IdahoSpud

Guy had just bought a property and found this in the mud under a shelter - where the weather hit it from the sides. I got this for a hundred bucks.



I'm not sure what year it is, but the quality and components are similar to what you might find on a Centurion Ironman Circa 1986-7. The S/N is K1600517, so 1986?
It has Tange 1 Tubing, Shimano 105 Groupset with 6 speed indexed shifting. Araya Rims, and a neat-0 Nitto handlebar stem.

The corrosion was a bigger deal than I first realized. I ended up having to polish off some of the logos to get rid of the black pockmarks. The frame came clean with a little rubbing compound. The wheels are pretty beat up - loose spokes, and beat-up rims. They will need some professional work. One of the axles isn't spinning smoothly. The pedal cages were missing parts, and I'd install clipless anyway. When I finish getting it all sorted out this will be a great ride.

Dylansbob 

I have this in blue/white. Really liked it, even though it was slightly too small for me. I ran it with 650b wheels and parimotos for a while.

This era Novaras (mid eighties through early 90s), seem to be outstanding values. The mtb range at the time were designed by Scott Nicol and the road bikes seem to be of equally well-thought geometry. There was a Team Trionfo that was made with Prestige that would be a great find today.

xiaoman1 

Really nice job on the clean-up...what did you use to get those results?
Best, Ben

IdahoSpud

A few things, Ben.

• Kaboom shower and tub cleaner (an Oxy-Clean product) seems to work really well on rust. It's a mild acid - seems to be quite a bit stronger than vinegar. That took care of the rust on the spokes and casette (Edit: Freewheel).
• Speaking of vinegar, After scrubbing the chain in the deep sink with Oxy-clean, I soaked the chain in vinegar for several hours. Afterwards I rinsed it out with water, cloth-dried it, and gave it a heavy shot of WD-40
• Grimy metal that had no paint or plastic bits nearby - (chainrings etc) I used carburetor cleaner on.
• For the painted frame and aluminum I used Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish. It's a mild cutting compound that will remove oxidization from both paint and metal. I had to use a buffing wheel for the handlebar stem, but the crank arms and brake calipers were done by hand.
• Afterwards everything got a coat of wax to prevent the freshly exposed surfaces from oxidizing again.

xiaoman1 

Thanks, Ben

mstateglfr 

I have an '89 Trionfo frame that i got off this forum a few years ago. Built it up with a mix of modern and old into a 2x9 ride, then used it to Zwift on for a could years. I should build it back up again.
Seriously light frame and fork- tange 1 tubing with aggressive geometry. It looks quite similar to an Ironman from afar, but it has an internal top tube brake cable routing and the lugs are different from an Ironman.
The rear fit a 25mm GP4k which measures out to 27mm, but only barely fits with a sheet of paper's space between the tire and seat tube. There needs to be 0 hop in the wheels in terms of trueness. A 25mm really is the widest I should go. The vertical dropouts also allow the 27mm tire to fit.

I am guessing, based on the external routed brake housing and dropout design, that the OPs is from before '89. Just a guess based on trends though.

rjhammett

Some have speculated that the Novara Trionfo and Centurion Ironman were built by the same frame builder.

ShannonM

Wouldn't surprise me a bit. House-brand frames probably went out for bid out with every production run, and there were a lot more job shops back then. Many had multiple builders, sometimes even in the same year.

--Shannon

Mr. Spadoni 

I have an REI catalogue from ‘88. Trionfo has external cables. I own a 89 Trionfo. Internal
cables.
As far as the clearances, the 88 catalogue says the Trionfo came with 20 mm tires. It was the peak of the triathlon era so likely anything wider than that wouldn’t have sold. REI was not alone in building to a what we now consider a ridiculously narrow tire: I have two frames from well respected builders from the same era and even 25s are a squeeze of them.

scozim 

Novara had a decent reputation from what I remember. I've come across a couple over the years and decided to pass. But always wondered about the ride quality.

Darth Lefty 

please don’t open that can of worms again, it’s only been a few weeks :-p

Dylansbob 

Any chance you can scan in some of that? I've never came across a Novara catalog, in spite of owning several bikes. I'm wondering if the XR hybrid was out by '88, if so it was probably the '26" wheel version.

gthomson

Nice find, inspires me to head over to CL to see what I might find! Don't think I'll get as lucky ha ha

Did you use that Kaboom Oxidizer to get the stem so shiny? Was it chrome or steel? I've been looking for something to get my stems, cranks and other steel bits shiny again.

IdahoSpud

The stem is Aluminum, and it was pretty corroded. I used Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish - at first by hand. After a while I realized it would take a long time to hand polish, so I moved on to the buffing wheel. It took about 10 minutes of that to get what you see. It's still not perfect, but it's good enough for me.

velomateo

Nice save. I'm excited to see it back on a set of wheels

WaveyGravey

Very nice!!!

tpadul 

very nice find and great clean up job so far!!! post more pics when you finish it up!!

Mr. Spadoni 

The XR is in the 1988 catalogue as a 26” wheel. I will see if I can figure out how to do a scan with this device. Assume you are most interested in bikes, not the parts and stuff?

Mr. Spadoni 

Okay, here the spec paged from 88 catalogue. If you want a photo of a specific model, let me know but at this point I am only able to copy and page one page at a time of a multi page scan, and even then, it’s still a pain.
[img]blob:https://www.bikeforums.net/6e47c946-acc7-4f9b-bb34-c917ec15f4da[/img]

T-Mar

That's 2nd generation 105 (officially New 105) which came out for the 1987 model year. Consequently, the the serial number is likely KI600517 (2nd character being the letter i, as opposed to the numeral 1), which would be September 1986. That's late enough in the calendar year to be a 1987 model. The vast majority of Centurion Ironmen had their frames built by different manufacturer, but I've seen at least a handful of 1985 Ironmen with the same S/N format as the Trionfo. The manufacturer is believed to be Katakura, best known for their Silk brand bicycles and contract manufacturing the boom era, high end Nishiki.

IdahoSpud

T-Mar,

Thanks so much for taking the time to share all that great information!!! That's exactly what I was hoping to learn.

I had a hunch that this was a higher end item, mainly due to the tubing used. It even has a chromed right chainstay and chrome rear dropouts, a nice touch.

The wheels are still at the LBS for truing - and the rear axle was bent. I located and installed some age-appropriate Shimano PD-7401 pedals to replace the cages. I'll put up some pics when it has reached its final restored form.

Once again, thanks for that detail. Awesome to know!

IdahoSpud

The wheels came back from the LBS today. Dude said they were in reasonably good condition and should be good for several thousand miles. He recommended lightly sanding the rim flanges to remove the oxidized aluminum, which I did. I had a bunch of chores to do around the house, so I couldn't finish assembling the bike until I got to work, LOL.

I took it for a little ride, made some adjustments, then went some more. It feels solid and has a nice ride. I think I did everything right and it's safe. Looking forward to putting some miles on it.


Rubber mounted

Swapping out brakes

Finished with new handlebar tape







Vintage PD-7401 pedals

jdawginsc 

You can use mothers on paint???

jamesdak 

Nice job! Love seeing an old neglected bike brought back to life.

Never tried using Mother's on paint though, that's got me curious.

I usually used Meguiers #7 to cut oxidation and restore shine.

icemilkcoffee 

The rear drop out adjuster screws are pushing the rear wheel pretty far forward. You can ditch the adjusters and set the wheel way back as far as it will go- this will gain you some tire clearance.