mkeller234

I thought this might be a fun thread idea. Maiden voyages (aka shake down rides) are usually exciting. The new bicycle that you have been slowly putting together, sometimes for months, is finally ready for a ride. Those rides can go perfectly, boringly well. Sometimes small things happen... Handlebars rotate forward, the fork shudders, the chain skates. I bet sometimes, they are disasters! Tell me about yours!

This is also a nice opportunity for me to show off my newly finished Melton. Perfectly boring maiden voyage. The shifts were crisp, bearings proved to be well adjusted, the cables stayed tight. Very nice!

mkeller234

delbiker1 

Nice, what size are the chain rings? I rebuilt a bike for the first time last spring. Fortunately, everything was smooth, no problems on the first post build ride.

mkeller234

I'm not sure what size the chainrings are, but they are super small. The bike is actually a very weird build and will slowly change over time. The main point for me now is that it is rideable in its current state. I put a small ATOM freewheel on the back because if the small chainrings.... which looks really weird with the long cage deer head RD.

rccardr 

Many years ago, rebuilt a Cannondale ST and took it out for a vigorous 35 mile morning shakedown ride.
All was fine. Bike shifted flawlessly, rode well, and I was feeling pretty good about the final product.
Then I pulled up to the front door, picked up the bike to carry it inside...and the front wheel fell off.
Hadn't tightened the front QR.
Good thing I hadn't tried to bunny hop the thing....

Slightspeed

On my first ever bike build, a '73 Raleigh Super Course, it all went amazingly well. I stripped the ugly green spray paint, and built it up on the stripped and unpainted frame to check fit, and ride quality before committing to paint and decal $$$. In my haste to make it to the Pasadena Vintage Ride, I re-used an old 10 speed chain that was laying around, including re-using the old link pin. About 4 miles into the ride, the drivetrain locked up solid. It took me a while to realize that the old link pin had come loose, followed the chain around and jammed in the jockey wheel on the Suntour VGT Luxe. I started walking back to the car, but saw a medium sized rock by the side of the road. I used it with the flat side of an open end wrench to push the pin back in place. I rode the 4 miles back to the car very gingerly. The rear hub also had a growley wobble which proved to be needing a cone adjustment. When I got home, the new chain arrived from Amazon.
I enjoyed the ride so much, that I decided to spring for paint, decals ... and a new chain.

This old Raleigh is one of my favorite rides.

thook

looks like the outer ring says 46t, no? do you know the bcd on it? maybe some nos sugino rings would be a match visually. maybe a 48t or 50t would get you close enough to the derailleur

btw, i saw the melton in the other thread. very nice resto. love the blue shining in the sun

ryansu

Bought this Cresta GT from a BF member and spent time refurbing it and spending money freely the first test ride put a big smile on my face ...6 months later I crashed and bent the fork so we are are on to round two but that first ride was fun



87 Cresta GT

bargo68 

My last ride on Wednesday was a shake down for a 1980 Miyata Gran Touring I finished building up a couple months ago but had only taken on little 1-2 mile jaunts to check things. All went well for the whole ride, about 37 miles, except the top race of the headset kept loosening up by a half turn. Guess I didn't get the pre-loading right when I tightened the lock nut down. I just kept hand tightening it til I got home. Have to say it's a smooth, sprightly ride considering it's a touring frame. Tracks beautifully and no hands riding is a cinch. I'm really digging the Japanese sports touring style!

Lascauxcaveman 

My first ride on my $100 Clunker Challenge bike a few years ago went exceedingly well until the very tiny ball bearings started falling out the freewheel which I had painstakingly refurbished -- but had not remembered to fully tighten the retaining ring that holds the whole thing together.

SJX426 

I picked up a Pinarello without knowing the model. Its paint was way bad, cracked rubbed and peeling. The price was negotiated to 50% asking, so $150 was a good price. It had DA hubs, RX100 crank - a frankenbike build. But hey, it is a Pinarello, and my first one! The only problem was that it is one size too small. I decided to give it to my daughter. She lives in Kirkland now and I in Fredericksburg VA. I still have the bike because she didn't have room for it. She does now so it will be higher priority this winter.
here it is as purchased.

Pinarello Vento- as purchased, on Flickr

Unfortunately the paint was not something I wanted to preserve along with the rust! It was stripped. We invited her to join us on vacation at Hilton Head. We decided to take the bikes so I built hers up with Suntour Superbe/Pro parts. I don't remember how I obtained the DT shift levers but they are index and now go for a nice sum on the bay. The RD was the earlier version that did not support index shifting. The adjustment for cable length at the RD was not built in. In the assembly, it turned out that the overall cable adjustment worked out such that the shifting was flawless. She loves the bike and commented that she didn't have to pedal much.
Here it is as ridden by her.

P1020897, on Flickr

P1020898, on Flickr

If interested, click on the link to see more details.

USAZorro

I have three stories of note.

