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Post your Centurion Ironman.. For the love of 80s paint jobs!

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Post your Centurion Ironman.. For the love of 80s paint jobs!

Old 07-24-20, 06:52 PM
  #8851  
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I completed the Ironman today. Changes I made were I replaced the Scott bars with a Nitto B115, I replaced the cassette with a new 12/28, new bar wrap, new Vittoria Corsa G 2.0 tires, and I custom painted an Avenir bottle cage to match the colors of the bike. I think it came out good. Now I need to find another one so I can paint it to match this one.






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Old 07-24-20, 07:17 PM
  #8852  
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76SLT,
Very nice!!! What did you use on the stem and bars...Did you strip and polish all the aluminum bits or was the anodizing that perfect?
Again, Very nice.
Ben
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Old 07-24-20, 07:50 PM
  #8853  
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Originally Posted by xiaoman1
76SLT,
Very nice!!! What did you use on the stem and bars...Did you strip and polish all the aluminum bits or was the anodizing that perfect?
Again, Very nice.
Ben
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Thanks Ben. The stem and bars came to me looking that good. I didn't polish them at all. The po of the bike itself took very good care of it.
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Old 07-24-20, 08:30 PM
  #8854  
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That Master is gorgeous. Every little bit of it. Bottle cage?!! Icing on the cake.
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Old 07-25-20, 11:56 AM
  #8855  
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Originally Posted by 76SLT
I completed the Ironman today. Changes I made were I replaced the Scott bars with a Nitto B115, I replaced the cassette with a new 12/28, new bar wrap, new Vittoria Corsa G 2.0 tires, and I custom painted an Avenir bottle cage to match the colors of the bike. I think it came out good. Now I need to find another one so I can paint it to match this one.






Looking good!
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Old 07-26-20, 09:27 AM
  #8856  
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Originally Posted by 76SLT
I completed the Ironman today. Changes I made were I replaced the Scott bars with a Nitto B115, I replaced the cassette with a new 12/28, new bar wrap, new Vittoria Corsa G 2.0 tires, and I custom painted an Avenir bottle cage to match the colors of the bike. I think it came out good. Now I need to find another one so I can paint it to match this one.






Man that is Sweet. That cage is awesome. So what type of paint did you use?
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Old 07-26-20, 10:59 AM
  #8857  
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Originally Posted by texaspandj
Man that is Sweet. That cage is awesome. So what type of paint did you use?
Thanks! The closest color match I could find was these two from Krylon that I found at Hobby Lobby. One is Purple and the other is called Gum Drop. Then I shot it with clear coat.
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Old 07-26-20, 03:59 PM
  #8858  
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This is the third time I've tried to post this. Each time I attempt to post, the post gets Shorter. So now I'm down to I put a Dura Ace 7400 BB on my Carbon Ironman. It had a BB I pulled from a oem MV. Not much difference really but I feel better now. The BB is as smooth and nice as the sales transaction I had with @Brewsmith.

Dura ace fd, rd, Crankset. 600 tricolor brakeset, hubs. Oem hs, stem, saddle. Shimano aero seatpost, scott aerobars, 8 speed gripshift and NOW DURA ACE BB.
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Old 07-26-20, 08:14 PM
  #8859  
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The Carbon is looking good Tony!
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Old 07-26-20, 08:38 PM
  #8860  
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Originally Posted by texaspandj
This is the third time I've tried to post this. Each time I attempt to post, the post gets Shorter. So now I'm down to I put a Dura Ace 7400 BB on my Carbon Ironman. It had a BB I pulled from a oem MV. Not much difference really but I feel better now. The BB is as smooth and nice as the sales transaction I had with @Brewsmith.

Dura ace fd, rd, Crankset. 600 tricolor brakeset, hubs. Oem hs, stem, saddle. Shimano aero seatpost, scott aerobars, 8 speed gripshift and NOW DURA ACE BB.
Awesome sauce!
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Old 07-27-20, 09:27 AM
  #8861  
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Nice carbon. I call those FUBARs. Just got a set in. No, not going to use them. I need to get the stem off, and the levers. Hints welcome.
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Old 07-28-20, 07:53 AM
  #8862  
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I have 4 Ironman bikes. Three 54cm set up as tri bikes and one 52cm set up as a regular road bike. Weirdly, although set up the same, they feel different from each other. It's mostly attributed to the elbow rest... I surmise. But the thing is, no matter which one I get on immediately I notice the difference from the last one I rode and think I need to make a small fit adjustment. However, by the time I'm through with my ride I think it's my favorite setup and need to change the other bikes.
My Ironman bikes set up as tri bikes of course only differ slightly from my Ironman road bike setup. Number 1. Aero bars, in this case the original and still the best Scott dh bars aka "fubars" by RT. Number 2. Gripshift at the end of the bars, they allow me to stay in the aero position and still shift . Number 3. Move my saddle forward a bit, similar to riding the rivets. That's it, the only differences.
Because of the similarities of my Ironman I wasn't sure which I Would have used on The Ride. It would've been fun to show y'all how many different positions are available on the Scott bars. One thing I can't or won't do is stand and climb in the aero position...but I've seen vintage triathlete Wolfgang Dietrich do it.

