Kovkov

My parents bought me this bike for going to school back in 1988 when i was 14. It took a lot of abuse back then. I did a lot of offroad riding with it (my friends had mountain bikes, i didn't). Then there was this game where we would ride our bikes straight into a wall and have it bounce back so we could coast backwards. And of course i fell over with it numerous times. In 2002 the rear wheel cought a branch and the result was broken derailleur. Didn't have any bicycle mechanic experience back then and my LBS was more into selling new bikes then repair. Their verdict was basically "throw that old crap away it's unfixable". After that it spent a few years retired in my basement and i rode around with indexed derailleur bikes. That forced me into learning about fixing bicycles, because they needed constant readjustments. At some point i was so fed up with it that i switched to SA-AW-3-speeds (still my favorite gearing system). At some point i thought i might get it fixed, bought the same model (Sachs-Huret) Eco of derailleur of ebay and brought the bike to a better bike shop for complete service and inspection. Bottom line it worked like almost new after that. I did some upgrades myself after. The only thing that's defintely worn is the freewheel bearing.

It's a typical classic swiss 5 speed "halbrenner"."Half racing bike". Means a somewhat shorter wheelbase, steeper seat tube, derailleur gears, fenders, rack and lights.

I guess the bike is from 1987. I got it new in october 1988. There are no 5 speeds in the 1988 mondia catalogue. Some original components indicate 1987.


Frame: Lugged steel. Most probably some standard high tensile not butted tubing. Filler appears to be brass.

Fork: Mondia chromed steel threaded (the original matched the frame color it was bent backwards badly and couldn't be straightened any more. Guess because of the game mentioned above . Don't know how many years i rode it in that condition without noticing *lol*.

Stem: ITM aluminium

Headset: Some standard open model for threaded 1 inch forks with 2 spacers to accomodate the longer new fork. Was chosen and installed by bikeshop.

Handlebar: Standard steel "Cenery" type.

Rims: Weinmann 700C 19mm clincher aluminium with presta hole and 36 spokes (3 cross)

Front hub: Sachs-Maillard Atom

Rear Hub: Sachs-Maillard Atom

Frewheel: Sachs-Maillard Atom 5 speed 14-18-20-24-26T (correction: 14-17-20-23-26T)

Tires: Schwalbe Road Cruiser 32-622 (originals were Maloyas with same dimensions)

Crank: Sugino something 48T. Steel chainwheel with aluminium arms. If i deciphered the stamp on the backside of the crank arms correctly it's an 1987 model.

Pedals: Plattform (guess union)

BB: Square tapper cup and ball something. Didn't dissassemble it myself yet so i don't know. Since the crank is japanese it could be something found on

japanese bicycles.

Chain: KMC 3/32 inch 5-8 speed (don't know what the original was)

Derailleur: Suntour VX (original: Sachs-Huret Eco). Until this upgrade i never imagined that such a primitive (chain bending) shifting technique can have such smootheness differences between derailleur models. I'm kinda missing the "accoustic readback" during shifting (read "rattling") of the eco tough .

Shifter: Sachs-Huret downtube friction.

Kickstand: Pletscher ESGE.

Rack: Pletscher Model C

Dynamo: Union

Front light: Union

Rear light: BUMM (original was Union i guess. Broke off years ago)

Fenders: Weinmann Inox

Brakes: Weinmann single pivot sidepull (730 front, 810 back)

Saddle: Brooks Cambium C17 (original was one of those black synthetic leather on foam models with this rhomboid texture found on many late 70ies/80ies french bikes)

John E

Mondia paint jobs were always something special.

Weird gearing, though. Why would anyone use 14-18-20-24-26 instead of either the ever-common 14-17-20-24-28 or 14-16-19-22-26, or even 14-17-20-23-26, all of which were readily available in the day.

Kovkov

Im pretty positive since the gaps also feel that way. But i might count one more time, maybe i'm biased by the numbers .

noobinsf 

Kovkov

I re-counted. It's 14-17-20-23-26 . Thanks for the hint . Guess the equal spacing makes the straight "cone" of the cluster.