cudak888 

Bike boom production accuracy! I wouldn't worry about it, but you could always put a 1.5mm spacer on each side to help it along - and since the stamped Super Course dropouts are on the thin side, it might not be a bad idea. There will be less chance that you're bottoming the Q/R out on the dropout and not the axle.

As for which one to build up...figure out what you like best on each, then build yourself a pair of twins . These are extremely versatile frames, so you can always purpose-build each for a specific task.

-Kurt

JacobLee 

Ha! The father of twins; those guys always seem stressed-out and broke!

Good advice on axle/QR relationship. Spacing between fork dropouts is also 97, so maybe that’s just the magic number for this front end.

JacobLee 

Well, the lousy rear replacement wheel carried me 35 miles before it broke its fourth, and final, spoke. Limped home all wiggly. I’m going to try the bike with 700c wheels a little sooner than expected. Does anybody save cheap Weinmann rims?

daka

I have Internationals and Super Courses in the same sizes as yours but, unlike you, it is the 22.5 in. International that fits best. Looking at your seatpost/stem extension, I'd guess that the 23.5 in. Super Course is closer to your size. The "feel" of a bike is a personal thing, but I have to say I think the International is the one with the "perfect personality".

Did someone tell you to retire the crankset because it is cracked? If so, say goodbye, but if it is not cracked (yet), I think it is safe to use a Campy NR crankset providing you remember to inspect periodically. Most of the ones that fail catastrophically show evidence that there was a crack that had time to propagate over maybe half the cross-sectional area before the sudden and complete failure. I saw a pretty ugly injury as a result of a guy's calf getting mixed up with the remains of the broken crank arm at the time of the break, so take the issue seriously.

JacobLee 

No cracks, just missing a lot if material.

JacobLee 

Swapped over the fancy wheels from the International, and whadaya know, it felt even better.



They’re a set I found on craigslist - Campy NR, Open Pro, Compass Jon Bon Pass 35’s. Swapped over the Sunlite freewheel because I think those shift ramps are making that rd work really well. Also swapped over the pads I set up for the Inter; they’re a little clumsy looking, but they’re a piece of cake to set up and they really stop the car!



17 miles and 1500 feet, and this thing felt great, even with platform pedals and those narrow, little handlebars!

noglider 

Why are you making the International suffer? What are your plans for it?

By the way, I have a 1971 Super Course in the same color, and I also have a 1974 International that I painted green.

JacobLee 

Yeah, it was painful to pick parts off of it, but it had been sort of incomplete since the shutdown started. My co-op has been closed, as far as digging through the bins goes, and I just haven’t felt like looking for parts online.

The SC definitely fits me better, so we’ll see. I think the International is really beautiful, but I also like the idea of keeping the less precious machine. Is the clamp-on derailleur hanger limiting in any way?

rustystrings61 

Not really. Historically, many fine bikes were built without an integral derailleur hanger, because there were so many competing mounting systems. By the mid-70s the writing was on the wall and everyone had gone to what we now use, which was the Campagnolo-style derailleur mount. Before then, Simplex and Huret put up a good fight! British bikes, in particular, often were very nice full 531 machines with stamped ends without hangers, which is nice if you decide to go fixed-gear, single-speed, internal gearhub, etc.

noglider 

Actually, I do find the derailleur hanger a little annoying. The axle has to be spaced asymmetrically. I need more overhang from the locknut to the end on the drive side than on the other side. Otherwise I have to twist the skewer before clamping it.

JacobLee 

Yes, I ran into this issue when I swapped the wheels over. I also had a hard time getting the wheel centered. It had detents that it wanted to settle into. Luckily, neither detent made the tire rub, so I guess it’s not really a problem.

cudak888 

<whispering>
Put an IGH on it. All Super Courses were meant for IGH hubs. That's why they don't have hangers. See, even Raleigh knew they were supposed to be the 531 Sports. Go on...you know you want to.
</whispering>



Also, in all seriousness, the Super Course obviously fits you much better than the International. While you may be reluctant to, it might be worthwhile to put it up in the frame-doesn't-fit thread. You might find someone willing to do a swap for something very similar.

-Kurt

JacobLee 

Summer has turned to a wintery fall and the Super Course (frame) has really grown on me, with the help of a nice set of wheels from my International. The cockpit is okay on the flats, but makes me nervous on steep, hilly stuff, and it needed its own wheels, so I’ve been collecting parts for the last few months. I’ve got some 600 hub wheels, 8 speed barcons and cassette, tektro levers, etc, that I think will be fun to try.

I’ve got random collection of bars and stems that I’m trying to make work, and I’m hard headed so I’ll probably try something less-than-ideal before I buy anything new! Anybody have any advice or suggestions. I’ve set up very few drop bars in my lifetime, so my depth of experience is quite shallow.

I’ve got a Nitto stem 90mm and a B115 390 bar in 25.4. Pretty similar to the original setup, but I think I trust them more?



I’ve also got a 100mm steel Nitto stem, but it’s long and short and just doesn’t look right. Cool stem, though. Here it is with a Specialized V 40 bar. I like the bends on this bar:





I’ve also got this 80mm Kalloy thing, which is probably great, but just looks cheap. Here it is with a 42 or 44 VO grand cru bar, which I could liberate from the International.



