since6

Projects, we all have them. This one took two years.

Two years ago I came upon this bike at the local Goodwill for $20.00. There were bits of paint missing, a little bit of rust, but it was a complete bike and I was struck by its form and the beauty of its construction. It is a lug frame with laser cut lugs, it came with a very nice Suntour XV gruppo, and later when disassemble I was to learn that it had hardly ever been ridden, bottom bracket in like new condition. The bottom shell is stamped “KI 09427” which means that this bike was made for the US market, and was the 9,427th frame made in 1979 (thanks Wikipedia).

Come forward to this summer and the crisis of watching the 8-speed Record/Racing-T Campagnolo components for my 20+ year old custom frame bike become either unobtainable or jewelry store priced. A friend with a similar bike had bit the bullet and was assembling a 10-speed Campagnolo gruppo to replace his 8-speed Campagnolo components and so I began looking online.

That’s when the first stroke of luck happened, a package deal on everything I needed, bottom bracket, Ergopower shift/brake levers, triple Record Crank arms with near new 50/40/30 chain rings, 10-speed Record front and rear derailleurs, even a nice used Record 10-speed chain, and, it was priced within my reach. The rebuild of my custom bike was on.

Returning to the builder who had made my bike (Bill Stevenson) we swapped out parts, keeping the 8-speed Comp Triple, triple crank arms from the original bike, but swapping in the 10-speed chain rings, 10-speed front and rear derailleur, swapping out the Record 8-speed hub/cassette for a beautifully polished White Industries T-11 hub and finally replacing the Record 8-speed Ergoshifters with the new Record 10 speed shifters. Last but not least Bill built a new quill stem to allow the use of a beautiful Oval carbon fiber handlebar (he insured a match to the polish of the Campagnolo components by specifying the highest grade of chroming for this part).

But what to do with the left overs? I really didn’t want to sell these parts, though of quite substantial value on Ebay, these were parts to a bike that has shared over 20+ years of my life, many roads, many adventures. I also didn’t want to just have another dusty box, that’s when the Winter Bike project happened, you know that “what if” moment.

So, first things first, the wheels were rebuilt keeping the original Suntour big flange front hub but adding a new Sun 27” 36H presta (prior rim was Schrader) rim, and adding the Record 8-speed hub/cassette into a similar rear wheel build (this was also an OMG moment as finding 36H rims in 27” size is daunting, small miracle Sun is still making new ones-gonna buy up a couple while the supply lasts).

Oh, there was also the hours and hours of cleaning, rubbing rusted surfaces with aluminum foil and water, it actually works. But you also work and work. Applying rust inhibitor to the surface, finding as close a match to the original silver, treating the interior of the frame with frame saver (and yes all those small delicate tubes came with holes drilled at one an end so there was somewhere I could put the frame saver in).

Next the new Record bottom bracket went in, then after the wheels were done, all in a rush all the other components were added including the extra long seat post which was needed to dial in my legs.

But one thing was missing, and a kind of important thing it was. A saddle. Again serendipity happened. Seats can be fiendishly expensive, and the modern ones I ride on are and aren’t of a vintage style. I returned to the goodwill store as I recalled a red/white/blue “Jeep” bike seat that was undamaged, but except for the virtue of its price would look like “OMG” on this bike and probably ride with the comfort of “OH S**T”. Returning to the shelves where it awaited I noticed something new a handful of used saddles had come in and there was an Avocet Touring II saddle with rust on one rail and an undamaged leather surface on the seat (the foam/rubber even still had give) for $4.00, stunned the deal was done. On the first day’s ride, the only dry day we’ve had for weeks, I was amazed at how comfortable this old seat is! Sure only an 8 -10 mile ride, but WOW. Oh, and after applying rust inhibitor and then saddle leather oil, it cleaned up nicely.

Now the details, the little things you sweat over that matter. The front derailleur cable comes very close to the paint of the bottom tube, you can slip a bit of paper between them, but it’s that close. Having a left over strip of clear tape used to protect the chain stay from chain slap I cut and carefully positioned this between the derailleur cable and the paint, anxiety removed. The same applied to the SKS fenders in the rear where they attach at their bottom to the frame brace their fender edges are tight against the paint of the chain stays, again two pieces of the clear chain stay tape, and peace of mind.


