Podagrower

Needs some love, for sure. There's a little bit of surface rust where the cable holders are on the top tube. The saddle, bar tape, hoods, cables, chain (I assume), brake pads will all need to be changed. The Deore rear derailleur is a crime against cycling. And the back wheel does not turn well at all (feels like bearing cups are too tight). And I wasn't looking for a bike. But when a piece of 80's nostalgia that is the right size pops up for $50, it's a crime not to buy it.

daverup 

I hope that slammed seatpost isn't stuck.
Definitely worth that price anyway.

shoota 

That seatpost is definitely stuck. Good score though!

T-Mar

+1. When the cinch bolt is missing from the seat lug, you're guarranteed to have a real fight on your hands.

himespau 

Even if it is irreversibly stuck, there's gotta be $50 worth of parts hanging on that frame.

ThermionicScott 

The Deore RD was no doubt needed to make the triple work. Good luck with the refurb!

Classtime 

Paint looks great. The 87 Miami Vice is a very fine rider as originally equipped but it might be fun to get that triple working. There is a 650B conversion on the IM thread.

As already mentioned, get that seat post soaking in everything you got ASAP.

bamboobike4

Lotta people like those.
Get the seat post out and you're in high cotton.

Aerzon

The paint scheme on these is always so good. Youch, that Rear Derailleur and those Plastic Flat Pedals though.

markwesti

Don't drink the Kool Aid .
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...aint-jobs.html

Clang

There's nothing wrong with an LX RD other than it's a mtb component. I guess it's anachronistic given that the black LX stuff first appeared in '93.

verktyg 

Podagrower You have some work cut out removing that seatpost.

I too got my IM for $50 bucks but sans wheels and saddle. I bought several bikes, frames and other stuff the the seller that day and it was an out the door parting shot... "Hey take this one for $50 bucks". I'd been beaten down already and didn't check it out for a few days.



On closer examination it had literally been rode hard and put away wet by some SoCal triathlon moron! One afternoon I dug into the seatpost. It was permanently stuck. Surgery was the only answer. Took well over 3 hours to get the job done.

First step, bob the top off. The cast seatpost was almost 1/4" thick in places.



I used a thin hack saw blade jab saw to get the cut started followed with a folding pocket buck saw.



When I finally cut through to the bottom of the seatpost, I had to use a pair of 20" Channel Lock pliers to collapse it enough to separate the aluminum/steel corrosion. Note the corrosion at the bottom of the post.




I was careful not to cut into the seat tube. When I started to ream out the tube I realized that the bike had a double butted Tange 1 seat tube with a 0.9mm x 0.6mm x 0.9mm wall thickness. To clean up the rust inside the seat tube, I had to ream it out to 0.6mm at the top so it now takes a 27.2 seatpost.

I sold the radar array tri bars for $50 bucks so I sorta broke even...

The real reason I wanted the bike was to offend the sensibilities of the purists who rode around Woodside, Palo Alto and Los Altos, CA area. The Miami Vice pink and yellow was just so over the top!

Aside from the initial investment plus elbow grease, I have less than $225 in the bike (I like good wheels so that was half of it)



I don't know who the genius was who spec'd out the deeply fluted Sugino seatpost for a bike intended to be used by wet riders but what were they thinking?



Clang "There's nothing wrong with an LX RD other than it's a mtb component. I guess it's anachronistic given that the black LX stuff first appeared in '93"...

There's little or no functional difference between most MTB and road components. I have LX RDs on several of my road bikes set up as triples. I like the steel pulley cages because they're stiffer than the alloy ones used on most top end long arm RDs.



verktyg

bamboobike4

LOL. BTDT.

Metric Century ride, my MV IM was sporting Vento's with the fuscia decals.
At a rest stop, leaned it up against a table and sat a bit off.
A group gathered, all female, liked the bike. "Pretty bike."
Their carbon cowboyfriends, not so much. "Steel. Probably heavy."

