greg3rd48 

Really cool, the bike, setup and good will!

bikemig 

This is "better" than a UO 8 I think because of the cotterless crank and better derailleurs. These are alloy wheels, right? Stock the UO 9 came with steel rims. These are great bikes.

RobertUI 

I really wish I'd taken some pictures, but I had the same frameset built up as a cyclocross/campus commuter bike in Blacksburg, VA ~1991 I don't recall how/when/where I sold it, but man I loved that bike!!! Congrats on that build, it's really sweet, I also had a Brooks saddle... and now the hunt begins.

denaffen

I just finished this one today.

It's a Nishiki Sports that I *had* converted to upright North Road-style bars, now reconfigured as a single-speed with bullhorns. Total bargain bomber bike, but so far it seems fun.

kross57

Yes, the bike I purchased came with the standard chrome rims. I put the alloys on there. And the front derailleur was the standard Delrin model. Also replaced.

RobbieTunes

No pictures of the current project, but the backup is getting serious.

I picked up a Super Record 11 group, used, about 1500 miles. It was not as clean as I'd hoped, but it's just dirt, right? Then I removed the perfectly good 1x11 SRAM Force from my Italian carbon rocket (Cipollini). And down the path of no return....

So, tedious cleaning of components. We've all been there.
Internal routing. In handlebars. Looks cool, but those are serious 90-degree bends.
After test-fitting, I'm opting for along the bar.

Internal routing. In the frame.
As a 1x, I could use either side of the DT routing, so I curved gracefully across the HT and used the L side for the rear. With a 2x, and using shift liner, I'm thinking of doing likewise on a 2x setup. Curve gently across the front of bike, cross inside the shift liner somewhere in the dark hole of that downtube, and see how that works. I've seen worse setups (Madones). Will just have to test and re-test to get a smooth cable pull.

I remember when it was easy. 2 downtube shifters, naked cable out there for the world to see, housings unencumbered by the design, no slave to drag or coefficients of anything.

Oh, wait. That's still around. Good.
Rant over.

capnjonny 

Here are some pics of the Univega Range Rover 18 I just rehabbed. I did a number of upgrades on this one to include:
New(used) wheels, bars, derailleurs, saddle, seat post, brakes(changed from caliper to linear pull), levers, freewheel .
New (new) parts include:
Cables and covers, Shifters, Chain, Grips, Tires, tubes.
The original paint was excellent. I did some touch up, deep cleaned and rubbed out with white polishing compound, and put a coat of car wax on it and it looks like new.
The bike was originally 18 speeds. I put on a 14-34 hyper glide 7 speed freewheel so now is a 21 speed. Shifts like a dream with the Sunrace thumbies. I really don't think Indexing is any better then friction, especially at the lower price points. The original Shimano index thumb shifter (right side) was really hard to shift. I tried lubing it but that didn't help. then I took it apart and broke it. Never could get to the innards to find out why it was so stiff.

JaccoW

Spent today cleaning, lubing and ultimately damaging a 5-speed Sturmey Archer RX-RD5 hub.
It was spinning better than ever before... when I backpedalled and one of the tiny pawls exploded. It's a rare occurence but I probably didn't clean the hub well enough behind these pawls.
No damage to the hub or shell as far as I know but I will have to go hunt for a new replacement.

HMJ

Two or three years ago I bought this one at a thrift store and it has been sitting in the corner of my basement ever since. I got tired of looking at it so about a month ago I decided to it's number was up. It has been a fun clean up and I really didn't encounter any big problems until I reinstalled the RD - an original Raleigh-branded Suntour GT. I noticed some lateral play in the pulley cage and was hoping it would be OK but it needs to be replaced. Unfortunately I don't have a compatible (at least in capacity) RD laying around so I'll have to find one sooner or later. When I do I'll trim the cables and tape the handlebars.

okrep23

1983 Specialized Sequoia built up from a bare frame and fork for my wife. About in the same frame condition as the RetroGrouch's build from March 2020.