Fenders can be rattilly things, but one solution is to provide some shock absorption in their assembly. This I did with the aid of leather washers which were installed among the washers and lock nuts of the two rear fender bolts. Speaking of fenders they turned into an overnight job. After an all evening thrash, and learning by mistakes, I re-inflated the tires, spun the front wheel, wonderful silence, and then the rear wheel, AcKKK, a high pitched every revolution squeal. The next morning, doing the careful checking that a good night’s sleep allows, the culprit was found. To attach the black rubberized plastic mud flap to the back fender there is some kind of rubberized plastic attachment that sticks out into the tire well. A couple minutes of adjustment and silence. (Next the dreaded test ride over rough surfaces, with lots of tools and on a dry day, to see if everything stays tight and together and does not spring loose a fender stay, hmm, should see if I can get a spare couple sets of those widget sliding bolts you use to attach the fender stay to the fender, as per Murphy’s Law, if they come loose you can expect them to be flung a couple miles deep into the surrounding forest, and of course in the ensuing search you will encounter wolves.)

How does it ride? Different, wonderful. While 27” wheels are not much bigger than 700c wheels; from where you sit they look enormous. The 1 ¼” tires are essentially 32cm tires and they simply remove road irregularities and make having to ride into soft soil to avoid others a safe rather than OMG experience, wondering if your skinny front tire will sink into the soil and launch you over the handlebars. Yes, the frame flexes, but so far, no cycle computer yet, the feel is of the same speed for the same energy on my diamond framed bike, but that’s not what this bike is about. Personal bests are for my custom bike, this bike is about riding, cruising, the things I did from 6-12 years of age, where you got out of the house and spent the entire afternoon riding down town, to the river, to Soda Ville and back 20-30 miles that passed without effort or notice, just the joy of you and your bike. It’s still there, this bike has it.

SloButWide 

Nice! Sounds like you're someone who enjoys getting the small details done just right.

Who makes the saddle bag?

since6

That's a large Berthoud banana saddle bag. It too like my Campy 8 speed gear got re-claimed as with the last switch to a more comfortable bike seat it could no longer be attached to the seat rails of my 23 year old custom bike. With the vintage Avocet seat attachment was a breeze.

since6

The Winter Bike-14 Miles


What a rare day, the sun is out, steady wind, blue sky, clouds coming in and the temperature in the upper 40s, rain will resume at 2:30 they say. Today a very familiar bike trail, with a steep out of saddle climb, three steady in saddle climbs, bad chip seal road surfaces and here and there heavy rootlet ridges in the asphalt of the trail. So this is the first real shakedown cruise for this bike.


First up, a tiny intermittent squeak from the front fender (lower rubberized mud flap a likely suspect and more on that later) and then water across the bike path, and not a drop hitting my riding shoes, the fenders work!

Next a hard short out of saddle climb, no problem or balance issues coming up and onto the peddles making the climb and then settling back down on the seat.

Road surfaces. I dropped the pressure down from 90-95 lbs. to 80-85 lbs.(I’m a heavy guy, but 40 lbs less this year, food changes and serious training, thanks Bike) with no affect on steering, handling, braking, but what a difference in the ride. By this I mean the rough chip seal road surface faded into just a quiet rumble coming up through the frame. The rootlets would judder the fenders, but not change the steering or cause my hands to rise off the handlebars, with a particularly bad hit, and there were many today because the path was covered with leaves, fir tree needles, fallen fir cones, twigs, branches and in one place a freshly fallen tree, to put it mildly it was a mess. But even though I once had to ride over a late sighted 1” branch, no loss of control at all. This is a very secure and easy bike to ride, and not slowly.

Fenders didn’t spring something loose, even with all the root ripples I road over, intentionally to test. Other than the fenders jolting and the bike bag bouncing nothing came loose (I will double check tomorrow and re-tighten nuts). HOWEVER, there is a safety issue I will fix tomorrow. The front fender has a rubberized mud flap that extends WAY too far down; in fact it twice picked up twigs/small branchs and carried them up into the fender well until they came to a stop against the fender stays, not a good thing. There is some form of rubberized clip that holds the mud flap onto the fender and tomorrow I will either disconnect or drill out this clip and remove the rubber mud flap, then if needed further trim the front fender. (got that done the next day, drilled out the clip, removed/ saved the rubberized mud flap and fender clearance from the road is once again safe and still silent)

Now for the best part of all, you can tell this bike loaded with a big seat bag weighed at least 5+ lbs. more than my diamond framed custom bike, but therein lays the magic. Magic? Yes, because you see this is a momentum bike. What do I mean by this?

When I first started riding at 6 and all the way up until I was 12 all of my bikes were momentum bikes, by this I mean that they often weighed the same weight as I did, or, more. These bikes were in the 40+lb category. My first bike was a Coast to Coast single speed bike with a rear coaster brake, a rear rack strong enough to carry someone on, a tin metal tank between the frame rails (like a motorcycles gas tank), and a double D cell front fender light, shaped of course like a rocket, and whose light output on a good night was at best mild. Later I graduated into a three speed, dual hand brake; springer seat Schwinn with enormous balloon tires, wish I still had that bike!!!

