My c.1974 Allegro - a canvas for mad-scientist tinkering
05-04-17, 10:14 AM
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My c.1974 Allegro - a canvas for mad-scientist tinkering
So, a while back I asked for assistance in identifying this bike I found at the LBS -
[IMG]
IMG_3829_zpsgptniiia by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]
- and it was successfully tagged as an Allegro, built in Neuchatel Switzerland. So I made a deal involving parts swapped and parts sold with my buddy the LBS manager and took it home. From there I wound up scouring the 'net and communicating at length with Craig Griffith. We determined that my bike was built c.1973-74, with a greater likelihood of it being the later date.
As it came to me it had some issues, some obvious, some less so. No head badge and bad black rattlecan were one thing; semi-collectible but clunky steel Campagnolo Sport cotterless cranks were another; out-of-character black SunTour Cyclone shifters and Gran Compe sidepulls could be replaced. It took lots of PowerBlaster and a sizeable length of pipe to lever free the Zeus seatpost, which was stuck way down in there, but I managed it.
The bars that came with the bike are Cinelli Campione del Mundo, and they're even in my size - though they are seriously scarred, because someone decided that with enough effort they could fit those 26.0 bars into a 25.4 clamp SR stem. And they did, but it was not for the faint of heart. So I got all that sorted out, and steadily removed parts and got deeper into the mysteries of the bike.
The headset was interesting, and there's a thread about it - but in essence, someone had taken an Italian threaded Campagnolo Nuovo Record headset, which is normally a 42mm stack height unit, left out all spacers, turned down the fork crown race seat to 26.4mm and slammed it all together. It held, but it was loose and I didn't trust it, especially when the steerer only had enough room for a 34mm stack height headset. Ahem.
After losing an auction for a Stronglight P3 I wound up buying a French threaded headset from a Motobecane and using the top half of that with the bottom half of a Tange Levin CDS. There was even enough room for the nice flat Weinmann centerpull cable stop I liberated from another old Motobecane I had lying around.
The bottom bracket was next. It's the stock Stronglight, and I suppose a mod. 94 or mod. 49 would be appropriate, but I am only a poor bike fiend with a limited budget. I looked around at crankset options and stumbled onto JohnE's writings around this forum involving modifying 130mm bcd chainrings to fit 128mm bcd Nervar Star cranksets. I had a 47 and a 39T ring in that pattern, and lo, here was a set of Nervar Star cranks without chainrings on eBay for a whopping $20. That was easy.
Modifying the rings, maybe not so much. In hindsight, I would have done better to use the Dremel tool, but I thought I would get good results using my $10 yard sale drill press. Not really - in the end, I wound up needing two C-clamps to hold the ring in place while I widened the bolt holes inward. It works, but it isn't elegant. I suspect I will be going back to clean and neaten things up later.
[IMG]
IMG_4581_zpsmqoi5mdo by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]
A few months back I had read the stuff about SunTour freewheels on Sheldon Brown's site, and after mentally thanking him again for his gifts to us, I used my puny vise and a length of chain and a chain whip to dismantle some old SunTour freewheels I had to built up a New Winner body with 13-15-17-19-21-26T in Ultra-6 format. This came out and replaced the 14-21 5-speed the bike came to me with. I broke down and bought a new budget chain, a KMC, because they've worked just fine on my other bikes, so why not?
I thought I would use the Miche Competition hubs laced to Rigida 27-in rims - but something went amiss when I repacked the rear, and I will need to go back and sort that out and make it right. In haste, I picked up the Normandy Sport/Weinmann/Araya mixed 27-in wheels from a '75 Motobecane GT - and discovered I like them a little better. They're wider, making the tires wider, giving me that cushiness of a 27 x 1 1/4 at 70 psi that I rediscovered last summer. AND I'd already repacked these hubs, and they just want to spin forever, so again, why not?
Searching the parts bin produced a pair of Weinmann 610 centerpulls; I fished out the levers I used for the clunker challenge and encased them in new Cane Creek hoods; I took the Motobecane's Pivo randonneur bars and shimmed them again with beverage can material and fitted them to a Nitto Technomic; then I got all overly-tweedy and resurrected the once-sky-blue Tressostar that had been on my old Rivendell that I sold years ago and brushed on some dark green Easter egg dye and shellacked the lot.
I put the Campagnolo Nuovo Record derailleurs back on, at least for now. I've been riding since 1973 and I don't think I'd ridden five miles on bikes with those in all these years, so I thought I'd give them a try. If I don't like them, I've got a perfectly good V-GT Luxe rear and some sort of SunTour front derailleur I could put on in their place. We'll see, as I tell my children.
