noglider 

I had a Gran Sport. I now have a Super Course. They both had LONG reach brakes. Getting longer reach brakes for 650b may not be feasible. I replaced my Super Course’s wheels with 700c and 37mm tires. Goal achieved. It rides very softly. Now I’m not happy with the brakes so I plan to replace them with dual-pivots which require less hand pressure.

tiger1964 

OK, back to "odd components" for a moment. Lifted from “are you looking for?” topic: "Raleigh Grand Sports and Schwinn Premis, 2 for the money at 350 bucks in Raleigh, NC"
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...39968249615443

I see Campy shifters and RD, the cranks don’t really look Stronglight-ish to me. A Doppelgänger? Maybe adding Campy to a Grand Sport was once “a thing”? That one does not seem to have Campy pedals however, and I cannot see the hubs or seat post.

Sounds like it was just as well I got talked into after 27's on the wheels I have. Pretty sure there are Weinmann center pull calipers longer than these 610's, but...

Thank you -- but I wonder how much of that is the poor photography?

...and I got the follow up e-mail -- and almost cancelled! 1400 yen for tape, 4,000 yen for shipping, so over $43 for two rolls of tape. But I went ahead. I hope the color does look that good in person!

tiger1964 

MORE PHOTOS COMING SOON

"Odd components" gets a bit odder -- but not the ones I found on the bike.

After two other topics I added to or started, ROADLINK and AXLE, I have been able to finally get the 13T/32T IRD freewheel on, and the NR derailleur with the Roadlink and the long Soma cage installed. New cabling (blue!) from Velo Orange out for delivery today, and I'll see if (a) it shifts at all, and (b) whether it works better with or without the Roadlink. in-process photos on the RD installion in the other topic.

OK, the Sand Canyon tires, tubes and rim strips arrived, and now on. Due to the rim type meaning the heads of the spoke nipples are NOT recessed, I decided to use rubber rim strips and not Kapton tape... this time. I think that made tire installation a little tougher. Now, reading that 27x1-3/8" is 35mm wide, I measured the bike with wheels on while awaiting tires. YIKES! At the chain stay, not all that much over 35mm! Well, I decided to mount them and see. Uh, could not get the wheel in without deflating the tire. Once in, looked like pretty good space in the back and huge amounts in front. Then I started measuring, inexplicably despite the same tires on identical rims, the front tire was 31mm wide and the rear 29mm. Getting ready to contact Swift about this, then it occurred to me; per above, little air in the rear tire. Pumped up, both are now about 31.1mm and it's s wee bit tight but OK at the chain stay, I better not break a spoke on a trail ride.

Little things like assembling seat and post to the bike should be easy, as it's the ones earlier on the bike -- but the post did not want to go in the seat tube. So I buffed down the post with a fine (white) Scotch-Brite, and then took a auto brake cylinder hone to the seat tube (inverting the bike as the BB is freshly rebuilt). Then I made a coat hanger into a copy of the rod they use for cleaning gun barrels, only bigger -- and ran paper towels up and down until one came out clan. Post went right in, then.

Still to go: install pedals (someone had a deal on M540 SPD pedals) brake levers and handlebar tape, clean the factory lube off the chain and hot-wax it, locate and install a water bottle cage and perhaps a pump (it came with a Brev. Camp. umbrella), fine tuning.

By way of bathroom scale, 24.1LB with a few parts still to add. The tires and the gigantic freewheel are not helping!

gugie 

Yeah, actual tire size vs measured is an issue. Part of it is measured width is dependent on the rim width. Part of it is that many manufacturers are just off. Maybe good thing in your case! I have 700c wheels on my Gran(d) Sport(s), the widest is a Panaracer made Jack Brown 33 1/3, which measures just about 33mm wide. I think the few mm radius difference in the wheel size is signficant enough to move the tire back just enough in the chainstays to give good clearance.

Good job on the seat post, that's pretty much what I would have done.

tiger1964 

JUST ONE PHOTO BELOW FOR NOW.

