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Show me your Zeus - bikes and components!

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Show me your Zeus - bikes and components!

Old 11-29-19, 01:41 PM
  #26  
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Mine is 531 butted main tubes, and i have assumed Durifort fork + stays.

Does anyone know of Zeus catalogs, early 70s? I have had zero luck in getting a 100% confirmation of the model of my bike.


Zeus doodads
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Old 11-29-19, 02:13 PM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by Stevensb
It was a nice trade with Drillium Dude...there is a black Zeus freewheel out there...
Agreed, we both got what we needed and wanted

I did not know the FW was also anodized black, but I'm not surprised. Zeus really did run with the drilling and anodizing look bitd!

DD
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Old 11-29-19, 02:43 PM
  #28  
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Drillium Dude Not only could you get black, but many of the Z2000 components were available in gold - see fine print in this ad:

Zeus 2000 by BJ Stevens, on Flickr

Cheers.

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Old 11-29-19, 04:43 PM
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Nice as the Zeus 2k finish is, at one time I had a defect seatpost. How it passed inspection is beyond me or perhaps they really weren't stringent. The head of the seat post, below the clamp pieces had a pourous - large hole!
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Old 11-29-19, 05:01 PM
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Originally Posted by crank_addict
Nice as the Zeus 2k finish is, at one time I had a defect seatpost. How it passed inspection is beyond me or perhaps they really weren't stringent. The head of the seat post, below the clamp pieces had a pourous - large hole!
I've owned two of the Zeus seat posts shown in @Stevensb's post above, and both were a bear to adjust, and keep adjusted. And both of them became unusable when the curved and serrated wedges split. That was the only mechanical drawback I experienced with Zeus' components.

DD
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Old 11-30-19, 10:25 AM
  #31  
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Thanks for the heads up on the seatpost. No issues for me so far but I haven’t put many miles on them either.

cheers.

Brad
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Old 11-30-19, 07:35 PM
  #32  
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Zeus 2000 track crank set including the Zeus titanium axled bottom bracket.


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Old 11-30-19, 07:37 PM
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Hope nobody minds but to go with a Spanish bike, a Spanish saddle. I’ve seen one already on one machine so I know they used them.

A Soffatti Professionale Prestige


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Old 11-30-19, 08:21 PM
  #34  
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Zeus cranks on my Carlton
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Old 12-01-19, 12:18 AM
  #35  
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My 1976 Zeus Super Ser, as found with a mix of Zeus and Campagnolo Super Record with Weinmann calipers and a black Crane for good measure. I have never been able to figure out if this is an actual team issue or not, but it is configured much the same as Ocana, when he put Campagnolo on his Zeus and caused a protest at the Vuelta,[img]blob:https://www.bikeforums.net/01d0f2eb-1dd6-41c9-82c3-198689ee954f[/img]


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Old 12-01-19, 09:23 AM
  #36  
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Originally Posted by 3speedslow
Hope nobody minds but to go with a Spanish bike, a Spanish saddle. I’ve seen one already on one machine so I know they used them.

A Soffatti Professionale Prestige



-----

IIRC Soffatti is a product line from ARIUS.

@rhm is sure to know!

ARIUS was the manufacturer for Zeus badged saddles.

Advert of 1984 -




-----
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Old 12-01-19, 09:35 AM
  #37  
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Did Zeus ever use a headbadge instead of decal?
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Old 12-01-19, 09:37 AM
  #38  
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Originally Posted by juvela
-----

IIRC Soffatti is a product line from ARIUS.

@rhm is sure to know!

ARIUS was the manufacturer for Zeus badged saddles.

Advert of 1984 -




-----
No, sorry, I don't know the connection between Soffatti and Arius.

Soffatti also made leather saddles similar to a Brooks Professional. They had hand hammered copper rivets and a rather anachronistic keyhole shaped hole in the top.

I have some photos somewhere....
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Old 12-01-19, 09:45 AM
  #39  
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-----

Thanks so much for creating this thread.