To ride these bikes I mastered the leaping launch. I would tilt the bike over, bring the other side pedal up to the top of its down stroke, get my foot on that pedal and then while leaping up and onto the bike smash down on that pedal with all my weight, thus overcoming the inertia of the 40+lbs. of bike with the 40+lbs. of me. However once we were going, momentum took over, suddenly that ungainly bike became a nimble stunt plane which took me literally to the ends of the world during my 20-30 mile all day ride-abouts on weekends and during the summer ( this primarily on gravel and dirt roads once you got out of the city). This is very much what the ride of The Winter bike is like, it’s extra weight and design takes me directly back to those years of riding momentum bikes, but now with a far lighter, more responsive and beautifully equipped machine. Heavy yes, slow, hardly. I suspect that on the flats I am moving quite close to the speeds of my lighter diamond framed bike, and hills? On hills you just go through the gears and listen to your body until you find the one that works and then enjoy the ride to the top, but on little hills, small grade changes, that’s where this bike is like our tandem, momentum becomes you best friend, it carries you up and over with little extra work.

This was a very pleasant surprise, recalling the beginnings of my journey into bike riding, but with something that works much much better, and knock on wood, so far the 30+ year old bike seat is loving my ….uhhm, well you know.

Velocivixen

Nice bike and great story. I have an '85 Nishiki mixte. They're nice.

The Golden Boy 

^ THAT is what it's about.

Thanks for the story and stuff! You should put up more pix!

Best!


BTW- FWIW- I've got 2 fender installs that I just can't get the fronts to work right. Both are Velo Orange fenders- I was under the impression that something is just off for 27" wheels... or maybe it's really just me.

since6

Per request here are pictures of the restored 30+ year old Avocet seat, still comfy, going for a 24 mile today as we have a sunny day , and the 8-speed Record Brake/Shifter, still going strong after 23+ years.

since6

Here are pictures of the nice laser cut lug work with the original pin-striping around the lugs. The head badge is metal with chrome and I think enamel (?) and in near perfect condition. A joy to ride and to look at when you clean it up afterwards.

Thanks for your kind comments.

since6

Golden Boy, it took me two days as noted in my prior post to finally mount these SKS fenders. Day one was most of an evening with a lot of take it on take it off, dropping nuts, finding washers, until it was all together, but then when I added pressure back to a riding pressure into the tires I got a slight rub on the rear wheel.

Wisdom said stop and get a good nights sleep.

Next morning, I figured out the rubberized stem that kept the rear rubberized mud flap on was rubbing. About twenty rested minutes later this was fixed as I adjusted the two rear fender stays out enough to both clear the squeak, but also leave room for road debris to pass through the fender and not get hung up. So at least for me these 700c fenders did fit on my 27" wheels.

This is kind of despairing work, so don't beat yourself up, but do wait to take it on when you have no time demands and you're fairly unstressed, time to allow? Consider day one a two cup of coffee day, and day two a once cup of coffee day, and do take that break.

I find taking that break is often the moment you stop just before you strip threads/break something unobtainable. Never good.

Wildwood 

Nice to have a winter bike.
Please, what is a laser cut lug?

since6

Wildwood, "laser cut lugs", this description came from the man who built my custom bike. He has been a lifetime in the bike industry, including advising over-seas, and he told me that the lugs for the head tube were cut by lasers a technology developed in Japan. This makes sense as if you look closely at the picture you can see that the edges of the lugs are the same thickness as the lug as there has been no thinning or filing of the lugs.

09box

My year round bike is also my winter bike.. Does that count?

Wildwood 

I had heard the term but not in regards to vintage lugs. Learned something today.

fietsbob

Mine sits in the basement , It comes out when there is Ice on the ground.. Beater Stump jumper sport .
broken Dropout freebie got Campag long horizontal replacements , found a fork , bits and pieces

drum brakes rims from Fairbanks AK All weather Sports .. last year I got a bull moose bar for it.. discards from LBS

a little rust NBD.



80's UJB .. probably stamped and flash welded lugs


laser cutting was yet to be developed back then (except armaments making and aerospace. )

since6

Discovery, handlebar water bottle cages RULE, at least in winter. This discovery came to me about the third time I took a drink from my water bottle today, I noticed something was missing. What was missing was the mouthful of fir needles and rotted leaf bits from when you forget to wipe off your water bottle nipple. It doesn't matter how good your fenders are with the carpet of fallen fir needles and rotted leaves, twigs, etc. a water bottle on a down tube is going to get coated, but not when that water bottle is mounted on your handlebars. Revelation, clean, absolutely as clean as when I left and I'm finally over coming habit and no longer reaching down for the bottle. Cheers!