obrentharris 

Yes, the crack is a nasty one. This worked out in my favor in a strange way. The stem was quite stuck in the steerer tube. Since I was going to scavenge the parts and trash the stem anyway I had no qualms about waling on the stem with the hammer to remove it. First blow with the rubber mallet finished the job on that crack.
Brent

obrentharris 

Rudi, photos of the brake lever and the seatpost would be greatly appreciated!
Brent

obrentharris 

Today I heard from the member from whom I purchased the bike. At my request he removed the lock nuts from the wheels that were on the bike when he received it. They are dated '61. What a great guy! So now I'm officially calling this bike a '61 or '62.
Brent

retyred

Here are a few pics of an Allegro I once owned. Note the serial number. It was in production same time as yours. Was equipped with Record FD that Juvela Mentioned.

obrentharris 

Thanks retyred Nice bike. It looks like yours got the smoked finish. The seat and chain stays with chrome along the top and paint along the bottom is something I haven't seen before. Looks like the painters at Allegro got a little variety in their work!
Brent

natterberry 

Wow. That paint is incredible.

-Nic

unworthy1

A little variety indeed! That's a beauty! obrentharris I think you need some shiny bolts for those otherwise fine looking Weinmann brakes. LMK if you don't already have some and I can mail you at least a pair, probably the set

obrentharris 

I will happily take you up on your generous offer! I was just cleaning the brakes today and wondering where I was going to come up with some nicer bolts.
Brent

obrentharris 

The Clean Up

I've had some unpleasant results with oxalic acid on 50 year old bikes recently, paint discolored, decals removed, and some paint removed. I decided to try a couple of alternate methods on the chrome of this bike.

Alternate method number one was Evaporust gel. Apply to rusted area, "Allow to work for 1 to 2 hours until rust appears removed. Rinse off." Not quite so simple in practice: After sitting for an hour at 65 degrees Fahrenheit the gel had dried out and appeared to stop working. Two additional coats were required until the rather light rust on the fork blades had been removed.

Alternate method number two was the crumpled aluminum foil method espoused by several members here. I had tried it before with close to zero results, but it is so well recommended by some here that I decided to try again. Again, very little success. It did slowly scrape away some rust but a brass brush worked quicker. But on one area it did polish up the remaining chrome quite nicely. Looking more closely at that area I saw that the foil was removing the old cloudy clear coat that had been applied over the chrome, revealing the shiny finish underneath. In some areas where the clear coat was deteriorated the foil worked quite well. In areas where the clear coat had retained more of its integrity the foil was very slow going. I found that a small aluminum scraper and a brass brush were quicker. The photo below shows the fork crown with the right side of the clear coat removed. In other areas on the frame the clear coat was not so yellow, more a hazy grey.



The tear down did not reveal any great surprises. One of the Campag bar end shifters has an incorrect screw and is missing a lock nut. If anyone has a lead on these parts I would appreciate a heads up. I was not terribly impressed with bar end shifters when I tried them several decades ago, but since this bike was originally equipped with them I will try them again.







Here's how the frame and fork look now, after some polishing and waxing.



Brent

retyred

Brent, your results look great. From my experience with several Allegros their chrome does not fare very well over the years. Most of my Allegros which have been California finds with coastal exposure plus long term garage storage have extremely damaged chrome. The blue smoke Allegro belonged to the 'little old lady from Pasadena' who took exceptional care of it until her death. I was fortunate to have purchased her bike as well as her husband's 1965 Allegro which was in excellent condition.
Thanks for sharing your progress with the forum. Be sure to read the history behind Allegros.

obrentharris 

The Plan

I've accumulated a few parts that I want to put on a bike. The Allegro seems like the right bike for them.
Stronglight 57 crankset that came from @WolfgangVerne.
Record rear derailleur given to me by an old friend, but missing its cage stop pin. Lucky for me @rootboy gave me a beautiful stainless pin that he had fabricated, so I've been eager to use this products of two gifts.
1st generation Record front derailleur that I accumulated somewhere along the way.
Lyotard Berthet pedals that I bought at a swap for $5 many years ago. I gave them to Bruce Gordon for displaying the toeclips he made. When he closed shop he gave them back.
@unworthy1 is giving me 3 Weinmann bolts to replace my rusty ones.

The photos, catalog, and descriptions that I've seen for these bikes seem to vary quite a bit in terms of componentry, so I feel like I'm at least in the realm of plausible components.