So I assembled it all, in the usual stolen moments fashion done around work, children and family schedules, and took it for its first ride Monday night around the neighborhood. That was a wise choice - each loop I stopped and readjusted something - and I dialed in the bike, riding with lights around the 1.08 mile loop and getting used to it.
[IMG]
IMG_4617_zps4dkdhzqn by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]
It's PLUSH. In addition to wide rims and 27 x 1 1/4s at 70 psi, the wheelbase on this rascal is 41 1/4 inches, and the axle is at midpoint in the dropouts. Throw in the extra suppleness that seems to come with metric gauge 531, and this Allegro is something else. Why had I never paid attention to this marque?
It's not perfect, not yet. The top tube is a centimeter longer than I usually ride, and the stem is as well - even with the narrower Pivo bars, I feel a little more outstretched than the ideal, and I suspect I will go looking for a deal on a user-grade Nitto Technomic Deluxe in 9 or 10cm to use with the Cinellis that came with the bike. I am not so crazy about the bar tape, either, and either straight up sky blue or classic red Tressostar, with clear untinted shellac, is in the bike's future. If I decide to keep it, I will want some Panaracer Paselas.
But for now, it's a lot of fun.
[IMG]
IMG_4618_zpsrz3irxcl by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]
IMG_3829_zpsgptniiia by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]- and it was successfully tagged as an Allegro, built in Neuchatel Switzerland. So I made a deal involving parts swapped and parts sold with my buddy the LBS manager and took it home. From there I wound up scouring the 'net and communicating at length with Craig Griffith. We determined that my bike was built c.1973-74, with a greater likelihood of it being the later date.
As it came to me it had some issues, some obvious, some less so. No head badge and bad black rattlecan were one thing; semi-collectible but clunky steel Campagnolo Sport cotterless cranks were another; out-of-character black SunTour Cyclone shifters and Gran Compe sidepulls could be replaced. It took lots of PowerBlaster and a sizeable length of pipe to lever free the Zeus seatpost, which was stuck way down in there, but I managed it.
The bars that came with the bike are Cinelli Campione del Mundo, and they're even in my size - though they are seriously scarred, because someone decided that with enough effort they could fit those 26.0 bars into a 25.4 clamp SR stem. And they did, but it was not for the faint of heart. So I got all that sorted out, and steadily removed parts and got deeper into the mysteries of the bike.
The headset was interesting, and there's a thread about it - but in essence, someone had taken an Italian threaded Campagnolo Nuovo Record headset, which is normally a 42mm stack height unit, left out all spacers, turned down the fork crown race seat to 26.4mm and slammed it all together. It held, but it was loose and I didn't trust it, especially when the steerer only had enough room for a 34mm stack height headset. Ahem.
After losing an auction for a Stronglight P3 I wound up buying a French threaded headset from a Motobecane and using the top half of that with the bottom half of a Tange Levin CDS. There was even enough room for the nice flat Weinmann centerpull cable stop I liberated from another old Motobecane I had lying around.
The bottom bracket was next. It's the stock Stronglight, and I suppose a mod. 94 or mod. 49 would be appropriate, but I am only a poor bike fiend with a limited budget. I looked around at crankset options and stumbled onto JohnE's writings around this forum involving modifying 130mm bcd chainrings to fit 128mm bcd Nervar Star cranksets. I had a 47 and a 39T ring in that pattern, and lo, here was a set of Nervar Star cranks without chainrings on eBay for a whopping $20. That was easy.
Modifying the rings, maybe not so much. In hindsight, I would have done better to use the Dremel tool, but I thought I would get good results using my $10 yard sale drill press. Not really - in the end, I wound up needing two C-clamps to hold the ring in place while I widened the bolt holes inward. It works, but it isn't elegant. I suspect I will be going back to clean and neaten things up later.
[IMG]
IMG_4581_zpsmqoi5mdo by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]A few months back I had read the stuff about SunTour freewheels on Sheldon Brown's site, and after mentally thanking him again for his gifts to us, I used my puny vise and a length of chain and a chain whip to dismantle some old SunTour freewheels I had to built up a New Winner body with 13-15-17-19-21-26T in Ultra-6 format. This came out and replaced the 14-21 5-speed the bike came to me with. I broke down and bought a new budget chain, a KMC, because they've worked just fine on my other bikes, so why not?
