TimMK

This forum has been really helpfull to me so far, so as a thank you, I want to document the renovation of my Gazelle "Champion Mondial" tandem. If this is not the right place for it, please let me know and I'll stop.

I bought the bike around Easter 2018 since I was looking for a vintage race bike which I wanted to ride with my wife. The former owner had bought it to ride a big cycle event in the Netherlands with his daughter, but he told me, that she was to small for it. Little did I know, but after a few emails back and forth he told me, that he was 80.

The bike has a frame hight of 60 cm at the front and a very unusual 58 cm at the back. I already know that it will be to small for me. I'm 1,92 m and usually ride bikes with 66 cm frame height, but I gave up on finding a suitable old tandem. People just were smaller back then. My wife is 1,66 m, but she has long legs (I know, I'm lucky) and will manage. We've been riding tandems since 2004, but this will be our first real racer.

The tubing is "Reynolds 531 Tandem" and our bike is from 1982 which is the first year these Tandems were built. It has been through a few hands who did not really care about keeping things in an original state. Restoring it as far as practicable will be my mission. The original components were from Galli which is new for me, but I was very lucky to find a complete Galli group from the same time.

This is what the bike looked like when we bought it:


I've completely taken it apart during the last days and startet disassembling, cleaning, polishing and re-assembling the parts. Today, I gave the frame and fork a bit of TLC. Washed it with water, cleaned greasy stains with Petroleum, degreased it, polished the paint and put some primer on the scratches were the bare metal showed. The next step will be finding a paint fitting the color tone, but my hopes are high. Gazelle called it "Beryl Green" which seems to be a common color for cars during that time.

Front drop out from Campagnolo:

Aft drop out from Campagnolo:

Excenter holding the fron bottom bracket:

Unfortunately, I was not able to unscrew the two bolts clamping the front bottom bracket. It seems to be a 5,5 mm Allen key, which I don't have...yet, but it seems like they exist.

So far, I've gone through the following parts:

Stoker Brake lever from Weinmann:


This is not an original seat post and until now, I'm not 100% sure about which diameter I should use. "Reynolds 531 Tandem" tubes seem to have a smaller inner diameter than the usual Champion Mondial 531 tubes (27.2 mm).

TimMK

Galli front derailer. It was a fun puzzle, but believe me, I documented every step disassembling it.


Everything back in place:

The Galli rear derailer uses rivets, so I could not disassemble it as far:


And put back together again:


I got a set of original Galli gear levers with my component group, but I had these Campagnolos from another Champion Mondial and I think they are more fance, so I will take these:


Galli front crank. I really like the looks of them, but I'm afraid that it will be very hard to find fitting replacements for the chain ring.


Galli aft crank, right side (44 and 52 for extra strong legs...):


Galli aft crank, left side:

TimMK

Aft bottom bracket, not original I guess, but it will work for now:


Front bottom bracket, possibly original?


Not the original stem, but since I'm usually riding bikes with 6 cm higher frames, I wanted to take care for my back and will use this one:


I had this mount for an air pump left and since I like it, I guess I will use it:


Don't forget the bell when you are riding fast!


I will post updates when available!

Regards,
Tim

non-fixie 

Cute Boy Horse

Yer frame's got a mixtie arse and a trapezium middle. Though knowing how puddled dutch bike brands usually are I suppose you're lucky not to have rubber bottom bracket cups and bolted on seatstays an all. Does my head in.

Bet those handlebars can carry loads of shopping.

JaccoW

Still an awesome bike @TimMK

Looking forward to seeing more pics of it.

...

What are you talking about? The Champion Mondial is a racing tandem with lightweight tubing.


This bike was probably changed to a more upright bike in its later years as the owners got older.

TimMK

@Cute Boy Horse: I hope you are wrong, after all, it's a Champion Mondial. My "single person" CM has a truely awesome frame which is increadibly stiff, so this keeps my hopes up.

However, I really do wonder, how it will ride. The frame is really light weight (4,5 kg) and the tubes are very delicate and thin. The frame of our Gitane Mont d'Auvergne (1973) weighs twice as much and has a lot of these "outer" diagonal tubes. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Millstone

Nice! Hope to see where you will get the colour, I _think_ my tour de l'avenir has the same, greenish, colour.

And yes, I will follow this build-up.

verktyg 

@TimMK "Unfortunately, I was not able to unscrew the two bolts clamping the front bottom bracket. It seems to be a 5,5 mm Allen key, which I don't have...yet, but it seems like they exist."

Never seen a 5.5mm hex key. Since it's a Haden British made BB shell and eccentric it's probably an inch standard 7/32" hex key (5.6mm).

Nice find. Dutch bikes don't get much respect here in the realm of Italianate worshipers but top end Gazelle bikes were very well made.

I have 2 NOS Gazelle frames, a 1973 Champion Mondial "A" model and a 1994 Champion Mondial "AB". Going to sell the 1973 and build up the 1994.

I had neighbors in the late 1970's who were retired classical musicians. They worked and taught in Paris for about 20 years where they got to know Rene Herse. He built them a very special tandem using the last set of oversized lugs and Reynolds 531 tandem tubing that he had. The man was blind so he was the stoker. It was ~50cm in the front and ~62cm in the rear - all chrome plated.

verktyg

jimmuller 

That seems like a lot of work to disassemble even the derailleurs. Still, that seems like a nice bike worth the trouble. I wouldn't worry about originality for things like that Shimano BB. I haven't been stopped by the C&V Originality Ploice since, oh, maybe July 2012. V's comment on the eccentric bolts is probably right on.

Keep us posted.