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Old 07-28-20, 11:40 AM
  #8863  
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Anybody able to ride their Ironman with no hands? Jetboy had posed this question before. I admitted that the only bike I could ride hands free was a dept store bike.
I can't in any Configuration of my Ironman. But Sunday I'm on my 30 mile short course hill ride, I saw a guy on his walmart bike riding and turning with no hands. 20 miles later I'm returning and near same area he's now climbing a short steep incline with no hands. His hands were clasped and he was bobing from side to side. This was on a country road. All he was missing was a cigarette in his mouth and a paper wrapped drink in his hand canklecat

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Old 07-28-20, 07:09 PM
  #8864  
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Originally Posted by texaspandj
Anybody able to ride their Ironman with no hands? Jetboy had posed this question before. I admitted that the only bike I could ride hands free was a dept store bike.
I can't in any Configuration of my Ironman. But Sunday I'm on my 30 mile short course hill ride, I saw a guy on his walmart bike riding and turning with no hands. 20 miles later I'm returning and near same area he's now climbing a short steep incline with no hands. His hands were clasped and he was bobing from side to side. This was on a country road. All he was missing was a cigarette in his mouth and a paper wrapped drink in his hand canklecat
Never have I ever ridden no hands.
Can’t do it.
Won’t do it.
Can’t.
Won’t.

Even try.

Doc and I followed a guy downhill in a paceline at Thunder Ridge. Surly Straggler. Probably 28 mph.
Dude takes off his helmet, pulls off his jacket, wraps it up, clips it on his rack, puts the helmet back on.
All no-hands. In a pace line, downhill at 28. Surly Straggler. Turns out he’s a DC bike messenger.
Did some college at Appalachian State. He climbed Thunder Ridge just fine, like a routine day.
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Old 07-28-20, 07:16 PM
  #8865  
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No hands and taking a snapshot on the retro-roadie '87, but I don't get all fancy-like with turns and climbing. I like my teeth.
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Old 07-28-20, 07:44 PM
  #8866  
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Originally Posted by RobbieTunes
Never have I ever ridden no hands.
Can’t do it.
Won’t do it.
Can’t.
Won’t.

Even try.

Doc and I followed a guy downhill in a paceline at Thunder Ridge. Surly Straggler. Probably 28 mph.
Dude takes off his helmet, pulls off his jacket, wraps it up, clips it on his rack, puts the helmet back on.
All no-hands. In a pace line, downhill at 28. Surly Straggler. Turns out he’s a DC bike messenger.
Did some college at Appalachian State. He climbed Thunder Ridge just fine, like a routine day.
Must admit,that was an impressive sight and very possibly at a higher speed.
He may also have been picking his nose and smoking a doobie.
On the other hand, it was within the first 25 miles.
Real riding begins around mile 26.
Just sayin’
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Old 07-28-20, 07:48 PM
  #8867  
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Originally Posted by BFisher
No hands and taking a snapshot on the retro-roadie '87, but I don't get all fancy-like with turns and climbing. I like my teeth.
It's the red tire. Couldn't do it without the red wall tire.
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Old 07-29-20, 03:11 AM
  #8868  
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Originally Posted by texaspandj
Anybody able to ride their Ironman with no hands?
Originally Posted by RobbieTunes
Never have I ever ridden no hands.
Can’t do it.
Won’t do it.
Can’t.
Won’t.

Even try.
Nope, not anymore. I did when I was younger, with my '76 Motobecane. That bike seemed to track perfectly.

But my balance has been sketchy since my neck was broken almost 20 years ago, along with chronic sinus and ear pressure messing up my equilibrium. At most I'll rest just the fingertips of one hand on the center of the bar, but that's all. I dunno if my bikes now are twitchy or it's mostly operator error.

