TenGrainBread 

Polished Velocity Cliffhangers?
For something a little less burly, VO Diagonales. A little lighter.

SquireBlack 

I was thinking of something narrower, to be more in line with what might have been original. I have VO Diagonales on my Rando Bike, and like them a lot, with 41mm Compass tires. But something that wide doesn't "feel" right for the Lygie.

Pacenti says that they will have 32h rims in "soon". I've also noticed these: Sun Tour SunXCD Polished Alloy rim 650B. There are some US vendors for SunXCD, but their price is quite a lot higher. Which seems odd, considering that SunXCD is a Japanese company.

SquireBlack 

As a Christmas present to myself, I started assembling a few bits. Hit my first snag: the chainring bolts from the Stronglight rings won't work for my new TA rings:



Stronglight 49D crank with new TA rings — sans bolts

The TA bolts need to have 7mm diameter sleeves, and 10mm diameter heads. By my calculations, the spacers should be 1.5mm think. Where do I find such bolts?

On the upside, when mounted on a 118mm Velo Orange cartridge Botton Bracket spindle, the chain line is just about perfect.

SquireBlack 

The answer appears to be: Velo Orange. Norther Cycles right here in Portland sold me a set this afternoon. They said that the TA bolts are (a) very expensive, and (b) crap.

gugie 

A suggestion for an alternative rim is this: borrow one. I just happen to have purchased a set on sale for a future build, but do not need them right now. Backfill when they're back in stock.

Good to see that Norther took care of you. For those that want to help out one of the few LBS's in the US to stock hard to find vintage parts, buy from them.

gugie 

BTW, if the OP is really smitten by the Stronglight logo on those cranks, @nlerner can set you up with his tattoo artist.

SquireBlack 

My RAID brakes arrived from France on Boxing Day. They are in very good condition, but the bearings will benefit from replacing the plastic bushings with the Compass ones. Does anyone in Portland have a 10H7 reamer and the Compass bushing tool available to borrow?

I've been gradually coming to the conclusion that the front fork that came with the bike is not original. It seems heavier than the frame, and the lugs, although quite similar, don't seem to be the same. Finally, the brake reach on the front is about 15mm more than on the rear:



Front brake with VO Diagonale 650B rim

The brake has enough reach — just barely. This settles the question of whether to use 26" or 650B rims! At least there is plenty of fender clearance

gugie 

SquireBlack 

I haven't posted here for a while. I've been collecting parts, but have not had time for much else. Over the last week, though, I have made some progress. The decals are on, the wheels are built, and the tires mounted.


Mafac RAID restored with Compass bushings and Gugie's tools.


Decals from Velocals


Pacenti Brevet Rim on Shimano 600 "Tricolor" hub. Modern SRAM 8-speed cassette.

I'm not 100% happy with the tires: the hubs and rims seem to go well together, but the tires look too wide to be period. They are Panaracer Pacenti Pari-Motos, and come in at about 37.5 mm on these rims. Appearance-wise, I would have preferred to have something around 32mm, like a Grand Bois Cypress. I'm loth to go hunting in Japan, though, for a tire that will ride less-well than the Pari-Moto. I'm guessing that once I have the garde-boue mounted, things will look fine.





I need a period Bidon that will fit in this cage! Note the go-faster stripes on the seat tube — also from Velocals.

Not shown here: I also have cut down the quill on a recycled 25.4mm Ø Nito Technomic stem so that it will be adjustable to my preferred bar height.

TenGrainBread 

Looks like it's coming along.

To me, the lack of skin walls on the tires jumps out at me as weird for the build, not the width. If you can fit 38mm tires why would you go with 32s? This is clearly a "randonneur"-leaning build anyway.

This is the first I've heard of someone cutting down a Technomic. Plenty of shorter Nitto stems out there. I'm sure someone would have traded with you. I guess it works!
*

gugie 

35's would probably give you a better fenderline.

bwilli88 

I like the fat tires.
IMG_20180531_181406077_LL by Bwilli88, on Flickr

IMG_20181001_175313740_HDR by Bwilli88, on Flickr

Andy_K 

That's looking really nice. I like the subtle decals.

SquireBlack 

My wife was arguing for pink, but I decided that I could not go that far ...

As for cutting down the Technomic — I did start with a TTT stem, but it was too short in the quill. The Technomic was my second attempt. I fretted about cutting it for a long time, but it was actually quite easy, because the metal shop at work has a bandsaw where you can clamp the work stationary, and bring down the band a bit like a chop saw. I removed only about an inch from the end of the quill. The angle wasn't quite right first time, but a bench-mounted belt sander finished it off quite easily, and let me make the fine adjustment. I should have taken photos before I inserted it.

