seypat

Hammer bike or Easy Rider? Maybe set it up by how you intend to use it

top506

Go for the touchdown. I had issues with the 'OEM' parts from the moment I saw it. Save the bars, though. I never saw another pair like it.

Top

TriBiker19 

Make it fixed gear and you save a lot of weight.

Classtime 

Where is the picture of this '88 Expert. Dig the backward compatible DA 9000.

TriBiker19 

Check out the red and white in my group photo. Not a good picture, though. Family was too big and no one felt like smiling.

TXsailor

I'm going to look at a 56 cm Miami Vice tomorrow. Wish me luck.

TriBiker19 

And.......? Did it follow you home?

TXsailor

It did! No pictures yet but it looks like all the rest of the MV bikes. It came with two other steel bikes, a Specalized Hard Rock Ultra and a Bianchi Main Street. They are in fair shape and after being freshened up will likely go to grandkids. The MV also came with something I don't like but I took it anyway. It has a lovely fluted seat post that is very stuck in place. I took it anyway because I'm a idiot. Other than that it needs the usual for a old neglected bike, some touch up, tires, cables etc. It has a couple of little rust spots on the top tube cable guides but other than that is rust free.

I didn't even get to talk to the seller except on the phone. He works nights and wouldn't be up until after I could get there. He said the bikes will be on the front porch just put the money under the mat. He also told me the seat posts were free and that the Centurion was aluminum. Of course he was wrong on both counts.
I probably won't do much with any of them for a few weeks as I plan to work 6 days a week until March 31 then retire. Then I plan to finish the Ironman I am building for my daughter and start some new projects.

I can't figure out why but it feels smaller than my Purple Haze. They are both 56 cm. Maybe because it has 20 mm tires on it?

madpogue 

Nice! I've made a couple CL scores that way, but small stuff, bike tires, winter boots, etc. Not three whole bikes.

Seems like that fluted Sugino "measure this" seat post was stock on a LOT of IMs. On the plus side, the flutes give you a place to squirt in some Fluid Film, PB Blaster, or whatever is your favorite bust-it-loose elixir of the day.

And pics of the Hard Rock are also mandatory, on the appopriate thread.

So is the stem the same as on your Haze? Crank arm length? It'd be interesting to put them side by side.

TXsailor

Actually the stem is 20 mm longer. I am guessing the crank arms are 170 but haven't looked, the PH has 172s on it. I haven't rode it and won't till I get the post out so the littler feeling is just from loading and unloading it. The only other thing that is different is the tires so it must be those little short 20s My PH has 25s on it.

RobbieTunes

TXsailor's Purple Haze is my inspiration for the rascalous gifted IM.
Hoping to achieve that same bad-ass look.
Settled on 6700, because, well, it's all here and all black.
(I'll use my DA down tube stuff and old-school 10sp tubulars to blaspheme a couple of Italian frames).

Only inbound items are the BB and an Innicycle adapter.

The "image" choice is made:
I'm going with a carbon seat post, and white saddle, as the frame is red in the rear.
I'm going with a carbon modern stem on the Innicycle, carbon bars, and red wrap, as the bike is white in the front.

Still pondering: white unicrown OEM fork or a Kestrel EMS fork, which I'll paint white to match the bike, or leave carbon under clear coat.
I can toss a Centurion fork crown decal on it if I have to, as I'd remove the EMS fork's decal. Being wider, there's room for the 88's squiggles.

Performance choices now are sort of between go-fast around here (flat) vs. climb in other places (not flat):
0. Braze-on FD with adapter, or 31.8 FD with shim? I have no idea.
1. 53/39 crankset vs. 50/34. It's not like I don't have other climbers.
2. Short cage RD vs. Long cage. It's not like I don't have other climbers.
3. 11-30 cassette vs. 11-28. It's not like I don't have other climbers.
4. FSA 400 clincher wheelset vs. Zipp 343 tubulars.
The FSA's (from Spaghetti Legs) are about 35mm deep, actually widen out from the brake track.
The Zipps have that bad-ass factor I so admire on TXsailor's 'Haze.

