Well, I need another project like I need another hole in my head. I found this Zeus at the Milwaukee Swap yesterday and after much deliberation and bartering, I had to take it home with me.

All of the cable guides are clamp on, BB is modern, remnants of a Reynolds 531 decal, the paint is pretty rough, the chrome looks salvageable. Despite some rust and crust, I think the frame is solid. My best guess would be early 1970's.

Frame 54cm
Reynolds 531
Zeus dropouts


Component mix

Zeus FD
Zeus RD
Dura Ace clamp on DT shifters
Zeus hubs (no BCP stamp) so I'd assume French threads on the 5 speed freewheel
Super Champion/Competition/Gentleman rims
Ideale saddle
Zeus seat post
Zeus pedals
Sugino 165mm crankset (big ring is stamped Argentina)
Headset is not marked
Super Alfa centerpulls and levers

she looks fine. congratulations on your new acquisition.

when i saw the first photo i thought "Professional model ca. 1972-73." then i saw the head emblem; iirc the last year for this emblem would have been about 1970-71.

all the bearings on the zeus components are first rate with rectified races. you will have fun redding her up. she is what the mfr. terms "bna" thread, otherwise known as metric or french.

i owned this same model, size and colour ~1972.

please post an update as she comes along.

Very cool! A Zeus is high on my list.

How was the swap? Any good stuff?

I was bummed that I wasn't able to make it up there. But, my table is booked for Palatine and Madison....

Very cool bike I thnink you should stop worrying about value and rehabe this one. A nice Zeus is at or close to the tope of a wish of bikes to rebuild for most of us C&V guys. That said with a little clean up to decent and working condition you should be able to get around $200 maybe more for the Zeus branded parts on Ebay. And another $150-200 for the frame fork cleaned up. Yet I'm still for restoring and keeping this fine collectors bikes.

zukahn...........yes, I will likely hang on to this one. Was thinking more along the lines of "inquiries" than "appraisals", but your right, I should have just posted in the regular C&V. I wanted to document some pics before I started messing with it. I will start a new thread when the time comes.

Now that I know it's French threaded, I have concerns about the BB threading. The Sugino crankset and sealed BB means the threads are likely buggered up.

bibliobob............The Milwaukee Swap was much better than last year IMO. Not many C&V bikes in the corral though. I rented a table with the intention of walking around and buying a lot..........which is what I did. Bought a couple of Ritchey headsets, 2 sets of Tektro aero levers, several saddles.....one's a suede Vetta new with tags, Campy BB, several bars, stems and pedals, bar tape, SS wheelset, a Raleigh Technium MTB..........ya, I bought a lot of stuff.........other things I saw......tall Cinelli frame....no fork....it went cheap, a nice 53cm Gitane, bargainguy had several very nice leather saddles (I bought a white suede Sella Italia from him), a decent Terry frame set............................

okay, back on task...........this is the threading issue that concerns me.

I was waiting for the swap to open, standing by the front door....when someone rolls up this chrome Voyageur and leans it against the building. Turned out to be for sale. Got it for $125 but there is a dent in the top tube.

There were a couple Waterford road frames. One with a footlong head tube at $125, another more recent champange RS22 for $300, but the RS22 had horrible looking welds, not like any Waterford I've ever seen. Decals all seemed correct but the level of craftsmanship was severely lacking.

Oh, also a Carl Strong MTB in my teeny dwarf size from a friend. Didn't sell at the swap and I'm still mulling over this one. Hadn't gone to the swap looking for any kind of MTB, but a chance to get a full Strong bike at a sub-$1K price is tempting.

I would suspect that that BB may be Itailian typical of Zeus they just copied a lot of campy stuff no copy right patent laws for Spanish companies in Spain around the time this was made. Yet either way your right in thinking that someone may have jackscrewed a modern BB into this bike. I have done it with a thread cutter and new BB on some low end french builds.

Ahhhh.....didn't realize that you bought the Voyageur that morning.

You mentioned to me at the end of the day about checking the stem and seat post on the Zeus.............Yes, I should have checked prior to buying, but fortunately they are both free.

Is that a "Wares" bike shop sticker above the BB shell there??!

Yes it is! Shop is long gone but not in your memory, good catch!

