jimmuller 

I have an '87 Brava (yours is '86, no?) and I love it. It is my most-used commuter, with a hub generator, nice B&M LED lights, and Conti GP4000-II tires. It feels robust and efficient, though it is not the quickest bike in the stable.

The first time I rode it it felt so squirrelly I wondered what kind of beast I had just built. So I named it the black snake and told my wife it would probably kill me. It didn't take long for it to feel perfectly normal, and now I'd name it one of the most intuitive-feeling bikes in the stable. It isn't the best at cornering or at do-as-I-say-to-do in a turn, but everything about the cockpit just feel like it is where it should be.

Jadesfire 

That's good to "hear" . That description is just about right. Almost like it feels so right something has to be wrong (if that makes sense).
I think it's an '88, but I haven't double checked a serial # or anything.

Dean51 

Another winter project.....building up a Ciocc Mockba 80 as a dedicated "climber" for this summer's Ride the Hurricane in Olympic National Park. Just under 5000' of climbing over 18 miles.....no need for anything resembling big gears.

This will be a 1x7 drivetrain with a 39 or 40 tooth chainring pulling a friction shifted 14-32 Suntour New Winner freewheel. Cogs will be 32-28-24-21-18-16-14. One of my goals for this project was to spend as little money as possible. Read that to mean use as many on-hand parts as possible. I have a Sugino Super Maxy crankset with 110 mm BCD that opens the door for a variety of small chainrings. This crank requires a JIS taper spindle, but the Italian bottom brackets I have on hand have ISO tapers. Shimano makes cartridge style bottom brackets that will do the job, but why buy new when you can hack something together?

Examining the parts, I discovered the Campy 70-SS ISO taper spindle and the Sugino JIS taper spindle have the exact same spacing (55 mm) between bearing centers. The bearing ball diameter is identical is well at ~6.3 mm. The only difference is the ball retainer for the Sugino bearings is a wee bit larger than the Campy retainer and would "rub" on the inside of the cups. Soooo, I installed the Campy fixed cup & bearing, the Sugino spindle, and the Campy adjustable cup & bearing. Fit up was perfect and the spindle turns super smooth. Even the chainline is good!

Picture below. The gray primered fork in the background will be a tale for another day.

Dean

Dean51 

Me too, it is an amazing vise that weighs a heap. I bought it from my employer when we were shutting down a truck shop. Going price for scrap metal was $0.01 per pound. I paid something on the order of $5 or $6 for it.

Dean

juvela

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The old style small anvil examples have even more aesthetic appeal:





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DMC707

Big confession --- I'm a "car guy" too

Not to the extent where I can do ground up restoration and re-builds --- I have one of those in progress and its no fun --- but finding something nice that is "almost there" and tidying up the last details is big fun for me

While looking for parts for my resto project on craigslist , I found this --- a '71 Cheyenne CST (custom sport truck) 10, factory 396 vehicle with a lot of options ---- it had had a re-paint done about 10 years ago and has a number of small issues I am going through now - mostly electrical --- and I am working on re-installing the proper factory power steering pump, AC compressor and low profile valve covers -- basically erase any of the hot-rod oriented mods that have been made to the beast
--- easy stuff for a true grease monkey, but I am a novice --- I have more fun cruising than wrenchin'



It looks clean enough, but that aftermarket manifold and carb setup has gotta go too --- funny, these are the things I would have seen value in 20 years ago -- LOL

DMC707

A good vise is an unsung hero in any shop

2cam16

That's clean. Hold on to it. They're going up in value. The past couple of years on Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale, pick-ups have been showing. Just these past two days I've already seen quite a few on the block.

2cam16

Started work on this Keno:
IMG_3284 by 2cam16, on Flickr

juvela

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I have always thought o' me Wiltons as a second pair of infinitely strong hands to assist me work.

Use an L-shaped work bench and keep one on each of the two outer corners. That way I can tie one up with a piece of equipment like the VAR frame holding jig that works with an expander inside the seat tube or the Park fork alignment jig...and still have the other free for short jobs such as gear block pulls.

One o' me Wiltons is a Cadet model from 1966 that I did a rebuild on.