I thought I would use the Miche Competition hubs laced to Rigida 27-in rims - but something went amiss when I repacked the rear, and I will need to go back and sort that out and make it right. In haste, I picked up the Normandy Sport/Weinmann/Araya mixed 27-in wheels from a '75 Motobecane GT - and discovered I like them a little better. They're wider, making the tires wider, giving me that cushiness of a 27 x 1 1/4 at 70 psi that I rediscovered last summer. AND I'd already repacked these hubs, and they just want to spin forever, so again, why not?
Searching the parts bin produced a pair of Weinmann 610 centerpulls; I fished out the levers I used for the clunker challenge and encased them in new Cane Creek hoods; I took the Motobecane's Pivo randonneur bars and shimmed them again with beverage can material and fitted them to a Nitto Technomic; then I got all overly-tweedy and resurrected the once-sky-blue Tressostar that had been on my old Rivendell that I sold years ago and brushed on some dark green Easter egg dye and shellacked the lot.
I put the Campagnolo Nuovo Record derailleurs back on, at least for now. I've been riding since 1973 and I don't think I'd ridden five miles on bikes with those in all these years, so I thought I'd give them a try. If I don't like them, I've got a perfectly good V-GT Luxe rear and some sort of SunTour front derailleur I could put on in their place. We'll see, as I tell my children.
So I assembled it all, in the usual stolen moments fashion done around work, children and family schedules, and took it for its first ride Monday night around the neighborhood. That was a wise choice - each loop I stopped and readjusted something - and I dialed in the bike, riding with lights around the 1.08 mile loop and getting used to it.
[IMG]
IMG_4617_zps4dkdhzqn by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]It's PLUSH. In addition to wide rims and 27 x 1 1/4s at 70 psi, the wheelbase on this rascal is 41 1/4 inches, and the axle is at midpoint in the dropouts. Throw in the extra suppleness that seems to come with metric gauge 531, and this Allegro is something else. Why had I never paid attention to this marque?
It's not perfect, not yet. The top tube is a centimeter longer than I usually ride, and the stem is as well - even with the narrower Pivo bars, I feel a little more outstretched than the ideal, and I suspect I will go looking for a deal on a user-grade Nitto Technomic Deluxe in 9 or 10cm to use with the Cinellis that came with the bike. I am not so crazy about the bar tape, either, and either straight up sky blue or classic red Tressostar, with clear untinted shellac, is in the bike's future. If I decide to keep it, I will want some Panaracer Paselas.
But for now, it's a lot of fun.
[IMG]
IMG_4618_zpsrz3irxcl by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]
Last edited by rustystrings61; 08-07-17 at 07:10 AM.
05-04-17, 10:36 AM
#2
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Very nice write-up on a marquee not seen in the USA much. I
I always look at pics first. When I saw the size of that bit and the 'mad scientist' in the title, i thought it might be an over zealous case of drillium affection.
edit: agree there is something nice about the ride of a 27" wheel....impossible to quantify (for me). Maybe just nostalgia from my first couple of bikes. But I will politely disagree on metric tubing for a roadie... however, I'm a 200 pounder. I see metric tubing in my future only on a city type rider.
I always look at pics first. When I saw the size of that bit and the 'mad scientist' in the title, i thought it might be an over zealous case of drillium affection.
edit: agree there is something nice about the ride of a 27" wheel....impossible to quantify (for me). Maybe just nostalgia from my first couple of bikes. But I will politely disagree on metric tubing for a roadie... however, I'm a 200 pounder. I see metric tubing in my future only on a city type rider.
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Vintage, modern, e-road. It is a big cycling universe.
Vintage, modern, e-road. It is a big cycling universe.
Last edited by Wildwood; 05-04-17 at 11:52 AM.
05-04-17, 12:05 PM
#3
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Excellent write-up, my kind of build too! Thanks for sharing them. 
05-04-17, 08:51 PM
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Stolen moments....I get it. A fan of the 27 wheel also.
05-06-17, 09:01 AM
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Turned out very nice and I can tell it was fun. Thanks for writing it up!
I'm saving a rattle-canned black frame too - - it's the perfect guilt-free canvas for experimentation.
I'm saving a rattle-canned black frame too - - it's the perfect guilt-free canvas for experimentation.
05-06-17, 03:20 PM
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Nice work! I like Allegro's too. If it was mine and it fit I would definitely do a DIY refinish. Allegro's often had simple one-color schemes, or you could try one of those outrageous Swiss fade schemes. You could shorten up the horizontal reach by moving the saddle forward a bit.
