The Black & Tan. In bar lingo, it is a combination of Guinness Stout and Bass Pale Ale.



It is also the name for my "new" bike.

This is a Before & After story. It stars a 1983 Raleigh Super Course. The co-stars include several friends from here on C&V.

The story actually starts with a 1987 Schwinn Prelude that I paid $50 for at a pawn shop.



I fixed up a bit, restoring the early Shimano Indexed Shifting and basically cleaning it up.



I like the way it came out but... the frame was just a little small for me. Enter co-star brockd15. He had a similar problem. He had a 1983 Raleigh Super Course that was one size too big. He proposed that we swap the bikes, giving us both a better fit. I took him up on the offer.

Enter the Super Course:



The only thing wrong with it was a broken Suntour aRX rear derailleur. As luck would have it, my old (wrecked) Nishiki Olympic 12 also came with aRX derailleurs.



That, new pedals (also from the Olympic 12), and a seat replacement, and it was ready to go. It was a nice enough bike, but something was missing. It was just a bit too old school for me. It had old style brake levers with the cables coming out, and they weren't too comfy to ride on. It had narrow drop bars. And the downtown friction shifters on such a large frame bike were a little tough to get used to. I gave them a fair shot, but in the end I decided some changes were in order.

Poking around on C&V, seeing what people had up for sale recently, I found some wider, more ergonomic handlebars and aero brake levers that ddeadserious had for sale.





And shortly after that, I noticed Capecodder had some Suntour Bar-Cons for sale. I love the Bar-Cons I put on my commuter hybrid, so these seemed perfect for my rebuild.



I took one last ride on the Super Course before the transformation- BEFORE:



The transformation is nearly complete. AFTER pictures of my "new" bike, the Black & Tan, will be coming soon.

Around here a 'black and tan' is Guinness and Strongbow. It's a good colour combination.

i thought black and tan was Guiness and Harp....

Harp isn't tan. That's simply a Half & Half.

Really nice looking Raleigh after all the changes.

Bill

Very nice - The tones offset each other well and are well worth the effort - But I gotta tell you - This bike even though better now, looked dm good before...

The last picture is before I actually made the changes. New pics coming when I can post them.

It now has the wider bars from ddeadserious. It also has all the cables running under the tape, making for a very clean cockpit, giving it a more modern look. Interesting fact: If you want to use bar-end shifters and route the cables under the handlebar tape on a relatively tall bike, you have to buy a tandem shifter cable to get all the way back to the rear derailleur. I hope to take it out for a little spin tonight and hopefully will get some good pictures.

I have some future plans for it, but they are merely cosmetic- Considering brown or tan brake cable housings, and also either natural cork or brown handlebar tape to bring out the Black & Tan theme a bit more. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the "black" of the bike is actually a dark brown. I'm trying to play up the brown theme a bit more.

My vote goes for tan bar tape. Specifically Cinelli natural cork. I had some scrap tan leather laying around and found a beat Flite saddle at the flea market. It all came together when I walked into the LBS and they had the Cinelli natural cork tape hanging from a peg! Tan is my new favorite!

That's actually what I have laying around the house. When a LBS went out of business I bought a couple rolls. I put one on my commuter hybrid when I did a drop bar conversion, then shellacked it to match the honey brown Brooks saddle on that bike. I held off on putting it on the Black & Tan right away, though, because if I decide to do the brown or tan brake cable housings, I want to do those first, then tape over them.

Sweet looking bike!

More on Black and Tan:

From Wikipedia:

Contrary to popular belief, however, Black and Tan as a mixture of two beers is not a drink commonly consumed in Ireland. Indeed, the drink has image problems in parts of Ireland and elsewhere due to the association with the Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force which was sent into Ireland in the early 1920s and nicknamed the Black and Tans.[1][2]

Bontrager Khaki wrap looks as good, a little closer to the headtube color.

My Black and Tan is Yuengling.

Also, a pretty good rockabilly band in the DC area, the Black and Tans, now defunct as they "found" reggae.

Cant wait to see it done. I need to come to Ft Worth and ride with you a Miles sometime.

In my neck o' the woods, "half and half" has a whole different meaning...... and costs more than a beer.

I learned long ago never to ask for a "Black and Tan" in an Irish pub, especially one with a Republican name...that would get you a hard look and maybe a lecture. It's "Harf'n'harf" whether they pour Harp or some other pale ale/lager before topping with Guinness (or Beamish or Murphy's).
When Stout is mixed with Strongbow (or any brand of cider) it's a "Snakebite"...and you can keep that. The combination is a ruination of two perfectly fine beverages when left alone .

Anyway.... a few pics. I took these at a local brew pub that recently opened. It seemed appropriate. I was disappointed, however, that they didn't have Guinness on tap, so no Black & Tan for me tonight. I settled for a locally brewed IPA.





The new cockpit






When I first got the bike, I changed out:
. the seat (currently a vintage Wrights W3N)
. derailleur (put a functioning Suntour aRX to match original equipment; it came from my Nishiki Olympic 12)
. pedals (also from the Oly 12).
. added a Flickstand from sirpoopalot

More recently, I added
. Ergo handlebars and aero brake levers (from ddeadserious)
. Suntour Bar-Con shifters (from Capecodder)
. new cables and housings, routed under the handlebar wrap
. Sugino RT 175 mm cranks, made from drillium (also from the Oly 12).
. I reused the handlebar wrap (for now) but used twine at the ends
. I also trued the wheels and removed the dork disk from the rear wheel

I would still like to do some cosmetic mods to bring the brown/tan theme out. I may get different brake cable housings. I have a dark brown Brooks B17 on my FG bike; I may swap it for the Wrights saddle. I will do a different handlebar wrap once I settle all the cable housings and stuff. I have some Cinelli natural cork tape that would look sharp, I think.

I have a few more adjustments and mechanical things to do. The bottom bracket is making noise. I changed out the cranks and that made no difference, I may swap out to a different set of pedals to see if that helps. If it turns out to be the bottom bracket (likely), I'll probably just put a sealed cartridge unit in.

Projects like this are never over, are they?

Really like the twine job. I have to get to work on my Raleigh USA, everybody is getting theres finished but me.

Yes you do. I know Raleigh USAs were essentially Huffys in the mid 80s, but I've had a couple of them now, and I really like their livery.

Awesome...... Glad you put those Bar-Cons into service so quickly.

Lookin' good! The bar end shifters look at home on that bike.
I could tell a similar story about the Prelude. I liked the way if fit and rode so much that I decided to upgrade it. It also got bar-end shifters....actually, I think the only thing still on it from when you had it is the headset (which I was going to change also but forgot about the one I had sitting in the bin).

Since I posted "Before" pics of the Prelude upthread, why don't you post some pics here?

I decided to put the cork handlebar tape on. Brings out the "tan" theme nicely, I think.

I love what you did with the cables. I really love the routing of the shifter cables.

That turned out super nice.

Even though it's friction shifting, I had to use SIS shift housing. Way too much compression with brake housing. And to reach the rear derailleur, I had to actually buy a tandem bike shifter cable. It is a nice routing, very clean, but it takes some doing to get there. I put a similar cable setup on my 1994 Nishiki hybrid when I gave it a drop bar makeover.

Thanks!

I did a little over 30 miles on it this evening, and everything seems to be running okay. I rode in the drops for a while because I had to head into a stiff breeze (probably 15-20 mph) for some of it.

The tan cork tape really sets off the look. Nice work.
I also routed my bar ends under the tape. Had to use tandem cable for the rear too. I'm running indexed, and Shimano states it is not advised to do this, but the bikes shift fine.