I dunno!

noglider 

I have had lots of different handlebars on my Super Course, and each change seemed to change the personality (bikality?) of the bike. I've come back to drop bars because that's what the bike was designed for. When I had upright bars, the bike had what I call floppy steering. I'd say all the bars you show here should work well.

JacobLee 

Thanks Tom! Yeah, it’s slowly dawning on me that choosing bar/stem should be the last step. I need to get everything else installed and cabled, then swap these around and see what works. I know you had mentioned that yours felt better with a shorter stem. Less floppy.

noglider 

Not quite. I think the upright bars led me to put too little weight on the handlebars, so if I experimented with stem lengths, I might just find that a longer stem makes the improvement I want.

JacobLee 

Ah, okay, maybe I had it backwards. Well, thanks again!

JacobLee 

I’ve spent a hundred or so very pleasurable miles on my redone 72 Super Course, and I thought I’d share some of the details.



I found a set of wheels on craigslist: 600 cassette hubs, unknown 700c rims, questionable build quality. They’re fine. I had a newish 8spd cassette, and found these 8spd bar cons at the co-op.



I tried routing the shift cables all the way up through the bar tape, but the shifting was noticeably stiffer, so I went traditional. Works great. I hit the right shifter with my knee a few times climbing out of the saddle, so I trimmed 3/4” off the drops, and it fixed the problem. At least when you bump an indexed shifter, it puts you in a gear! The Tektro levers are great. I tried to get used to the original levers, but just couldn’t feel comfortable. The 26tpi Raleigh headset doesn’t like to turn all the way to the left, but works great in the normal range while riding. I should probably figure that out at some point.



These are my Shimplex housing stops. I had been saving those barrel adjusters for years, so glad to use them! I put a ziptie through the original levers and washers in case I need to resurrect them.



I don’t know why these chainrings are so ugly, but they just don’t look good. Found the bike with this crank and a un-72, and it works great, so it stays. The Cyclone FD was missing one of the c-clips, but I found another one in a parts bin, so it’s whole again. Shifts amazingly well; you barely have to move the lever. Maybe the pull ratios are different, dunno. Pedals are LowFats from an estate sale. Spent many years mountain biking in clips and straps in the 80’s, so I like ‘em.



I’m waiting for the original saddle to fall apart, but so far, so good. It’s really comfortable and doesn’t seem to be changing. Seatpost is from an ‘87 Hardrock I found at an estate sale.



Spent a lot of time in this spot! Spread the frame, aligned the dropouts, found a claw hanger that would hang a non-simplex rd, shifted some washers on the axle so the chain wouldn’t rub the claw hanger in small cog, re-dished the wheel, aligned the der hanger, installed a 9spd Ultegra I had in the parts bin, et viola! It’s a great setup. I snagged the aluminum ziptie thingy from my disassembled Schwinn Twinn to keep the cable flat. I don’t know where I got the stepped ferrule, but I was glad to have it, because I used SIS housing.

32mm Gatorskins were on sale for $29.99. Plastic fenders came with the bike and I made a mud flap for the front with some epdm rubber and rivets. Reveals aren’t great, but they work fine.

Well, I hope this is interesting to someone. Seems to be a lot of Super Course buzz right now, so I figure I’d document a Super Satisfying build.

jonwvara 

How about a paragraph about the boat?

JacobLee 

Oh, that's just a bunch of parts I got from the boat co-op and painted blue.

Just kidding. Let's see, 6-8 sentences...

That's a Salt Bay Skiff. We signed up for a Family Boat Build weekend a few years ago, and came home on Sunday with an unfinished, but water-tight, 12.5' boat with three seats and two oars. I painstakingly finished it, and spend a few hours every spring finishing it again. It's a huge pain in the ass to maintain, store, and transport, but at the end of the year, you realize that some of your best memories are in that boat. It spends the winter on a rolling storage rack in the garage, and in the summer, it goes on top of the van and we take it camping. You can just fit two adults, a kid, and a dog in it, although it's more fun with less weight. Anybody with moderate skill could build one, and it's light enough to carry on top of a car; pretty cool!

Cougrrcj

This aftermarket rack support for the Pletscher rack that I bought from Bike Warehouse in 1976 for use on my old Fuji...

repechage

Yeah, that is too much gone, as I recall Campagnolo used a 7000 series alloy- interestingly the rubbing of a toe strap can cause micro cracking that can promote failure.
it has been 30 + years since school, I forgot the tech details the materials prof described, he rode bicycles and understood.

JacobLee 

The widow who sold me that bike said that it had ridden the Bikecentennial route. The crank looks like it had been ridden across the country, and the frame looks like it came back under a Greyhound bus.

JacobLee 

I finally got around to buying some new rims for the Super Course. CR-18’s (32 hole for the 600 cassette hubs) in polished silver were available and affordable, so I went that route. They built up just fine, but you can see why they’re so cheap. The sidewalls are machined, but it looks like they machined them before joining the seams, because the seams aren’t smooth. Oh well, as long as they work well, I’m happy. They seem appropriate for this bike, with a stodgy, 27” look.



I love building wheels, but I’m pretty easy on them, so I don’t get to do it that often!



32 mm Gatorskins went on without too much trouble. Still plenty of room in the chainstays. Looking forward to setting the brake pads for the wide rims and trying them out.