05-06-17, 03:51 PM
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Nicely done. I actually have genuine Nervar 128mm 47T and 38T rings on my Star crankset at the moment, but in the future I may need to try my 130-to-128 trick again. I still have the modified 44T ring.
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Capo: 1959 Modell Campagnolo, S/N 40324; 1960 Sieger (2), S/N 42624, 42597
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"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." --Theodore Roosevelt
Capo: 1959 Modell Campagnolo, S/N 40324; 1960 Sieger (2), S/N 42624, 42597
Carlton: 1962 Franco Suisse, S/N K7911
Peugeot: 1970 UO-8, S/N 0010468
Bianchi: 1982 Campione d'Italia, S/N 1.M9914
Schwinn: 1988 Project KOM-10, S/N F804069
05-06-17, 03:56 PM
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That frame looks to have really laid back angles. You mentioned the long wheelbase, I looked at the photo, noticed that the rear tire is not far off the seattube, then saw the relaxed seattube angle. Threw a square on my computer screen and saw the nose of your seat is way behind the BB. As the poster above suggested, moving the seat forward will probably not compromise your position on the bike and may even help. (I am not a fan of using seat position to fine tune reach, but here it may well be warranted.)
I have a soft spot for Allegros. My best friends dad bought one, mid '60s. Chrome with their famous lacquer fade on the stays and fork. Turquoise and to this day, the most beautiful bike I have ever seen. Later he bought a much simpler Allegro roughly the year of yours. Much better bike and nearly all the lacquer was off the old one but my heart was still with the old.
It's funny. I've doing the opposite of you for many years, taking early '80s Japanese bikes built for 27" and going 700c. I like the quicker steering and love the fender clearance. Great city fix gears. I am now riding my old Peter Mooney again (A bike with your wheelbase) as a fix gear and loving the elegant ride. It was built as a 700c/27" compromise because in 1978, it was not clear which standard was going to rule and even less clear that if I lived in backcountry Maine I could even get 700c.
Ben
I have a soft spot for Allegros. My best friends dad bought one, mid '60s. Chrome with their famous lacquer fade on the stays and fork. Turquoise and to this day, the most beautiful bike I have ever seen. Later he bought a much simpler Allegro roughly the year of yours. Much better bike and nearly all the lacquer was off the old one but my heart was still with the old.
It's funny. I've doing the opposite of you for many years, taking early '80s Japanese bikes built for 27" and going 700c. I like the quicker steering and love the fender clearance. Great city fix gears. I am now riding my old Peter Mooney again (A bike with your wheelbase) as a fix gear and loving the elegant ride. It was built as a 700c/27" compromise because in 1978, it was not clear which standard was going to rule and even less clear that if I lived in backcountry Maine I could even get 700c.
Ben
05-08-17, 06:58 AM
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Thank you, all of you!
I may cheat the saddle forward a wee bit, so long as I can keep a position that keeps my left knee happy. I think I want to swap out the bars from the Cinellis that came with it, and if I am going to do that, I will need a different stem, so I might as well get a slightly shorter extension while I am at it. If anyone has a 9 or 10 cm Nitto Technomic Deluxe with a 26.0 clamp available either cheap or for trade, that would be fabulous - and a serviceable set of Nitto mod. 176 in 42cm would net you the Cinellis! Anyway, that would be a good time to change the bar tape color as well - and if I go red, I have some red ALE toe straps I could swap onto the MKS pedals.
JoeBass, what is the SN on your red Allegro? Yours looks like it has the same Bocama lugs and lack of chrome as mine. Poking around in the Wayback machine and searching for Allegro catalogs, I found some mid to late 70s catalogs that lead me to suspect that I have a model 76 or 77 or its equivalent. Although the majority of the nicely-detailed Allegros came with either a Stronglight V4 or a Campagnolo Nuovo Record headset, mine looks like it left the factory with a P3, and close reading of some of the old catalogs indicates they may have sent some out with that lesser model installed.
I will want to ride it some more to determine if I want to break down and properly refinish it, track down a headbadge and rivet it on, get the decals from either Cyclomundo or Velocals, etc., etc. I suspect I will probably swap this bike out to 700C wheels, though. The more I look at it the more I think it originally came with tubulars, and getting an inflated 27-in tire on in the back is just challenging enough to make me think that 700 x 32 with fenders would be a better choice. All of that takes time and/or money devoted to bike stuff, neither of which is in great supply at the moment ... but patience, grasshopper, patience.
