The Filthy Beast...
#1
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The Filthy Beast...
Kidz:
I have to share a few pictures of the laughably filthy and ugly 12-speed road bike I was given today.
It was classic AllPro 12-speed racer bought from K-Mart from the early 1980s.
Some of the K-Mart AllPro bikes, according to this Bike Forums, were made specially for Kresges by Chiorda, so I figured that it was worth rescuing in spite of its first impression.
My wife and I had a good laugh at possibly the dirtiest bike we have ever seen, and we have seen a lot of bikes. Believe it or not, it was stored indoors for at least the past 25 years. Needless to say, the guy is not married and he lives alone in a house that looks like a bomb went off in it. My wife insisted that it was not even coming into the garage.
Luckily for me, the bike was merely filthy, and the muck on it all washed off in the driveway with a brush and some soap and water.
Before and after pics attached.
It took a couple of hours to make it over but it has good bones, decent French Rigida wheels, alloy Shimano Altus changers, Arai alloy centre-pull brakes, and Sugino alloy cranks. The tires are tired but they still hold air.
It only took a couple of hours but I enjoyed bringing it back from the brink. Sprockets and chain indicate that it was either well lubed, or barely used.
It got washed, new bar tape, brake and derailleur cable housings and cables, a saddle out of the used parts bin, ... and I took it for a ride.
Not bad. Everything works and the positions of the seat post and handlebar quill adjust easily.
Tomorrow it gets new brake pads, fresh grease in the wheel, crank and headset bearings.
Binky
I have to share a few pictures of the laughably filthy and ugly 12-speed road bike I was given today.
It was classic AllPro 12-speed racer bought from K-Mart from the early 1980s.
Some of the K-Mart AllPro bikes, according to this Bike Forums, were made specially for Kresges by Chiorda, so I figured that it was worth rescuing in spite of its first impression.
My wife and I had a good laugh at possibly the dirtiest bike we have ever seen, and we have seen a lot of bikes. Believe it or not, it was stored indoors for at least the past 25 years. Needless to say, the guy is not married and he lives alone in a house that looks like a bomb went off in it. My wife insisted that it was not even coming into the garage.
Luckily for me, the bike was merely filthy, and the muck on it all washed off in the driveway with a brush and some soap and water.
Before and after pics attached.
It took a couple of hours to make it over but it has good bones, decent French Rigida wheels, alloy Shimano Altus changers, Arai alloy centre-pull brakes, and Sugino alloy cranks. The tires are tired but they still hold air.
It only took a couple of hours but I enjoyed bringing it back from the brink. Sprockets and chain indicate that it was either well lubed, or barely used.
It got washed, new bar tape, brake and derailleur cable housings and cables, a saddle out of the used parts bin, ... and I took it for a ride.
Not bad. Everything works and the positions of the seat post and handlebar quill adjust easily.
Tomorrow it gets new brake pads, fresh grease in the wheel, crank and headset bearings.
Binky
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#2
Non omnino gravis
#3
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Do you have both gold dust caps in good shape there worth about $15 on ebay, Other wise nicely cleaned up ready $100 it ha s gotten to the point in the current weak market most of the CV guys here including me are passing on nearly everything including free stuff.
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There is no way in the world I would have believed you could get that bike in the shape you did. It looked like it was pulled from a septic tank. Good Job!
#7
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I have boxes of spares to use up... and some of these old clunkers are better built than the new Chinese entry-level Walmart stuff.
Here in Canada we get bikes from Eatons, Simpsons-Sears, Canadian Tire, Zellers, Kresges, and other department store that were made by Beekay, Carlton and Raleigh in England, Tano & Bridgestone in Japan, and, because of distribution throughProCycle, we get some CCM bikes built with Reynolds 531 tubing and some CCM bikes built by Peugeot in France.
As a retired millwright / machinist I just enjoy fixing them up.
Bink.
#9
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Fantastic job on all of these bikes! It sure can be rewarding to clean up an old dog and find something pretty nice underneath. I think that is one of the reasons that we enjoy this amusing hobby of restoring or rebuilding.
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Excellent work. It is definitely rewarding to get these old bikes back on the road. Great stuff!