52telecaster

Same things on my mind.

thumpism 

Ride around the block a few times and camp in your yard. You'll be glad to have that firewood.

bikamper

My bicycle hauler needed some work. I kind of let things slide.

jamesdak 

This morning I went ahead and installed the new tires on the wheels for the Krapf bike. These wheels have those rubber rim liners I hate but as luck would have it I didn't have the right width rim tape on hand. So I put down a layer of cloth first aid tape and then put the rubber liners back on. As expected the tires were a fight to get on even after warming the second one up. Had to break out the VAR tire tool for this job. Once they have been on for awhile to shape and stretch they shouldn't be a problem. I now have fair amount of clearance between the rear tire and seat tube.



Keep forgetting to check for the BB. If I have the right one in my stash I may just build this one up this weekend.

bikemig 

Picked up this mid 90s 16.5 inch Specialized Stumpjumper for a friend. It's in good shape. The paint is beat on the chain stay due to chain slap but the bike is mechanically in very sound condition. I'll need to overhaul the hubs and headset and track down some new tires.

smd4

Anyone with an Italian road racing frame and a classic 1980s sense of style, that's who.

White tape, hoods, cable housing, toe straps and bottles makes it even better!

VintageSteelEU

That's not an awful lot of clearance, they sure tried to make this frame short! Looks very nice though.

jamesdak 

There's more room than there looks from the side shot. The seat tube is crimped for clearance. But yeah I imagine this is going to be stiff ride, at least in the rear.

RCMoeur 

Today, I'm degunking a bunch of stuck Rapidfire trigger shifters in the ultrasonic cleaner



and checking/patching a small pile of tubes.



And I still have several salvaged bikes that still need shifter-degunking, and three large bins of tubes from Recycle Your Bicycle that still need to be gone through (well over 100 tubes). But at least today's a start.

Classtime 

Took 6mm of this axle going on a 6207 hub which will be part of a wheel set for my '73 PA-10. After I put the hub back together, I cleaned up the inside of eyelets on these old Matrix Titans. Before and after picture of using a Dremel on them. The idea is to make tensioning easier. Holding everything together will be these $0.38 SS spokes.

Terfer944

I working on a Leonard frame (Local builder in Montreal). I convert it to be a Neo-Retro in Shimano 10 speed (105/ultegra/Dura-Ace). I receive my Deda stem and handlebar (Only miss the front caliper right now in the mail right now).


(the bar tape are only to protect it for building it and dont hit the frame)



Soon to be complet !
(and probably switch the Fork too with a columbus chrome fork that a friends of mine have)

CV-6 

1946 Raleigh Lenton Sport. Purchased ten years past from Ray Jr at then A-1 Bicycles. It had been a customer bike who I guess Ray came into when the owner passed. The owner toured with it and Ray did the maintenance and probably did the three speed freewheel and CP brake conversion. As purchased below.

1946-47 Raleigh Lenton Sports by L Travers, on Flickr

I disassembled it right after purchase and over the years accumulated what was needed to make it "stock". Gus Salmon did decals for me. But it still languished. So last month I decided to reassemble it with a few modifications for the old fart who would want to ride it around the neighborhood or up to Max's Meats. Still a few details to finish.

Raleigh Lenton 2023 by L Travers, on Flickr

Positron400

Fair enough - this is a good looking bike. And the shape of the saddle has a much more appealing design.

ascherer 

Slowly applying elbow grease to the PX10. Lost of frame scrubbing and a couple of coats of white enamel in the chips. Polished up nicely! Get up close and you’ll see ‘em but it’s as good as I need it to look.




Started removing the fine Vermont crud from the brakes and decided to go ahead and replace the bushings. Local hardware store had brass washers that needed a touch of reaming to fit snug on the posts, and M6 bolts which I trimmed to the proper length.


Next I’ll be cleaning and polishing the crankset.

VintageSteelEU

This is starting to look very nice indeed! Nice idea with black lugs too.
What did you use for getting rid of rust spots? Other than elbow grease? Did you go for some sort of polishing / buffing compound? And did you touch up the paint or is it looking that good just after putting a lot of time into it? Any power tools or all by hand?

Sorry for a barrage of questions I'm asking, because against my best judgement I just got another bicycle and I'd like to keep it as close to original, as possible (not too fond on its colour, but I guess I'll let it grow on me). It does seem to have some chipped paint / rust spots and such, so I think I will want to go the route of cleaning it up as much as possible and then matching the paint for touch-ups.