mkeller234

I’m continuing to work on my lotus sprint. Boy did they cheap out on the bearings!! The cartridges only have 1 rubber seal. The headset bearing retainer holds the least amount of bearings that I have ever seen.

momoman

I’ve spent all morning struggling to mount a new Continental GP 5000 TDF 25mm tire on a newly built set of wheels for my single speed with H Plus Son TB14 rims. This is the first time I may give up and order a set of tire bead jacks. I don’t even want to think about having to fix a flat on this tire/rim combo. Maybe I’ll try another brand of tires of use an inner tube with a removable valve stem so I can use tire sealant if I get a flat.

I had mounted an old set of Vittoria Rubin Pro 23mm tires on the wheels just to protect the rims and they were also very difficult to mount and remove. I’ve search the net and others have also reported difficulty with mounting tires on H Plus Son TB14 rims.

I’m currently resting my fingers before attempting to flip that last portion of the tire over the rim.........then I’ll have to do the other wheel........



A lot more tire to work onto the rim!

rccardr 

What rim tape are you using? If Velox or similar, switching to Stan’s or Kaptan tape will make it much easier.

Nemosengineer 

Playing with my new toy car. Trying to work out roof rackage for two road bikes.

20201231_164517 by nemosengineer, on Flickr

This looks interesting...

oneclick 

No pics, just text - but anyway, last thing I did was make one of those little plastic bushings that go in a brake arm - most commonly for MAFAC but this one was a GB Coureur 66, a different size.

It was a bit tricky in a trial and error way; I had to do it twice. I used a small lathe and a bit of hard nylon. The tricky bit was after making the T-shaped section (top of the T away from the chuck) the centre-hole was drilled; the resulting wall was so thin it deformed and got bigger, just enough that the bushing would bind. The second one I put a mandrel chucked in the tailstock into the drilled hole and went over the T section diameter again, which shrunk the ID too much (the mandrel had to have clearance and the plastic took it all up). The next cycle of drill-and-turn I went well under on the OD and found after drilling it was just right.

Plastic is worse even than wood sometimes.

And getting those brake arms apart was trouble. They are just pins threaded at one end a plain slot in the other. All of them were extremely tight; and the risk of stripping a slot was big. I ground shoulders on the sides of a screwdriver blade so it would *just* fit in the slot and grabbed the bridge in some wood (good for something anyway) soft jaws and that worked.

The reason I had to make one was it never had one to start with, I think. It only had one, and after making the other it wouldn't go in the slot (GB arms are held front-and-back by a single slotted section of the bridge). There never was room for one - either the arm was too thick or the slot too narrow. Whoever made it up at the factory just put one side in and put it in the box. The other 66 has two per arm, it was only this one on one side.

It wasn't hard to decide what to do, filing a slot face flat and parallel is way harder than doing the same to the arm, it needed at least a mm removed.

Everything back together, and aside from this, nobody'll likely ever know.

Chuck M 

Put this old Bendix yellow band hub back together yesterday. I've never rode a bike with one of these and I'm looking forward to getting some tires and nice enough weather to test ride it before I return the bike. I'm thinking I'll want to get an old Schwinn for myself to ride around the neighborhood with the grandkids if it rides like I think it will.

Mr. 66

I have been working on a Bridgestone T500. The T500 had all of the drive side, elbow out spokes replaced. A previous owner had no dork disk and munched the chain from a mis-shift. The back brake calipers were removed and replaced with original type Diacomp 930 cantilever. Since then I have the paint I pantograph the details.

pcb 

I keep blowing my respray budget on more stuff, so my '76 Strawberry/DiNucci has been hanging nekkid for a loooong time now waiting to go to Joe Bell. Decided to build 'er up and let 'er prance a bit. Can't remember the last time she got ridden.

Build was pretty smooth, aside from the usual "brake caliper center bolts are wrong" issues. One center bolt is generic, one brake shoe holder doesn't match the other three. Horror Show. Bars were already done, from a previous build. Didn't want to mess up NOS-ish Super Record rings, so I went with whatevs. Old Man 42/46t gearing up front, would normally go 42/47 or 42/49, but I either didn't have 'em, or they were too nice. Oh, and qr skewers don't match, either.

