billnuke1 

Wow! Does glow in the dark?!

Bergz

Haha! No, it's not florescent paint but certainly looks like it. You'll always be able to find it when amongst other bicycles.

Kabuki12

Did a cleaning and some maintenance on my bike. Also installed the newly acquired Panto bits .

Dirt Road Blues 

Found a complete but horribly neglected Univega Alpina Uno on FB marketplace recently. I believe it's an '83 (first year of production) but haven't confirmed that yet. Appeared to be mostly original aside from a replaced (mismatched) front brake lever, and a fresh pair of Tioga PowerBlock tires.

It's a child sized frame, and takes 24" wheels. I wouldn't normally consider buying such a bike but the price was fair and I wanted the cantilevers and thumbies for a Trek I'd been anxious to put together.

So yea, now I have this dirty, old, sun bleached contraption laying around, and I'm looking at it and thinking "this might be a fun project!"

merziac

Non Unibrow fork, huge plus IMO, too bad its so small.

bikemig 

I finished rehabbing a 1992 Trek 830 Antelope. It's a good basic MTB in nice condition. I like the color scheme on this bike. Yeah it has mismatched wheels and tires but it is functionally in nice shape.

Dirt Road Blues 

Fully agree, my friend. At least with regard to to fork crown. As far as its small sized goes, I'm not too disappointed. I think that a pretty cool little bomber can be built out of this stock, cheap and easy. Might set it up as a 1x6 and donate it to the youth shelter.

merziac

Yep, I figured, maybe have a short essay question or some such to sort out a worthy young C+V candidate and include some riding/wrenching guidance as well.

Mad Honk 

I spent a little time today reconfiguring a rear hub to fit for a beater bike. It will be a Schwinn World Sport mixte with a single cog rear freewheel and brakes. I need to build wheels for it 27 X 1, so it was nice to be able to adjust the spacing for the hub to get to a combination of spokes that I have on hand without having to spend money for a box that I won't use otherwise. Pictures soon. Smiles, MH

Desert Ryder

Picked up this Diamondback Sorrento for $15 as a parts bike for another project. I really just needed the tires but I'll use some other of the smalls for other things.
I may turn the frame into a fixed gear.

jasoninohio

Giving it to a kid is probably a more noble idea but my first thought was if I had to do something with that, you could do a layback seat post and BMX bars just to be goofy...

DanseMacabre

What do people here do when repairing metallic paint?
The paint shop (that sells paint) didn't want to sell me paint, because for measuring the color they need a bigger area. Should I just polish it a bit and use transparent paint to protect the metal against rust? Or should I just try to pick the right color from a website and have a guess?
What does the BF hive mind think and do about this?
It will be a rider, not a museum piece

Just received this Liberia from the 1970s last week. Today I will pick up a first batch of parts and see how far I get.


1970s Liberia (C 15 maybe)

1970s Liberia (C 15 maybe)

VintageSteelEU

Lovely frame.
I'm of the unpopular opinion that repainting of a vintage frame is not a mortal sin. Sure, if it's a bicycle that's been kept in pristine condition, or as a display piece, or has extraordinary collectors value, it is best to keep it as original, as possible. Most of the bicycles, however, were in use, sometimes stored in poor conditions. So the choice is between not so much between having it look like rubbish and looking great as between keeping it on the road vs. rusting away. If a frame needs repairs requiring brazing, repainting might be simply necessary. Then again, repainting can cost you more than the frame is worth.
With a Liberia bicycle, where they are not too common, I think it would probably be nice to keep it fairly close to original (especially when the colour is so nice). You could try taking the whole frame somewhere where they can match the paint perhaps? With small areas to touch-up, you could also try the nail varnish route or some vaguely matching paint - these are certainly the cheapest options.

I was checking various options for one of my frames, which I'm planning to send to a frame builder at some point. It's missing a front derailleur cable guide which I would like restored. This means they will have to remove the paint from the BB shell and braze on a new cable guide, so I thought I might ask them to strip the whole paint and put a new one. The company I was checking offers custom colours (and I understand they can restore the original one or get very close to it), though they were charging something extra for that.

bikemig 

Lovely bike. Most of the original paint is in good shape. I wouldn't repaint this. I'd ask the paint shop to try to get close to this color or just do you best picking a color from the web. That way the bike will look how a 50 year old bike should look.

Kabuki12

I would build up that Liberia the way it is , after a coat of wax. Then, ride it a while before making the decision. My bike was in a similar state when I bought it , only it was a complete bike. I rode it for about a year , then I liked it so much , decided to have it painted / restored.

VintageSteelEU

I was working on my Autumn / rainy weather bicycle. Some time ago I decided to get it all (or nearly all) 600EX, since it already had FC-6207 crankset and 600EX SIS derailleurs. I already had BL-6207 brake levers (though I was Using Weinmann Carrera ones with Weinmann Vainqueur centre pull brakes), so got some 600EX hubs (and built the wheels on them ladt week) and a MF-6208 freewheel and standard reach 6207 brake calipers. The calipers I got came with original Shimano pads, but in poor condition. I've managed to source genuine replacements, unfortunately, as it transpired, the retaining tabs on these Shimano brake shoes don't like to be bent out. Despite taking all precautions, one of them snapped. So there goes my plan of keeping the brakes in their original shape. A bit of a shame, but there we are. Thankfully, had some Jagwire brake pads, so looks like these will be used instead. I originally got them to replace Suntour pads on another bicycle, but thankfully sanding down and cleaning old Suntour pads was sufficient.
Everything is slowly coming together. I also found out one of the brakes cables was frayed, so good job I ordered a whole bunch recently. New cotton tape is already waiting for the brake levers to be replaced. Now I need to figure out where I put the ferrules for Shimano levers. On the bright side, found also some time to overhaul a spare 6 speed Shimano freelwheel. Runs very nice now and it's definitely much better made than what they currently make.

DanseMacabre

Thank you for the comments about paint. I will try to see if nail varnish is an option. Otherwise looking on the internet for some color that looks similar might be the way to go.

Straightblock

I've been working on a parts bin drop bar conversion of my Stumpjumper Sport, with hopes of riding a local gravel event in early October.

Desert Ryder

Progress so far.....Quick pics. I haven't tried detailing yet. It rides nicely. Very comfy. Still undecided on the handlebar stem and bar ends.
Opinions on adding a front suspension or leave the stock fork. The brakes, stem, front rim, and handlebar are all not original.
I have the Manitou 4 fork in the wings that has no home.

jamesdak 

Cabled this back up last night.

wheelgofar

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Mr. 66

Omg the mixie above is lovely, thanks for sharing

bikemig 

Fun build. I've been riding my 90s Specialized drop bar conversion Stumpjumper lately. I use it for non-technical single track and gravel as well as general path riding.

merziac

This is literally a dark art, you really need to have the bike and the other right in front of you, computers do not accurately show color, they can often be several shades off and look very close from here.

You can try and find another paint shop that will try but it can be a crap shoot for them too.

georges1

They were some of the best Trek made bikes using True Temper tubing, nice bike nevertheless