likebike23

I scored a pretty great deal on a cool bike last night. A guy in the next town is closing on his house in 2 days and needed to clear out some stuff. The bike was given to him by a woman at his gym to use in a triathalon, but when he was given a quote to install new tubulars and get the bike ready, he decided to ride a mountain bike instead. The bike sat in his garage for a while unused and he is not a bike guy, so up went the crappy CL ad with no pics or decription whatsoever. The ad simply stated that the bike was a Steve Rogers bike for a ridiculously low price. I figured I should email him with my interest because any time I've seen a bike brand that is simply somebody's name, it is usually a handbuilt frame. When he texted me a picture, I went over there as soon as he would let me.

The bike is a 57CM, Reynolds 531 frame with Campagnolo dropouts. It has early DA headset, brakes/levers, derailleurs, and I believe Suntour bar ends. I'm not exactly sure what the cranks are but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. What really got me excited from the crappy phone pics was the saddle, it's an alloy railed model 90 in nice shape. There is a good amount of drillium to the r. derailleur, shifters, chainrings, and saddle rails. The wheelset has Wolber Super Champion competition tubular rims laced to nice sealed bearing hubs. The bike is in typical condition for a vintage bike, neglected and crusty, but solid otherwise.

Has anyone ever heard of Steve Rogers? I'm thinking that he was a small builder in the 70's, I couldn't find anything on the internet other than references to Captain America Also, I cannot find any markings on the hubs to indicate what they are. Does anyone recognize them? Lastly, I understand Ideale alloy railed saddles are pretty desirable, does the drillium on the rails effect that? Any info would be appreciated. Now for the pics.

sss

Hubs appear to be Weyless.

thinktubes 

You can pretty much replace that seat with a bag of money. Cranks are Sugino.

nice score!

vjp

Nice bike!

Probably a builder local to the region. Yes, Weyless hubs and those are Sugino cranks. I don't believe that drilling the aluminum rails was a very judicious move, too bad.

photogravity

Nice bike! Never heard of the builder, but looks nice. The Ideale saddle is nice. I doubt the work on the saddle frame is a problem, given the design of the rails. I have held one of those in my hand and they are not very light, so any reduction in weight that would not compromise the integrity of the saddle frame seems like a win to me.

likebike23

Thanks to you guys for the info on the hubs and crank. I guess the opinion on the drillium rails is mixed. I'm really torn what to do with this bike as it's a bit large for me and the tire clearance is tight. Definitely a nice bike though and pretty darn light.

JohnDThompson 

"Mighty Competition" model, to be specific. Sugino's top-of-the-line back in the day. Essentially a Campagnolo "Record" clone with 144mm BCD.

Agreed!

dailycommute

Was that the one listed for $25? At that price most people would just haul to curb with free sign but hey, one's trash, another's treasure. Wonder if fork is replacement, seems odd to not have same paint fork on custom build. Does the rear triangle have fender or rack mount? You say pretty light but sometimes the tourers used 501 vs 531. With tubulars one would have to figure it was designed for racing/speed but who knows.

Regardless very interesting and at price point why not keep it around awhile to see if anybody knows the builder.

edit, misread the 531 label for 501 so looks to be racing model

likebike23

You saw the ad too? Not one detail indicating what the bike was. I figured at that price, I would grab now and investigate later as Thrifty Bill likes to say. The bike has a 531 sticker and no eyelets on the dropouts, so I feel it is a racing build. As for the fork, no clue, the frame/paint shows no signs of crash damage. I know lots of bikes used chrome forks back in the day. I will keep it around for a while, maybe cleaning it up a bit and seeing if I can make the fit work.

bikemig 

The bike shop appears to be still in business. Maybe the owner can tell you something about the builder.

photogravity

Take my word on it when I say that you will have no problems recouping your money on that bicycle. It's in a popular size and appears to be a nicely built bicycle. Heck, if I didn't already have a basement full of bicycles, I'd have already sent you a PM on it.

Based on what I see of the bicycle, I am of the opinion that it was built as a racer based on the geometry, lack of eyelets, and fork rake.

noglider 

And the tubular tires, too.

photogravity

+1 Knew about them, but forgot.

Chombi

That drillium TB90 saddle's dangerous for sure.......
Send it to me so I can add it to my Coke cans for recycling....

Drillium Dude 

Nice score! Any day you can get a bike which has an American custom-built frame at its heart is a damned good day!

I personally like the way the Ideale's rails were drilled. Looks cool. Can we see a shot of the drillium on the rear derailleur - and perhaps some frame details, too?

'grats on your find

DD

likebike23

Good idea!

I thought the same thing. It went to the curb this morning, wouldn't want anyone getting hurt.

Thanks, I'll put a couple more pics up (sorry about the quality, taking care of my 4 yo daughter and they were a rush job). The lugs are cut pretty small and simply. There are no braze ons except the rear derailleur cable stop. Also there is no chainstay bridge.

The derailleur is drilled on the inner and outer parallelogram plates as well as on the knuckle right above where the cable housing inserts. I can take more/better pictures later and send you some if you want. I know you are into drillium and have admired your work in the past. Cheers, Mike.

Drillium Dude 

Thanks for the new pics - they tell the rest of the story. Btw, interesting rear dropout treatment - at least on the drive side. I wonder if the non-drive side looks the same?

Note the material taken away around the raised clamping flat and the lower "lip" at the axle opening has been extensively filed back. Cool

DD

likebike23

The non drive side dropout has the same treatment. I noticed it last night when removing the wheel and thought it was interesting, but wasn't sure if the Campagnolo dropouts were like that already. The fork has Tange dropouts and I wonder if it was not made by Steve Rogers. Maybe he was an amateur/inexperienced builder and only made the frame. I don't know for sure, but I'm going to call the bike shop and see if I can get more info.

StevePGN10

Cool bike.
The hoop on the non-drive side of the front wheel, what is that?

likebike23

I'm pretty sure you're seeing the quick release skewer. Those are Weyless hubs and they came with the cool skewers. Thanks to member sss for the ID of the hubs.

jeirvine 

Great find. Is there a date on the RD?

Chombi

25 bucks for that beauty?!.....That last owner must have been out of his head as most people woud at least add a zero to that number when selling any decent bike........and still, that would have been a bargain!

likebike23

No date or any other markings. I think they were ground off prior to the drilling.

The guy was in the process of selling his house and closing in two days. The place was 99% empty of all belongings and there was a pile at the end of the driveway for the trashman. He said he wasn't a bike guy and it was given to him, so I guess he just didn't care about making money and just wanted it gone. I got lucky.

pastorbobnlnh 

Ugggggh! Look at the crud on that freewheel!

Based on the "Shimano" stamping and the goldish tones on the cogs peeking out from under the crud, I'm guessing that is an early Dura Ace freewheel.

I had this NOS corn cob DA pass through my hands at one point. Had a mirror finish on the bearing races.

likebike23

It is a Dura Ace 5 speed freewheel. I'm going to have to get the tool to remove it as it's pretty gummed up inside as well. I'm thinking flushing it with PB and oiling it, that's worked for me in the past. It also has sealed alloy derailleur pulleys hiding under all that gunk.