52telecaster

I bought a crank removal tool for 23mm and 23.35 for 1 crank I was given. Now I have like 6 cranks that need that tool. This stuff multiplies.

sbarner 

What a time capsule you have scored! I vividly remember when I had gained enough experience, respect, and seniority in the shop to be given Competitions to assemble, and that was when your bike was brand new. If it was first sold in the Albany. NY area, I may have been the last one to work on it! The Competition was a favorite among Juniors and people who wanted to get into racing on a budget, and who didn't want the French threading of a PX-10 or Crescent. Like the Peugeot, it had generous clearances and could be adapted to almost any use. We thought of it as the poor man's International. I liked it because it had a component mix that made it more interesting and rare than all the Campy-equipped, top-shelf bikes.

My suggestion with the sewups is to try them, as you may never get another chance. If the tire is as good as it looks in the pic, I would have no qualms in riding it, after re-gluing it, of course. As long as the basetape is not separating from the casing, it should be fine. I have been known to even re-glue the basetape to squeak out a few more miles from an old bologna skin. If you don't trust the tires, it's hard to beat Yellow Jersey's "Pair-and-a-Spare" deal. Their tires are excellent for training and general use. tubular tire sewup tire Servizio Corse $24.95 tubular tires at Yellow Jersey; possibly the Best Value Tubular In America for 2023!

The biggest caveat I would provide is to treat that front derailleur as if it were made of glass. If you need to tighten the body against the seat tube, do so only enough as necessary to keep it from moving under normal shifting forces. They were extremely fragile even when new, as delicate as a 50 year-old Simplex Delrin housing is today, and there is no fix for it once you hear that disheartening "SNAP."

dbhouston 

I've enjoyed hearing from the old pros who knew this bike and its components when they were new. This is why I like to start a new BikeForums thread when I start a new project - it's amazing how much I learn from this place. So ... thanks!

The front deraillleur clamp, as y'all predicted, is a bit fussy. Maybe it was stretched a bit in earlier years, but fully tightened it still wanted to twist under use. So I used a thin rubber shim and tightened down over that, and it seems to be stable now.

My CCP-1 and associated haul came in today, which was ncie. The threads were a bit rusty, but a short Evaporust bath and some lubrication solved that. Worked like a charm on the crank, and the BB is now like new. So, now there's nothing much left to do but wait for a freewheel Maillard tool to arrive from England so I can clean up the rear wheel.

Except, of course, the tubulars, which are still a bit of a mystery to me. The Vittorias on there seem solid enough and hold air. When I took them off the wheels, there was a strip of Vittoria branded tape along the inside that was coming off in several places and not at all adhered to the rim. So I thought at first that was the tire itself coming apart. When I peeled that tape off, I found a nice sewed seam along the inside in very good condition. Currently, those tires with the exposed seam are simply resting on the rims and fully inflated. With that crusty old tape removed, are they effectively dead? Or will new tubular tape adhere to them without issue? I ordered two rolls of the Tufo tape thinking that seemed the best first approach to tubs, but I could be very wrong about that. And at $26 for the two rolls, I'd rather not be experimenting too much!

sbarner 

Back in the mid-70s, I was once ridiculed at the start of a group ride for the 14-26 freewheel I had mounted, as I knew we were going to be climbing some significant hills at speed. Times sure have changed, including the "climbing hills at speed" part.

sbarner 

The fabric strip that came off is the basetape. I did a little impromptu experiment last summer with a very old spare whose basetape came off as I was mounting it and determined that the life expectancy of an unglued sewup with no basetape is 28 1/2 miles. The problem was that I was still 30 miles from home! (That's why you bring two spares.) Basetapes can be reglued, but you want the bond between the tire and basetape to be stronger than the rim cement. I have read that they use latex at the factory, but I've never been able to get liquid latex to hold that well. Barge Cement has become my general purpose fabric adhesive of choice, but then you've got yet another chemical slowly drying up before you use it all. It's worth it for me because I patch punctured sewups and have to re-glue the basetape in the area of the repair. Also, Barge Cement is such great stuff that I find lots of other uses for it as well.

I have had reasonably good luck using sealant on tubulars with slow leaks, but not with actual punctures. The pressure seems to be too high for this to work, at least when there is an innertube involved.

