Catch of the Day
 

Was at the Flea Market today...Picked up a 1985 Trek 400 series 19 inch frame, fits my small self, for $20. Brought it home, oiled it up, replaced the ratty seat, pumped up the tires, rode the neighborhood.

It has no frame rust, no paint bubbles, just some surface stuff on some of the cables and components. All seem to be originals. Don't know if the sew ups are original or not, but they hold air...only put 80lbs in them thus far. Even the handlebar tape seems to be in good shape.

Releigh Record with brooks, 15$ In great shape, but sorry, no pics for now.

It seems to be the day for '80s Treks. Most of a 1984 Trek 420 mixte to replace a lady friend's bike which was recently turned into modern art by a Jeep. She's OK, but I really wanted the derailleurs from her old one :). Not bad for $15 and a bit of a drive.

I had a pretty good Saturday today. We got up early and went for a ride before it got too hot, and managed about 15 miles. The little one did her first "real" hills solo, and acquited herself well. After we returned and showered, we went to a local swap meet. Finding nothing bike related there, I decided to hit a thrift on the way home. Bingo - A Nishiki International with barcons and everything. Needs tires, tape, and cleaning - but at $10, what the hell. On a whim, I decided to pass the house and go across town to another thrift, "just because". Bingo, again. A nice Viscount, all original except pedals and forks and it had barcons, too. They wanted $10, but I busted their chops just a little bit and haggled it to $6. So I'm a thief.... :D

Also, I had picked up a three bikes last week - a Lemond Nevada City for $220, a Univega Maxima Uno for $10, and a Nishiki Olympic Royale for free. After returning home from the thrifts, I managed to get the Lemond and Nishiki Olympic cleaned.....that's all they needed - the Lemond looks like new, and the Nishiki nearly so. This Nishiki has QR hubs fore and aft, and barcons as well.

Now for the pics:

Nishiki International:
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/9...tional19kh.jpg

Viscount:
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/3...scount16wh.jpg

Nishiki Olympic Royale:
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/7731/nishiki13qn.jpg

Univega Maxima Uno:
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/7...imauno12ij.jpg

Lemond Nevada City:
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/3...dacity11dq.jpg

Promised my son a roadbike in his size. Today on Freecycle I found a Centurion Lemans in yellow and white with index shifters on the downtube, Biopace chainrings, Mavic wheelset, and Shimano aero brakehoods. It's nicer than the Centurion I had in '90 and all other components were good quality upgrades as well. It even had a seatbag with patch kit, levers and tube. He's spending the night at a friend's house. He'll go nuts when he sees it. Score! I love Freecycle.

Thats the same Viscount I had, sliver and black.
the Barcons aren't original I had suntour downtubes on mine.
what size is that one (I'm gonna get myself in trouble here).

marty

...and a braggart. You're teh suck, dude; leave something for the rest of us, huh? :p

You very,very bad man, very bad!:p

I'll take the International, thank you - just wrap it up in a sack and mail it to me... ;)

Red and gold are my favorite colors for road machine.

Take care,

-Kurt

Marty,

It measures 25" from center crank to top of seat tube, and 24" from center crank to top of top tube. I was just fooling with it, and the BB seems really rough. From Wwhat I've been able to read in the forum, I may just be screwed with this one - unless someone knows some tips/tricks on r/r the bb and saving it.

Also, I need to know how to remove the barcons. I need to tape the bars, but can't figure out how to get the shifters out of the way.

Kurt,

The paint is a bit worse for wear and tear, and the decals look like hell. It should clean up ok, but it is far from a showpiece.....:D

Ya know..... I'm just not feeling the love here, guys. I thought you'd all be happy for me......:D

I managed to get three of the bikes cleaned and tuned this weekend - the Lemond, the Nishiki Olympic Royale, and the Univega Maxima Uno. The Lemond just needed a light cleaning and adjusting, and it is as-new. The Nishiki was just dirty, and needed cleaning and repairing of the tape.

If it makes ya'll feel any better, The Univega was a bonafide mess, so that $10 investment cost me most of Father's Day to get ship-shape. I needed to scrub it thoroughly,rub it out with compound and car wax, and de-rust almost all the shiny bits - headset parts, shifter mounts, wheels/hubs, pedals, and derailluers. Also, it needed cables, cable housings, and bar tape (tires and tubes were good, though). And to top it off, during test ride the RD return spring broke and I lost tension on the chain. No harm done, though, and a Suntour Hero out of the parts bin took care of the problem just fine.
I just took it for a spin around the 'hood, and I gotta tell ya that for a low end bike it sure rides nice and smooth.

