gt eunuch

Picked this up from a couple that was moving out of state. Did not want to put the effort into shipping this to their new house so on craigslist it went. I was the first person there with cash so I got to take it home.

The bike did not come with much at all. It used to be ridden quite a bit, but was purged of parts for a super sweet looking Bridgestone XO-1. Aside from the frame, the bike had a bottom bracket, seatpost binding bolt, pair of canti brakes missing half the bits, stem, bars, and a set of campy ergo levers (9 speed), and a busted up front fender.

Pic below is the bike after loading in the car, as purchased.



Queue the box-o-parts to see if I can get this thing to A. Work, and B. to fit me

After some googling, found out that these shifters work well with a 7 speed Shimano Cassette, and RD with an alternate cable routing. I had the wheelset laying around from my Cannondale, had a NOS Sora RD laying around so that went on. Crankset has been laying around for ages, but the rings came off an RSX crankset (From my recent Cannondale re-build). Front derailleur is super rusty and looks like it has been laying at the bottom of a creek for a decade, but it was the only one I had with a clamp diameter that would work, and the mech operates fine. Brakes are old Shimano units that I got out of the Box of Crap, and the Seatpost/seat was borrowed from the Cannondale for a test ride, and swiftly went back on. Luckily the previous owner had left all the cables intact when stripping the bike, so I was able to re-use all the existing cabling that was on the bike.

The bike seems to fit me well enough, and the 'Shimergo' shifts great on the stand and I had no problems at all on the 2 mile test loop I did tonight. Tomorrow's commute will be a true test.





Google does not return much on this model, so any info about it would be lovely. I assume it is a touring bike due to canti's, unless it was built for CX. It is a steel bike, lugged fork, welded frameset. The welded frameset says to me that it isn't too old. Rack/Fender braze on's are limited to one eyelet a dropout but it DOES have 3 water bottle mounts, and tire clearance doesn't look cavernous, but should be able to swallow some 32's fairly easily (maybe not with fenders).

Bianchigirll 

Great save! I'll try and look it up later but judging from the decal style, lugless construction but still having shiftert bosses and pumppeg I am thinking late '90s very early 2000s. I just took a few min and looked in some catalogs and that time frame sounds about right, did you try Bike pedia?

It seems to be upper end Volpe type billed as a do all but with the relaxed frame and stock 36 spoke wheels and x30 tires perfect for touring.

gt eunuch

Thanks! I think I may have narrowed it down to a 1999, just by the paint color. The pic from the catalog scan is tiny, but I think this is it.



Used it for my commute this morning, and shifting performed flawlessly!

Barchettaman

That's vintage enough for me! Top little save there.
I love to see the parts bin getting a workout. Heck, it's what the parts bin is for!
I hope you continue to enjoy it.

gt eunuch

Well, I can't leave well enough alone. The 'schimergo' setup worked quite well, when it worked. The middle range of the cassette was very sensitive to cable tension so you had to adjust every 100 miles or so. It worked great for commuting and even saw some off-road, singletrack duty. Never got around to any cx racing, but there is always next year. Here it is spec'd for that. Note seat/post pictured above were borrowed from another bike. The seat and post on it now are... Interesting, but it was cheap!



I got a great deal on a 5800 groupset so I decided to rebuild this one, full modern. Wheels had to be upgraded because I had none in the wings that were 11 speed combatible. I also upgraded from the shimano canti's to





As pictured, with cage and pedals it weighed in at 21.4 lbs

tarwheel 

Cool bike. I like the orange saddle and bar tape. Not sure about that yellow seat post. That's a new one on me!

shelbyfv

Nice! I like the orange. Maybe you could strip and polish the seatpost.

Bianchigirll 

Looks great!

cyclotoine

nice bike, What I want to know is... who put a set of complete set of shimano mc-70 brakes in the box o crap!!!???

gt eunuch

Thanks!

I loved the old Shimano cantis, but the spring on the left front arm was weak, and I could never quite balance the spring tension between them. I tried to use an Avid hanger to help out, but it was never perfect. See below:



That is the only reason why I replaced them. Can you still buy springs for these?


Also; the yellow seatpost was mine for under 10 bucks shipped on eBay and it has since grown on me, ha