Ran outta Brooks saddles, what's on there now is a Deb Banks/Rivet Ti rescue saddle. I snagged it on ebay, found the front cantle was cracked, got a steel replacement from Deb. Didn't want to deal with actual rivets, so the leather up front is just bolted down.

The freewheel is a Suntour Microlite Ultra-6 I built in the '80s. I'd replace the 2-3 smallest aluminum cogs with steel, and adjust the body bearings ungodly tight, since they wore so quickly. This one was almost not freewheeling when it first went up in the stand, but it was already a little smoother when I finished.

Took some frame detail shots before rebuilding. Mark was a very precocious young builder. I don't think he was past 22yrs old when he built this.

Flickr album here:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsjXHMRLU

JaccoW

The Gazelle Grand Tourist is now a proper 5-speed bike with a dynohub and internal wiring.
Just a teaser shot for now:

bikemig 

It's always hit or miss working on bikes during the winter in Iowa as my garage isn't heated. I have four bikes up on the build queue. First one up is a 1958 Claud Butler Jubilee. It's fillet brazed and built from straight gauge Reynolds 531. Current plans are to do a resto mod with parts from the 70s as that is what I have sitting in my parts bin. I have GB brakes which are period correct. Other than that I'm going with a stronglight 49d crank, simplex derailleurs, and 27 inch alloy wheels with normandy competition hubs. We'll see where I end up on this build.

eom 

My garage is unheated as well so slow going this time of year.
1986 Ross Mt St Helens. I like tall ones, saw this last month and... well you know. Winter beater grocery bike.
Not sure which bars I will settle on. Albatross for now, Bosco, Ahearne-Map, and Mary are choices from the stash. Cables and housing will be trimmed later.

As purchased.




As tested today.

merziac

H**Y CRAP MAN!

That's freakin awesome.

We have the same birth year, so it would be in good company with the 58 Paramount.

Please put me on the short or long list for if you ever decide to move this along, especially if its a 58cm or more.

xiaoman1 

It's probably on by now, just a tip you may already know but when I have had tires that were hard to install, I made sure both of the beads were as close to one another as possible.
Pushing them together along with a thinner rim tape may be difficult but it gave me the little extra space that I needed for the install. A strong tire lever also helped.
Best, Ben

JohnDThompson 

Do you have a bead jack?

Kool Stop International - High Performance Bicycle Brake Pads Since 1977

momoman

I gave up......my fingers were sore from trying to flip that last portion of tire onto the inner rim. I actually tried to use a tire lever but if it takes that much effort I don't want to be stranded should I get a flat with these wheels. I had another set of new Michelin Lithion.2 tires mounted on a set of Campy wheels on a vintage Colnago and I took those tires and mounted them on the H Plus Son TB14 rims. It was still difficult to mount, but not as difficult as trying to mount the Continental GP 5000 tires. I was planning on purchasing more H Plus Son TB14 rims and more Continental GP5000 tan sidewall TDF tires for another vintage build but that combo doesn't seem to go together well. I ended up putting the Continental GP5000's on the Campy Colnago wheels with narrow (14mm inner, 19 mm outer) rims and it was a difficult mount, but not as difficult as on the wider TB14 box rim.

So, now I have a set of Michelin Lithion.2 tan sidewall tires on my Velo Orange hub/H Plus Son TB14 wheels for my single speed (it currently has tubular tires but I want to swap it out with clinchers occasionally), and a set of Continental Grand Prix 5000 Tour De France limited edition tires on my vintage Colnago. I guess that's a good match since Colnago was finally a winner last year at the TDF and I'll have the commemorative tires on my Colnago.

I ordered a set of Kool Stop tire bead jacks. I've never needed to use them in the past, but maybe old age is catching up with me and my hands and fingers aren't as strong as they used to be!