I do have a question for you, based on that photo of yours, and anyone else with an originalish Gran Sport -- I just received a replacement set of brake levers, to replace the bent ones, from forum member 67carlton and not only in great shape they came with the white Carlton hoods (I had already bought a set of gum Cane Creek hoods). So, I soaked the levers in hot water to soften the hoods and they came off intact . There was a lot of black reside inside (aluminum oxide abraded off the lever bases?) and I was cleaning them up, and now I have black residue embedded on the outside of the hoods! I've tried several cleaners with little luck (see photo). Does anyone have a nice idea how to get them back to gleaming white? Bleach? EDIT: amazingly a quick Google search had results on exactly this (except maybe the aluminum oxide part), so I watched a couple of videos and am heading to the auto parts store for a bottle of Bleche-White, a product that had been around just about forever. Results will be posted. But if you know anything better...

I just wrapped mine, and like the results (see photo). Your experience may be different than mine as my original bars have been replaced with SR Sakae World Randonneur bars, but the plugs are simply too small and to amount of tightening will keep them from falling out. I even tried using a small strip of the handlebar tape as a shim -- no success.

By the way, this is my first cloth tape in quite some time and, for gravel use, not having cushioning had me concerned. I was thinking of wrapping the bars with cushion-y tape first, then the Grand Bois; but I found this stuff on Amazon: FIZIK GEL PADS . Those made the installation a little more challenging, but not insurmountable, so now I have grippy cloth tape AND cushioning. You might be able to see in the photo that the bars look a little bit chubby.

The derailleurs/levers/cables are in place and working fine, using the RoadLink and Soma cage plates on the Nuovo Record (there's another topic on that), and I am having issues with getting the perfect housing ferrules for the braze-ons for both shift and brake cables (there's another topic on that too). The Velo Orange cable housing in blue is a very pretty color and I like it -- but it's noticeably darker/brighter than Lagoon blue or the Grand Bois tape. So, I see on-line this stuff sold by the foot, would this look better? HOUSING And, if I decide the Brooks Pro is just a bit much for gravel trails, I see the same place has a matching Saddle: LIGHT BLUE SADDLE. Anyway, swapping in housing at a later date is not likely to be a major problem.

Getting closer. Once I get the hoods looking nice I need to hook up the brakes, and I need to do a final adjustment on the headset, screw in the SPD pedals (there's a topic recently on pedal washers so I bought a pack, first time I've used them), re-dish the wheel due to a small axle spacing change (and there's a another topic on that as well), and perhaps look into accessories like a water bottle cage.

gugie 

I didn't clean mine, but they could use some brightening! Using hot water to soften the hoods is a smart move, I'll await your Blech-White results, thanks for posting the details!

daka

I think I've "cleaned" them with a light wipe of Acetone. I put "cleaned" in quotes since with Acetone you may just be removing the top layer. Try it in an inconspicuous place first. The Carlton hoods are AMAZING in their durability compared to gum hoods.

bertinjim 

tiger1964-

The tape looks good and seems an excellent match against the head tube paint. The gel pads give the bars a nicely chunky look without the poor results often seen with gel tapes. The white plugs are small in diameter. It took two wraps of tape on each plug to bulk the plugs up to where they would stay in the ends of my Cinelli Giro d'Italia bars on the Carlton.

tiger1964 

Results are in, photo(s) to follow; the Bleche-White works (I think this stuff was used to clean wheels on Roman chariots BITD so it's clearly C&V). (A) I did this in the laundry tub with a new toothbrush, figuring a steady stream of water for rinsing. DO NOT DO THIS. the fumes are a bit strong, even wearing goggles my eyes were irritated for a few hours afterwards. (B) Figuring I'd have to re-soak in hot water to soften them for reinstallation, so I made extra sure to scrub the oxide (?) off the inside of the hoods so it does not re-stain the outside. They are a nice creamy white I presume OEM color, not quite the blinding white of, say the handlebar plugs.

Now I have to make a decision. The included "fat" ferrules are plastic, I have encountered them before a long time ago. But elsewhere on the forum I read "do not use plastic ferrules", do they fail in service? While looking for ferrules, I saw Velo Orange had Dia-COmpe metal adjusters, that's neat, and I got a set. But that means opening up the top hole in the hoods with a Dremel with the risk that goes along with it.

I thought I was under-overwrapping (is that a word?) the tape, not a huge amount of overlap perhaps 1/4 to 1/3 of tape width, and still I had 1"-2" left over on each side. Perhaps I have some scraps of old Tressostar in one of the parts boxes.