1. Shadowfax, the 1970 Raleigh Professional had been given a glorious new paint job and had been carefully assembled using parts that would have been original.(save the Campagnolo Look style pedals). Was about halfway through a group ride with about a dozen fellow vintage enthusiasts, and accelerated through a turn. There was gravel. The wheels slid. I took the brunt of the impact, which only resulted in some road rash, though there was a paint chip in a thankfully, not too obvious place. This was 2008, as I vividly remember watching the Beijing Olympics in significant discomfort.

2. Had scrambled to put together the Argos for speedevil's inaugural Bourbon and Tobacco ride. Was still taking care of some final details when I arrived at the ride. Thought I had everthing accounted for. About 300 yards into the ride, I found a pedal attached to my foot, but not the crankarm. hmmm. Thought it was bad pedals, but it was me not completely inserting them. Plan B was the '49 Clubman, but the gearing got the better of me and I had to bail pretty early on the ride.

3. Another speedevil ride was the Misaligned Minds ride in Paducah. It sounded like a fine occasion to give the Competizione (Raleigh Competition that gugie converted to a 650b rando frame for me) it's baptism. From the start, I was hearing grinding noises in some gears. About a dozen miles into the ride, it was just thoroughly annoying, as I thought my chain was rubbing against the rear cogs in half the gears. A second set of eyes revealed that I had threaded the chain through the rear derailleur over the tab, rather than under it. PilotFishBob was able to get the quick link to reattach while RobbieTunes was having a good laugh. A few miles down the road, my left pedal was getting rather wobbly, and quickly getting worse. The entire crank arm soon completely came off. Fortunately, was able to locate the bolt, and I was able to re-tighten it to a degree about once every mile until we made the next rest stop. Was able to contact the SAG vehicle, which had the needed 14mm socket, and I can guarantee you that arm won't come off again until I intend for it to.

The Golden Boy 

Those Ofmega/Avocet cranks are 144/74- I think the other holes are 102.

SurferRosa

Happened to me today while overhauling some 105 brake calipers. "Wait, this thing has bearings??"

jethin

This cracks me up. Carefully overhauling a fw and then watching as the many tiny bearings dribble back out.

Kabuki12

Doc, that is very humble of you to share and also very entertaining! It is also something many of us can relate to, I have built a few classic bikes and occasionally I get so excited about the “shakedown ride” that I overlook something simple. I force myself , now , to stop and go over the basic assembly that I did with a critical eye.

Kabuki12

The most uneventful maiden voyage was also my most memorable. It was a 1972 Super Mondia that I bought on eBay. It had, by the way the bike looked, been cycleocrossed . As I had no history from the previous owner , I decided to completely dis assemble and rebuild the bike to its original form. The bike was found in a storage locker and so the seller had no idea what it was. I was lucky that 95% of the original parts were there. Even the original Brooks Pro saddle was still there and is so comfortable. I wrote about it after I finished the bike . If you check my blog at joesvintageroadbikes.wordpress and look for the Super Mondia Special. I posted pictures of the process and a brief story of the ride. Joe

jerry moos

Not technically a maiden voyage, but the first really long voyage. I rode my recently acquired 1974 Lejeune F-70 (PX-10 equivalent) in the 1974 Northeast Ohio Century (NEOC) from Youngstown,OH to Ashtabula, OH on Lake Erie and back. It rained the first 50 miles and everyone was thoroughly drenched. At the lunch stop at a park on Lake Erie, the sun finally came out. Early in the return trip, the group I was with stopped at a laundremat. Went in, stripped off everything we could without being arrested, and threw everything in the driers. As the result, the return trip was a lot more pleasant then the first 50 miles. The new Brooks saddle on the Lejeune was still pretty hard at the start of the ride, but after 50 miles in the rain, it was well broken in.

Jerry Moos
Houston, TX

JaccoW

A few years ago when I started out on this C&V journey I built up a Gazelle Grand Tourist to be a drop-bar, drum brake, 3-speed IGH with 2 sprockets monstrosity.
It looked great and virtually everywhere I looked people said these drum brakes needed direct-pull levers (as in for v-brakes instead of linear pull like everything else).
Turns out they don't. There is a reason why they use 4-finger levers; they are somewhere in between but still linear pull.

The only way I managed to stop was because I also had crosslevers installed on the tops which were linear pull.
The v-brake levers required all of my strength and still barely slowed down the bike.

Rebuilt the bike to use porteur handlebars and different levers in the end.

seedsbelize 

My most recent is the tried and true classic. I was putting together an upright town bike, to replace the mtb I've been using. Everything was ready to go save for brake cables. And I got distracted. And time passed. When I finally finished it and took it out, nothing had been tightened down. Not the seatpost, nor the headset, nor the brake lever, nor the handlebar.....

horatio 

Let's see... on some memorable shakedown rides I:

- Neglected to sufficiently tighten the seat post binder, and gradually sank onto the top tube (this happened at least twice)

- Neglected to sufficiently tighten the stem, letting the bars rotate forward when braking from the hoods

- Neglected to sufficiently tighten the stem wedge, letting the bars turn, but not the wheel

- Watched in dismay as the Italian threaded fixed cup un-fixed itself (also several occurrences)

- Neglected to close the brake release levers

- Neglected to sufficiently tighten the rear wheel QR, bringing me to a quick stop

Good times!