kaliayev

Nice find on the Sequoia! It's one of those frames that seem hard to find in my size and I'd love to find one.

Johnny Rebel

I actually don't have a freewheel in hand, I'm deciding on what kind to get, new chain too obviously. 6 or 7 speeds, gearing range, quality? It seems a 13-28 or 14-28 would give me plenty of range. Any suggestions as to what the barcons would work smoothly with?

Johnny Rebel

Thanks! It was a CL ad that just said "Road bike $100" so you had to look at the third or fourth picture to see what make/model it was. Measured mine, turns out it's a 60cm.

kaliayev

Damn. Even if you paid full price that is a killer deal!

Johnny Rebel

Okay! "Finished" with just minor tweaks to do. Unfortunately we're in the middle of a snowy, icy winter so I won't be riding this beauty until we get a big thaw. I'd flipped a couple of c&v bikes before, but something about this one smelled like a keeper. There's something so simple and refined about the vintage designs. I kept it with 5 speeds, but installed a new freewheel to get 1 more low gear (the old freewheel looked passable, actually). Popped on new pedals (shimano spd). Also, new chain and brake/gear cables, new bars, and new-to-me salvaged barcons. Rebuild added up to $175 give or take. Melt, snow, melt!

Johnny Rebel

The Golden Boy 

It looks fantastic- those early Specialized bikes sure are special!

Your downtube cable stops are on backwards if it matters to you.

Congratulations! I can't wait for the ride report!

Johnny Rebel

Too funny, I had put the cable stops the way you say is correct, and my LBS told me I had them backwards.

Thanks, and ride report, hopefully by March.

WNG

Hahaha!
That's one LBS to avoid!
Great score for $100. May you have many happy miles with it.

Feldman

Nice score! For brakes, keep the Gran Compe or Superbe long calipers; they'll clear fenders better than dual pivot brakes. Upgrade the cables and pads and, if you decide to use brake/shift levers you'll find that any modern controls are also a superior brake lever. If for instance you decide on Campy parts, it's amazing how well Nitto Noodle bars and Campy Ergo levers fit together. Springing the 126-128mm (manufacturing tolerances) dropouts apart to 130 will hurt absolutely nothing. One thing to not "upgrade" are the skewers. If I remember right, those frames had horizontal dropouts with chromed faces and a modern Salsa-style skewer won't get enough of a bite on them. Inexpensive, all-steel generic skewers with closed cams (like old Campy, Atom, etc.) skewers will work best. Shouldn't cost more than $20/pair. Happy riding--those are a superbly well designed and built frame. You can't match them anymore without spending nearly 2K for a custom build.

Lascauxcaveman 

One word on that balky rear brake, in case no one has said it already: apart from disassembling, cleaning and regreasing, please try replacing the pads if you haven't already. That brake caliper is not junk and should work just fine if everything is set right and the cable run is clean.

Johnny Rebel

Thanks! I was able to get the brake working with the help of aforementioned LBS, who kindly looked at it for free. It was a trifecta of a tiny bend in the cable housing, finicky brake lever "nipple thingy," sticky brake lever, and... something else I forget now! Rear brake works great now.

Johnny Rebel

Thanks for all that advice - for a second I considered "upgrading" the skewers. I knew they were nice frames, but wow I feel lucky when you put it like that. How the bike is upgraded for now is how it'll stay for a bit. Once I wear out the wheels I may try some of the upgrades you mentioned, though!

Johnny Rebel

Thanks! It's been a fun project and I've learned a lot.

Feldman

I think the Specialized bikes were about the best of these, but in the 80's the Japanese yen was really cheap currency--at @300 to the dollar, it was about a third of the price that it is now! There are a lot of sleeper bikes out there, super quality bikes that couldn't be duplicated today for prices that people might pay for steel production bikes--Schwinn Voyageur, Fuji America and S12 series, Bridgestone 700 and Mile 112's just a few examples.

The Golden Boy 

The Sequoia was the top of the line bike from Specialized.

Anything you do to "upgrade" that bike will never out-class that frame.

Johnny Rebel

Finally got a ride in, 25 miles, mostly flat. The ride is so dreamy, quick but predictable. Its like driving a top of the line BMW from the 1970s with hardly any miles. Liking the half step plus granny gearing, too. The Suntour barcons fit the bike perfectly, work flawlessly, and suit me well. I'll post a real ride report after a few more rides with some pics.

The Golden Boy 

I haven't done it in a while, and I don't like doing it because I don't like counting. Who am I kidding... I can't count... Anyway- the half step gearing works best being able to keep your hands on the shifters, and being able to upshift/downshift simultaneously.

Now, I mostly ride on the middle ring and live with the jumps, use the big ring as the "overdrive" or 5th gear.

I've been looking at the weather- I REALLY want to get out- but I don't know how the cold will be on my hand (old crush injury).

I'm so glad you're enjoying it- it's a really "Class A" bike, and your build is really nice.

Congratulations!

Johnny Rebel

Thanks! I too found myself mostly in the middle ring and happy about that. I'm glad the drivetrain has remained mostly original so I experience how the bike was designed to be ridden. Its easy to see the class of this bike after riding it. Only con: It looks like I won't put bigger tires than 700x28 in the future, I need to deflate the tires to slide out anything bigger than 28s from the dropouts. I might not add fenders because of that.

gorillagirl

650b baby! Convert that bike to the smaller wheel size and you can run 38's with fenders.
You'll need some tektro r559 brakes.

The Golden Boy 

Give to my gorilla girl
gobs and gobs of love...

Johnny Rebel

gorilla girl, funny you mention 650b conversion. This is my plan once I wear out the wheels! Looking forward to tryin it, though I'll have to do a little research to make sure the bottom bracket doesn't wind up too low. 'Til then I'm going fender-less on the Sequoia!

gorillagirl

...nobody would touch that girl
unless they wore a glove!

The Golden Boy 

yes!!!!

Flyingsquirrel