JaccoW

I enjoy projects and I enjoy tinkering and making photographs so I figured I'd start a thread of my own.

Last summer I wanted to go for longer distances and was looking for a slightly lighter, faster bike after my girlfriend gave me a run for my money on her Batavus Sprint while I was trying to keep up on a 23Kg upright 8-speed IGH city bike.
It's doable but maintaining 25-30kph all day on that combined with her looking over her shoulder to see where I was get annoying after a while.

So, I wanted something that was suitable for some lightweight touring and not too expensive and as such I ended up looking for randonneur bicycles on local eBay for a few weeks.

Now I am quite tall @192cm or 6'4" with long legs but don't have a very long torso. In fact my girlfriend at 182cm 6' is often looking down on me when we sit side to side since she has the opposite problem.
Finding jeans that are long enough is often tricky and my current bike is a size 62 with a very extended saddle.

I came across the Batavus Randonneur GL in my size and €125 / $155 later I was riding my 'new' bike home for 30 km.

The Bike:

(As I bought it) - More pics here.

Current Iteration: (2019-Mar-28)


Specs:

• Frame: Batavus Randonneur GL, Reynolds 531ST, Size 64
• Derailleurs: Sachs Huret New Success Touring
• Cranks: modified Specialités TA 'Cyclotouriste' 52/42/26T chainrings with tandem bashguard
• Rims: Rims: H Plus Son TB14, 36H
• Tyres: Schindelhauer/Continental Grand Prix Urban, 35-622
• Fenders: Weinmann 'Inoxydable' stainless steel fenders
• Saddle: Lepper Tourer, Honey
• Front rack: Velo Orange Campeur front rack
• Stem: Nitto Technomic
• Pedals: MKS Urban platform EZY Superior + half clips
• Shifters: Rivendell Silver Shifter bar-ends
• Kickstand: Pletscher/Esge Twin
• Light front: B+M IQ-X
• Light rear: B+M Secula Plus
• Bell: Spurcycle bell

Background info on the bike:

Batavus (Wikipedia) is a Dutch company that has been around since 1904 and through a series of acquisitions became one of the 'Big 3' bicycle manufacturers of The Netherlands. (The others being Gazelle and Sparta)
They go bankrupt in 1986 but the Atag Cycle Group buys the company.
At the 1986 and 1992 Olympic games they are the official supplier of the Dutch team and this is where my bike comes in.

It's a bit tricky to tell but my bike seems to be from around 1990, most likely a bit earlier. I haven't found a good place to decipher the frame number yet but I did contact Batavus on Facebook and they dug into the archives in their museum.


(Excerpt from the 1990 catalogue - See attachment)

Translation:
"Randonneur GL. Grand Luxe for demanding tourists. The Randonneur GL is a thoroughbred with all the extras you could think of that make even the longest tours comfortable. Especially stable handbuilt frame made of Reynold 531 ST double butted chrome molybdenum tubing. Heavy-duty front- and rear carrier. Shimano Deore II componentgroup with Biopace crankset, SIS rear derailleur and "full-fit" pedals. With halogen headlight en aluminum two-legged kickstand. With cantilever brakes and 18 gears: fl1,979.- Color: black/red."

Turns out the GL stands for Grand Luxe and while this was a later model with a slightly different set of components it does seem to be the same model.


Specs 1990:
- Handbuilt frame
- Reynold 531ST double butted
- Vetta branded racks
- Shimano Deore II group 18 speed (3x6)
- Cantilevers
- Sidewall dynamo front and rear lights with a halogen headlight
- aluminum twinleg kickstand
- Fl. 1979,- back in 1990 so around €1566 / $1960 today

Specs mine:
- Sachs-Hurett New Success touring front and rear derailleurs.
- Campagnolo Record hubs
- Weinmann brake levers and cantilevers
- Blackburn rear rack
- Weinmann AG A129 Concave rims

From the sparse information on the internet I managed to gather some more pictures of other bikes which were outfitted with a gorgeous Stronglight 107 triple optional Blackburn lowriders.


(JulianK - Rad-forum.de)

Future plans:
In the meantime I have replaced the tires with a fresh new pair and replaced the brake cables and replaced the pads with salmon Koolstops.
I replaced the original cracked plastic Esge fenders with a pair of stainless steel Weinmann fenders I managed to score for cheap and put Cane Creek aero levers + crosslevers on.

The rear rack bolt snapped so I had to cut it off but I will be replacing that with a nice Tubus in the future.
I got a cheap Velo Orange Campeur front rack on local eBay but It is missing a few parts so I am waiting for now.

The idea is to replace the current Shimano cranks with a classic Stronglight or Spécialités TA crankset and update the lights to modern LED lights. a few other things like bar-end shifters but I'll see that when I get there.

My goal is not to restore this bike to its original state since it is not that pristine anymore but I do intend to make it a semi-classic looking bike that can be used for touring again. Just with some modern lights and upgrades where possible.

Thanks for looking and when the weather gets a bit better around here I will start updating again if people are interested.