I'm eager to follow any leads for the following components:
Weinmann or Scheeren tubular rims. 36 hole.
Record "small letters" seatpost 26.8.
Appropriate Weinmann brake levers, Weinmann brake pad holders, and one Weinmann or Dia Compe cliper arm fixing bolt.
Set of Philippe Professional stem and bars or a nice French stem that will accomodate the 25.0 CTA bars that came with this bike. (I'll put the CTA bars and stem on my PX10 town bike and steal the Philippe set from it for this bike.)
Old style Velox handlebar plugs in blue, white, or red.
Good used tubular tires that I can use as spares so I can put my new spares on this bike.

Here's the bike as it sits now.



Brent

WolfgangVerne 

Looking good so far Brent! Glad you found a use for the Stronglight 57. I know I have some white Velox plugs laying around. I believe they've yellowed a bit with age, but may fit in nicely with the patina on the rest of the bike. I'll dig around the shed and get a photo for you.

juvela

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thanks very much for sharing and reminding us of this beauty retyred

stem appears to be a Scheeren; is that correct?

una rara avis


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retyred

Allegro was sold a few years back. I did find one photo, a bit fuzzy, that may answer your question.

obrentharris 

Progress!



I took it for the first shakedown ride today and am quite happy with it.

I have not been idle since you last heard from me, I built a set of wheels for it with a pair of "No Record" hubs from the vault and a nice pair of Weinmenn tubular rims with wooden plugs supplied to me by @hazetguy.
@nlerner sent me a very nice "small letter" 26.8 Campag 2 bolt seat post.
@retyred came through with the Philippe stem, Weinmann levers, the necessary parts to rebuild the bar end shifters, and a pair of tubular tires that will be used as spares, allowing me to put my Challenge Strada Biancha spares on this bike!
@unworthy1 gave me 3 of the 4 shiny caliper arm fixing bolts I needed to replace the ratty ones that were on the bike.
@Mad Honk also unwittingly contributed to this bike. 3 links of Regina chain leftover from a bit that he gave me for another project were just what I needed to accommodate the 28 tooth Regina cog on this one.

All of you following this thread have my gratitude for your advice, encouragement and spare parts!

Before one of you embarrasses me by pointing out that I took the ultimate cheapskate shortcut of installing used bar tape I shall offer my excuse: This is my first experience with bar end shifters in several decades. I've already removed the tape once for adjustments and I will probably remove it at least one more time before I decide whether to keep the shifters. I am getting used to them but I've decided that the person who gave them the name of "fingertip" shifters either had a keen sense of irony or the fingertips of a gorilla. The more observant among you will notice the modern brake pads and holders. I shall not consider the bike complete until I find some Weinmann pad holders and lever hoods.

I can't figure out those Weinmann brake levers. I wonder if someone straightened them out at some point. I have fairly long fingers but have a heck of a time reaching those levers from the drops. I shall attempt a little bending to make them more like the ones on the bike in the photos above by retyred.

Brent

merziac

@obrentharris

Looks good Mr. Brent, great job.

Any chance those levers are maybe a path racer version or modified as you indicated that should be mounted lower on the bars or tweaked for riding on the hoods with better leverage?

Obviously just spitballen and makin s**t up.

obrentharris 

Yeah, they work great if you only ride on the hoods!
Brent

Kilroy1988 

Looks great! The levers do look oddly straight... Having messed with removing some material from similar levers, I don't think bending them would be very hard.

-Gregory

unworthy1

That is one super fine-looking Allegro! I agree those levers look to have been straightened, maybe you can form them back to usably curved shape over a large OD pipe with a mallet. The aluminum is fairly soft & malleable.

merziac

That would be me.

obuckler

I have a shiny weinmann brake caliper fixing bolt left over from a typical 72 centerpull version that was cannibalized for an arm if you think it would work. 31mm overall length outside to outside. Send pm if so.

obrentharris 

I am grateful for the offer! But it sounds like you have the bolt that holds the caliper to the frame and I'm looking for the bolt that attaches the caliper arm to the caliper arch.
Brent

obuckler

it is an arm to arch bolt with the nut, sleeve and red things. May be wrong size of course since it’s a different model. ​​​​​

obuckler

its amazing what you can learn snooping around this forum. This is my binder bolt from a 71 Lygie. I thought it was a kluge from the hardware store. Now I thinking not. Is this a Nikrom setup?

(ignore the Saran Wrap on the bike. It all wrapped up waiting for a good clear coat painting day.)






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juvela

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from what can be seen in the image the binder's nut is what is termed a "false acorn"

this is because while it has the general shape of an acorn nut its top is open

a "true acorn" nut has a closed top

have not before seen this binder on a Rizzato product and have seen quite a few Rizzato so suspect that it is a replacement

have no guesses as to the maker

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