Have been enjoying muchly the fine contributions.

---

There has been some discussion of the coloured anodised components/ensembles.

One of these that have never seen in person is the copper colour termed by the manufacturer as "doral."

Has anyone ever encountered this colour?

Catalogue page of 1980 -




---

gold anodised colour -

have noticed that there is variation in this. some gold fittings come through exhibiting a slight greenish cast while others are more pure gold in colour.

-----
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Old 12-01-19, 09:48 AM
  #40  
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Since @rhm has been summoned - I wonder what he might offer in a Zeus branded saddle recover?
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Old 12-01-19, 09:59 AM
  #41  
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Found this one by just missing on a Panasonic, then asking seller if he had any other "old" bikes for sale. He offered a "really light" bike, of unknown make which he had crashed & put in his shed. Brought this Zeus out. Had a bent fork & frame, but front wheel somehow unscathed. Don't remember price paid, but we were at $50 vs $25 near the end so somewhere in between. Asked local builder Bill Stevenson if it could be repaired & he said sure, but had to be worth his time. Picked bike up with 2 fingertips & said "This is definitely worth my time".

Bike was missing brakes/levers, front derailleur. Did have a Shimano Crane rear DR in good, not great condition. I found NOS SunTour Superbe front DR & Superbe Pro rear DR plus NOS Galli brakes + Zeus shift levers at a local swap meet. Touched up paint, Cyclemondo decals, CLA bearings, added new tires & rode the bike for a while, but it was just slightly to big for me, so gave it to my oldest son(@ 6'1", he just needed a longer seat post). He took off the hammered fenders, pedal clips & straps, so I moved them to other bikes along with the simplex seat post and Brooks saddle. Don

As Found



& Brooks saddle.
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Old 12-01-19, 05:10 PM
  #42  
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Wildwood This head badge is from a photo on the Classic Rendezvous site.

Cheers.

Brad


Zeus headbadge by BJ Stevens, on Flickr
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Old 12-01-19, 05:18 PM
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Originally Posted by Wildwood
Did Zeus ever use a headbadge instead of decal?

-----

Yes, indeed.

When one gets back far enough into the 1960's they came through with metal head emblems affixed with rivets.

This image courtesy of none other than our very own Randy J -




Randy's full entry on the machine located here -

https://www.mytenspeeds.com/My_TenSp...3_Building.htm

-----
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Old 12-01-19, 06:12 PM
  #44  
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doral

juvela There is a single Zeus Doral front hub on the eboy at a price that will make your eyes water.

Cheers.

Brad


-----[/QUOTE]


There has been some discussion of the coloured anodised components/ensembles.

One of these that have never seen in person is the copper colour termed by the manufacturer as "doral."

Has anyone ever encountered this colour?


-----[/QUOTE]
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Old 12-01-19, 07:19 PM
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Originally Posted by 3alarmer
...that is way cool. Are those BB taps French threaded ?
-----

Purchased one of these sets from Zeus Cyclery Corporation of New York City about 1983.

As recalled, they were able to offer a choice of thread standard.

It did not matter in my case as I wanted to have all sizes so I ordered additional bottom bracket taps separately to have a complete set of six. Zeus did not offer a Swiss tap nor a reamer for repair of BB threads.

Also have both sizes of fork crown mill handle - 25.0mm guide and 25.4mm guide.

For Swiss and reamer I use Bicycle Research. Their taps fit fine on the Zeus handles. Prior to the Zeus set used VAR and Bicycle Research cutting tools. Have been completely happy with the Zeus.

One tool in the kit which takes some care to use is the compression type fixed cup installer/remover. It exhibits a very fine finish and makes comparable tools such as the Kingsbridge appear cheap and junky. It is of an atypical design for instruments of this type in that the inside purchase is not made on the inner face of the cup but rather on the cup's inner edge. This feature permits one to install a loaded cup but has the downside that it only mates with quality cups which have a thin-walled threaded portion. Before I understood this tried it on an ordinary quality OMG cup which it cracked. The tool can be seen in the lower right of the photo of the tool case posted above - it is the thick cylindrical item.