If I need to do anything that requires two hands I stop. And after Chris Froome's crash injury I decided to listen to his riding partner, even if Froome didn't. I don't know whether the crash itself was recorded on video, but moments before the crash, video shows Froome took his hands off the bar to fiddle with a windbreaker and his riding partner could be heard warning "Chris, don't take chances." Apparently he continued riding no-hands with gusting wind and lost control.
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Old 07-29-20, 09:54 AM
  #8869  
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My 86 tracked perfectly no hands. It also looked perfect in that showroom perfect kind of way and I had to move it on to a new cyclist who wasn't afraid to ride it.
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Old 08-03-20, 06:30 AM
  #8870  
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So generally on Sundays I ride my '89 Ironman with my buddy before he goes to work, usually 18 -20 miles fast, then I go for a solo ride on my '88 Carbon Ironman to make my weekly long ride. If he can't ride I just go for a long ride.So when he texted me he could ride 30 I knew he must be off from work. Sounded good and I have a 30 mile route. I don't use a cyclemeter anymore but I have a 17, 18, 20, 26, 30, 36, 50 mile routes in hilly and flat configurations. Since I just started adding hills in to my rides I thought the 30 mile hilly ride would be fun. He told me he drank the night before but went to sleep early. His wife told him he wasn't gonna make the ride in the morning (730am) but he of course insisted he would. To be clear, I decided last week we would ride the hilly 30....and yes I know hilly is relative especially in Texas. He's the kinda guy that if he had got dropped when he first was learning to ride he wouldn't get discouraged and quit instead he would train harder and seek revenge, we have that in common. So this 30 mile route is 11 miles to turn around then 19 miles back. The turnaround is a convenience store at the top of a hill. For perspective, that hill is a half mile long and you coast back down at 40 mph. Per usual he leads out the ride at a fast pace. At this point he doesn't know the route yet but at 4 miles we go straight instead of turning and he has a few choice words for me because he knows we're going the hilly route. Still...he leads til first climb. That's when I pull up beside him and start chatting with him. I'm asking him long questions and he's giving me short answers, we both laugh. I'm just picking on him like a good friend would do when they know you're hung over.
At the turnaround I stop and wait for him. We stayed there a bit and talk and he says he's gotta throw up. So I said go over there out of the way and do it. So as he's walking over there I said that's what you get for chukin and jivin, drinkin and drivin, and hilly bike ridin. Then he threw up. I said boy You ain't in your 20s anymore, (he's 31).
Well that was a fun ride...for me anyway. We cut the return short at his request and ended up with 20 miles. I was able to stay seated on all the climbs. Later I rode 26 miles on my Carbon Ironman and sent him a pic of the turnaround you know just for kicks.
So how did y'alls ride go this weekend?
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Old 08-04-20, 03:19 PM
  #8871  
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It's all fun....

Originally Posted by texaspandj
So generally on Sundays I ride my '89 Ironman
So how did y'alls ride go this weekend?
80.4 on Sunday. '96 Litespeed, by W. David Lynskey....

Decided to win every hill (5600' if you used Strava or RideWithGPS, 4600' on my Garmin).
Didn't, but probably 75% of 'em. At a price.

Group of six, then picked up 2. As the 8 of us climbed the increasingly roller-coaster terrain, we topped one hill, and the route guru said "it gets worse." We looked ahead, and sure enough, there were more of the roller-coasters ahead. Discouraging view. I turned to one of the others and said "we can crest that first one; after that, it's a reach-around." He laughed, and off we went. By hitting close to 40 on the down, we managed to 90% "crest" the first one. By the middle of the second one, I'm on the small ring, and by the top, I've only got one cog left. Made it up, gasping, and he rolled up and said "that there was a man-maker." I said "this may be the last time this 11-28 goes outside." He says "sh--, you don't have a compact?" I look down, "now you tell me."

The last serious climb (Allenton, by Six Flags) has kicked my butt before, mainly because some of us go for it there. This time, I decided to start on the small ring and just try to cruise it. Amazing what happens when you decide not to suffer. Gave up 1-2 mph and actually could whistle on the climb. After that, I see the first GP5000 failure ever, on a friend's bike. Bead failure created a slow leak, and then the replacement blew in about 2 minutes. Booted the bead and off we went. Next day, could barely climb stairs.

Week before, I had a modern faceplate, sort of, on a modern stem fail after a 35mph descent. I rode it 2 miles not knowing, with maybe 1 sq mm of metal on each side of the faceplate still existing, for the two bottom holes. How it did not plant my face on the pavement, I do not know. Do not buy the Chinese face-plate mounted Garmin/HL mounts. You may not be so lucky. I found it out at a stop, and re-worked it. Next day, one of the upper bolts had pulled out, too, stripped the threads inside the stem. So I'm likely not to buy any more Chinese stems, either.

And I bought two bikes. Centurion Prestige that needs a ton of stuff. And a modern bike. We won't talk about that.