In addition, I just tossed the Viscount on the stand for a preliminary inspection and the BB seems shot. This one may be a candidate for stripping unless one of you has a BB or any bright ideas......

Remove the pivot bolt that holds the lever in the bar-end and pull the lever out of the way. Underneath you'll find a socket-head expansion bolt.

A few days back (as in last weekend), I found a Raleigh Super Corse at the reciclying center, ready to be trashed. The front fork looks like someone hit a brack wall going 20 mph, but the frame is in good shape aside from a little rust on the chrome ends. The serial # is weird, and dosn't seem to match anything I've found, but I presume it's a 1973. It was free, so I can't complain about anything in terms of the shape it's in. It's got a plastic-simplex derailer setup, front and rear (first time I've seen a plastic fd). My first 531 frame, so I can't complain too much. The lug work is quite pretty. I figure I'll strip it down, use what parts I can (most likely just some cone-nuts at this point) and keep the frame around until I can find another fork that fits it.

If it's the sealed bearing type, you can replace those cartridge bearings easily for $5.30 each from Loose Screws. Check out http://www.loosescrews.com/index.cgi...d=466793531314. The axle should have a couple of circlips on each side, which you'll need to remove before you can tap it out with a rubber mallet. From what I've read on the web, those axles were prone to snapping at the circlip grooves, but finding replacements isn't easy.

Neal

removing barcons
 

But remember to turn clockwise to loosen. The operation is the inverse of what you would expect.

Finally, after reading about everybody else's luck, I have a Catch of the Day. A while back, my building cleaned up the bike racks. Any unclaimed bikes were removed. I had my eye on one, but it was gone before I could claim it. Well, yesterday morning, there it was, in the basement of my building, looking abandoned. It was still there late last night.

So I snagged it.

No, I didn't exactly steal it. After thoroughly checking it out, I took it to the bike rack and parked it there. I figured if it truly belonged to somebody, they would have a chance of finding it there. This morning, I approached the manager and asked her about it, again, with the intent of letting anybody who might have a claim to it know where it was, but also with the intent to claim it if it didn't belong to anybody. She said she had left it there in the basement, and asked if I wanted it. So now it's mine. :)

A Trek 830 Antelope mountain bike, in great condition. Full Cro-mo frame. Only one small chip in the otherwise perfect paint, and missing the seatpost and saddle. Now all I have to do is find some boltcutter to remove the cable lock that's preventing the wheel from turning, find a seat post and saddle, and pump up the tires! Woo-Hoo!!! :D

Congratulations on the Trek Blue Order! :) The first decent, non-department store bike I ever rode was a Trek 830. Needless to say it was a pivotal moment for me. :D

+1

Personally, I really like the Trek Antelopes. They are sturdy, well made little bikes. I've owned a couple of them over the years, and my wife had one for a time, as well.

To loosen the socket head, expansion bolt that holds the Barcons in place: "remember to turn clockwise to loosen. The operation is the inverse of what you would expect"

My Catch Of The Day (yesterday), and perhaps, the Catch Of The Year (for me, that is):

*First-gen Super Record RD, shoddily drilled paralellogram cage marked "Nuovo Record" (can anyone shed light on this?) - $12
*1974 Campagnolo Catalogue No.17, extensive water damage, 90% pages stuck together - Free
*'83-85(?) Campagnolo catalogue/parts list, looks incomplete - Free
*Trek 728 with a motherload of Park tools, bearings, parts, NOS Sachs 7-speed freewheel - $40

More on the 728 here

Take care,

-Kurt

These are just shot in the dark guesses, but maybe:

• Holes drilled to shave off a fraction of an ounce, or
• The derailleur was in some way defective and this was a way of flagging the part as such (similar to a X'ed out golf ball)

Without a doubt, the hols are simply a result of the "drillium" fad of the era - what surprises me is the use of a Nuovo Record parallelogram plate on a Super Record. I doubt if it was replaced.

-Kurt

Update - further inspection reveals that the lurching and roughness of the BB was due to the mis-adjustment of the FD. This was causing the chain to ride in between the two front chain rings. As it was a quick initial inspection in the failing afternoon daylight, I missed this at first. I'm still going to pull apart the BB to clean and re-pack it.

In addition, the RD was mis-adjusted as well. When I shifted to the lowest gear, I put the chain off behind the freewheel and the RD into the spokes. I was going slow, so no harm done.

This bike is dirty, but appears in good shape under the grime. We'll see.

Oh, and thanks to everyone for the advice on removing the barecon pods. I might've guessed the set screw behind the lever thing, but turning the screw clockwise to loosen? Might've caused some damage there........:eek:

Neal,

Thanks for the pointer. Are the bearings you linked to the exact one's I need, or are they just an example?