Yep, I still remember drooling at all sorts of bikes in their shop in the blue collar neighborhood of West Milwaukee when I was in college.
The folks there were real nice down to earth people. I still remember when my brother and I would lace up new rims we bought from them, in a corner of their showroom floor to get a discount on a wheel build by them. They just basically charged us for truing them, even though we handed the wheels over still all loose and quite floppy. Rainbow Jersey, Wheel and Sprocket and Patio bike shop would have never let us do that........ That's why I have quite fond memories of that shop.
I would not be surprised if that Zeus was sold by Wares, considering that they had enough Italian framesets and some Motos for sale even in the 80's, but they were also quite heavy on Fujis, Zebrakenkos and Takaras by that time too. I believe It was the shop I first saw a stainless steel framed Submariner....and almost got a hernia trying to pick it up off the showroom floor.....

hello again r0ckh0und,

forgot to mention that hs will be zeus gran sport, metric thread.

wrt chainset & bb: pedals will be metric thread (14x1.25) and the sugino mighty arms are almost certain to be bsc/iso (9/16x20F). you might wish to keep on the lookout for a zeus chainset to mount.

bb looks to be a phil so all you need is a phil tool; if not in your kit perhaps you can borrow one. tip: phil rings are installed with loctite so it may require significant torque to break them loose.

are there any additional markings on the argentine c/w such as gambatto or saavedra?

Zeus Gran Sport.........metric thread.

I am not following most of this.....wrt chainset & bb: pedals will be metric thread (14x1.25) and the sugino mighty arms are almost certain to be bsc/iso (9/16x20F). you might wish to keep on the lookout for a zeus chainset to mount............are you saying that everything is French thread?? Are the cranks and BB mis matched??

The big ring says "saavedra argentina"

it is likely that pedals and crank arms are of different thread. metric pedal thread is slightly smaller than bsc/iso so a metric pedal spindle will thread easily into a bsc/iso arm but it is not a "class a" fit.

both sides of shell will be rh thread.

saavedra is one of the largest cycle mfrs in buenos aires.

okay.......now I'm following............the taper on the BB spindle and the Sugino's are probably not a good match either

Thank you for the the information juvela..................very good stuff to know.

iirc the taper on the phil bb spindle will be a perfect fit for the sugino mighty arms. when you remove the crank fixing bolts you can check to see how much freeboard there is between the end of the spindle and the face of the removing hole in the arm.

one tip on removing the phil rings -

as mentioned above they are installed with loctite which can make them difficult to break loose - especially after forty years.

in stubborn cases it is often easier, and safer for the cycle, if the tool is clamped in a heavy duty machinist's vise and frame is used as the "handle" to turn the rings. in this manner there is no risk of a frame tube being damaged by the clamp of the repair stand.

Yes.........the pedals removed quite easily and I pulled the drive side crank to confirm it's a Phil BB..............I see what you mean with the freeboard.

I am probably going to rebuild the headset and hubs, clean everything and then do a mock build up with everything I have. Then pull the BB when I'm ready to paint.

In the meantime I will try and collect a few parts. Currently bidding on these to replace the DA set I now have.... https://www.ebay.com/itm/360807477204...84.m1431.l2648

Will a French threaded Zeus crankset work with the Phil BB or do I need a Zeus BB??

hello again,

shift levers look fine. if you should purchase these, or another set, you might wish to add the zeus shift lever covers. there are early and late types in these and the early type would be appropriate for your machine. the markings on the early type are indistinct and they resemble a cough lozenge. the late type closely resembles a campag. they were offered in a variety of colours. so you would wish to select a colour compatible with that which you plan to paint the frame. they also fit hub qr levers. one idea about colours - if you plan to change the cycle's colour you might wish to look online for zeus examples from this era to see if there is a stock colour which catches your fancy.

wrt the phil wood spindle compatibility -

it has been quite a few years since i have worked on one but it is my recollection that phil offered but one taper. in their literature they discussed the matter of taper compatibility and stated that they had chosen a kind of "skeleton key" taper which would work with everything then available.

in searching for cranks you would want the model called criterium, also a competition model would be ok, and it should have the zeus world logo as opposed to the later zeus oval logo.

hope this helps some.

best wishes with your new project!

Thank you for sharing all of this information juvela..................you have been very helpful.

I have a trek with a Rainbow Jersey sticker on the seat tube.