Originally Posted by
jamesdak
A couple of details I noticed last night cleaning it up.
It appears to have a replacement 50T large chainring on it pair with a 39T.
Then the tube shaping and such. Front forks not that unusual, flattened blades. Top tube is partially flattened on the sides where it goes into the headtube. Then it's flattened again top to bottom as it goes into the seattube. Fastback setup for the seatstays into the seattube. And then the most noticeable thing is the downtube shaped into a triangular shape. It appears oversized but that may just be due to the shaping. Oh, of course the curved seattube also.
The wheels are Shimano 105 hubbed with Sun Mistral rims that have a sort aero shape. I don't really know these rims as I think it's the first bike I've gotten with them on it. The rear does need truing as the seller said so I'll be pulling those off it initially. I'll go through the hubs and service them then drop them off at The Bike Shoppe to be trued. This is a "betweener" bike to me where it can have either modern wheels or the originals and look Ok. The final decision on wheels will probable come after so test rides to see if I like how it feels and of course, if it fits.
I've got some sweet Dura Ac hubbed/Open Pro rims I can use on it for now maybe. I just threw the front on and with a Grand Prix 4000s II 700 x 25 the tire clears but not by much. I may wind up trying some old Kyserium SLSCC have with smaller Veloflex 700 x 25 tires. Guess I'll see how the rear works once I pull off the original and yank off the cassette to clean it. Either wheelset will probably drop close to a pound off this bike.
Frames dimensions seem a bit odd to me. Top tube is measuring around 54.5cm CTC. The seattube though is 51cm CTC and 55cm center of BB to the top of the seattube. Pretty sure this is the middle size of these frames that only came in three sizes. I found pics of a smaller frame where the downtube and top tube pretty much touch going into the headtube.
Quick wipedown last night confirmed that the frame overall is really nice. DIdn't find any dings, cracks, or such. Paint is probably an 8/10. Some scrapes or small chips but not bad by my standards. The only bad scrapes are one on the inside of the fork blade and another on the down tube that should be concealed by a bottle cage when mounted. I'll touch those up to keep them sealed. There's also some areas that look cloudy, maybe from sweat not being wiped off. Not sure how or if I'll bother with those.
It shifts through all the gear ranges but things are gummy for sure. Rear isn't releasing all the time on downshifts and the brakes cables/housings are certainly gummy. I may try just new cables and flushing the current housings but usually it's best to just put on new housing too. When I bought it I was thinking it would look good with white bartape, white saddle and white cable housing. But now I'm thinking the black housing blends into the frame well and I should stick to that.
Chain is gummy but shows no wear. I'll swap in a new on anyway.
Need to figure out gearing on this too with that 50T being on there. Cassette is a 12-21 8 speed on it right now.
Anyway, this is an enigma bike for me right now. Not sure if it's a keeper, a fix 'er up and sell 'er, or maybe this years bike Coop contribution. I'll need to decide on that and then figure out what to do with it. If I keep it I've got Dura Ace from 7400 to 7800 that could go on it. That would not make any sense to do though if selling. I'm pretty sure no matter how nice I fix it up it's not going to draw enough on a local sale to come close to what I put into it. Still, gives me another little project to play with so all is good. What I don't want to do is wind up like I have with my Prologue TT. Fixed it all up with brand new Dura Ace/Ultegra 10 speed gear, wheels, etc, only to get wrecked by that dog and now unable to ride the bike. It's been listed a long time now locally for not much more than the cost of the wheels with no takers. Of course that is another option for me. Take all the parts off the Prologue and hang then on this KHS if I like the bike and can get it to fit.
Anyway, miscellaneous ramblings as I ponder this one early this morning. Now back to another mug of coffee to try and jumpstart the ol' brain and body this morning.
I will do my best to answer as many of the questions you have as I can.
A lot of engineering went in to that tube set with True Temper and our aero design team.Zinn, Hed , Lennon . These tubes were used in the Olympic Team bikes when True Temper was a sponsor. The shapes improve rigidity in both directions but of course the aero benefits are superior. The triangular shaped DT is the frames leading edge that reduces wind disturbance over the rear triangle and rear wheel probably the most critical feature of the frame.
Sun Mistral is an American rim company that made a very high quality rim at a competitive price point. As noted the semi aero shape and hard anodizing makes them a bit of an up spec IMO vs a standard alloy flat road rim. I did some of the R&D on Sun road rims prior to KHS using these as OEM spec and probably put about 15K miles on a set problem free.
The front triangle being compact lowers frontal area of the frame and again made the design much faster in the wind tunnel. The extended seat tube allows for extra room of adjustability and keep in mind the thought was a large percentage of buyers were using these bikes for TT or Triathlon so aero bars or clip ons would be added. This is why your seat position may be slightly more forward vs a stock road frame.
Based on how frayed the rear shifter cable is I would bet a new cable and some lube in the housings is all you need. Maybe new cable housing end caps as well. IE suggest removing the rear brake cable housing end caps from the braze ons as they look a bit corroded already.
Sounds like you have a lot of fun decisions to make with your new project!