Old Spanish Road restoration
 

So my friend has an old spanish road bike and he wants to restore it.
By restore I mean make it nice looking and usable.
THe bike is an Ortera and the all the bits on it are made by a Spanish company called zeus.
Now my friend wants to get a new wheelset for it and he would like this wheelset to be all black.

Now I´ve got some questions. I'm guessing if he got a black wheelset somehow it would not be compatible with his old derailleurs and all that. Would he have to buy all new parts? Is all black wheels even feasable when dezling with vintage parts?
What are the options?

THe derailleurs he has are usable But theres some cracks where they attack to the frame and so i feel as though they should be replaced. How cross compatible are old groupos, if he stuck with his current wheelset could we put on some shimano derailleurs or something? What are the options?

He knows next to nothing about bikes and I know nothing about classic/older bikes.

To the people on this forum, the bicycle probably looks nicer with Zeus components than it ever will with Shimano! Do you think you could post some pictures of it the way it is, before he does anything? If he doesn't want a vintage bike, he might be better off to sell it and buy a new one. There are sure to be people (and they hang out here) who will want it.

Black was really not an option back in the vintage days, with rare exceptions. Everything was silver.

Zeus parts are pretty cool, I'd try and keep them. Replacements can sometimes be had on ebay.

My Zeus bike on the CR site:

He took the bike apart THEN called me for advice. He also really wants Black wheels, I dont know why. He's already painted it green. It's his dad's old bike so he really wants to restore it so he can use it.
The Zeus parts look kind of shot. Some bits look like they might be usable with some cleaning but things like the clamp that holds the derailleur to the frame are cracked and the metal feels and looks very brittle.

This is why...

No further explanation required.

Just get a set of cheap Black wheels from Niagara Cycle http://www.niagaracycle.com/index.php?cPath=135_200

If the width of the frame isn't an exact match just spring it apart and make it fit. The bike's already drewed, there's no reason to treat it gentle at this point.

Stunning bike! A Zeus is most definitely on the wish list.

Love the color. Of course, maybe you should just spray paint it green:lol:

Righto. Well, if he doesn't want the Zeus parts, he shouldn't just throw them away. I'm sure someone would want them. Post them 'for trade' and see what you get.

Could try black rims and spokes on the original hubs. Old parts can sometimes look realy bad and still be brought back to life with out much trouble, sometimes not. The derailer hanger should be easy to replace. rust as long as it hasent pitted the metal can be cleaned. The older stuff is much more forgiving when it comes to improv and mix and match then the new stuff is. Photos would help.

Hum, tell your friend to just throw the whole thing in the trash since he's probably already ruined the bike. Zeus components were copies of Campagnolo since Spain didn't/doesn't abide by copyright, or patent laws. It would have been cool to have an all spanish bike in original condition. Certainly there aren't many in the USA, but I guess that wouldn't make one desireable or anything.

Well we do live in Spain... so the whole it being Spanish thing isn't all that rare. From the looks of the parts they all look like they were pretty damn expensive at some point. I kinda wish he hadn't tampered with the bike either.

ok thats a little extreme.

Paint can be stripped. Parts can be purchased.

If he's really hung up on black wheels, go scour the interwebs for black 27" rims. The Spokes you can get no problem, and reuse the hubs like tolfan said.. I don't think you're gonna find Black 27" wheels all built up very easily though.