I use bang in with a small hammer, then you chop off the excess inside the head tube. They come in 3 sizes, the next size down is too small. I really need to find a tiny rivet gun - anybody know a source?

You forgot the Grab On handlebar grips. Don't want your hands freezing to the bars on those crazy Chicago winter mornings.

Thanks for the pimp!

BluesDaddy

Hey @gugie awesome workmanship!
Question about those brake mounts: Is there a standard post size and spacing for that type of brake? Could a Weinmann 750 or Mafac Racer be pulled off its mounting plate and installed on those brazed posts?

gugie 

That brown one is lovely, lots of nice, period correct upgrades on it.

The Super Tourers of that era are similar to the Competitions, same fork, different lugset, and the chainstays are dented on the Super Tourer.

What's really strange is that I had forgotten about that model until fender1 offered one up to me in my size. A month later a buddy that works in a co-op in Port Townsend, Washington had a ratty 21" one come in, and gave me a great deal for it. Then bear_a_bug sent me this one. So right now I've got 3 of 'em hanging in my shop - I should take a picture of them together before I box up the reconstruct and send it to the Windy City.

gugie 

Spacing between posts varies:


In reality, you can cheat a few mm in either direction.

From Compass Cycles (only place I know wherer to get these):
"For all classic centerpull brakes (Mafac, Weinmann, Dia-Compe, Zeus ...)
Not for Paul brakes (use cantilever braze-ons)."

So, yeah!

Here's a great site for centerpull brake specs. Forum member @nlerner contributed, btw

himespau 

Are those silver stripes on the super tourers paint or are they decals? If they're decals, I wonder how a similar setup on the seat tube matching the fenders would look to offset the brown? Or would it look too fake?

Edit: Looking more closely at the pictures and seeing the headtube is the same color, I'm guessing paint.

steelbikeguy

The "electrical contacts in the headtube" feature is very intriguing. I think Jan Heine provided some tech info on how Herse did it.. can't recall if it was in BQ or an online forum. There was some clever thinking going on, especially in regard to the complications that can occur when installing or removing the fork. I seem to recall the carbon brush and spring being mounted in the steerer tube.

As an electrical engineer, I like to believe that modern technology could offer a better way to implement this sort of function, but I've failed to figure one out yet. I do think the best technical solution is just to run a bit of wire between the fork crown and a hole at the upper end of the down tube, but it doesn't have the clean lines of the Herse method.

Anyway... nice job on the Super Tourer! Count me as one of the folks who would have loved to see the bike repainted in the original colors, but I'm happy that it is able to provide service to its owner.


Steve in Peoria

gugie 

Yeah, all of those vintage Raleighs with thead head tube and panel contrasting colors are painted on. Pretty much the inspiration for all of those Rivendells Grant sells.

I've searched everywhere for more info on this meethod. I contacted Jim Langley about this, as he has a Rene Herse with this solution. He mentions in his blog:

"To keep constant contact so electricity can always make it to the headlight, René Herse attached a copper ring around the inside of the head tube (top photo) and placed a small spring-loaded pin with a brass brush on the end into the fork (bottom photo). The spring keeps the brass brush in contact with the ring in the head tube transfering the electricity from the rear end of the bike to the front end. Both the copper ring and brass brush assembly are insulated from the surrounding metal to prevent electrical shorts."

When I explained that the copper ring would ground to the frame, therefore Herse must have a dielectric material between the head tube and the copper ring, he said he hadn't thought of that.

So basically what you've got is a slip ring. The difficult part is getting this done in a frame that's already built. Doing the math, you've nominally got 2.3mm of clearance between head tube and fork steerer on a standard 1" steerer bike. Most bikes have a vent hole in the head tube at the downtube joint. So you need a dielectric material around the head tube, then a conductive layer with a soldered on wire to pass through the hole, and probably a dielectric around the steerer to make sure it doesn't short out.

Jan replaced the carbon brush with brass, I believe. Some day I'll model this up with cross sections, post on the forum for feedback, then pull out the torch and see what I can come up with. I've looked high and low for a tiny spring loaded brush that would work, if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears! Preference would be to make it an M5 thread. I could just braze in a bottle boss from the inside of the fork, spaced out with a couple of washers, then thread it in.

The Golden Boy 

Wow- that's amazing!

Fantastic job!

The Golden Boy 

There's the plan!

Dominate!

CuttersRidge

Mine, and actually, I enjoy some high-ten rides as much such as the Motobecane Mirage Sport. This was one summer when I ran it as a Fixed Gear, now it has derailleurs on it. I put a longer stem on it, it is probably a wee-bit small and Carlton brake hoods from a Raleigh Grand Prix. The ride actually came with Suntour "Mighty-Shifters", indexed that didn't work that well. It also came with foam grab ons which I like but I've since put on black cork tape. Unfortunately, it did some how get a tiny bit of a chrome peel on the front fork (salt in the air?), I keep it up to date with anti-rust lubricants, it isn't much of a problem. The back chrome is fine so maybe it was even washing it that did that.