2cam16

Finished the Moho today:
beforeafter by 2cam16, on Flickr

VintageSteelEU

I decided to upgrade my crappy wheel truing stand. I have three sets of new Ambrosio rims on their way and until now I was getting by using a rubbish, portable and folding truing stand. It does the job, but requires extra care and extra time. Just too finicky and I needed something more solid if I'm going to be working on multiple wheelsets. I found the thing below on sale for 30 quid (with delivery). Sure, I'd rather get a Preciray, but that's not something I have budget for or could justify as I don't build wheels commercially. Not mentioning those are not exacly easy to find.
The thing below is Chinese-made, West Biking truing stand. Came flat-packed, so earlier today found a moment to assemble it.
And actually, it's quite alright. Not perfect, I can already see making sure the indicating needles are not slanted will require extra care (and a spirit level, probably). They are mounted on the arms using one bolt each, probably exactly to be able to change angle and use them as roundness indicators and I think a better solution could be found. But, other than that, and short of Preciray it's well worth that 30 quid.

It looks like the next couple of months might be quite busy, actually. Firstly, wheel building. Secondly, cleaning and polishing components for the new build. Got nearly everything, haven't decided on the final pedals and brake calipers yet (but have some I can still use). And finally, today I cheated on Motobecane (again) and got myself a Super Vitus 971 frame by Bernard Carre. What can I say? It was my size and weighs less than 2.6kg, which makes it perfect for a lightweight classic build. It might end up with an unusual componentry for Bernard Carre from the late 70's as most of the stuff I have to put on it is Japanese (SR and Suntour), but with a bit of good luck I might just get the total weight of the built bike to below 8kg.
Of course, now all searching for the Swiss-threaded bottom brackets is going to be pointless and need to find a French threaded one for a change.

Mad Honk 

I have spent a few hours repainting the panto in these levers before mounting them for the Paramount, and now actually doing the tedious work of getting the bars wrapped. I have found that a first layer of Benotto tape protects the bars from a lot of adhesive build up from the tape. Smiles, MH

Levers have been repainted and new covers added.

The first layer of tape is in place and now ready for final color over this layer.

Tango1

I’ve been playing around with this Trek 970, decided to restore it back to as close to original as possible after playing around with it as a single speed.

I had some Biopace chainrings on but they didn’t play nicely with the setup. Now I’m on the hunt for suitable
replacements as the middle ring is pretty rough.

jdawginsc 

...and rideably utilitarian.



After


Before

There will be 2 more iterations...the more permanent version of this present state (more modern components)

And the restored version Waaaayyyy down the line.

Trav1s

I spent some time with the curb find 730 Multitrack. I decided to strip it for cleaning and then rebuild it with some parts I removed from my Cannondale Quick 1 - FSA crank along 105 5700 front and rear derailleurs, and an Origin8 quill stem adapter. Please ignore the mess

jamesdak 

Not wrenching but painting. Got a vail of Celeste off Ebay fully expecting a not perfect match. Needed to fix some areas on the Bianchi Giro. First coat shows the paint match close but a bit blue. So for the second coat today I added two drops of yellow to the paint to get it a bit closer. Once I overfill the chips I'll wet sand it even and then do put on a bit of clearcoat.

merziac

[MENTION=501594]Trav1s[/MENTION]

What mess?

I see nothing!

And just my 2c, I would shine up all the HS pieces and split the two small spacers with the big one in the middle, any symmetry you can create makes a cluster more palatable IMO.

xiaoman1 

Dave,
Mighty glad to see that you have cleaned, catalogued and organized all of the "C" parts and pieces......Shop looks very tidy now that it's been done, I'll bet that the War Department is pleased as well.
Best, Ben

Mad Honk 

Ha! Not all of the stash ,but most of the small parts. The hubs and drive parts still need re-conditioning and then I get to ride some of the bikes here in the shop. Smiles, MH

botty kayer

Fitted these 8 speed ti shifters and 28c gumwall Veloflex tyres to my Somec....

...but after fiddling for ages to try and grt them to work properly, have discovered the shifters definitely need overhauling and have worn internals as they won't hold in gear. I've only ever taken apart and replaced internals in 10 speed Campag shifters before, so have no experience of doing so with 8 speed, and don't know if they basically operate the same, but it feels like the g-springs/ratchet needs replacing. Are parts even available for these nowadays? I suspect not. Don't suppose anyone is 3d printing Campag 8 speed internals stuff if Campag have officially washed their hands with 8 speed? Or i need to try and find an organ donor i guess.

Anyway that's definitely something to investigate longer term, so in meantime I've got to revert back to the Record shifters i had which worked fine. Annoyingly as my Somec has Delta brakes there's no chance of reusing the new cables I'd just installed and cut to length, and of course I didn't have any spares so had to wait a few days for new ones to arrive. So after much faffing over many days I've basically put back the shifters that were on before and have got new cables and tyres. Bike looks better with gumwall tyres imo, so at least that was worth it.

Trav1s

I guess I'll pull the fork and see what I find. Polishing parts is easy enough. #Imnottaslacker

JaccoW

So the bike is going back in the shed for some more work in a couple of weeks. I need a couple of very specific parts that are either out of stock for now or will take some time... and I kind of want my kitchen back.