I may cheat the saddle forward a wee bit, so long as I can keep a position that keeps my left knee happy. I think I want to swap out the bars from the Cinellis that came with it, and if I am going to do that, I will need a different stem, so I might as well get a slightly shorter extension while I am at it. If anyone has a 9 or 10 cm Nitto Technomic Deluxe with a 26.0 clamp available either cheap or for trade, that would be fabulous - and a serviceable set of Nitto mod. 176 in 42cm would net you the Cinellis! Anyway, that would be a good time to change the bar tape color as well - and if I go red, I have some red ALE toe straps I could swap onto the MKS pedals.
JoeBass, what is the SN on your red Allegro? Yours looks like it has the same Bocama lugs and lack of chrome as mine. Poking around in the Wayback machine and searching for Allegro catalogs, I found some mid to late 70s catalogs that lead me to suspect that I have a model 76 or 77 or its equivalent. Although the majority of the nicely-detailed Allegros came with either a Stronglight V4 or a Campagnolo Nuovo Record headset, mine looks like it left the factory with a P3, and close reading of some of the old catalogs indicates they may have sent some out with that lesser model installed.
I will want to ride it some more to determine if I want to break down and properly refinish it, track down a headbadge and rivet it on, get the decals from either Cyclomundo or Velocals, etc., etc. I suspect I will probably swap this bike out to 700C wheels, though. The more I look at it the more I think it originally came with tubulars, and getting an inflated 27-in tire on in the back is just challenging enough to make me think that 700 x 32 with fenders would be a better choice. All of that takes time and/or money devoted to bike stuff, neither of which is in great supply at the moment ... but patience, grasshopper, patience.
05-08-17, 07:18 AM
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-----
Did you get the serial ingot on the side of the seat tube? These are often missing on cycles which have passed through multiple hands due to someone knowing or suspecting thermal aggrandizement.
There was a model at this time which came fitted with Stronglight 93 chainset, Campag NR gear ensemble, Campag NT large flange hubs, Weinmann 500 sidepull brakes, Stronglight V4 headset and straight saddle pillar.
Factory began use of this BOCAMA lugset somewhere near 1970. Previously they had built with NERVEX Profesional.
Do you have the Fisher sandcast shell with the prominent lip on the fixed side?
-----
-----
Did you get the serial ingot on the side of the seat tube? These are often missing on cycles which have passed through multiple hands due to someone knowing or suspecting thermal aggrandizement.
There was a model at this time which came fitted with Stronglight 93 chainset, Campag NR gear ensemble, Campag NT large flange hubs, Weinmann 500 sidepull brakes, Stronglight V4 headset and straight saddle pillar.
Factory began use of this BOCAMA lugset somewhere near 1970. Previously they had built with NERVEX Profesional.
Do you have the Fisher sandcast shell with the prominent lip on the fixed side?
-----
-----
05-08-17, 09:23 AM
#13
Pedal to the medal
Excellent and thorough right up. Thanks for sharing.
06-05-17, 06:46 AM
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In the end I took everyone's advice and scooted the saddle forward about a centimeter. Then I found a deal on a used Nitto Technomic 90 mm stem, fitted the Cinelli old logo bars that came with bike to it, and made the switch. The blue faux-Tresso that Rivendell was selling more than a dozen years ago went on smoothly enough, followed by several coats of shellac. Behold -
[IMG]
IMG_4782_zps1qqpsbjb by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]
This photo is a little dark and doesn't quite capture the color, but it's close. I really like these bars, and now the bike feels like it fits me.
[IMG]
IMG_4784_zps2nhab8si by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]
I still want to build up or acquire some 700C wheels and some fenders, but those things can wait until time and funds come together. I also have crazy ideas about a fancy rando bag and rack, but again - patience. Patience.
[IMG]
IMG_4782_zps1qqpsbjb by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]This photo is a little dark and doesn't quite capture the color, but it's close. I really like these bars, and now the bike feels like it fits me.
[IMG]
IMG_4784_zps2nhab8si by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]I still want to build up or acquire some 700C wheels and some fenders, but those things can wait until time and funds come together. I also have crazy ideas about a fancy rando bag and rack, but again - patience. Patience.
Last edited by rustystrings61; 08-07-17 at 07:12 AM.
06-05-17, 06:55 AM
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Cool bike and great write up. Looking forward to seeing your crazy ideas about a rando bag and rack operationalized . . . .
06-05-17, 07:04 AM
#17
Pedal to the medal
Great to see what you did to a neglected bike. Your write up is interesting and the bike looks like a lot of fun to ride. That fork rack looks comfy.
06-05-17, 07:34 AM
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That turned out nice. I agree with the moving of the seat forward remarks, might make quite a change.
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