FunkyStickman

This is the build thread for the bike I got from The Thin Man. It's not finished yet, there have been setbacks, but overall, it's going well (though slower than I'd like).

The bike as I bought it:

I've gotten the original derailers, brakes, levers (sans clamps), Swiss bottom bracket, and seatpost. Headset is new.

The front brakes needed some attention, as some of the post threads were galled. After cleaning them up with a metric tap/die set (everyone has a metric tap/die set, right?), everything went together smoothly.


This build is fairly budget-oriented, but I still want it to look as old-school as possible. I will replace parts with originals later down the road as needed.... keep that in mind before you shout "heresy!" at what you see here.

The stem is an Origin8 Classic, which I had to sand down to fit the French steerer tube (most are 22.2mm, French is 22.0mm which requires shaving a bit to fit). It was 1. cheap, and 2. polished, which works for me.

Cranks are SunRace pieces, which not only fit surprisingly well, they look decent. Rings are 39/53, which will work great for a bike like this.

The wheels aren't expensive. After repacking the hubs, they're.... usable. They might not last forever, but they look the part, and should hold up for a few years. I'll build a proper set once my budget allows. Tires are Michelin Classic Sports, probably as close as I can get to the original tires.

I scrounged a vintage Atom 77 freewheel on Fleabay. 21-13, looks brand new. Spins smoothly. I live in flatland, so this is exactly what I wanted.

Bars are also cheap, and yes.. they're black. You'll only see a little bit of them. They'll work for now.

Picked up a NOS Cobra Profil aero water bottle, which is what these came with. Probably won't actually use it that much, but man, it looks great. Very swoopy for 80's swag.


Once I got everything together, I started realizing a few caveats with this bike (totally not Thin Man's fault). First, the seatpost looks like it has been chopped. This isn't good... it's not quite long enough for me to get full leg extension. And finding decent 24.0mm seatposts is not cheap, or easy. I am looking at a few. I will ride it with the seat lowered some for now.

More importantly, I needed clamps for the original CLB brake levers... also rare as hen's teeth. Dia-Compe clamps will not fit. Older CLB's had a weird clamp... what I needed was newer CLB ones with the correct threaded clamp bands. I found some... for a bit more than I wanted.... but now I have a spare set of (non-aero) levers. They haven't arrived yet, I'll update when I get them on the bike.

Lastly... the shifter levers. The actual levers were missing, and a previous owner had filed down the travel stops/lever posts (and pretty much destroyed them) to fit cable-stops for STI's. Luckily, vintage bike hobos came to the rescue, and I scored a whole set of synchro shifters with the mount, and they went together perfectly.


Once I had the shifter cables run, I discovered the rear derailer's spring/travel limiter had rounded out, and was pretty much useless. Meaning the derailer wouldn't stay in position, and flopped around. I played with it a bit and managed to get it tightened down enough to function. I will eventually look into fixing this properly... but that's later.

For now, it's 80% there. Just waiting on brake clamps to install the levers, cables, and bar tape. Then it will be 99% done, pending finding a proper seatpost.


Overall, I've got about $600 into this. It's not the cheapest hobby, but hey, I'm in C&V... you folks know all about it!

I'll post updates when I get more done.

thumpism 

Find the post you want and make it work. You can have seatposts and stems turned down pretty cheaply. I had an alloy SR seatpost turned down to fit a Gitane tandem stoker seat tube (years ago, I've forgotten the before and after dimensions) and recently had an alloy quill adaptor turned down at the top from 1 1/8" to 1" so it would work with the threadless stem I wanted to use and the local machine shop guy charged me $10.


This seatpost style (see sample photo below) was necessary to get the right setback for a little more cockpit room for my bride, and was never produced in the diameter I needed. Good luck!

thumpism 

Forum is duplicating posts.

thumpism 

Forum is duplicating posts.

francophile 

I thought about this again the other day after finding a BB on a bike with the 'ring' around the fixed cup but it was French thread vs. Swiss.

did you snap your seat binder bolt?

FunkyStickman

Yes, and I didn't torque it much, either. Got a generic M6 stainless bolt from the hardware store, looks original.

francophile 

Was it using a Simplex bolt before?

qcpmsame 

This is turning out nicely, some good work going on here. The effort to find that original stuff is paying off for your build. Looking forwward to more reports and updates on the Pug project.

And I have to agree about having a metric tap and die set, I just kind of thought everyone had them in their tool box, right next to their copy of Sutherlands. (Okay, I lied here, my old copy of Sutherlands is on the end table next to my easy chair, in the living room.)

Bill

Chombi1 

There's a couple of 24mm diameter French JPR seatposts currently for sale at eBay, that would work nicely with that bike.... check them out.

FunkyStickman

Update: I finally got the extra CLB brake levers in, and robbed the clamps off of them. Then I finished the brakes. The threads on the front caliper bolt are partially stripped... I may have to figure something out long-term, but I removed the washers and the nut had enough to hold for now. If I can find another caliper post, or maybe fabricate one...

Trying to get these levers with cables on sucked but I managed it. I'm going to ride it with a short seatpost for now. I'll probably wrap the bars tonight or tomorrow, and start putting miles on it.

First impressions: It's fast. Like, without even standing, I was able to blow past my top speed on my LHT. This thing is going to be a beast on group rides. I didn't want to beat on it too much yet, as I haven't gotten everything 100% sorted.

The position is much more leaned forward, that's going to take some getting used to. And the downtube shifters are closer in, my muscle memory keeps reaching for where they are on my Trucker. But holy cow, did I mention it's fast?

Almost there. I'm looking at this seatpost, possibly... not original, but again, looks pretty good, and the price is right.
Alloy Seatpost Size 24 00 Peugeot Carbolite Framesize Vintage Classic Design | eBay

Soon!

(car in the background is a '65 Rambler Marlin. I have a thing for restoring old vehicles!)

Chombi1 

That seatpost you are looking at looks good, but not as "original" to the bike as a JPR or Simplex branded French seatpost (Highly likely that the one you are looking at is from Taiwan). Although the JPR is not as well finished as that modern made seatpost, it works well with a good micro adjust two bolt design that will never slip on you. Functionally I don't think you can go wrong with either, but a JPR or Simplex will give you the most original build result, if you are going for that.
I'm not surprised you found the bike to be fast, as it seems like that is a characteristic of most Carbolite 103 steel frames. I had a modded up 1982 PH10s back in the 80's, and It felt like it actually rode faster and more responsive than my higher model Peugeot PSV.

John E

Lookin' good. If it were mine, I would be inclined to rotate the handlebars, so that the bottom portions pointed downward toward the rear instead of being horizontal. It all depends on how you fit the bike, but for me this would improve the comfort of the riding positions just above the brake handles and on the bottom flats.

FunkyStickman

Chombi: Looks like it's made in Germany. I may give it a shot and see how it goes. Only $35 shipped.

John: I ended up rotating the bars a bit, and moving the brake hoods down. They're shaped differently from modern brakes, so to be able to grab them from the drops and hoods, they had to rotate forward/down as well.