Real1shepherd

If you follow the threads above, the 'water bed' method with Evaporust soaking the frame is about the coolest thing I've read here. I'm gonna wait until the weather again reaches 70 and do it to my GS frame!

Kevin

Schreck83 

I agree - Evaporust in a water bed, once I've cleaned off the dirt and grease... and it warms up a bit!

alexander55

I've owned 3 in the past couple years. They weren't quite what I was looking for so I sold them as I found them. All 3 have found new homes and are happily reconditioned and back on the road. Great bikes. Still looking for "just the right one".

merziac

They help center the wheel so it doesn't hang up on the brake pads while you are trying to get it all the way in to the frame.

I have always liked them as a little "handle" for adjusting the pads too.

USAZorro

This one's a work in progress. Another substantially involved project.

As received:






Hopefully this will make an appearance along with the butterflies of spring after its metamorphosis.

noglider 

@USAZorro, same color, year, and size as mine. Similar condition. I'm working on a dramatic transformation, and I'll reveal it when it's worth looking at.

USAZorro

Was the same color.

Pcampeau

noglider 

Since it was free and since it's not valuable monetarily, it gives me "license" to redo it many times.

MnHPVA Guy

This was the bike that started my addiction to vintage British road bikes. It had been been brought into a bike shop in ’78 to have upright bars and levers installed, but never re-claimed. 18 years and 3 shop owners later, the shop folded and I was given the bike. I’ve reconfigured it several times, with 12, 1, 2, (Hated the Sturmey/Sunrace kickback and loved the SRAM Automatix) and now 5 speed drivetrains. As nice as the ’76s look in red, I think the bright green ones of the same vintage look even better.

Sturmey Archer S5/2 5 speed hub, upgraded with an S5 axle assembly & bellcrank, geared 39/22. Vuelta Cranks shortened to 153mm, with a de-tooth 48t ring as a guard.

Saddle looks tiny because it’s a Brooks Pro S. Same width in the rear and same leather thickness as a B17, but with a narrow nose like a Pro and an inch shorter.


S5 shifted with a SunRace/Sturmey 3 speed bar end on the right and a vintage SunTour BarCon on the left. Headlight mount cobbled together from vintage DiaCompe brake lever hardware, 1” tubing and a bar end plug. Arthritic neck, shoulder and hands dictate a ridiculously tall stem.

3speedslow

BocaJr

Picked this beauty up for $10.00 (actually a 4 for $40 deal)! It's pretty dirty from sitting up for 40 years, but looks mostly original. I plan to clean it up and ride it as is. The Brooks saddle is really dried and cracked, but I hope it's salvageable. The money shot is the Gus Betat shop sticker!!

MnHPVA Guy

Last year I made fixtures to chuck different BCD rings in my lathe. But for years I sawed the teeth off with a bandsaw and smoothed the edge on one of my belt sanders, which is always fitted with a 600 grit belt for smoothing the ends of shortened cranks.


Mark Stonich; BikeSmith Design & Fabrication
5349 Elliot Ave S. Minneapolis, MN 55417 USA
Ph. (612) 710-9593 BikeSmith Design and Fabrication
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bikesmith/ (Mostly Wildlife)

MnHPVA Guy

Nice find! Looks like is should clean up OK, with appropriate patina for a daily rider. And that Brooks looks salvageable.

Schreck83 

This is not my Super Course (although I tried). It appeared for less than a day on CL but the graphics were so different that I saved he images and searched through this thread for more background. I found at least 2 other BF members posting similar SCs earlier in this thread.
Not sure how many of the components are original - bars look too new- but the SunTour Blueline is interesting. I'm guessing the saddle was sold for real $$ and the rest of the bike just didn't matter to the seller.



Not Nottingham or Cycle Company of America, just /////////////


Butted!




N??

