I did a few SSCX races on this about 12 years ago.



I can't say I'd recommend it, but it was fun.

BTW, if you need the kind of brake cable hanger that clamps onto a 1-1/8" steerer, I can send you one. I've got a couple on the shelf that I expect never to use again. I guess you'd need a shim (?), but after that adapter, it would be an easy problem to solve.

I actually have similar setup bike that I have done tone of country mountain miles on center pulls with basic linear pull aero levers and modern brake shoes work great.

The 40+ year old lower end Nishiki still looks and rides great.

Thanks for the offers guys and I may take you up on it depending on the direction this one takes me. An attempt to use my Oxford bars and the 300 Exage levers was a failure--too far away from the head tube for original cables and housing. Then, I was tempted to put the original cockpit back together, save the $ and go ride my 100 but this frameset was begging me to raise the bar -- that together we could achieve greatness -- Andy K level greatness!

(1) That is quite a "seat scab"... looking forward to the band aid, if that really is the way to go. (2) Are you going to keep all the "style points" within the cockpit, and carry them over to the Challenge? Really, those are gift from the previous owner. (3) That's not just rust.... I think there's some good old barn bird p00p in the mix there. I'm excited to see if you toss the reflectors, or keep them for "style points".

Fun and inventive ideas accepted and welcomed!

Welp, i usually have a good idea but there must have been a fog since I though it was closer to 54 cm. It is not. It is 52. Oops.

Since I always honor my offers, and especially since the guy came down to $50, I picked it up and put it on the rack.

Which makes me wonder whether or not to try to create a straight bar special on this one.

The good: frame is in patina-ed, but good shape. Polish and wax. ARX set and power shifter. Decent Sugino RT crankset. MKS Sylvan quills with dust caps! Sugino SPH seatpost that actually came out. Rusty but usable Dia Compe 400s. The stem is not cracked. The seat is probably prostate-destroying but in excellent shape...and Fuji on it. Chain looks surprisingly...usable.

The bad: Freaking 27” wheels again which makes tires problematic. I might be able to make 62 miles on them. And perhaps even survive. Probably will have to put on all 62.5 miles in my hood. Leaky battery on Cateye computer means no bueno. And as stated before, it is way too small.

The ugly: the hoods melted so badly that it dripped into the lever cable end caverns. It's a Fuji (hee hee)

My options.
1. Replace the seatpost and stem with longer ones and keep drop bar, and replace levers and cables. Utilize chiropractor which doesn’t count against $108

2. Replace bar and levers with straight bar/finger levers, stretch current post as far as it can and find used 27 x 1.25 or so tires.

3. Ride 21 short 3 mile jaunts as is without brakes and call it a wrap! Hope I don’t need brakes.

4. make it a single speed somehow.

5. find another sucker to buy it.

This is a very nice rescue.

I decided that the first thing I would "fix" would be the wonkas bent seat stay. I was too pressed for time to drive over to the storage unit and fish out wood blocks - but lo, tucked in next to my apartment door was my oak boken. I figured if it's good enough for Miyamoto Musashi, it's good enough for me, and combined with those specialized frame straightening tools I often put into leather cases I made it … better. Not perfect, mind you, but better. I tried Meguiars polish but that made little difference, and I’m undecided about whether to go with fine wet-sanding paper or an Evapo-Rust soak. Probably the latter.


Sophisticated equipment in use

The right seat stay isn’t quite straight but I can live with it.

Coming soon - pulling the BB and headset. The latter for sure will go into some ER.

My first bike-shop bike was a Batavus Tour de l’Europe like that, but the darker brown they used in ‘75. Nice Brooks B17 on this specimen, I think - and the upgraded crankset is a nice bonus - the 3-pin swaged Sugino Maxy on mine always flexed, and I was a scrawny lad!

Is this Paramount too nice to be classified as a clunker???

I will get into the game with this Raleigh Super Course I got in December for 50.00. It needs tuning and front brake pads. Today I put some pads on it from a parts bike, trued there front wheel and done some cleaning . I will take it for the first ride tomorrow. This is the photo from the Facebook Market place ad when I bought the bike

I would love to join the challenge but I can never find larger framed bikes for sale except expensive ones. But I love looking at all the bikes posted.

Join the fun with this: https://columbia.craigslist.org/bik/...463907483.html
this is somewhere in S.C.



There are others coming up between now and July.

All of the rusty steel bits are now submerged in the last 3/4 gallon of Evapo-Rust I started using in 2017 when my entry was the '72 Liberia. Consider this a test of how many times ER can be re-used! All of the inner headset surfaces are excellent, but the exteriors are ghastly - I'll have a better sense of their serviceability when I check later tonight.

I DO hope that the front derailleur cage is something other than solid rust red when I am done, and perhaps the steel small chainring.

Answer...a lot. Longer answer: until the rust only turns red-black.

I think I will join this one with a sports frame Schwinn Traveler that I bought last July for $40. I cleaned it up a bit and gave it to a friends grandaughter as a college bike. He gave it back to me last week and said it appeared that she had rarely used it, and was cleaning out stuff before the end of the semester.
Here it is when I bought it.

It came back in pretty much the same condition, only a lot dirtier and with the original tires that hadn't seen a pump in nearly a year. The front deraileur is twisted a bit on the seat tube and rubs the chain - that's an easy fix. At least it came back intact. The rear schraeder valve stem is sitting at a bit of an angle, but the gum sidewalls are so frayed that I don't want to risk popping a tire bead off to straighten it.
Anyhow I have a nice 12 mile loop that I can ride and never be more than 4 miles from home if I need to walk it back (and my wife has a pick-up).
So I am going to make this thing a little prettier and ride it for 100k.
It's also too small for me.

Hey, if it worked for Tutenakhen ...

Tonight when I returned from the Easter celebrations I pulled the parts from their ER bath. They're good enough but will win no prizes. Then I tore long strips from a ruined bedsheet and soaked them in ER and wrapped the front triangle and the fork. We'll see how they do overnight …



Holy Boris Karloff, Batman!

I have a wheel for $5CAD. That's all I got so far. I bought it because the label said Wolber Super Champion Alpine, which seemed to suggest it's a good one. I wiped off some of the dirt on the hub and it says Campagnolo, which would make it the first campagnolo hub I've picked up. It's a front wheel, which seems to be much easier to get a hold of than rear wheels. I'll have to keep my eyes open for other bits and hopefully I'll have enough for a bike before the challenge ends.

I would give this build bonus style points (for Gallic masochism) if this bike makes it 100 KM on those Delrin Simplex Prestige derailleurs. I agree highly about this. I call Huret Allvit by comparison higher end Gallic mascochism.

Cream of the crop on my local CL. Apparently there's a 10-speed Huffy under that thar iron oxide.

I did something like that in the 2016 Challenge except I used paper towels and then wrapped them in plastic wrap so they wouldn't dry out. It didn't work the way soaking parts in ER does, but it definitely did something useful.

Mine (from 2016) is nearly black liquid now when I pour it. It still seems to work, but I think I might get a fresh jug this year.

I separate mine into different holding containers. Once it becomes nearly black, I put it into a "stage 1: holy rust Batman" container for the really rusty pieces including chains. Then I replace that with gently used ER from another container, and replace that container with new. It cycles through over time.

Heck, swap it for a clunker and you have a $5 bike to fix up for the C&V challenge.

Winner!

You're a monster. I love it!