Good to know; well, all gum hoods everywhere seem to "perish" eventually. But they do not seem as "squishy" as gum hoods. Perhaps this is not critical.

steelbikeguy

The white hoods do start out pretty white. The old Raleigh catalogs show this, and this shot of my International also indicates it. I'd say that they were as white as the water bottle, roughly.
background info: I bought the International in 2000, and it had only recently emerged from the basement of the bike shop where it had been hibernating for decades. This shot was from 2005.



The hoods are indeed fairly hard. They are an improvement over a bare aluminum lever, or one with a wrap of bar tape on it, but are in no way as nice as a gum hood.
Everyone knows that gum hoods are the first step on that slippery slope to a decadent lifestyle.

Steve in Peoria (enjoying a bit of decadence every now and then)

tiger1964 

OK, time for another picture, so I dragged the bike out to my photo studio ( ), see below.

Not 100% certain my hoods are as white as steelbikeguy's, it might just be the photography - but then again perhaps not. I'm actually considering white gloves for this bike, not to stain the tape and hoods.

On the ferrules-versus-adjsters conundrum, I got lucky. I had forgotten another project that I had tried conversing to upright bars and that failed, but the bars still in storage had Dia-Compe levers. And they still had the ferrules, and they are metal and fit the Weinmann drop levers. I'll save the adjusters for some other bike where hacking up hoods would not be so risky. You'll see no cables trimmed; in another topic I was fretting about not having the right size ferrules -- and forum member oneclick has made up custom ones and when they arrive, I'll finalize everything. The darker blue housing is growing on me, maybe I won't pull it all back off for the light blue available from porkchopbmx.

The "punch list" is now short, the bike should be ready for a test ride soon. I might order replacement Reynolds decals, the more I look at what's there, the more they detract from the bike.

Mr. 66

On your lever hoods, I use tire and wheel cleaner. Good results, I have a white set that I'm going to clean soon.

daka

The hoods came out pretty well, though I admit I've never heard of Bleche-White, and the bike is looking really nice altogether. I do have to say the dark blue cable housing isn't working for me, too many shades of blue between the paint, the bar tape and the housing. Personally, I don't find cable housing to be an attractive highlight on any bike so I favor black or white to help it "disappear" into the background.

This is a terrible time to ask, you having just taped the bars and all, but do you want a longer GB stem? Seeing how high the saddle is made me realize you are a little tall for this frame size and the cockpit may feel a bit "crowded". I have one I can send you.

tiger1964 

If you ever had wide whitewalls on your 1948 Ford coupe, you'd have heard of it. That said this is the first time I've purchased/used it. Cannot remember the original manufacturer's name, apparently they got bought out.

Thanks! I still have to figure out accessories like pump & water bottle, hope to have a test ride in a few days -- to see what works loose.

Understood -- I am borderline on it myself. I might order the light blue housing later. I'm different, I like the contrasting housing on my bikes -- 6 of my 7 bikes are red and I accessorize via handlebar tape, housing, pumps, etc.

Actually it's a good fit! I think. Most of my height is in my legs, with short torso and arms. The frame is actually a good inch short in the ST, thus the amount of post showing. By the old rule of putting one's elbow against the nose of the saddle and seeing if your fingertips reach the stem/bar intersection, I could actually ride a one inch shorter stem. Eh, most of my bikes fail that test, however; let's see how comfortable it is once on the road. But thanks for asking!

noglider 

My 1975 Gran Sport had a 750 caliper on the rear. I switched to tubular tires so I had to drop the brake pads. That left a mediocre caliper working even a bit worse. Switching to modern dual pivot (side pull) calipers will be an improvement.

Classtime 

Nice One. One of my favorite paint schemes and if I wasn’t always downsizing, I would like to have kept my ‘73.
I’m a little late with advice on spraying paint into a cup but next time, put a straw over the nozzle and you can drizzle the paint into a small cup. I use little measuring cups as used to mix epoxy for finishing thread wraps on fishing rods.

tiger1964 

(PHOTO BELOW)

Interestingly, the rear caliper needed a little grinding despite this being the wheels and brakes on the bike already.

I'll try to remember that. For now, I am keeping the leftover spray paint -- once I find a correct-sized pump, with a little masking I can make the pump white with the blue bands aligned with those on the seat tube.

