^ Very nice!

I'll be off to Italy in a few weeks myself for a bike touring vacation and L'Eroica, and still not sure about the bikes to bring along. For L'Eroica it'll probably be something French, but for the touring bit I'm still undecided.

Welp, I felt something rubbing today on the way home but couldn't figure out what it was. A bump in the last stretch showed me why... seems like I'm off to find some new 5mm fender stays for the Weinmann's.

As the saying in C&V land goes; if you feel like using a hammer, walk away and try again later.

My rear light's standlight was not working all that well so while I was waiting for an RMA I decided to take the same light from another bike instead. This is one of 5 or 6 bikes that has this rear light and this is the only one that has stopped working so I consider it a blue monday model.
It however needed some sawing and filing of the mounting bolt. Usually I use a dremel for this but I was doing it by hand this time.

Well, the plastic clip for the bolt snapped off and it slipped inside. In my impatience I decided to open up the light to fix this... and well let's say this light is not meant to be openend.
Now this is totally my fault, but it does give me and others a chance to see what's inside.

And this is another example of Busch and Muller's excellent lens expertise.



The white bit in the middle is the single LED that provides all of the light. Behind the reflector is the lens which spreads out the light to all sides and provides 270° visibility.



There's a big, beefy capacitor on the rear that provides 5 minutes of standlight.


The square rear of the mounting bolt with the broken off clip. That's usually not a problem since the bolt is much longer but when clipped for flush mounting it can slip inside when you remove the light.


It's a shame the light is now broken but it might give me a good basis for something I was planning for quite a while;
a silver metal cover to slide over the black plastic to give the light a more classic look. Well, maybe.

I hope some people enjoyed this look.

Yes, thanks for sharing - sorry for your trouble. This light has been cannibalized and used to upgrade vintage lights, so don’t despair, it could still provide use!

I definitely won't be tossing it out just yet. It's a bit big for most vintage lights but I'll find a way to use it again.

Yesterday was a good day for a longer ride.

Hello, nice hub this one. I was also considering one for a bike with has an OLD of 126mm, however I wanted to use a 130mm hub in order to have more compatibility with existing cassettes. The dropouts have already been spaced to 126mm and I didn't wanted to cold set it even more.

My question is, is it possible to remove a 2mm nut from each side of the hub? Are there such nuts or spacers?

I'm afraid not. There's a hollow axle with two end caps. You might be able to turn in down in a lathe and shorten it but shortening the end caps means they don't fit anymore and you run into problems with the cassette.
SunXCD does have a 120mm version for a custom 5-speed cassette but if you want the future proofness of a 9/10-speed cassette you will have to widen the fork to 130mm.

I have been riding a lot on the Batavus these past few years and done so with pleasure. While I have a few things I want to upgrade in the future (TRP RRL SR lever, new bar tape, perhaps swap over most parts to the more complete backup frame I have) one of the more noticable parts that's a bit worn has been the rear derailleur.
The Sachs-Huret New Success touring derailleur doesn't feel as crisp anymore and seems to lack the pressure to shift into the smallest cogs (highest gear) most of the time. It isn't the adjustment screw, I have tried that already.

I've been thinking of swapping it out with the retro modern SunXCD rear derailleur which according to several sources is compatible with 9/10-speed STI levers.
Combined with a pair of sexy Shimano Dura-Ace SL-7700 (index) bar ends, Microshift BS-T09 (index/friction) or Microshift BS-T10 10-speed (index friction) + 10-speed cassette this should offer indexed shifting as well.

What are your thoughts on this? Would it be worth it to swap the rear-derailleur? Is there a way to replace the spring and give it a new lease on life? Let me know.

The SunXCD derailleur is made by Microshift, and this one is essentially the same derailleur for a fraction of the price: https://www.nashbar.com/microshift-r...d-r51m/p743279

I had a Microshift derailleur for a while on my Univega, and it felt like a very solid piece of equipment, shifted very well. Strangely, I am not currently running any Microshift on any bikes, but I do have index and microratchet bar ends that feel very solid, as well as three of their derailleurs, all of which appear to be well made.

Ah, totally forgot about that one. I've used the short cage version on the Gazelle Lausanne and it has held up really well over the winter and whatnot.

I'll have a look and see if I can find them here in Europe, they have been hard to come by but eBay has several direct options.

Thanks!

What are your experiences with indexing on them?

I only did this for a little while, but it felt very solid. I did this on the Univega with top-mount shifters, and the improvised cable stop would not cease to move, so I had to rethink the setup. I had it running with 7-speed brifters, and again, while the cable stop was complying, it was a very good setup.

My plan for a different frame is to run a 9s or 10s Microshift index bar ends with Microshift rear der, but I have yet to build this one, so I can't comment on that yet.

Not an update on this bike this time but one on the exact same size and model I bought last year that was in a better condition than mine.
Just spent some time cleaning up the shed and decided to disassemble the backup bike to get a good look at it.

The seller mentioned he got it in 1982 which seems to mesh with the Sachs-Huret Rival touring derailleur vs. the Sachs-Huret New Success touring derailleur on mine and what looks like a 52/42/30T Stronglight 99 (new style) crankset but with Stronglight 390 chainrings and regular 22mm threading (I have the tool, didn't fit, 22mm worked fine). Does anybody have any idea what they are?
They would be a good backup option but a heavy impact seems to have cracked the NDS crank unfortunately. I will probably offer them up on eBay or something for sombody that wants to use them for parts. Same for the Italian aluminum Cobra water bottle cages.
The original Esge fenders are in remarkably good condition. Most previous examples I have seen were delaminated. IIRC these have a metal strip running through them for the rear light.

The fork is still a mystery though.

Anyway, pics!


Overview


Stronglight crankset


Rear derailleur


Fork logo


Overview of the parts


Cobra water bottle cages (Italian)


Esge fenders


Front and rear derailleurs


Cranks overview


Bare frame

It looks like the fork came from a Snel bike.

You're right! Looks like we have a winner here.


De Snel van Tom - Klassiekeracefiets.nl

It does beg the question what a color-matched Snel fork is doing on this Batavus but perhaps that's something that Snel Fietsen can answer for me.
I do like the more functional dropouts with extra eyelets but the canti studs are still fairly narrow.

[MENTION=173992]non-fixie[/MENTION] looks like you have a Snel! as well!

EDIT: I just realized why this frame might have needed a new fork and a quick feel confirmed it. It has been in a front-end collision.
You can barely see it but I can feel it by hand. There is a small dimple near the lug.

I have a couple, actually. One S and one XL. Similar forks, but with different crowns. Haven't got the bikes with me to check.

That's a bummer. Is the frame straight? How did it feel when you rode the bike? Normally, you can tell if the frame is too much out of alignment.

A wash, deep clean, lube and new brake pads for the Batavus today!
I will be touring though the country here next week and staying in hostels. All restaurants are closed so that's going to be interesting.

Nice. Are you coming this way (Arnhem, Veluwe, Lingewaard..)? It's beautiful here at the moment if it's NOT raining .

The plan is to start in Maastricht and make my way up from there to Groningen or something. But it depends on the weather and how much distance I want to cover per day. My current estimate is around 100-120km a day but perhaps I'll do more. It looks like I will have a nice tailwind the first couple of days.
So yeah, I'll probably cross through Nijmegen and Arnhem.

Nice. Hopefully you’ll find time to take some pics along the way. I wouldn’t mind a virtual tour of the Netherlands right about now!