Positron400

Great progress on that frame
Those Mafac racers are beauties. Interesting update, replacing the bolts for the hex-keyed kind. I recently replaced my side-pull on my commuter for Weinmann centerpulls and they look very nice (some issues with how much braking force is required but that not important here ).

ascherer 

The first step was multiple applications of Rustoleum rust removal gel - not a great product really but it did help to reduce some of the spots and it was gentle on the finish. Followed up with Simonize red rubbing compound, some magic eraser. All by hand. Touch up was 2-3 applications of enamel, with 1000 grit sanding between coats. I did a final pass over the entire frame with Meguilars Scratch-X and a Meguilars polish. To be honest I could have done another touch up layer but I really wasn’t going for perfect and I stopped myself. Here’s an in-progress shot that I think shows the lighter touchups along the top and down tubes. After sanding and the final cleanups the colors matched better. I was prepared to add a touch of yellow to ”age” the new enamel’s color a bit but I didn’t think I needed to.



“To paint, or not to paint?” Always a complex question. I repainted a Falcon last spring. I hadn’t planned to but when I got everything off the frame there were too many larger areas that needed to be painted in a color that would have been very hard to match so I stripped and spayed. The PX10 had a decent number of places that needed paint but they were all small.

Mad Honk 

Mother Nature decided that I have not had enough exercise this week! So she helpedout by blowing a few limbs out of my trees. She even got busy with the neighbor's tree thar used to be in the front yard. Smiles, MH

At least mowing will be easier this summer!

ascherer 

!!

52telecaster

I like old paint, it tells stories.

VintageSteelEU

Thanks for the info. That's going to be very useful in the coming days.

I have collected the bicycle yesterday and I'm at the stage of taking it apart and examining the frame. The condition seems to be fairly decent. There are some scuff marks and some chipped bits, but providing I'm able to match the paint, I'm not too worried. It's a bit more prominent around the lugs and there's some light surface rust. The seat stays and chain stays are chromed underneath the paint, so these areas have several places where the paint flaked off to reveal the chrome underneath. I think I might actually strip some of the paint and have the chrome socks show. The fork might be fully or partly chromed too. For now I've just taken the stuff in the photo below off the bicycle. What's still left on the frame is Superbe stem (Kusuki Medallion 1100 stamped Superbe), Kusuki Medallion handlebar, Superbe headset (whoever made them for Suntour), 1st gen Superbe crankset and Superbe hubs laced onto Ambrosio clincher rims.
As much as I'd like the paint to be perfect and stunning, it's a frame that shouldn't exist (it has Suntour Superbe Pro decals, though not transfers, and Tange Champion 2 markings, Superbe Pro dropouts) and something I can find absolutely no info about it, so I decided to keep it as close to original, as possible. For now I will probably clean it up as much as I can, build up and ride until I have some more time to address the cosmetics. The only info I had from the previous owner was that he purchased it new around 1979 (I think it must have been 1981 or later based on XB code stamped on the RD, XC stamped onto the FD and pedals being PL-4000) and that all components other than the rims are original to the bike. But it's the first time I see Suntour Superbe Pro branded bicycle that actually seems genuine. So whatever I do with it, the paint will have to stay original. I'm not averse to bicycle frames being stripped of paint and repainted if they require that, but if it's still decent enough to be kept original, I think I should try and keep it original.
Off to cleaning all this stuff now:

ascherer 

Interesting puzzle! Have you found any clues in the Asian Serial Numbers sticky post? In any event good luck, looking forward the more pictures & updates.

VintageSteelEU

I had a brief look trying to decode what I have on the BB shell (2K110011) and will have to get back to that at some point. Japanese bikes are a complete mystery to me. For now I've put my spare wheelset on the frame so it's a bit easier to manage stem and headset removal (which is the challenge right now, stem seems a bit stubborn). The crankset dustcap seems to be stuck as well and the allen key slot is worn out, so that's another thing. I want to finish removal of the components and then look closer at the frame and see if there are any other markings I haven't noticed yet. And also so I can get properly into nooks and crannies.
I guess since that's what I'm currently wrenching on, some snaps of the frame below. The photos don't capture the colour that well, the paint is darker and more aqua (or "celeste") in real life.It's a nicely made frame, and also very light, so I think Tange decals might be genuine. The seatpost size seems to be 26.6 or 26.4, so that's a bit weird. I'll have to try a few seatposts I have over the next couple of days, perhaps I have something that fits. In any case, I'll have to call it a day. I need to bring a steel handlebar I have at work to aid the stem removal next time I'm at it and think how to get that dust cap off.

jdawginsc 

Maybe an Araya product? That's an uneducated guess. In any case, that is a beauty that will polish up nicely.

Mad Honk 

For the dust cap problem try drilling two holes in the cap and use a pin spanner to unscrew it. Smiles, MH