Well, the bike is "done" except a serious shakedown and then retighten everything, and locate a pump and water bottle (actually on the way from Belgium) and mount a cage. Once the ferrules Oneclick made went in place the brake and shifting cable are "playing nice", you can see them in the photo. As someone talked me into a roll of housing liner on a different project, I decided to cut a length to go between the fixed stops on the top tube where the rear brake cable is bare -- I figure it might help prevent the cable from scratching the paint and you almost cannot tell it is there. Even riding it a couple of blocks to and from our 1896 schoolhouse, I could tell a few things, mostly about the cockpit. The bars feel a little narrower than I am used to, and the front-to-back length feels shorter, but I think the latter is simply because most bikes tall enough for me are a bit long. A "real" ride will tell more. It feels very smooth, I presume due to the fat tires and I am unused to only 80PSI; the gel pads under the handlebar tape might contribute. Way too early to tell but the Brooks Pro seems fine; i may need to raise it a bit.

I want to thank all the contributors to this thread for their input!

tiger1964 

I was thinking this thread was "over", but...

Yesterday was the shakedown, 15 miles, it did well. By the end the horrific shrieking from the brakes had died down, I presume that was the first few stops on brand new pads but I do not recall experiencing that with Kool-Stops before. Everything else on the bike fine. Got it home and on the stand, gave all the bolts a check -- a few did need an additional 1/4-turn or so.

Today, 25 miles, riding with the "original" owner's son; we even got a short video of him in a parking lot on his father's bike. Easy ride, few hills, slow pace; I kept looking for a place to try out that 32T rear cog but never encountered one. The bike felt comfortable to ride except...

...OK, maybe we should talk. I was constantly shoving myself back on the seat, and my arms ached a bit despite the gel pads, I am putting too much weight on the arms. Pretty sure I need more length. So, two choices, move the bars forward or the seat back. For the former, yes, swapping a stem is not hard but, but, but... the tape! Has anyone ever successfully unwrapped, and then re-wrapped, cloth tape w/adhesive? I just don't feel like paying almost 4 times the tape's cost in postage again. For the latter, I was looking online and saw extra-setback seat posts from Nitto and IRD, both pricey. That would put more weight not he back half of the bike, I must think that over. And I've read of something I've never done for any bike, a "string test" to help determine fore-aft placement. I really should do that.

daka

You are still welcome to the long GB stem but since I am traveling for a month it will be early April before I can ship it.

There is a shade of Newbaums bar tape that is very close to Lagoon Blue that you can probably get without paying those usurous shipping charges from Japan.

Road Fan

I think that rear derailleur needs a few more chain links to straighten out. Or, it could be that the dropout has the rotator stop for a Huret rear mech, and the Campy rear mech needs the stop in a different place. Ebay around for a decent Huret rear derailleur, if that's what it needs.

Road Fan

Kool-stops like to be toed-in about a millimeter, which cuts down on the shrieking. I don't know the best way to do this on the calipers you are using - another research project for you!

tiger1964 

Thanks, I am thinking I won't ride a whole lot on this bike until I make a correction. I did the string & knee test and the string falls about an inch behind the pedal spindle, so I should move the seat forward instead of jammed all the way back, so extending stem reach is likely even more needed.

Thanks, I checked their website, opinions one whether Medium Bright Blue, or Light Blue, is closer? And a 30' roll means I won't be worried so much about running short one or two turns from the end...

Hmm, if you mean the most recent completed-bike photo I posted, not sure how it needs more, please clarify as I am curious as it looks "right" to me but I could be wrong. The dropout has no hanger at all, this is a NR RD on a "claw" which looks awfully Brev. Camp. to me. My experimentations to get here is also part of this topic ROADLINK and especially the photos in post #34. And it's a full 116 links now with none removed (not that a chain cannot be extended further).

Thanks. I'm more used to Mafacs, so neither squealing nor toeing-in scare me. If the problem does not go away 100%... I know what to do.

bikemig 

I've just started on my Raleigh Gran Sport project. That's impressive that you cleaned stuff at that level of detail. I take my bikes down to the studs when rebuilding them but I don't usually go as far as you do. Great job.

tiger1964 

Thanks. Based on a recent BF C&V topic, I have bought a small ultrasonic cleaner and hopefully cleaning same parts might take less time & effort on future projects