Other threads:

• Gazelle Super Licht
• 1989 Koga-Miyata RoadAce 3-speed
• 1995 Gazelle Lausanne mixte

Bikerider007

Nice bike and background info. I've seen some older Batavus but nothing like that. Look forward to updates.

52telecaster

killer score! if that doesnt have you keeping up you will have some explaining to do.

3speedslow

Great write up! Reminded me of the great narratives that [MENTION=53844]@non-fixie puts on.

Plenty of interest here!

JaccoW

We'll put it to the test soon enough.

Thanks! And I feel honored by the comparison.
Putting some effort into researching this is half the fun.

I'll try to put up some updated soon.

Bianchigirll 

Great looking Batavus.

non-fixie 

Good to see that Batavus back here again. This forum could do with more vintage Batavi.

And yes, we would like to be kept informed of any progress, please.

JaccoW

Took the bike out for a ride today to get a better feel for it and while some parts are still in the mail.

Finally figured out why the Front Derailleur was throwing my chain off from time to time.

Turns out one of the adjustment screws was worn, making it possible to just push the FD through and throwing the chain off the big ring. Quite messy.


Replaced it with a 4mm allen screw for now but I haven't been able to find a thin-headed screw to really replace it.


Hopefully some bigger updates soon.

Piff 

Wonderful job, the build just fits with those fenders.

jj1091

You could always cut the screw head off with a hacksaw, then carefully cut a slot in the top with the hacksaw.

The Golden Boy 

Plural of Batavus= Batavi!

The Golden Boy 

Well that sucks... those Sachs/Huret FDs are really cool. I kept mine on my Trek 620- I could replace it with any number of outrageously "cool" FDs with all the "cred" in the world- but this thing just works well. Exactly what an FD is supposed to do, and it looks pretty cool while doing it.

JaccoW

It is. It was looking really great last weekend with the sun we had here.

Last time I did that was with a broken bolt on a rack. I ended up having to drill it out.
This will work for now and allen bolts are cheap anyway.

Speaking of that, what are people's thought on disassembling and cleaning derailleurs? Both front and rear.

I was thinking of taking them both off and giving them a good clean and lube in the small sonic cleaner I have here but I don't want to ruin anything.

jj1091

They look like they could use a good cleanup. I don't see what you could ruin by doing so.

JaccoW

Cleaned the rear derailleur today!

It was really filthy and I wanted to replace the pulley wheels with red aluminum ones to give it some color:



Bad news: The bolt of these Sachs pulley wheels is larger than the Shimano ones.
Good news: The original pulley wheels looked pretty much new so for now they are staying in.

Tossed everything in the sonic cleaner and took an old dishwasher brush to get the worst of the gunk off.


All apart.

non-fixie 

Good job. Good weather for it, too.

JaccoW

Yeah, it's quite cold around here. -8C with a nice wind so running to the shed in the garden is enough to have frozen fingers.

Sachs-Huret New Success touring lubed, oiled and back together again:


This was actually fun to figure out and put back together again. These things just keep separating into smaller and smaller pieces. )

And to quote Disraeligears: "It is a monster. Not content with a massively long pulley cage, it also has longer parallelogram plates (47mm) than the ‘racing’ version (which has 40mm plates)."

Here it is side to side with a Shimano 600 short cage:

bikemig 

I like the sachs huret new sucess RD; I have the short cage version of that derailleur that I'm thinking of using on a build.

The shimano deore is a fine crank and frankly more practical than some of the alternatives (like the Stronglight 107) you are thinking about. There is a lot to be said for the 110/74 bcd triple crank.

JaccoW

The Stronglight 107 is beautiful and was original on this bike. But with second hand prices going for close to $400 (!) I'm definitely not going that route.

Though with France close by there are plenty of people selling alternative cranks like the 6-bolt Spécialités TA Cyclotouriste for prices around $50.

But you are right, the Deore is a good alternative and very much the modern standard.

non-fixie 

I love dérailleurs. Clever pieces of technology, yet you don't need a PhD to figure out how they work. Simple and effective. Last year I literally spent hours riding behind mrs non-fixie, just to see her Allvit at work.

bikemig 

Wow, $400? I have one and had no idea it was worth anything close to that but that is an asking, not a selling price, and that is perhaps also a NOS price. $50 is cheap for a TA; I suspect they go for more than that in the US.

JaccoW

Well, if you are ever loking to sell it I might be interested.

Indeed a NOS price but I have rarely seen the triple version for sale.

As for the Ta, just look for "Pédalier triple" on eBay and you will see lots of French sellers with prices between $50-70. A lot more when it is not France.

bikemig 

It's a 170 so you may find it short. I have to decide whether I want to use it on the mercier 300 I'm rebuilding. Frankly a stronglight 99 or a 93 is more appropriate for that vintage bike.

The Golden Boy 

So that's what you Europeans call it...

The Golden Boy 

I think he's running a 6400 double- check the first post at the top. The 2nd pic is someone else's bike.