hazetguy 

Thanks for that information.

What started out as just thinking I would be able to ride it as it was, has turned into a full overhaul and clean up. The grease in the bottom bracket, headset, and hubs had turned into a semi-petrified very sticky goo. Headset was cleaned, hubs cleaned and got new bearings all around, all packed with NFS grease. The bottom bracket was very rough when turned by hand. I replaced that with a Shimano UN71. I happened to have most of an NOS UniGlide cassette, so I did a little creative disassembling and now have 5 out of 6 gears being new, and a 28 big gear to hopefully help with the hills a bit. Installed a new Sram PC890 chain I had been keeping for a special occasion. Disassembled, cleaned, and lubed the derailleurs and shifters. Found some new Campagnolo shifter cables at the bike thrift store, put those on. Brake calipers and brake levers were fully disassembled, cleaned, lubed, and rebuilt. Brake levers got nice used Dia Compe gum hoods. I put some NOS Shimano SIS cables and cable housing, because I had them laying around. Wheels got cleaned with some mild steel wool, which really bought out the shine. I put on new Vittoria Rubino Pro tires (700 x 25). Brooks Professional saddle installed. I found a 90mm Dia Compe stem at the local bike thrift store, which I think will give me the ever so slight length increase I felt I needed on my first ride. Rewrapped the handlebars with Newbaums cloth tape that I got from the Box-Of-Crap a few years ago. Pedals were greased, NOS Christophe toe clips installed (sent to me out of the blue by a good friend), and some red Christophe straps put on.
That's where I'm at as of now. I thought it was pretty smooth and nice the first time I rode it, so I was shocked in what "poor" condition certain components were when I tore things apart. With all this maintenance and changes, I can only imagine rides in the future will be a considerable improvement!

rjsmit1

I get to post photos now, so this is my Royal Dutch Gazelle, Champion Mondial 753. I never thought I would love a bike with a green colorway, but this one is really pretty in the sunlight with the pearl white contrast.

Gazelle 753

rjsmit1

There is a bike shop in the Netherlands by that name. Pedaleur Bikes - Fietsenwinkel, Webshop & professionele fietswerkplaats

Hajo

A really nice bike! I owned one some years ago in the same color scheme, once belonged to a cycling team "Europolis". It was made with Reynolds 531c tubing. Pictures will come or could possibly be found in this forum.

CV-6 

That's going in my desktop rotation.

1oldtrackie

- deleted photos etc as another member stated Belgium was not the Netherlands. My apologies for showing the bike ( Plum Vainqueur )

rjsmit1

Thanks so much for that insight. I bought this bicycle from an Ebay seller located in California who stated that he bought it from a team mechanic and that it had been a team bike. He did not know which team, so this is helpful information. I will try to find more information on the Europolis Team. Thank you.

1oldtrackie

I deleted the photos etc of the Plum Vainqueur. My apologies for not recognizing it was Belgium made.

Millstone

Old Gazelle, 1964 I believe.

Millstone

Duell Professional with (finally!) the brake cable through the top tube. The innertube(?) of the toptube wich th cable should follow, is loose on the back end. But I've managed... Now: doing miles on it, dialing it in, replacing stuff as I go and put some tape on it :-) And maybe paint it...

Millstone

Just found this:


Because I can only find a 1991 catalogue. And mine is from 1992 (time of this footage). But fun to watch. In Dutch though.

non-fixie 

No worries, we have a thread for those as well!

Show us your Belgian bikes!

paulkal

Thanks for the video, mine Duell is also from 1992. I also have the same watch that Jan van Dalen is wearing is this video (a Citizen Aqualand Duplex).

non-fixie 

BTW, we do have a thread on interesting watches. Of course we do.

We have dog threads, sewing machine thread, how about a watch thread

hazetguy 

I've made a few changes to the Gazelle since purchased, even since the past pic I posted.
Switched to a Shimano 6206 crankset, in case I'd want to go with a triple and perhaps bigger gearing at some point. Running it as a double right now.
Got a Nitto Dynamic II stem (thanks a lot Van!) in a effort to get just a very slight rise in the handlebars without using a Technomic.
Changed the brake calipers from Arabesque to slightly newer Shimano 6207. I mostly didn't like the cable attachment style on the Arabesque.
Acquired some Specialized Touring pedals that were on a bike I purchased locally. Wow, those pedals are NICE!
Installed a Specialized seatpost. I wanted micro-adjustability (and just happened to have the seatpost in my parts bin), as the previously installed Laprade would not allow for that. Have the saddle nearly dialed in now.
And lastly, for now anyway, I put on a set of Simplex Retrofriction shifters. Can't really describe how "different" they are from other shifters, other than what's been said before by others. They are simply amazing, and the feel is like nothing else. Wow!
There are some minor adjustments still to be made, but for now, it's pretty much where I want it to be. Trimming the brake cable housings is on the agenda. Wanted to wait to do that until brakes and handlebar height were figured out. I'm considering handlebars without so much reach and drop. Next big step will be some different wheels.

