Lotus Eclair for a noob
 

After lurking around here and looking on CL I finally acquired a bike that I believe fits the Classic and Vintage mold. I'm pretty much a noob as far as bike mechanics go and would appreciate if someone could point me to some threads that deal with rust on components and frames as I'd like to strip this bike down and get it looking and riding as nice as possible. It's not in terrible shape, but it definitely needs some attention. Thanks

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It sure doesn't look like it'll need much work! That's very nice.

I'd start by rebuilding all the bearings and replacing the cables, housings, brake pads and tires if necessary.

Congrats!! great looking Lotus.

dude, cool bike! time to go camping!

You just managed to get one of the nicer touring bikes around and it's fully dressed with racks. You are a fortunate man, enjoy!

Thanks for the kind words all I'm super excited and can't wait to start working on this bike and getting it back on the road. Oh and more pics.

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that deore stuff is the best! my favorite!

by the looks of it all you need is a new chain and maybe some ( possibly fatter?) newer tires... how are all the bearings? you should overhaul em if you haven't already... its not hard and will make the bike ride like a dream. leonard zinn has a really good book on maintenance, and you can probably find how to guides online... oh also! your hands will thank you on long rides if you ditch the foam

One of my customers had one of these, same size and everything, that impressed me so much I just bought a Lotus of my own.
The oversized Dyna-drive pedal axles and the type 'B' shifter bosses are idiosyncrasies, but more of an inconvenience that a flaw.

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I plan on stripping everything down and regreasing and treating the bit of rust that is present on the frame and headset. I'm also already trying to figure out what color bar tape to get. Also I don't know too much about components, but the Deore stuff seems very nice.

Blue tape would match the cables.

A bunch of rebuild info here.
http://www.mytenspeeds.com/My_TenSpe...TE_Welcome.htm

And general maint info here.
http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help

Yowza! That's a nice one, congratulations on that find.

That's a 1984 model and a super-popular Lotus. I also personally love that color combination. The original front rack is so difficult to find we suspect they weren't sold with some of the bikes. Any chance you also got the original bottle cages and pump with that?

I'd recommend keeping the bike as original as possible and saving anything and everything that you remove and replace. Just pack everything neatly in a box and store it somewhere.

The foam grips were original equipment for 1984, but the 1983 bikes came with blue bar tape to match the blue accents on the bike.

I don't usually have bicycle envy, but in this case . . .

:thumb: