When this Zieleman Type Special came up for sale I figured it would beat a bunch of flowers as a birthday present for mrs non-fixie.
It took a while for the seller to succumb, so the birthday came and went (had to get the flowers after all) but last week he sent me a message that he'd accept my latest offer. So this is what mrs non-fixie and I went to collect:
It is one of the very few non-racing machines built by Zieleman. So far I have only found a picture of one other,
this red example, shown by proud grandpa Ko Zieleman and a very young Dylan Groenewegen.
Although we both liked the previous owner's build a lot, and the setup was close to what mrs non-fixie needs and likes, I decided to rebuild it to get it as close to perfect for her as possible and resolve a few minor issues the PO had run into, such as a seatpost that would slip under pressure.
Finished version 1.0 today, and released it to its new owner. We've got plans for Eroica Germania as well as L'Eroica in Gaiole, and I thought this would be a nice bike for it. So I removed the lights and the fenders and lowered the gearing substantially for the Tuscan hills.
The crankset is cobbled together from Sakae Ringyo and Stronglight bits to make a 48/30 compact:
A Cyclone GT takes care of the chain wrap:
A slightly shorter and taller stem was needed to adjust for reach, and while the green cotton tape was great to look at, the padded faux suede offers much more comfort. The NOS green cable housing came from a jumble sale in Belgium a couple of months ago:
I kept the Dura-Ace brakes, but as I am not a big Schwalbe Lugano fan, I mounted Vittoria Corsa tires. The Super Champion rims have "a bit of a hook", so here's hoping they'll stay on the rims under full pressure.
The slipping seatpost took a while. Initially I thought it was a sizing problem. 27.0 didn't quite fit, while 26.8 felt a little loose. After trying many different 27.0 and 26.8 posts, the problem turned out to be a case of the clamp bolt bottoming out.
Test ride tomorrow!