T-Mar

Vertical dropouts were quite common on 1980s grand touring bicycles. It prevented the rear wheel from shifting in the dropouts, under the high torgue situation experienced with low gears and heavy loads.

Your bicycle is a 1985 Zebra Tour de Force. The frame was an unspecified double butted CrMo main tubes (yours appears to have an Ishiwata decal) with a CrMo fork and hi-tensile stays. From what I can see, yours appears to me near, if not completely, OEM. MSRP $339 US.

1985 was the model year that Zebrakenko reverted to Zebra. Originally known a Zebra, the brand was merged with Kenko for 1970, creating Zebrakenko. The 1985 change coincided with a company name change in Japan and a change in USA distributorship, so it may have been a change in ownership and not just a name change. However, the late 1980s Zebra models that have surfaced used the same serial number format as the Zebrakenko. The manufacturer is believed to be Kofu, owner of the Kenko brand,

Ferrouscious 

This is where my old plan really fell apart. I had intended for my standard “do anything” gearing but found my parts bin unsupportive of that idea. I instead decided on a go-fast ideology. Very go-fast. I had only one crankset that could fill that role: A 105 5800 crankset with 53/39 chainrings.


It has the stiffness to match the frame and looks the part too. Only 760-something grammes. Shifting those monster gears is a NOS Suntour aRX front derailleur.


The aRX has a stiffer cage than the Cyclone on my Maruishi. I would usually prefer a slightly flexible derailleur for my wide-range gearing, but this bike has modern ramped and pinned chainrings that work best with a stiff ca-

SkHruEeEOIIrrrEEeouiiiii!!!
Look out! Grognak, an ollphéist spáis bhreise! (roughly translated, saying “Grognak, the extra space monster”)


The chainstays are so stinkin’ short (405mm only!) that the FD lever arm nearly contacts the tyre! I measured it to be 2mm away when in the big ring. That’s not all though. No, no, no. The rear brake has 7mm of vertical space from the tyre. I intend on installing full coverage alloy mudguards on this bike. @gugie any tips on how to slay this beast? I have a Dremel. Please excuse me, I must change my pants.



The white rectangles are intentional.

gugie 

Yeah, no problem. Disassemble the bike and frame, replace with a frame that fits fenders.

Ferrouscious 

That's the dream. Can I modify the mudguards to work though? I was looking at the Portland Design Works Full Metal Fenders in the 700x30 size and running a tight fender line.
https://ridepdw.com/collections/fend...14871507238969

gugie 

Well, if it's your only bike there's always a way to make fenders work. I'd do it on a different bike with longer legs.

Ferrouscious 

It's not my only bike, but I got the frame for free. It's my size and fits my need for a nice rain/foul weather bike. Essentially a durable do-everything bike.

gugie 

I'd still use a different bike. You can always kludge something together if you want, but I have no tips for that.

Ferrouscious 

In the rear, I acquired a Suntour New Winner 13-21 6 speeder. I had a feeling that the 21t might not cut it, so I also purchased a Winner Pro in the 13-23 flavour. After some quick cleaning, they both looked nearly mint. The 23t gives me a 45 g.i. low, which should be adequate for faster group riding. I don’t intend on doing any super hilly rides on this bike, but I’ll see how that plays out. I can also mix the sprockets to build a 13-18 straight block.



Traversing those glorious six sprockets is a 6700 Ultegra RD. I bought it for $5 with a torn pulley cage. Sorry, no pics. I replaced the cage from another 6700 with a damaged parallelogram and it was back in business.



I had to shim the derailleur out a little bit to get the inner limit screw to be useful (10-speed derailleur). You can barely make out the three DT shifter washers I used. I also removed the b-tension screw as it really won't be needed in this use.



Look at how close the chain gets to the chainstay! Guess I won't be using anything bigger than a 13t small sprocket...



The last link in the chain is, well, the chain. The ubiquitous SRAM PC-830 will do quite nicely. As this is the wet weather bike, I’ll be lubing ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) with Phil Tenacious Oil until winter ends. After that, I’ll switch to slightly cleaner running TriFlow.

TenGrainBread 

With the widespread MIG-welding, poorly-designed geometry, and terrible clearances and alignment on this bike it appears to be somebody's homemade project rather than a production bicycle. I would find a better candidate if I were you.

Ferrouscious 

I think for this bike's intended use as a winter and foul weather bike, it'll do fine. I have $35 invested so far into this bike. With a new fork, the total is about $130. At that price point, it's hard for me to complain. All the parts are nice or above quality. Any geometry issues were because I was trying to use a suspension-corrected fork in a non-suspension corrected frame.

mstateglfr 

I dont understand the drivetrain. It's a mix of modern and old. So your shifting will be friction?

Hudson308 

Exactly what I was thinkin when I saw the welds, serial number notwithstanding. Never seen a MIG welded frame before. Well... except the backyard bodge that showed up at my powdercoater's last year.

Ferrouscious 

Oh yea... it is MIG welded.... huh. neat.

That is correct. I get the best of both worlds (in my opinion). Fast, smooth shifts up front with "feedbacky" shifts in the rear.

Jmpierce

When I first saw it I was thinking Nashbar. I like the progress on this and can't wit to see it finished.

flyinfscotsman

Welds are funky

flyinfscotsman

nice ride

Ferrouscious 

You may have noticed that I did not mention which shifters I intend on using. Do not worry dear reader, all is well! @nomadmax most graciously gifted me the nicest friggin brakes I have. A set of Dia Compe Royal Gran Compe RCG-400 clampers will be slowing me from my blistering speed of 7mph. I hoped to not use them, but the brakes that I had in my bin were the wrong reach. O cruel fate!



They were reasonably clean but had old grease and dirt in the corners. They cleaned up quite nicely.



Mr Nomadmax is a smart cookie. He realised that a set of brakes is useless without a way to actuate them. Behold! Aero Gran Compe levers (with the little round head ferrules)! These hoods are no longer produced, so if anyone knows of some modern repros, let me know. The Dia Compe black hoods seem to last forever, but I’ll be using some 303 Aerospace Protectant just in case.



So, the shifters then. Originally, they were a set of Suntour LD-3950 shifters, but I swapped out the internals for those of a broken set of Superbe levers. It saved a couple of grammes, but more importantly, the steel travel stop was replaced with aluminium. Now it couldn’t rust even if it wanted to. I also replaced the Suntour steel D-ring bolts with plastic/stainless steel versions.

USAZorro

Going to add a white stripe on the top tube?

I hope it provides you as much riding enjoyment as you anticipate.

Ferrouscious 

Even better. You'll see in due time... There are already clues available...

Blu3Suede

I should have saved my black frame fork.