To do:

• New cottered axle
• New cotter pins
• Longer 26.6mm seatpost
• Pedals
• The right front tyre
• Repainting the top tube
• Special metal wire for the lacquered cloth chaincase, maybe a new frame for the chaincase as well.
• Figuring out if the drag I hear in the rear wheel is because of the brand new tyre or if there is some space issue
• Re-attach the fender shield
• Test drive
• Double check if the Sturmey Archer GH6 dynamo provides enough power at normal riding speed for both LED lights

Here are some shots of the bike in its current state:

mrv 

unworthy1 set me up with some o-fficial Mafac hangers. Getting those installed.
i had plans to move my Grand Comp 610s to another bike in the spring until a snapped the front brake trying to bend the straddle attachment straight….

Trav1s

Found a package of new spacers and swapped 3 for 2. Installed the SKS fenders I picked up on FB marketplace for $10. Lost and found several bearing while cleaning the headset. The old grease was white and smelled like crayons. 😳

The stem and bars were borrowed from another bike. I’m not sure if they will stay or get replaced with a set I found on FB marketplace.

Tango1

The final winter form for the Trek. Summer wheels and tires are waiting. Unsure of where to take the drivetrain, the middle chainring is worn out but will do for the winter.

Mad Honk 

I'm not really sure why, but I have had a hard time getting to set up the bars and tape. Maybe just because it is kinda tedious work, or maybe I'm too darned fussy. But over the last two days I finally got the bar set up for the Paramount finished. 1 single wrap of Benotto underlayment to protect the bars from adhesive residue, and then two layers of Benotto over that for the finished set up. It took a few hours to repaint the panto for the levers and a bit of wrestling to get the lever covers on the brake levers. Then a few more hours to get the tape wrapped. Now they are finished and ready for the bike. Smiles, MH

Finally finished. I use wine corks for the end plugs and I have found it is a lot easier if I grind a taper into the cork before pushing it into the bars. I like the idea of not having a plastic cap that can get snagged and pull out of the bars allowing the tape to unravel.

noglider 

Looks gorgeous. Do you think you'll decide you're nuts? I remember tubulars. I even have them on a track bike.

VintageSteelEU

You inspired me to finally deal with the hoods on the Matsu****a. For whatever reason (probably because Superbe brake blocks and cable adjusters use brown rubber and because the tyres were going to be tan-walled ones) I decided to use brown ones and over time that started bothering me a bit too much. I didn't feel like unwrapping the tape this time though. Thankfully, these brake levers are easy to take off, which really helps with the hoods. I have slightly adjusted position of the levers, though I guess at some point I will have to unwrap the bars and adjust the levers again until I'm 100% happy with them. I might follow your example and put two layers of tape, but cotton one. Or maybe just get some natural leather this time?
For now I will ride the bicycle the way it is until I have a moment to spare. This might take a while as I have another frame on its way and that will require some work.

ascherer 

I’m pleased with the wheels, the aesthetics matter on this bike (yeah I know, I care about them all). Catch-22 comes to mind: if I decide I’m nuts then I must be sane, and if I think I’m sane then I must be nuts. Either way I get to keep the tubulars 😁

Bikedued

Non vintage warning. Something I kind of wanted when I was working at the bike shop in the late 2000's, and finally got one
15 years later. Yeah it's a full carbon hotrod. Riding this might get me back in shape though. Since I stopped riding in 2018, I am
always sore and stiff. Maybe a 20 mile ride every weekend will help. Got a Concor Supercorsa saddle on the way. I bought
cables, but inexperienced bike shop worker gave me wrong housing for both shifters and brakes. Got those on the way too.
Should be a flyer. Not sure whatever happened to my helmet, so will have to buy another one of those. The foam is probably
all rotten wherever it is.

BTinNYC 

This Domane is thinking it's a vintage bike now it's wearing fenders. Ready to strut around in the wet.

romperrr 

It bike is painful to look at as it is so beautiful! Agreed on the gumwalls, they look great!

Trav1s

Flatbar conversion in the future?

VintageSteelEU

I bought a pair of brakes. Not sure what for, because I have enough brakes for 5 or 6 bicycles. I justified the purchase with: the idea that I might do a Motobecane Grand Sprint build with Suntour Sprint components, the brakes having original pads and pad holders and that I'm getting Suntour cable adjusters with the brakes , all the grime came off and this all for a price not much higher than a price of pair of reproduction of the adjusters. Actually, the cable adjusters were the main point, figured might as well use the rest of the brakes for spare parts if need be.
The calipers arrived today. Of course, it's just my luck, the cable adjusters are seized. As for the brake pad holders, I'll have to figure out how to actually replace the pads, as I don't see an easy way to do that. I guess we'll cross that bridge at some point. I still have some Dia Compe and Weinmann tyre guides somewhere and old Alu pad holders as well, so I can use those or just go for modern pads.
But, when I had a look at these brakes, I was actually quite impressed. Gave them a good clean (getting rotary tool and Scotchbrite ends for it was a good investment for sure). All the grime came off quite nicely. Even the chromed parts look quite decent, considering these brakes were around for something like 37-39 years. Even anodizing is in a good condition, perhaps not perfect, but absolutely acceptable. Not sure why both have two serrated washers, I thing one is sufficient to keep the calipers centered. And no idea why they perforated the brass washers going underneath the locknut and between the caliper arms. I do understand the point of that one with tiny bearing balls, but I don't quite understand why the others had to be perforated. I guess that will remain a mystery.
Now will have to figure out where I can get rubber grommets for the front nut, think of some bits of plastic to act as cable adjuster retainer and they're good as new. The seized adjusters, after taking the rubber O-rings off them, have been tossed into penetrating oil to soak for a few days and let's hope they budge eventually. Now I guess I will have to build that Motobecane Grand Sprint again. And get more Suntour Sprint parts...