Slightspeed

My second Super Course was found on local CL. The guy was asking $30. I pulled out 2 20s. He didn't have change, so he said, just give me $20 so I did. Its a '78. My other one is a '73 and has been on here several times, built from a back alley scrap pile. This new project should go a lot easier. The paint is decent, and I plan to touch it up, and maybe re-paint the fork and top tube. I'd like to add new decals. How do you remove the old ones, but keep the paint, or should I go over the old ones with new?

As found for $20.

Threw on some spare wheels and crank for inspiration.

My other SC starting point. "Free" frame found in a scrap metal pile.

$$$ later, finished, one if my favorite rides.

rossiny

Piff 

Question regarding ferrules.

I have a '74, and I'd like to use ferrules in the cable stops. However, I can only seem to find ferrules that step down to 4mm, not 5mm which is the required diameter for the brake cable housing stops.

Does anyone know a supply of step down ferrules for these frames or they of an age that simply didn't bother with them? Proper housing care does a pretty good job to remove any brake squishiness, but I'd like to have ferrules if possible.

Thanks.

bulgie 

Late to the party, but here's mine, probably a '71 or '72:

[hmm, won't let me post a photo, or a link to my Flickr album with a few more and larger pics either, too much of a newb apparently. PM me if you want a link.]

About the model year: I looked up the serial number once, but I just don't remember.

One owner -- I bought it new, when I was about 14 and "grew into it". 25-1/2" size is what the bike shop sold me. I rode it as a racing/touring bike for its first few years, but then, for the last 40 years or so it has been a utility, errands, grocery-getter bike.

Lugs are Nervex Professional. Tubing decal is the "531 Butted Tubes Forks and Stays" version with the 531 on a diagonal -- except it came from the factory with the "Forks and Stays" blacked out, by hand! Amazing they took the time to ink out the offending words, on each bike, presumably because they ran out of the correct decals.

Almost no original parts left. Lotsa '50s parts on it now.

'50s Williams crankset, the nice one (model name anyone?), arms fluted front and back side.

Mid-'50s Dynohub in front, powers an IQ-X LED headlight very well indeed.

Mid-'50s FW (wide range four-speed) alloy-shell rear hub that's been converted to be a 5-speed, with all the original '50s guts except for a couple parts from a later S5. Big sprocket for low gears because I'm old and slow!

The second shifter for the left side of the hub (high-low range) is a Cyclo of Birmingham, '50s vintage I think, on the toptube. I brazed on a second pivot for a pulley on the left, on the '50s pulley clamp under the seat lug.

Original style Weinmann "dimpled" rims F&R, I think they might be called the Alesa 210 model. 40-hole in back, 36 front.

TA front rack, made for Mafac. modified to fit Weinmann, and with the headlight strut brazed on.

Tonard (British) rear rack, sold in the USA as a "TC" rack as in "The Touring Cyclist Shop", Hartley Alley proprietor.

I don't know how old the B-17 saddle is but it has a beveled lower edge -- maybe the word is "skived"? That may help dating it. '50s or '60s?

Raleigh pedals, Renold chain.

Handlebar grips, bell, pump and fenders are all British and old. Modern LED lights F&R because it's a rider, and vintage lights really suck.

Lately, it has the stem up higher, and a huge Baycliff saddle bag.

-Mark Bulgier, Seattle

Piff 

No no no, you simply can't describe your bike like that and leave us sans pictures. Please pm me!

Classtime 

Slightspeed

I just looked one night and saw it listed. It had been up for 12 days, surprised that nobody grabbed it. I have most of the parts in my parts stash. Not sure of the crank. My '73 has a frame indent on the chainstay, this one doesn't. The crank looks like it might be close. Should he a fun build, though. Watch this space.

bulgie 

Oh MAN, "The administrator has restricted use of the private message system to members with less than 10 posts."
So I can't even PM you the link. ;(

I can't wait to be a grownup!

-Mark

Prowler 

noglider 

Welcome to BF, @bulgie!