downtube42

Chrome lugs and tall headtube caught my eye, buried in the back of the pile of bikes at the Bike Farm. 25" frames are hard to come by. After 15 minutes of gymnastics I had it extracted. Shimano forged dropouts, Sugino maxy crank with 48/52 chainrings for (I guess) half-step shifting. Suntour Seven deraileurs, Suntour stem shifters, Dia-compe center-pulls. I didn't realize at the time, but the BB is Italian. The paint is half gone, wheels a mismatch - front a Sunshine high-flange hub laced to a Weinmann rim (27"), rear a Miche Competition hub and no-name rim. It followed me home for $60.

Torn down, the BB spindle and cups are pitted. The front hub is the same, There's a fair amount of rust on the frame though nothing structural.

The idea is a winter beater - something to put my studded tires on and ride when it's icy. For that I'll need 700c wheels.

I should probably toss the whole thing and start over. Or just repack the bearings and ride it as-is.

ryansu

Looks like the perfect winter beater project

juvela

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Dropouts Maeda (Suntour)

Original pedals were KKT RTSF-AL

Original rear mech Suntour VGT Luxe

Original rear wheel Sunshine/Weinmann

Tip - stem/steerer size is .833

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Don Buska

They were pretty good bikes for a low cost. I had one just like yours, albeit in the 21" version, and I rode it until 1980 when the frame finally cracked due to an accident several years prior. The same company that produced those Windsors also produced the SR brand (down near San Diego). I got a frame swap to their SR brand as the Windsors were not offered as frames only. That SR is still in my ride rotation of bikes till this day - although heavily upgraded on the components side now .

Here is a rather crappy scan of the original bike review for that Windsor that you might find interesting.

downtube42

Oh, didn't know that. Good to know.

Kabuki12

I would say you did well. I have the Windsor Pro and I love it! The frame is well used having been raced frequently through its life in San Luis Obispo , Cal. I paid 300 for it and have gotten every penny's worth out of the bike with no issues. I have not ridden the Carrera Sport, but if it is anything like its big brother you will enjoy that bike, even as a "beater". Joe
1973 Windsor Profesional

dddd

One thing that I liked about my 23" Carrera Sport was that it had the frame angles of a real racing bike, quite unlike most of the modest sport-touring bikes that it competed with in that price-point sector.
So expect 74-degree angles on similar-sized Sports.
But what really drew me to the bike was that I found it in a dumpster and that it had those fancy chromed lugs and socks.
It was also fairly heavy, made with Hi-Ten sort of steel for sure.

downtube42

It appears to have a 68mm Italian threaded BB shell, which does not exist in the world as far as I can tell. But it's definitely Italian; clearly stamped 36x24 on the fixed cup. And measures 68mm wide. Italian is (supposed to be) 70mm.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/cribshe...mbrackets.html

This guy agrees on the bike:
https://www.obatik.com/stories/bikin...carrera-sport/

I just bought a 70mm Italian cartridge BB. Maybe it will fit, maybe I'll have to shim out 1mm per side.

Fun times!

dddd

The Italian threading could be a repair, used to restore damaged threading to the oversized (by ~1mm) Italian 36mm.

I would check to see if the non-driveside threading has the same I.D.!

juvela

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The Italian threaded shell is OEM.

OEM type II spindle is likely nr. 3S or 3T.

Steerer thread on these is BSC but steerer interior is .833.

A unique combination of dimensions in my spanner twistin' experience.

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downtube42

Spindle is stamped 3S.

And yes both fixed and adjustable cups are stamped 36x24.

My last project bike was a 70's Motobecane Grand Jubile, which had the normal French oddities. This thing is a oddball among oddballs.

downtube42

Rough build up. I'll tear it down and paint later. Rode to work today. Right crank is bent, bars are too narrow. With the 118mm bb cartridge I had to remove the small ring because it interfered with the chainstay. I'll be looking for another crankset.

Velo Mule

Windsor bottom 'brackets are odd. They are a mix of Italian and English. If I remember right, I'm old, so this might be wrong, Italian threads and English width. So, getting a replacement can be tricky because you have to get the spindle separate from the cups. I had a lowly Windsor International when I worked in a bike shop, so I had a big advantage for sourcing the right parts that I needed to upgrade my bottom bracket. Spindles we readily available separately at the time. Now, you have to search and maybe make some phone calls.

Nice bike. I'd ride it without painting it.

dddd

Reminds me of my Steyr, which has the odd combination of metric tubing, English BB and Austrian 26mm x 22mm steer tube, and uses a 25.6mm seatpost!

downtube42

Your memory is correct - English width and Italian threads. Rather than trying to source vintage parts, I installed a new Italian Shimano cartridge BB, and used the original adjustable cup's lockring as a spacer on the drive side. So far so good after about 100 miles. I torqued the heck out of the fixed cup.

I'm undecided on painting. I had to build it up quick because my primary commuter was in the shop. Now that the commuter's back online, I can take some time to reconfigure the Windsor to suit me, tear it back down, then decide how to deal with the bare metal. Clear-coat, at least.

On reconfiguring. Between my damaged spine and long torso, I need a long reach and relatively high bars. We're talking negative bar drop. I replaced the stock stem with a threaded/threadless adapter (0.833 steerer, ebay, alloy) and a long riser stem (bike co-op, Specialized, aluminum, new-ish). I rode it on a grocery run tonight - wow, what a difference having my torso unwound makes.

Oh, I replaced the stock bars with some SR Randonneur bars from the co-op. I have a half-baked idea of riding this on a 100k Populaire in a few weeks, and I've found randonneur bars more comfortable.

Next up are some vintage Suntour clamp-on downtube shifters to replace the vintage Suntour stem shifters. My knee has a tendency to knock it into a higher gear when out of the saddle.

52telecaster

Cool bike, and those suntour seven derailleurs really over perform for cheap units. Love that u went with the cartridge bb. Make it work for you.