Cute Boy Horse

I know what A Champion Mondial is. I also know that the frame looks absurd, they've reinforced the rear triangle with an extra set of stays in the style of a mixtie, while forgetting to do any triangulation in the middle at all. I also remarked that dutch bikes are typically made even worse - i described two notorious features of them.

Does that help you out, or shall we get the cast of sesamstraat in to sing a song about it?

It's likely a very good bike, but the design is strange and ugly.

TimMK

I guess, I'm lucky that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? I find the bike extremely delicate and elegant.

JaccoW

I don't know what your problem is but I'm sure you have trouble pronouncing it. /offtopic

You are generalising Dutch bikes based on... I don't know what. There are plenty of high quality faster Dutch bikes but the majority are extremely sturdy bikes designed for daily use in all kinds of weather.

I just don't see how your comments are even remotely relevant to the bike OP posted here.

John E

??? My Craftsman set comprises: 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

TimMK

No progress regarding the color tone. I just got back from the color store, but "Beryl Green" did not get me any further. They had a color chart, but it was hard to decide, if the color matched the one of my frame. "Beryl Green" seems to have been a very common name. Among others, Chrisler, Mercedes and Saab used the name, but of course it does not mean, that their color tone will match the one of my frame. Maybe I'll just stick to covering the scratches with primer.

TimMK

I just learned, that the original front axis of the bottom bracket (Galli) would be ISO standard, while the new replacement aft axis (Shimano) would be JIS. Since all cranks are Galli, they would be ISO, so putting the aft cranks on the JIS axis could lead to breakage of the crank.

Any thoughts on that?

jimmuller 

Not necessarily a problem. Check how well the crank arm fits over the taper. If it fits oh let's say two-thirds of the depth then you're probably okay. Also check whether it goes on too far and hits the inside edge of the taper where it flares out. If it does that it means the crank isn't seated properly. But if neither of these inside fit or outside fit seem like a problem then you may be okay.

due ruote 

TimMK

Thanks, found it: Square Taper Bottom Bracket Interchangeability

I'll check that out, but as far as it seems, sticking an ISO crank on a JIS axis is more the "safe" way to go. And at least I know what might be the problem, when I have problems with the chain line.

TimMK

I wasn't to productive with the tandem during the last few days, since I am still waiting for a package with spare parts. The 298 mm spokes seem to be out of stock but I found them at another distributor, so I'll be able to build the wheels soon.

However, in the mean time I may have found out, what causes the problem with the seat post diameter posted here. The bolt clamping it is built like this:

When fastened, the thicker parts of the shafts touch, so it's not able to clamp the frame sufficiently. So I guess the right diameter is 26.8 mm since the usual 27.2 is to thick and 27 mm isn't really common. Additionally, I wasn't really sure about this bracket holding the pully for the brake cable: It has a little slit for the sprocket (?) of the seat bolt, which usually locks into the slit in the eyelet of the frame. As far as I know, this slit points forward, but the slit in the sprocket points downward. I filed a second slit pointing forward, so everything is mounted in the correct way.

Otherwise, I've cleaned and assembled the following parts:

Mafac Racer brake operated by the stoker.


Original front brake from Galli which was already fitted to the bike:


The original headset was replaced by some no-name headset, but luckily I had a Galli headset which came with the other Galli parts I bought. It fits perfectly, but mounting it needed a few attempts, since the bearing surfaces are not very distinct. So when adding the greased balls, you are not sure they are positioned correctly, this comes when mounting the counterpart.



Aft Galli brake. Unfortunately, I broke the bolt of the original brake when trying to loosen the counter screw. Luckily I had two spare brakes (front and aft) which look a bit more sturdy than the old ones, so I think about replacing the original front brake aswell.


Aft stem, sweety isn't it.

TimMK

Finally some progress (holidays...). In 1 month, we want to ride the big 160 km tour during a vintage event, so I have to finish the bike soon in order to train and gain some experience with it.

I'm currently building the wheels. I found some original Mavic Module 4 rims with 40 holes. The front wheel get's a Sansin hub (un-used) and the back an XT hub (used). At this moment, the front wheel is already finished, but I'm struggling a bit with the rear wheel, getting the spoke tension of both sides right, while keeping a centered rim...

TimMK

Sorry for being a bit lazy regarding the photos and documentation, but I did not have the patience to document every step, I just wanted to finish the bike.

And here it is:

Gazelle Champion Mondial Tandem
Color: Berylgreen
Gears: Galli (2x7)
Brakes: 2x Galli, 1x Weinmann
Weight: 17,5 kg

We tested the bike yesterday evening while it got dark, so we only drove around the block. It rides quite well, as always, changing gear is a bit of teamwork, but the frame is astonishingly stiff. When measuring the weight, my jaw dropped, as far as I remember, our Trek T1000 weighs more... I guess we'll have to be a bit thoughtfull when riding this delicate beauty.

SJX426 

@TimMK - Very nice! I find Tandems to be interesting with the frame design and components. None are really ugly until you get to the bottom of the bucket.

Like the dual calipers on the rear wheel!

I always disassemble FD's and RD's as far as the rivets, easier to clean/lubricate. I don't always assemble them correctly either. Helps to understand the design and operation as well. Great clean up!

Show us more of the generator mount on the fork.

Explain the cords on the pedal axles between both stocker and captain cranks.

There is a tandem forum but I don't think they appreciate C&V as much as here. I would encourage more Tandem participation.

Brands

Awesome!!

TimMK

That's an old tandem trick: They are rubber cords (got them in the sailing shop) and they hold up the aft pedal "baskets" (?). Otherwise, the aft baskets will hit the road when you ride the tandem allone. I will change their knot on the front pedals, so they will keep the pedal horizontal. Makes it easier to get the foot into the basket.