SquireBlack 

I spend several evenings this week dickering with the "garde-boue". Amazing how long this takes! At first I was thinking: now I know why stock bikes don't come with mudguards: it would take too long to set them up. But then I thought: if it's a stock build, everything will be pre-dimensioned, and all of this stuff could be factory cut to fit. Ah well ...

I'm pretty pleased with the outcome:



On the front is a Berthould stay, riveted in place; my intent is to allow a little extra space for my toes.


The rear uses the standard Velo-Orange hardware:



After I finished admiring the nice concentric alignment, I took a hacksaw to the rear so that I could start the Rinko process. Here is the piece of donor fender from Gugie:



The hardest part was cutting off the hem. I started with tin snips, but that left a ragged edge, and it took a lot of work with a belt sander to get them smooth. However, because of the curve in the mudguard, the ends are now a little narrower than the center.

Now I'm waiting for the epoxy to set up:


Should I add a couple of ⅛" pop-rivets too? I seem to recall Gugie saying that JP Wiegle used epoxy only, but the photos I found showed that he also put the tang on the fixed part of the mudguard, where the attachment to the seat stay bridge can reinforce the tang attachment, and the tang can reinforce the fender at the bridge. A very nice solution; I wish that I had seen this before I cut and epoxied mine!

JP Wiegle rinko'd fender

I felt a little bit weird doing all of this work before I have the brakes or the drivetrain assembled. However, I realized that mounting the mudguards means taking the wheels off about 19 times, and the front brake (with the daruma) about 15 times, and that would be much easier with no chain and no brake cables installed. Also, sawing the mudguard in half to do the rinko-ing would not shed aluminum filings into the chain if it wasn't yet installed. Hence my decision to do this work first.

SquireBlack 

Here are a couple more pictures.

This is the Nito Technomic stem after I cut it down:



And here are the attachments for the garde-boue. The spacer under the daruma is a slice from a cork from a bottle of Prosecco — which seemed approriate!


This is the "spring thing" that attaches the rear mudguard to the chainstay bridge — necessary top get the wheel out of the horizontal dropouts. I failed to find a 50mm M5 Truss-head or button head stainless steel screw; what you see here is a USC #10-24 screw cut down to 45mm. Works fine, but requires a ⅜" wrench, which is not something that I normally carry with me.



And here is the attachment to the seatstay bridge. The small stainless steel bracket is the one that comes with the Velo-Orange fenders. It comes riveted to a metal strip that is intended to wrap around the fender; I didn't see the point of that strap, so I liberated the bracket. At first I screwed it to the fender with a 4mm bolt, leather washer and Nyloc nut. But the nut interfered with the brake mounting nut, so I substituted a 5/32" rivet for the 4mm bolt. This seems to work fine, but leaves no place for the leather washer. I wonder if I should put a leather washer around the rivet, between the bracket and the fender, as I would do with a bolt? This would lower the fender by a couple of millimeters, because there needs to be enough of a gap between the horizontal part of th bracket and the brake mounting nut to allow the nut to turn.

SquireBlack 

The Lygie took it's maiden voyage today! It's not actually done done, but it is ridable, for the first time. Brakes seem good, gearing needs some work. The rear light arrived in the mail this evening. No bags as yet. But she saw the sunshine today, and handled very nicely!



The Rinko seam is a bit more noticeable than I would like


No front fender stay, but it doesn't seem to need one.


On some shifts the chain skated over the small ring, rather than meshing with it. Not sure why ... other than the spacers between the rings being overly thick


Not quite sure how to route the gear cables to the barcons around the brake straddle cable. This seemed reasonable.


This nice old SunTour mech will have to go; it doesn't have the capacity that I need.

The pictures show up all the flaws, but I'm still quite pleased!

unterhausen

That looks great. Thanks for all the pics

TenGrainBread 

Wow. Fantastic job with the fenders. Fenderline is pretty much perfect. I think the rinko seam looks fine.

gugie 

Nice! Agreed that the rinko seam is fine, your eyes are drawn to it, and you've taken an extreme close-up picture of it!

noglider 

This is a class act all the way through.

SquireBlack 

I added the finishing touch this morning:


All Bicycles need a Bell!

Here is the complete bike (sans bell):



#baaw


TA bag support, at or near its maximum capacity, I think



The Bento Box fits — but it's not quite contemporary.

I think that I've seen the kind of front bag that this bike needs ... now where was it?



... on the wall of my study! That's Luciano Berruti (on the Eroica California 2018 Poster).



Here is a photo from the film about Luciano. Anyone know where I can get a bag like that?

gugie 

Well, you can't get a bag like that, but you can borrow one...

63rickert

Ruthworks has your bag. Introduced quite recently and patterned from old bags just like what Luciano is using.

Sir_Name