Bottle cage choices come after the bike is built. There's red, there's white, there's black.

My goal is to take a bike everyone said was snazzy or pretty, and make it look a little bit like "you are NOT meeting my sister, mister."

What sayest the Empire?

seypat

So the frame is red/white? Go "out of the box" and put a Sante group on it. Find a wheelset to go with it and there you go. Something different.

madpogue 

I thought only IT geeks living in their parents' basements started lists with zero. Oh, wait....
0. The shimmed FD will look a little less... adapted. Otherwise, I'd just go with whatever works better with the crankset you choose.
1. 53/39 seems more "in keeping". OTOH, that's not really what you're going for.
2. Long-cage would look out of place, I think. Esp. if you choose the 11-28.
3. Def. 11-28 if it's not gonna be a go-to climber. Just a W@G, but the would the 11-30 require a long-cage?

Overall wrt. gearing, I'd go with one extreme or the other, that is, 53/39 + 11-28, or 50/34 + 11-30. It's either gonna be a flatlander or a climber, either combination in between would be just middle-of-the-road. Then pick the mechs based on the range.

Don't you get that reaction no matter what you ride? Or on foot, or whatever?

TriBiker19 

Yes.

Classtime 

It is going to look great. But, is an 11/28 badass? Please discount my opinion since my deepest wheelset is CXP33/7700 but I think you need a 12/23. It is my favorite 10 speed cog set.

seypat

Sweet! I still have the white Superbe chainrings on my red/white one.

TriBiker19 

I want to touch up the white paint on my ‘89 Ironman Master “Blue Smoke”. What’s the best method to remove the surface rust? What paint color is my closest match?

rccardr 

What's the ONE group you (better still) own that's period correct and the baddest stuff a racer could buy at the time?

Yep, that's right. Dura Ace 7400, either 6 or 7 speed. Freehub style if you can find it.

Boom.

TXsailor

I'm blushing that the one & only Robbie Tunes is inspired by my Purple Haze. It has the look he likes by total accident. I liked the color and wanted a frame I could put more modern parts on so I bought that one on the bay sans wheels. It had a Exage MTB group set on it that I really didn't like. I was given the Dura-Ace crank so I found the rest of the drive train on the bay. I bought the brakes from Robbie. The wheels came off my carbon bike that I rarely ride. Here is a picture for reference

RobbieTunes

Chances are >50/50 that I'm going. I'd ride an Ironman, for sure.

TXsailor

Chances are 100/100 that the Iron Maiden & I will ride it unless its snowing

madpogue 

Yeah, nice enough on an entry-mid-level MTB, but on an IM?

Still have any bits of it?

seypat

HNH100? Really? I guess if it is a bucket list kind of thing you should go for it. I spent enough time sweating my a$$ off there back in the day. If you are thinking about it, you better get your accommodations settled now. If you still have military connections, you might find accommodations at Sheppard AFB or the Army base in Lawton, OK. That is some uninspiring landscape In the wasteland that is the TX/OK border area. Where TXsailor lives is nicer terrain. How many would be in your group? I have one brother that lives there. If I made the trip, we could stay there. If I didn't make it, you could probably still stay there. My father is having a pacemaker put in on Monday. Maybe I need to take a trip back. Maybe not. The HVAC company next to me in the business park just hired a former Air Force serviceman from Oregon. He spent 2 years at Sheppard AFB. He said it was the worse place he had ever lived. If you are going, you might as well start listening to some Red Dirt Country now to get yourself acclimated to the area culture.

Just to put it out there, how many TX Ironmen/ladies would be going to that event?

RobbieTunes

Will there be 3 generations there, or is your daughter more sane? Wonder how we can
get more....

RobbieTunes

I'm afraid if I tell people I know you, I'll get sent to Oklahoma,

but will check on accommodations. My group will include at least 2 but likely 6. They do this every other year. I am "the new guy."