Man, I need to try some of that Mother's Metal Polish. I use Never Dull currently and it is good, but it doesn't work miracles like that or, anecdotally, like I've heard in another instance.

Here, finally, is my 1988 Masi Nuova Strada that I picked up at the beginning of October, originally put 10s partial carbon Campy on, decided it was not working visually (though it functioned just fine), and ended up taking it back to it's period look, just with a few subtle updates. In place of the Ice Grey 7400 DA DT shifters and RD, I put a 7900 DT shifter set and 7800 RD, both of which are high silver polish that match the chrome fork. High polish Mavic MA-2 rims laced to 7403 8s hubs. 7400 FD and brake calipers. And of course I sold my 7400 brake levers already, so (aesthetically) thematically-correct RX100 Super SLR levers are the very nice stand-ins (FYI, later Shimano BL600s are this exact black/light grey/silver lever combo with just "SHIMANO" on the lever blade, so I don't feel so bad). Cinelli stem clamping Cinelli 64-42 bars. The bike is gorgeous with nearly-flawless paint and truly flawless decals. It rides impossibly smooth and I can't wait for better weather to get it out more.

Before: A very interesting mix of Shimano and Campagnolo parts, mismatching rims, IRD 6s cassette, JTek shiftmate....gahhhh, everything was pretty but all over the place.



After: You Portland guys want to see this in March???

Very nice! Best part is that the stem went back to quill. I know they can be convenient, but a threadless quill adapter just doesn't look right.

Thank you! I have the conversion on two of my bikes, but it is done in such a way as to look like it came with a threadless fork in the first place--the stems can't be chunky, and they have to absolutely match the rest of the bike, which is tough to do. Easier to do with, say, vintage Cannondales with their thick tubing than vintage steel. It was 1000% not working on this one, and neither was the modern groupset. Glad it led to this.

That is a real nice bike. It is everything one wants in a bike and nothing more.

That's a sweet bike, you did a lovely job of bringing that one together.

Before

After

Before Trek 560

After

Looks nice. I would flip the skewers around so that the levers are on the left (non-drive) side of the bike.

Whoops

Thank you! It was a pleasure to do so.

here is my mercian that was in my dads basement since the mid 70s, he gave it me and we took it to derby to get fixed, picked it up today

oh no why is it so big :/

i didnt think that one through did i

Well done!

I remember the thread about your bike coming up, and there being some doubt about it being worth salvaging. Looks like you made a good choice. Beautiful frame.

Heck ya, anytime!

That is truly to save a frame from the scrap heap. The satisfaction must be immense!

Yes it was immense to say the least
we couldnt stop grinning all throughout standing in the shop and, the next 10 mins eating fish and chips was spent looking at it through bubble wrap, cant wait to get it set up

Beautiful re-paint on the Mercian. That metal head badge is icing on the cake! Don

I love it when a plan comes together. So much history saved and marching on. Doesn't get any better than this.

Needs it's own new thread from here on out.

No worries on the big pic's, when we say pic's or it didn't happen, bigger's gotta be better.

My 1976 Bridgestone Superlight, bought in Japan for ~250 in 1976
So, while it's not an exotic, it's a pretty rare bird. Gas-pipe wall Aluminum tubes with cast steel 'lugs.' I dug it out of my dad's shed where its been sitting for at least 15 years, and cleaned it up to use for cross-training. Mechanically it was in good shape, after cleaning, lubing and re-packing everything.
New bar tape, saddle (in distressed brown leather) blackwall tires, Dual-pivot Diacompe brakes in vintage gold-anodized, replacing the centerpulls. The chrome on the forks was shot, and the alloy on the wheels was in nice shape, but too discolored to ever polish out, so they got painted, white and black respectively. The cranks got sanded with a Scotchbrite finish; the DRs got a trip through the ultrasonic, and finished with Mother's polish. Also ditched the stem-mounted shifters for a set of NOS Shimano clamp-on downtube levers, so 'period' if not 'correct. I did leave the silver paint alone, scars and all, so show that this old warhorse isn't pretending to be anything it isn't.

Picked this up at an antique place and built it up as a 'city bike' with riser bars:

Before