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capnjonny 

Currently in the garage is a 1970 Raleigh International I brought home from the Bike Exchange last weekend. After a lot of cleaning The frame looks pretty good. One small dent in the front edge of the seat tube, good chrome on the stays. There are a couple dents in the forks and the chrome socks were pretty pitted. The most notable thing was the Mafac TOP 63 brakes. Very unusual, not at all like the "Racer" model. Supposedly rare and valuable. Not sure what I am going to do with it. Probably would be best to sell the bare frame but I have an idea to turn it into a super light weight Raleigh 3 speed style upright "gentlemans" bicycle with north road bars, light 700 c wheels and maybe a 1x 5 close ratio freewheel . It came to me with a 14-17-20-23-26 Pro comp and that along with a nice friction thumbie should make a good set up with maybe a 36 tooth single sprocket up front. The list weight on the bike is 22.5 lb. It would be cool if I could get it down near 20 lbs. Maybe I can find a carbon fork in the shop. We have at least 200 forks hanging up so I will look to see if I can find anything lighter than the original.

phenry24 

Spokes are arriving tomorrow so I can start building the wheelset, the handlebars, stem, and seatpost are sitting in customs but hopefully they'll arrive by the end of the week. So far I just have the fork and what parts of the 5800 groupset that are able installed. I'm excited to find out if what I've read about this frame being stiff is true.

Scottybigs 

Got to try out my winter upgrades sooner than expected this past weekend:

Jon T

Cleaned and regreased the bearings in my Helicomatic rear hub. Cleaned and oiled Helicomatic free wheel. Cleaned and relubed chain. Now I'm good for another season.
Jon

phenry24 

Played a lot of wheel harp tonight and got some other stuff installed. Tomorrow I tackle the cable routing and mount the tires then it's time for a test ride.

DQRider 

I've finished The Unnecessary Bridgestone:



And given my Raysport (Turismo) Light Roadster a makeover:





Now I'm building up a Pure City step-thru for my daughter:


Apologies for the lousy CL ad photo. Pics of the finished product coming soon.

... and I'm resurrecting my Peugeot Versailles city bike for her (longtime) boyfriend:



This is my peculiar manifestation of Spring Fever. I spend pretty much every night after work out in the shop, listening to surf guitar music and spinning wrenches. It helps keep me sane (as far as I know...)

2cam16

Started disassembling this Yokota. Found these nice ODI TOmac grips on them. Still in pretty good condition. These are keepers for me.
IMG_3362 by 2cam16, on Flickr
IMG_3363 by 2cam16, on Flickr

3speedslow

Pulled this frame out to rebuild. 89 Bianchi CDI in progress.

juvela

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@DQRider -

Senor Raysport's selle appears it may have had a visit with a colourist for a wee spot o' "lightening"; be that correct or am I OTL como normale?

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DQRider 

Good eye, @juvela. That's a new saddle, made to look like an old saddle by some division of Brooks, Inc. I found it at a bargain price, and bought it for my favorite bike. It is going to have a lot of use over the next few years, so it will be interesting to see how it wears over time. I'll keep you all posted, of course...

Wileyone 

How bad is the Dent in the Top Tube?

RiddleOfSteel

Not bad enough to make it a wall hanger!

In all seriousness, it's something that will make one pause for a second. Frame and fork are aligned fine still. Using a straight edge along it's top, bottom, left and right edges; the top and left edges of the tubes are essentially dead straight. The right and bottom edges deviate from straight, obviously--what gets pushed in must push out somewhere else. Never feels weird or frail. With the head tube, down tube, and chain stays as beefy as they are, it's been fine. Currently, it is slated to go to a new loving home with a fellow BF member. Stays in the family!

TheTeaHermit

1984 Centurion Turbo I picked up for $125 with all original components.

Currently just cleaning her up and overhauling to get ready for the season. Clamp on the FD broke. Which is a bummer. I've got other FDs laying around and I'll just throw a Shimano 600 on there if I can't find a replacement clamp or actual derailleur. It's a Suntour Superbe Pro, and it's the original equipment so I was hoping to salvage it. Any thoughts on how to do so?

canklecat

Literally wrenching the pedals off my Centurion Ironman to replace the platforms with Look pedals. Apparently the previous owner installed the otherwise nice Wellgo platforms without greasing the threads and used a hydraulic wrench to weld the steel and aluminum.

I'm having to disassemble the pedals on the cranks. I managed to get one pedal off but I'll need to find a shop with a bench vise to get the other.

So, my first foray with clipless will be delayed a bit. Unless I get impatient and try the new pedals and shoes on my Univega hybrid.

DQRider 

Just finished my daughter's bike. I'm excited about this because she didn't show much enthusiasm for cycling once she reached puberty. But now that her boyfriend is getting into it, she had to have a new bike NOW!





And the bike she picked was not what I would have given her, I wanted to build up a good quality lugged chro-moly mixte. But she chose this Chinese-made city bike, and I've been busy replacing all the components that didn't meet my standards: BB, shifter (it had one of those lousy plastic grip-shift setups), cables, grips, pedals, and I wanted to replace that goofy padded-vinyl seat with a proper V.O. sprung leather touring saddle, but she wants to keep this plasticky pillow instead.

And of course, I added a basket and a good lock so it's less likely to get stolen. I can't wait to see her ride it...