It has been my experience that a tubular rides similar to a clincher that is 2 - 3 mm wider, so a 28 mm road tubular is plenty plush. I bought several 28 mm Veloflex Ravens from a British company last winter on sale and they seem to be quite nice. I believe this model is now called the ProTour and is available in a gum sidewall that would look fine on a classic bike.

The Tufo tape is quite good and keeps you from making a mess with the glue (that orange Clement glue sure embarrassed a lot of newbies back in the day). I am too cheap to use it, and have had excellent results with Continental cement, which I buy in cans. Cement in tubes is a little more expensive, but easier to deal with and has longer shelf life. Take any sewups you buy and store them on junk rims in a dark, dry location. Pump them up to full pressure for at least several days, then keep them around 50 psi until you want to mount them. Don't ever pump a sewup hard when it is not on a rim. Trying to stretch a brand new tubular onto rim tape or glue is a lesson in futility if you don't prep it ahead of time. Stretching a tire by pulling it against your foot tends to get the basetape dirty and is risky, as you can easily damage the tire if you pull too hard.

It may be "tired" as an analogy, but riding sewups is a bit like having a high-maintenance romantic partner. It's probably not worth it in the long run, but it's fun while it lasts.


Tire after riding unglued without basetape.

daka

I think I'm restating the obvious here, but big rear cogs aren't faster on hills. They allow the rider to go slower up a hill (or maintain the same speed at a more comfortable cadence) spreading the work over a longer period of time making it "easier" at any given instant. Going slower and keeping one's cadence up can allow the rider to stay in the saddle (non weight-bearing exercise) which, apart from being easier one's knees, hips and ankles, is closer to being aerobic than standing and grinding up hill at a low cadence which I would argue is still the way you climb a hill "at speed"

dbhouston 

After a lot of reading and shopping, I went with the Tufo S33 Pros at 25mm. Seems like a good introductory tubular at a good price. I used the Tufo tape, too, and the Tufo preventive sealant.


All that's left to do on this bike is to wait for my Maillard tool to make its way from Spain to Oklahoma so I can do the rear hub.

Again, tempting fate, this bike was just too easy. The Sedis chain shows no wear, though it may not be original.

steelbikeguy

Interesting that you should mention a Sedis chain... I was just cleaning the chain on my '74 Raleigh International, and noticed that it's a Sedis. I bought the bike NIB, and haven't changed the chain (it has about 7000 miles, iirc). It seemed odd that it would be a Sedis, but perhaps that was what Raleigh had in stock then?



Steve in Peoria

dbhouston 

Beautiful bike! On the Competition, at least, it seems consistent with the Huret and TA stuff to go with a French chain.

52telecaster

That derailleur!

USAZorro

My uncle's shop sold primarily Raleighs in the 70's. They had a ton of Sedis chains, and I vaguely remember him commenting that at some point, that was what came on ten-speeds (my term of choice back then).

dbhouston 

Then if that Sedis chain is original, this bike lived a very easy life. I'll try to change that.

After a little test ride this evening, I went to adjust the bars a bit and found the old bar tape was moving around. I had this Cinelli Gel Cork in black and love the stuff, so I put it on. Too modern? It is the only "wrong" thing on the bike.

dbhouston 

In another thread about a proposed trade for a different bike, I ended up in a discussion about moving a more modern groupset to an older bike.
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage-bicycles-whats-worth-appraisals/1271718-1991-paramount-pdgs.html

Long story short: I'm about to move an 11 speed 105 group to a brilliant Columbus Spirit bike that currently carries a Campagnolo Chorus Carbon 10 group. I intended to sell the Campy to offset the cost of a new 1x gravel group for the donor bike. Here are the patients for that transplant:



Now, I can't help but wonder if the Competition is a good candidate for the Chorus group? I really should sell something so this hobby occasionally gives something back, but a modernized 10 speed Competition could be fun!

My garage currently has four bikes in it and I adore all of them. But something has to give ... or does it?

steelbikeguy

Nothing wrong with some customizing of the bike bits that your body has to deal with, but....