We passed them about 2 miles out. I had to say it.
"Pretty bikes, guys. Carbon. Probably really light?"
"Yeah."
"I get it, but check back in 30 years."

bamboobike4

Probably the same person who convinced Dave to wear a pornstar mustache and a pink and white lei....

mtbikerjohn 

^^^^ Knowledge keeper!

mtbikerjohn 

t...I love the knowledge of this forum , thank you,@ vertktyg...

Podagrower

So, I've made a little progress. I decided it would be less obvious to my beautiful and understanding wife if a frame and parts showed up in the garage instead of a whole bike (I wasn't wrong and fortunately we haven't reached S-1 quantity yet). At some point, somebody loved this bike, the rear wheel is a replacement, both derailleurs are replacements, crankset has been changed to a triple. But then it got rode hard and put away wet, the bar tape is actually yellow that has sun faded to white, the cables are trash, the seatpost is stuck (to the surprise of nobody).

And the chain; the chain was in good shape wear wise, but not installed correctly, they used this pin to close the chain but didn't push it in all the way. It took me about 30 seconds to break the chain apart by hand. And when I was trying to figure out what the rear hub actually is I thought it would be easiest to take off the cassette and measure the spacer. It's 600 tri color so it could be 6, 7 or 8 speed, it had a 7 speed cassette (so the shifter was being used in friction mode). But the spacer is 3.2mm which isn't right for any of the options. The good? news is that the rear wheel replacement is a Shimano FH 6402 (600 tri color 8 speed). So that is going to be the build direction, slightly period incorrect 600 tri color for everything except the crankset. The crankset will be a 600 Arabesque unit I already have.

repechage

That post is so low that I would determine the extent of deformation and if so, open it up so the slot is straight and not tapered in, maybe a touch open beyond.

the surgery can work, I am always reluctant to cut it off as that only leaves you the "bonesaw" option.

I would be tempted to remove the bottom bracket invert the frame and add Kroil, the oil that creeps after you assess the lug ears.

bamboobike4

I thought that worked, too. Ask my ex.

They said there wouldn't be any math.

OTS 

ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid) and Acetone in a 50/50 mix works well if you don't have Kroil.
Easy to make, & works well ( I used it on a stem)

seypat

If you can't find any Kroil, You can use a Krull Glaive. Those things are magical! It will quickly shred that seatpost and the bike will become a Fire Mare.

Podagrower

Short update. The seatpost has left the conversation! All it took was: Beating the crap out of the saddle with a rubber mallet and hammer, zero effect. Hosing the seatpost with WD 40, zero effect. Filling the seat tube upside down with ATF, zero effect. Trying to twist the frame while standing on the saddle, zero effect. I really had high hopes for the ATF and maybe I should have let it set longer than 1 day. But in the end, it was the big a$$ pipe wrench and the frame laying on it's side, a good shoulder workout. There was no sign of either the WD 40 or ATF on the seatpost when it came out.

So now, we are ready to clean and rebuild. Does anybody have a color match for these colors? There's a couple of dings and rust spots I'd like to touch up.

And I was able to solve one of the mysteries about the bike. Did somebody love this bike enough to put on the triple cranks and the 7 speed rear wheel (600 hub, Mavic rim, shifter set to friction) to keep riding or were they just slapping parts on it to keep it rolling? Pulling the cranks gave me the answer, the DS is Suntour, NDS is Shimano.

madpogue 

Gotta try this on an old $10 Tempo frame I've been neglecting/ignoring....

Sorry, mine's the tame red/white '86, but I love the above-mentioned idea of rocking an MV just to p!$$ off the black-carbon and old-gray-mare crowds. My wife was an artist, and could have matched both colors with the right drops of Testors, just by looking at them.

If Johnny Cash built a bike.....

DMC707

The triple couldve been on purpose -- but i once boogered up a Campy NDS crankarm so bad i had to use a Shimano replacement as it was all i had on hand the night before a race. - It stayed that way until the bike was retired from active duty a year or so later, --- so stuff like that happens

Classtime 

Testors yellow works well. I tried mixing some different "magenta" hued nail polishes to get kinda close. My wife used one of em on her nails last night. My daughter has another one with her in N.Y.