jamesdak 

Just seeking opinions again.....

Going with pretty much all silver Superbe parts on the Krapf. Yet the Superbe Crank I have has black chainrings on it. To me they just don't look right on this.



For comparison here's an all silver Dura Ace placed on there.



So what do you think, silver or black?

As luck would have it I have no extra silver 130bcd chainrings on hand. I have a set of grey ones but not silver. But I do have two Dura Ace 7402 cranksets so I could just steal the best sets of rings off of them. I want to stick with the Superbe Cranks and do have a Campagnolo BB in the proper 109mm spindle length. It's just the one with adjusting cups on both ends instead of one being fixed. It should work OK though.

Or I could spend close to $200 on NOS Superbe silver chainrings, or just leave the black, or....

notenoughdaylig 

I like the black. It picks up the accents in the seat and post. Black tape and/or hoods?

Maybe it's the white background but I think the silver gets lost.

seypat

I agree with this. It also depends on what the bar tape will be and the rest of the components. I happen to have a set of white Superbe chainrings, but they're in average condition. A nice set of those could be the answer, or not.

RustyJames 

If I was going to obsess over this, I think in terms of 3s in a triangular arrangement for multi-colors. Black at the bottom = 2 other things black up high, 1 at the front and one at the rear. For example, bar wrap and seatpost to go with the chainring.

My 2 farthings…

seypat

Here you go just for reference. I take/have taken pics of my bikes with lots of different tire/rim combos. I've got black/black, black/gummy, chrome/black/gummy, etc. If you want to know how a certain combo will look with the red/white, let me know.

georges1

I prefer silver and with the DuraAce crankset because the seat stays are partially chromed.

zandoval 

I am prone to Silver. But the black does not look bad. If you were to stay with the black it would help to add other accents or black components to the mix.

I come from the days of Polished Aluminum and Chrome indicating better quality in manufacture and care. I see very nice components anodized or coated black but then again most often I see a heavy powder coat covering up a poor finish.

Putting together economical bikes out of parts bins has been my bailiwick. So over the years I have had to accommodate those Black Heavy Powder Coated components to save money. I did a search and found a chart of best colors for black components. The chart does not include the new subdued colors that are becoming popular in the mountain bikes. It still applies though as you just consider the hue of the color. For what its worth here it is...



P.S. - NICE BIKE!!!!

jamesdak 

I probably need to mock it up fully to decide. i just put a highly polished stem on it after these shots and the handlebars I use on it will be also. I'll probably stick with that saddle not the seatpost. Here again I'm planning something polished to a mirror shine.

I'm also thinking red bar tape, brake levers are silver with black hoods. Toss up right now between yellow or red cable housing.







Mocked up with the parts this morning,



Thought I had another problem in that the FD at it's highest position in the braze on slot wasn't clearing the 52T chainring which seemed odd. But this Suntour FD-SB00-B appears to have some adjustments you can make to the body of it that seem like they will affect the angle and height. So I need to play with that and figure it out.

squirtdad

I like the black picking up on the black seat post fluting....

botty kayer

A vote for silver for me, as georges1 says i think its will look nicer with the chrome socks on forks and stays and the chrome on the fork crown, especially if you're going the shiny silver look on seatpost and stem.

......the red on the saddle being a slightly different red to that on the frame has me a bit .

botty kayer

Looks better without the red tyres too imo.

jdawginsc 

Black rings and bar tape, red cabling for the win (for me)...or red tape I guess. And red tires.

jamesdak 

Well crap. Either I'm an idiot (possible) or something is wrong. I just tried 6 different FD on this bike and none seem to be able to adjust high enough to clear the large chainring. Off by several mms it seems. Don't get it. Neither 53 or 52 work and come on, no one was building a race bike for a smaller chainring back then. I also can't believe that the braze on could have been put on so far off. Also realizing it may be a bit tricky to get the FD cable to clear that rear tire....

Thought is was something to do with the Superbe FD since it's supposed to have some kind of adjustment to it. The enclosed directions don't address that and so far I haven't found anything googling. But then I tried with a whole bunch of others and all are showing the same problem. The stepped insert is removable but I can't see how there is any adjustability? Maybe different inserts?

Freak....now I can't upload pics. I just quit for the day.


I did decide on silver chainrings, I just don't want a lot of black on this one. Of course I sliced my finger open somehow doing the chainrings so they were pretty much matching red when I got done.

I'm probably just having one of my scrambled brains moments but for now no more work on this thing.

Dean51 

Silver gets my vote for your chainrings.

As for your FD clearance issue, I'm now using a 50 tooth big ring on several of my bikes with 130mm BCD cranks. True, the 50 is not "racy", but the 39 to 50 upshift is super smooth/easy and I rarely spin out the 50. 'Course I'm knocking on 72 years old. Ugh!

Dean

Steel1

I think it looks wonderful with the silver chainrings. More vintage to me.

Garthr

I'd mock it up using a black outer and silver inner. The black outer ring mirroring the black tire, and the silver inner ring mirroring the silver of the rim.

I mention this because with both rings the same color, neither really works for me. The double black is too much black, the double silver too much silver. With the black accents of the seatpost, tires and hoods, silver inside black rings ...."mmmmmm ..... just right" !

Highmass

While I´m not usually fond of black parts on bikes, I think I actually prefer the black chainrings on this one. I think it would look great, if you use it together with some black or very dark grey rims, think old Mavic for instance. I would prefer it with black skinwall tires. With this combo I would even consider a black stem. With these colors I would also use black bar tape. The red tires should in my opinion ONLY be used if you plan to ride dressed like Ronald McDonald!. I think they are absolutely hideous.

jamesdak 

Time to get back at this one over the weekend. The plan right now is just to sort out the crank/FD issues. First I'm going to properly install the BB which may be a bit tricky on this one. It's a used BB with adjusting cups on both sides. So I'll probably have to mess around with adjustments a bit to get the chainline right and the cups torqued. Then I'll torque on the crank and see if there really is a FD fit problem. If so I'm going to order a 50T chain ring and run with things. I do need to make sure the extraction threads on the crank are good in case I wind up pulling it back off. I've had a whole week of the bike sitting in the living room to look at. I am sticking with the silver chain rings, they just look proper. Handlebars are due in today so that puts me another step closer to the build.

Then I want to properly clean out the seat tube as a 27.2 is fitting only with a struggle. Once it's clean and smooth I'll see if I have a nice shiny seatpost in the stash for it or if I need to source one. I'd love to put on an old "aero" style with a mirror finish but don't know off the top of my head what I have in my stash of seatposts right now.

The yellow strips on this lean towards orange or gold a bit. So I may try and find some brake housing that's more gold than yellow. I have an old gold Sedis (I think) chain in my parts stash that may then look good on this too. Probably just stick to silver though, have a nice Sram already set aside for it.

More to follow as I play with it over the next couple of days.