jdawginsc 

You just convinced me to not sell my pair of Retrofrictions...

Hajo

A little over a year ago I posted this picture of my new project. Since I have been thinking about correct colours and finally sent to a superb bike painter, again in Goes (NL)

This is the end result. Finished in Royal Blue (Koningsblauw) and Ivory White (Ivoorwit), a pearle white that was already on the bike before. Correct for the year of the bike (1996) and fortunately I had samples for the Blue in my collection. Also I chose the older styling rather than the Goldline styling I bought it with.
I started the rebuild with the Shimano Ultegra 6500 groupset this weekend, and hope to finish it in a week. Still waiting for some decals, the Reynolds 731 OS is on its way, and the Noblex decals are "in progress" 😀

hazetguy 

Recent pick-up, initial ride, several things I want to change, but for now, it is what it is.

non-fixie 

Nice! A late eighties AA Super with even later decals perhaps?

So, how does it ride? Comfy fit, by the looks of it.

juvela

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even by omafiets standards these angles look shallow!


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CV-6 

One of the few bikes I would change my no buy rule. It would be interesting to compare the ride with my AA Gazelle.

hazetguy 

Going off the serial number chart on https://www.gazellechampionmondial.nl/ it is an '85 (3289XXX), which would make the decals wrong. Even the tubing decal is wrong. I knew this going into the purchase, so I wasn't surprised by it. Unfortunately the tubing decal (Reynolds Double Butted Tandem Tubing) is under the clearcoat, so it is not easily removable / switchable. The Gazelle and CM stickers are above the paint, so I guess I could remove them and put the correct decals on if I wanted to. For now I can deal with it.

I did a few things before riding it. Put on a more user friendly cassette for the hills around here, changed the crank and bb from Shimano 600 6207 to Dura Ace 7700, put on Specialized "touring" pedals, a titanium bottle cage, re-wrapped the handlebars a little more nicely (with the bar tape that was on there at the time of purchase). Another thing I had to do, which I thought odd, was to fully seat the fork crown race. When I took it for a 'test ride' at time of purchase I noticed that the fork was sticking out oddly at the bottom, and the front had a 'clunky' sound. The fork crown race needed to be seated about 3mm further than it was! So I seated that, added another spacer to the top (you can barely see that I arranged the spacers in the order of the flag of Netherlands), as I think the original headset would have been a Stronglight with a taller stack height. I might put one on, as I really like those headsets.

I am not a fan of the tires that are on there now. I think they detracted a bit from the overall ride. I am planning on putting some tubulars on it soon. I'm also not a huge fan of the Rolls saddle, but I had it, it was better than what was on it when I bought the bike, but I'm gonna start looking for a Brooks Pro to put on.

All of that said: the initial ride was about 22 miles. I was battling headwinds and hills for most of the time. The few moments of non-headwinds were nice, and the bike really accelerated quickly when I "stomped on it" (with all of my out-of-shape power!). So I know there is potential with regards to quick acceleration. Ride quality was pretty darn nice. Very smooth handling. Very quick response to turning, avoiding small potholes / rocks / road debris, seemed to quickly want to 'come back to center' and continue in a straight line like an arrow. Turn the bars a bit, you're there, but definitely not lurchy or twitchy at all, despite the short wheelbase. Felt very solid overall. I need to do the typical minor adjustments to dial in the fit and comfort, but as it was on the first ride was pretty sweet!

Chuckk

Van Tuyl VT950 Titanio
Sold at the Van Tuyl shop, but constructed by Vidmantas “Vitas” Zukauskas of Wittson Custom Ti Cycles

non-fixie 

non-fixie 

Those 'late' Van Tuyls are nice. I bought a VT 550 frame as a COVID project last year, and built it up with a Chorus group. It has fender eyelets, but those are apparently just for show purposes ...