Another one of those non catalog Cannondales. nice Score of bikes !

Another freebie picked-up yesterday. Parts bike and will probably flip the frameset since I have no use for it. Brifters will go on my gravel bike (Finally found a pair!).
IMG_3544 by 2cam16, on Flickr

I picked up this Ross Mt. Hood the other day for free. It is completely broken down for an overhaul. I will post pictures when completed.

I smell 🥓, Motobacon Le Champion

The above Le Champion was a catch and release. It had a couple years issues that were a tad more than as a collector piece. The picture above was after fork alignment, there was the slightest of ripple under the down tube. I could not feel it but in the low light reflection it was evident. There also was a ding by the bottle boss that put me over the edge of keep.

I dragged this '75 or '76 Schwinn Traveler home a little bit ago, it's pretty rough, rough enough I'm just going to use it as a parts bike.






He had done some parts swapping with an old Peugeot over 30 years ago before selling it.




This is what caught my eye......



After a soaking with cleaner and a quick rinse.

Testing... trying to go past the Murray post and it won’t let me!

Now it won’t let me by my post, WTF!

That Mongoose Titanium looks fantastic.

holy crap! That’s unbelievable!

Picked up a Schwinn Mesa yesterday not much off a bike but a lot of good MTB parts including a fairly nice wheel set.

Two recent pick ups, both Basso. The red and yellow has been my daily rider for the past week but needs work on the hubs. Just picked up the silver one today will clean up and prob be my new daily rider.

OP,
so you saved them from the dump..what is the back story?
Ben

My "save" for today, 1972 or 1973 Gitane Interclub. Plenty rough but I'll have fun with it.

More of a catch of a day. Garage finds from older gentleman who no longer rid and wanted to sell.

So this happened. I really should stop looking at CraigsList. An '84(?) Stumpy, all original parts, including the Jim Blackburn rear rack. Brakes need work, a touch of surface rust here and there, otherwise it just needs a cleaning and tuneup. Under that hideous gel seat cover is the original Avocet leather saddle in excellent condition. Unfortunately the seller measured it wrong, so it's a bit small for my husband, but he's going to try to make it work; worst case, we'll clean it up and sell it for a tidy profit.

Stick narrow slick tires on that and dropbar with either Brifters or Ergo levers and you'd have a fantastic touring bike. I had a Bianchi MTB with very similar geometry and mounted an extra water bottle cage and 750ml (3 cups) water bottle BEHIND the seat tube. I used that bike a lot to tour on dirt roads.

Cheers

$50 Trek



the plan is to hang onto it until my son grows into it. Then strip it down for a repaint, replace consumables, maybe brifters? Maybe Innicycle?

Good idea. First we need to get at least the rear brakes working so he can take it for a test ride. Tags on the bike say "Specialized Touring Tubing".

One of my distant neighbors dropped this off in my yard after we had a conversation about my hobby of refurbishing bikes to get them back on the road. He said that he used to ride quite a bit back in the day but can't risk it now because of his advanced age and risk of falling. He said that one of his sons offered to spruce up the bike but never did. So I assured him I could get it back in service. I haven't worked much with cottered cranks and understand they are quite the bear. I have avoided working on any so far, but thought this might be the right bike to make the effort. On the other hand, this bike is soooo heavy I was thinking about replacing the cottered cranks with square taper BB and some used Sugino cranks. I won't know until I get it out, whether the BB is French or Swiss threaded and instead of paying through the nose for a specific threaded BB I though I would use a threadless BB offered by Sunlight ($30) instead of the expensive one offered by Velo (read about this approach on another thread in this forum, may I just love you guys!). Anyways, hope to make this build project for this thread. Any and all suggestions and input on this French bike would be appreiciated. Am doing this for my elder neighbor, who is looking forward to seeing the bike on the road again.

Everything looks original at first glance





I saw some lettering and rubbed a little of the rust away. It says "Phil". Is that Phil Wood?

Can anyone tell me why there is a shim in this seat tube? Is this how they sent it from the factory?

Bars are straight, just a twisted brake lever

Cool wheel set! Those are early Phil Wood hubs with steel centers, and the bearings in them can be replaced. Wonder what the rims are? The shim is factory-issue, I had one just like it on the 1975 Motobecane Grand Touring that was my introduction to this forum's Clunker Challenge 100 series. Prowl around on this site and you'll find somewhere the first four or five pages a thread on converting French cottered cranks over to cotterless, which basically involves replacing the spindle with the right width and length square-taper spindle. I've done similar things trial and error through the years with no ill effect. In my workshop as I speak is a battered Mercier that some previous owner did just that - it has its original French Barden black fixed cup, a well-used Sugino spindle, and an ISO adjustable cup crammed in there, running mis-matched cranks. It works and completes the generalized holy hell of how that bike presents.

I wouldn't sweat the cranks too much - there are lots of tutorials on how to remove cotters. I've gone to using a big metal pipe held over the rounded end, supported against the ground, and using a BIG (2 lb) hammer to smack the threaded end precisely. Coupled with a soak in penetrating oil, it has worked flawlessly without distorting anything.

Can we have pics of the tool setup for the cotter removal plz?

I don't have enough hands to hold the pipe against the crank on one end, against the top of my shoe on the other, while holding a great big ol' hammer ... you'll just have to use your imagination, and picture me calculating how hard to hit without injuring myself ...

And therein lies the crux, how much BFH and will I get out alive if I screw it up?

well, I guess you could rest the lower end of the pipe on a wooden block, but where's the fun in that?