Before:




After:

Before: My Wife sent this pic from the thrift store last July, said "it's $35 and has the pretty thingy's where the tubes come together like on your red bike" (That's my Paramount). "Do you want me to buy it?"

"Hell Yea!" I answered.

After: My new gravel/x-bike. Mostly built it out of parts I had laying around from donor bikes & spare parts except for the seat & tires. Only kept the handlebars, crank & front derailleur (I don't have a Shimano bottom pull FD on hand, and the shifter seems to work with the Suntour derailleur. Most importantly it's fun to ride.

1972 Schwinn Paramount P-13.


All I can say about this is *ugh*.

Painted Gios blue. I did not like any of the stock Paramount colors and wanted something that helped the decals pop. Thanks to Jack at Franklin Frames for the superb repaint.

It was not hard to nail down the vintage of this one. I found that Schwinn only made them for one year as part of a line of four “cross” models. I also have a Crosscut, so I may now find it hard to resist completing the set.

Before:




I got the frame without the fork from my local community bike shop in January. I dug the British Racing Green color and the paint was in pretty good shape. I used liquid model paint to touch up the nicks. I had a Kenesis alloy fork that I painted to match with automotive touch up paint. Although it’s also British Racing Green, it’s more teal than the frame paint. Close enough for rock’n’ roll. To mimic the colorway of the original, I used tan-wall touring tires, a brown seat, and brown bar tape.

After:




Some knucklehead made off with the Schwinn badge (probably to try to sell back to me on eBay) so I made a new one. Take that! (I mean, not literally, not again.)




A lot of the components are from my parts bins, such as the brake calipers, wheels, 8-speed cassette, Sugino triple crank, SunTour bear trap pedals, and the quill adapter. I got the set of matching Exage derailleurs from the community bike shop for $5 each.




I set it up for all-weather riding because I’m planning to ship it to New York to ride in the Five Boro Tour with my son in early May. After shipping myself and the bike cross country, I’m riding, rain or shine.

I’m so far liking the way it rides, although I could probably get a more compliant ride with a steel fork. I may replace it at some point. This might also be a bike to try some alt handlebars on.

^^^^^ Those "cross" Schwinns were great. They never felt "sedate" like so many hybrids. My CrossCut feels at home pretty-much everywhere I take it.

My curb find 730 Multitrack

Before:
AceraX 3x7 drivetrain & Acera wheel set
PostModerne seat post and adjustable stem



After (minus a saddle and stem change over the weekend)
2x11 105 5800 with FSA crank
Microshift Centos shifters
Mavic Wheels with 105 5501 hubs
Shimano Alivio 4100 brakes and levers
SKS fenders

To me, it’s amazing they produced those good bikes as the company was in the last stages of being mismanaged into the ground. As anyone knows who’s been through the experience of working for a company that’s circling the drain and then gets acquired, it’s not easy to do your best work in those circumstances. I have similar admiration for the people who worked for SunTour at the end of their heyday.

My 1993 Giant Tourer hybrid back 10years ago

My 1993 Giant Tourer after this year's update

XT 780 T transmission and vbrakes replaced the oudated Altus alongwith cantilevers and Mavic A 719 high end gravel rims replaced the low end Alex rims. It is smoother and faster to ride not to mention much lighter.

Very sporting, I like it. Not sure about the cable route for the rear brake. I would loop it over the post pin to the adjuster.

I have a question about that, could I run the cable housing right to the adjuster? Right now when I adjust the seat it either loosens or tightens the brake by moving the bracket on the seat post.

Yes, the donor brake should have a cable housing going directly into the adjuster, exactly the same way as you have it on the front. The stop that's attached via the seat binder is part of the old original brake setup. You should remove it and store it with those brakes, so it will be available if they're used on some other bike.

Will do that, thanks, now I can adjust my seat without affecting my brakes!

1996 Gary Fisher Aquila as found from the thrift store:







Changed the shifters and brake levers, replaced the broken front derailleur for a exact match I had on hand, swapped the stem for better positioning, fresh rear brake cable and F&R brake pads, tires I had on hand, pedals on hand, and new Oury grips and new bottle cages for a splash of color. It didn’t need much, really. The paint is in great shape!

After:





“Man’s best friend”

About 6 weeks ago..........



About an hour ago..

Before (fireball red)

After (Porsche Racing Yellow)

The Raleigh is in progress

Before, the way it’s been for nearly a decade

After, pretty much oem except now the head tube is black. Now I need to decide cables and handle bar tape. The drivetrain was Shimano, now it’ll be Campagnolo 😀

Holdsworth Special. I replaced all components except the seat post and wheels with parts I had on hand.

My Surly Steam roller

Great job on the bike. Can't take my eyes off the coral snake. Love it.

Great project ........but I couldn't help but notice the work stand.
Please can you tell me about it?
Did you fabricate it?

no, not my stand. That pic was done by the painter who is also a frame fabricator.

Looks like a "springboard" setup that will hold a wide range of frame sizes firmly under tension from here.

Brilliant!

A few more of the latest ones.

Holdsworth Professional:


The Holdsworth Professional as it arrived

The initial rebuild

How I converted it back to a proper drop bar

Miele Latina:


Not bad but a hodge podge of parts


Now rocking full Tri-color setup but with newer STI shifters. This one is really quite good on the road.

Sancineto:

Mirage 8 speed is how I got it.

Dull weatherer paint

Now with Chorus 8 speed and running so smoothly courtesy of Jake at The Bike Shoppe

Found plenty of shine in the paint with some work.

And this Sirrus wasn't all that bad:


How it was picked up

How it's finished, total tear down and rebuild

Lots of metal polish work

And paint work

Before

After