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Old 08-04-20, 04:07 PM
  #8872  
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Yes, good advice, please avoid the faceplate face-plant, everyone.
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Old 08-04-20, 10:03 PM
  #8873  
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I borrowed a nice wheelset from a friend for the Ironman -- Mavic CXP21 rims on Ultegra hubs. Gotta return 'em eventually. I had to swipe a cassette from another wheel, an older Bontrager Race Lite Aero with an old school DT Swiss hub that needs to be overhauled, and I can't figure out how to disassemble the darned thing. It's not the current type with bits that pull off to reveal the cartridge bearings.

Fortunately the cassette and spacers were perfect for the Ironman, didn't even need to tweak the rear derailleur. Those SunRace freewheels and cassettes are perfectly happy with Suntour and Shimano drivetrains. Must be the beveled and angled teeth, and chromed finish. Snick snick shifting, runs quietly, no drama.

Anyway, since I had the wheels for a couple of weeks I rode the Ironman for the first time in three weeks. I've mostly been riding my 30 lb Univega, so the Ironman felt like a featherweight.

I didn't really have any plans for the Saturday ride, so I just hopped on the bike and headed west of town. After about 20 miles of warmup I realized how much lighter the Ironman felt than the Univega (hey, 25 lbs feels light after riding a 30+ lb hybrid with 700x42 tires for a month). So I tackled some hill repeats.

There's a new housing development that's stalled due to the pandemic and economic slowdown. But they'd finished the streets. To keep it picturesque (very pricey McMansions, in the $500k and up range) they just paved over the rolling hills so there's lots of opportunities for prospective buyers to be kings of their own mountains.

Some of those streets are double digit grades, 0.2-0.3 miles each. So I did several hill repeats, mostly standing to climb the whole way. Did that for 10-11 miles until my legs were cooked.

By then I had almost 40 miles in and my neck was aching, so I headed home to eat and use my percussion massager. But a couple hours later I felt great again and decided to go for a full century, figuring I'd finish by midnight.

Nope. After another 20 miles I was done. Headed home and finished the day with 70 miles. The century goal wasn't realistic when combined with 10 miles of quad cooking hill repeats.

I decided to try a short, easy "recovery ride" Sunday, which was one of dumber ideas.

But the Saturday ride was great.




Realistic sunset bike lean photo after 40 miles including 10 miles of hill repeats.

Last edited by canklecat; 11-18-20 at 08:58 PM.
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Old 08-06-20, 03:13 PM
  #8874  
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Here's a photo of my 86 after some recent changes. I don't make too many posts as I spend most of my time lurking and learning, but I wanted to give a thanks to this forum for being a great resource. I recently finished lowering the gearing on my Ironman after months of being unsure of what to do. I especially wanted to thank seypat and rccardr for their suggestions and advice.

The bike had a 50/34 with 14-28 seven speed that was okay for what I was climbing, but my legs were telling me I needed to lower things a bit. I got a triple crank I was all set to install with a Suntour VGT Luxe RD. Seypat was very gracious in answering my questions and even went out of his way to create a new thread, complete with photos, showing the 600 EX FD could handle the triple.

Here is where things start to go in a different direction. I have wanted a Lemond for quite awhile, so when I saw a 2000 Zurich that had a triple crank at a price that was too good to pass up, I jumped on it, and decided to focus on that instead of the Ironman. I wasn't thrilled with the Zurich's current wheelset, so I was happy when I saw a Shimano R500 wheelset in great condition at a good price. I bought a nine speed 11-34 cassette and Deore M591 RD to handle things, and thought I was all set.

However, before I made the changes to the Zurich, I took it for one more ride, and couldn't get rid of the uneasiness that I felt. I know it's a better quality bike, but I just didn't feel comfortable on it. I went a size down, based on what I had read about Lemonds, but it still felt too stretched out. I figured a shorter stem would help, but had already reached the max I wanted to spend, and, there was no guarantee that would solve my issues. Also, I realized that my Ironman was already dialed in, and I really liked the ride.

As I wrestled with what to do, I remembered reading on this forum that a 130 hub would fit my Ironman. So, I tried putting in the R500 on the Ironman, and it went in with no problems. Next, thanks, to this forum, after I found out that friction shifting would work on 9 speeds, I came up with a new idea. Why not keep the 50/34 and put the R500 with 11-34 cassette and Deore RD on the Ironman? I get the lower gearing, and maybe since I got such a good deal on the Zurich, I could sell it at a higher price to cover some of the expenses in all this?

Well, that's what I ended up doing, as I made enough on the sale of the Zurich to cover what I spent on the R500 wheels. So even though I didn't put on a triple, I am still very thankful for the advice I received. I went a different route, but this forum's advice in the other areas was just as helpful!

Thanks for your help and I will continue to lurk and learn.
Brian
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Old 08-06-20, 07:09 PM
  #8875  
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^^^ Awesome, just Awesome.
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