...if you do want to play around with bar tape a bit, you might try cloth tape. I've got one bike that is a solid color, so it could stand a little bit of ornamentation. I tried wrapping the tape in the "harlequin" pattern for fun. It's a bit of work, but the results are certainly novel and interesting. Might be something to think about.
Here's my first try at wrapping the whole bar in this pattern:



Steve in Peoria

Chr0m0ly 

My ‘74 international frame and fork with rusty chrome cost me two bills! Great find and great score!

dbhouston 

I live in Tulsa, where occasionally a real steal appears. But I think it's a small market phenomenon - when you want to sell a bike, well, it ends up being a steal, too. I tried selling a beautifully restored touring bike this spring, and the only serious shopper was the guy I bought it from!

I should restore a handful of beautiful bargain bikes from the hinterlands then truck them up to Boston for a big sale!

dbhouston 

The VAR tool for Maillard took a long trip from Spain, but at least I got the right one! Seems odd these are (a) quite rare on EBay but (b) readily available from European retailers in factory packaging.

repechage

riding 28 miles on unglued tires? The tire threads were cut by the tire squirming on the rim, perhaps on a rim that uses washers. You were fortunate that you punctured and did not roll off a tire.
disbelief

sbarner 

Okay, first, I started riding sewups in 1972, so I've been at this game for quite awhile. Second, even properly glued tires squirm on the rim. This has been well documented and is the biggest reason given for the lack of a performance advantage in tubulars over clinchers, Finally, you ride what you have. Yes, I should have done a better job of evaluating the condition of my spares before heading out on that particular ride, but when I flatted the second time and found that the basetape on my second spare liked its layer of rim cement better than the factory latex that adhered it to the casing, I didn't have much of a choice. A fully-inflated sewup will actually stay on the rim pretty well, as long as you remember to take it easy on the corners. I once had a tourist in the shop who had been riding her Raleigh International for at least two years without realizing that her tires were supposed to be glued to the rims--there was nothing there at all. I was surprised that she hadn't pulled the valves out, but she had plodded along without a problem all that time. I made sure her tires were properly attached before the bike left the shop. In my case, I was saved by the fact that the first spare I had gone through had a leak that was slow enough that I could get far enough between refills to make it home.

Racers and better-heeled folks will often put on fresh sewups every season, and even their spares are never over a couple years old. That's fine, and it is a wise approach. I, on the other hand, am an intractable cheapskate--it is baked into my DNA--and I try to squeeze every kilometer I can from my tires, often paying the price in the process. This approach works much better with clinchers than with sewups, but I have been lucky, and I can't remember when I had to call for a ride because of it (a good thing because there is no cell service in most of the areas I frequent). I give up on a tube when it is no longer patchable because my patches don't fail, and I boot a tire whenever possible and give up on it when it is at or close to wearing through the tread. I have a giant pile of old sewups because I rarely throw one away, either because I optimistically figure I will get around to patching it someday, I think I may be able to use it to fix another, or just due to the nostalgia of having been with it when it finally died.

I am a bit of a relic from the days when the only performance option was sewups. People new to tubulars today would be amazed at the things riders did back then to stay on the road. Most us poor shop rats rode a tire until the echo of its final blowout faded into the hills. It's hard to leave that ethos behind.

dbhouston 

Aw, man. I got a message tonight from the previous-previous owner that this bike was stolen from a warehouse a couple of hours away in January. Even had a picture perfect picture of it uploaded to Imgur back in 2018. I put him in touch with the guy I bought it from, who definitely didn't come across like a warehouse break-in artist or a fence for stolen goods, but who knows. Bike thieves are the worst. I'll let y'all know how this gets worked out.

Chuck M 

That sucks. You were likely giving the bike more care and attention that was going to put it back on the road than what it was going to get sitting in a warehouse.

USAZorro

I think I remember seeing something about a warehouse robbery here. Said the police caught one of the perps, but that he wouldn't say what happened to the goods. Wondering if it's the same one.

Biker Pete 

Oh how horrible. And taps into memories from my past. My first good bike was a 1973 Raleigh Competition in lilac. Loved the bike. Brought it with me to college as a freshman in 1974 and a month later it was stolen. I could not believe it.

RB1-luvr

so how did this work out?