Here is an earlier 1960's catalogue image of the tool kit. In this illustration the fixed cup tool is top centre -




-----
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Old 12-01-19, 08:42 PM
  #46  
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Zeus, you say?

Here's a near-complete drillium-heavy Zeus 2000 group in black. Have pair of silver calipers to fill the gap since I'm unable for years now to find a matching single black caliper. Red-covered levers aren't 2000, but I have the 2000 levers in the little baggie next to the seat post.

Not a damn clue what to do with it all! I never arsed to figure out the value of it all, a lot of this seems to be priced like unobtanium on eBay, so I've just kinda held onto it. Figured maybe I could use it as tradebait for something interesting, would be nice to find someone with Coppi-pantographed parts I could use on my Coppi build.

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Old 12-01-19, 09:13 PM
  #47  
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Originally Posted by Wildwood
Mine is 531 butted main tubes, and i have assumed Durifort fork + stays.

Does anyone know of Zeus catalogs, early 70s? I have had zero luck in getting a 100% confirmation of the model of my bike.


Zeus doodads
-----

There is a nice selection of Arregui paper posted at velo-pages.

It tends to be mostly parts and some accessories however.

Zeus

---

This site is a wonderful trove of Zeus information, photos, history, catalogues, etc.

Look in the righthand margin for links to catalogues by year.

Recordando BICICLETAS ZEUS: Zeus y su Historia

-----
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Old 12-02-19, 09:58 AM
  #48  
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Originally Posted by juvela
-----

There is a nice selection of Arregui paper posted at velo-pages.

It tends to be mostly parts and some accessories however.

Zeus

---

This site is a wonderful trove of Zeus information, photos, history, catalogues, etc.

Look in the righthand margin for links to catalogues by year.

Recordando BICICLETAS ZEUS: Zeus y su Historia

-----
Thanks for that. Have reviewed those and found catalogues for '70 + '74 but have yet to find an exact match.
I'm close, but no cigar - yet.
Haven't lost any sleep over the issue.
Perhaps I need a trip to the Basque region.
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Old 12-02-19, 10:52 AM
  #49  
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Originally Posted by ollo_ollo
Found this one by just missing on a Panasonic, then asking seller if he had any other "old" bikes for sale. He offered a "really light" bike, of unknown make which he had crashed & put in his shed. Brought this Zeus out. Had a bent fork & frame, but front wheel somehow unscathed. Don't remember price paid, but we were at $50 vs $25 near the end so somewhere in between. Asked local builder Bill Stevenson if it could be repaired & he said sure, but had to be worth his time. Picked bike up with 2 fingertips & said "This is definitely worth my time".

Bike was missing brakes/levers, front derailleur. Did have a Shimano Crane rear DR in good, not great condition. I found NOS SunTour Superbe front DR & Superbe Pro rear DR plus NOS Galli brakes + Zeus shift levers at a local swap meet. Touched up paint, Cyclemondo decals, CLA bearings, added new tires & rode the bike for a while, but it was just slightly to big for me, so gave it to my oldest son(@ 6'1", he just needed a longer seat post). He took off the hammered fenders, pedal clips & straps, so I moved them to other bikes along with the simplex seat post and Brooks saddle. Don

As Found



& Brooks saddle.

-----

Thanks very much for sharing this find Don!

You have certainly done a beautiful job with it.

Have not before seen this crown on a Zeus frame.

It was widely employed by Italian manufacturers in the 1950's and 1960's.

Two of the many which made extensive use of it were Olmo and Frejus.

Do not know the maker. Have suspected either BOCAMA or Agrati. Do fork ends match dropouts?

Have a Zeus cycle here I suspect to be the Professional model from about 1973. It has the same lugs, seat stay treatment and ends as your frame but is built with a full sloping crown.

What make are the hammered mudguards you fitted?

-----
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Old 12-02-19, 11:09 AM
  #50  
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1981 or thereabouts.










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