Oh nice another Focus owner! Not too many of these pop up. Mine is the touring version with cantis.

Pics plz, or you know, it didn't happen.

Focus bikes info

This Bianchi Boardwalk has been through a little rough life judging by the scratched up frame, but should make a nice light trail hybrid in my area. Condition is kind of what you would expect from a $15 bike.

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back in "the good ole days" when Maeda was yet Maeda!


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I just happened to find two abandoned bikes today (well, I know they have been abandoned for over a month now) and combined part of one into a finished second. The first was a pristine 1984ish Motobecane Grand Touring and the second was a road bike with a fully cracked downtube and thoroughly rusted chain (and drivetrain). I swapped out the front (QR) wheel of the cracked bike into the first and voila (pun intended), it fit perfectly (probably standard 700c). I don't have photos of the frankenbike (Grand Touring) yet but I will tomorrow. Seems super light and finally to be a road bike in my size. I came across a free Shogun (way too small) and a Falcon (way too big) that I sold in the past, but this fit me just perfectly. I can just stand over the top tube but I haven't yet tried riding. I will try pumping up the front tire tomorrow and get some more pictures. It appears to be 23" with Vitus 888 tubing and Huret derailleurs.


Huret derailleurs

Missing front wheel


Cracked bike

Vitus 888 tubing

Cracked downtube

I once had a hi-ten frame that cracked there. Do any material engineers know why it would occur there? Seems like an odd place to me. I did have clamp-on shifters, but they were further south than the crack...if I remember correctly.

Don't forget that Stronglight 99 triple crank! That new style is not as pretty but takes a standard remover, unlike the polished early versions.

Oh nice! Is the rear derailleur a Huret Duopar? I will check later today.

Could be an Ecopar.

I think it's a Huret Challenger from what I recall of what they looked like, due to the black plastic upper insert on the cage.

By the way, if it is a Challenger, that was a mid-level derailleur, having dealt with Huret stuff many thousands of years ago, it did not perform well, not nearly as well as Suntour especially but any other Japanese derailleur, it was closer in performance to mid-level, and even some high-level European/Italian stuff of the day, kind of sloppy in the shifting performance. That Challenger was better than the Eco though, and it was very durable but the materials used to give it that durability meant it was heavy. I don't recall any issues with it in regards to stuff failing on it, which is why it's still on that bike! Just keep in mind that if you are experiencing sloppy or sluggish shifting, it's nothing that can be repaired, you could improve it a tad with more modern shifting cables though, and maybe improve it more than a tad. When I toyed with those derailleurs all we had was the old school cable, the new stuff wasn't around yet obviously, and since I know that upgrading my regular Shimano modern cables to DA 9000 cables made a noticeable improvement on my 105/Ultegra equipped bike, and the regular Shimano modern cables are light years ahead of the cables back then, so I would suspect that a set of modern cables should help the performance and the feel of the Huret Challenger...or whatever the model is.

I've been telling myself I have enough race bikes and have even been thinking about converting one of my sport touring bikes to upright bars, but this came up for sale locally. A previous owner must have been trying to convert it to recessed nut brakes, because the fork crown was drilled to fit a recessed nut, all the way through . I made a bushing for the front of the crown from a spare brake nut I drilled out & test fit a set of Ultegra brakes I had on hand.



It has its share of paint chips and a few spots with rust bubbling under the paint. I plan to build it up with a Pezzi di Ricambio gruppo and see how it rides.

Serial number indicates it was built in the 12th fortnight of 1979 in Worksop.

Just some fun bits and pieces from an estate sale. Vintage CO2!

Overland Equipment is nice stuff. I have a pair of their panniers I bought as NOS many moons ago; they're still going strong.

Citywide garage sale. Box-o-crap a guy put out...

This had been in the back of somebodies lawn shed for years. It's getting an overhaul and some upgrades. Not quite C&V, it's a 1997 but it's a blast to ride. Originally a 6 speed but someone put a 7 speed freewheel on it and kept the 6 speed shifter. I'm replacing the gripshifter with a Shimano 7 speed trigger shifter. RD will be replaced with a short cage RSX and the brake calipers replaced with a set of Tektro 559's I bought years ago and never used. New tires will be Kenda Kwest high pressure 20 X 1.5's. Down the line it will get an all aluminum crankset too.

Duopar "Eco." Steel instead of titanium, but functionally identical. The parallelogram is the same as the "Challenger" and "Success" units, but includes the second articulation and longer cage to track wide-range clusters better.

Saved these from the dump...They were in a pile of bikes at a LBS that were lying in a garage behind the store. Paid $20.00 each. They both shift like they should, I am going to go through them clean them up and get them back on the road for someone to enjoy.

I love the re use and recycle mentality of the majority of participants on this thread. Thanks for doing the work brother!

The Flying Fortress, 7/16"= 1' or 1/28th scale, 45" wingspan


Amazing aircraft

Now that is cool, I'm always on the lookout for vintage model kits.

Several years ago I got a chance to fly in one. What an experience, looking out through the nose where the bombardier sat.

I only got to climb around inside one once, with a friend who had accounted for three with R4M rockets whilst flying a BF110 in daylight ops.

Wow! Why are people in the mood to throw away Trek 1000's lately? Picked this one up in a similar fashion. Needs a little work, but will be back on the road soon.

Weird, why would a bike shop just set those out like that? I would think they would fix them up and sell them as used bikes.