BFisher

One step closer to going IGH on my Super Course. AW hub from @cudak888. Thanks, Kurt! I laced it to the original 27" Weinmann rim using double butted Wheelsmith spokes.

eeuuugh

Three months ago a friend told me he had some bikes in his backyard he wanted to get rid of. They turned out to be a Varsity and a Suburban, of course. The Suburban hadn't been ridden for two years, and the Varsity had never been ridable as far as he knew... Had probably been sitting in someone else's backyard for a few years before making it to his. As found it had a 24" mountain bike wheel on the front and a rusted out 26x1-3/8" coaster hub wheel on the back.

The Suburban was a 5-speed, it fixed up very nice.

Cute as a button! It went to a friend looking for a cheap bike and now has a rear rack with a milk crate ziptied to it.

the Varsity sat in my backyard for another two months, depressing me every time I looked at it. But in that time I came across a mismatched 26" cruiser wheelset, and some nice wheels purchased from Bianchigirll came shod in 26x1.25" Paselas, which I thought would look good on it. The bottom bracket and headset came apart, the wheels were trued and overhauled, and the Varsity is a bicycle again. Yesterday I installed fenders from an old Free Spirit 3-speed after drilling out the rivets for the mounting plates and figuring out new ones. The bike was originally a 10-speed so no chainguard unfortunately!

After cutting and fitting a piece of stainless tubing from a spare Surly rack strut to serve as a chainstay bridge spacer, I couldn't be bothered to shorten the bolt. I've since improved the fender line above the rear wheel by leaning on it a little.

The front mounting situation is a little nastier looking.

Unfortunately it's still not finished! I was going to keep the terrible stamped steel stem, but it doesn't tighten enough to keep the bars from rotating. I'm heading to the bike shop later today to find a 21.1mm stem and figure out what color grips it should have. Blue frame, pink pedals and front spokes, dark green fenders with a yellow stripe, and tanwall tires... I'm leaning towards sparkly magenta.

stardognine

Welp, some things require a little patience. 🙄😁😉 I rode back to Davis, again, and this time found a few bike places open. I scored these “less than mint” XT M730 cranks today, along with this M735 RD. It’s missing a pulley, obviously, but I’ll forgive it. 🙄😉 It’s tough finding the Gold XT derailleurs, in good condition, much less at a reasonable price.

I saved those LX chainrings, of course, and they should work out great, with these XT cranks. 😎

stardognine

Here’s what I was talking about. 😉 I couldn’t
edit in a pic, for my last post, and it was just weird. Probably a bad signal here. 🤔

bwilli88 

I am repainting and refreshing my gravel bike, a Maxwell from Japan. It was originally a horrible hybrid but with cantis. Then a rattle canned red single speed with Schwalbe Big Apples, next a grey 3x9 gravel bike with road tires. Now had a local auto paint shop respray in red and building it 1x9 with XT shifter and RD. Found a used Suguino XD2 SS crank and pulled a 46t ring from my stash. Wheels are some Deore hubs laced with SS spokes to no name rims. Also back to the Big Apples.

SurferRosa

^ Thanks for wearing shorts and a t.

Insidious C. 

Today I whipped together this 78 Raleigh Super GP from parts I had laying around. The frame was given to me, and in turn I gave the bike and a package of bar tape to a friend. I never used the awkward looking Gary bar, but when I test rode the Raleigh I found it to feel quite comfortable. And now its gone. Oh well. Many more bikes will be leaving my garage soon.

stardognine

And here’s that M730 crank mounted up, with 28-38-44 rings for now. I still want to find a smaller granny gear, but that’ll happen when it happens. 😉 It smoothed out some weirdness I was having with my drivetrain. I can hit all 6 cogs in the back, with no rubbing on the front derailleur. Haven’t needed the 44 yet, probably later today or maybe tomorrow. 😎

pcb 

Pretty much finished the final first build on the '81 Merckx. Found SR brake levers in my parts stash, changed to the better Technomic. Got a pretty cheap SR rder on ebay that needed some work, swiped/swapped the SR post and Brooks Team Pro from a couple other bikes.

The Vittoria Corsa Graphene 2.0 are 28mm, but around 26.5mm on these narrow Mavic Open 4 CD rims, so I got maxxed-out skinwalls to work.

Went with a 13-19t 6spd cluster, 'cause Racer Boy bikes should have corncob-y gears.

Ideally would have an earlier set of SR crankarms, and maybe a less chewed-up SR rder. But it's close enough.

Photos are from my phone, and no photoshop. Will hopefully get some higher-res shots soon.

Gaff

Beautiful bike. Great color.

SurferRosa

Bought some beautiful dark ano MA40 wheels for the Bertoni, but the rear hub races didn't look as good as the originals laced to the ModE rims. They might have been fine, just looked really discolored. Sounds crazy, but I decided to switch the hubs and rebuild both wheels. There's some rust around the MA40 spoke eyelets that was under the rim tape. Not sure how to address that easily.


...

SurferRosa

Tried to use tape on the outside of the hole and drop a dab of naval jelly inside it. Tape didn't hold well. Decided to go with golf tees instead.

SurferRosa

So, it looked a lot like this ...



I could do two or three at a time. Worked really well.

SurferRosa

I found all the spokes are too short as I was rebuilding the MA40 wheel with the other Record hub. It was very difficult, but the wheel is built. But 3-4mm of threads are showing on each spoke. Before I began disassembling the wheel, I didn't notice this. So were they already too short or did these two Record hubs have different dimensions?

I could resolve this a couple different ways. Buying longer spokes seemed the right thing to do. But I decided the easiest solution is to buy the longest (16mm) brass nipples available. Online, they were about $10 for 50 (shipped).

ryansu

I spent about 2 months looking for a old MTB for my Nephew who came to his bike nerd Uncle and said can you help me find a bike to run errands and exercise ? and I suggested a late 80s or early 90s MTB. After swinging and missing on some sub $100 bikes I found a 91 Trek 820 in my Neighbor hood and after rebuilding the rear hub, adding a new cassette and chain and adding new city tires and a bit of gear tweaking I handed it off to him and told him to ride ride ride, then in the dark wet short days of winter he can bring it back and I will do a full tear down. Hopefully it fits and he will enjoy it.


As found

disassembled cassette hub

refreshed with new bits for some summer riding

JaccoW

No actual wrenching just yet mostly ordered some parts for later this week.
Struts for the Carradice support and perhaps I will be ordering some new clutch springs for the 5-speed SA hub on my SilverAce. It works perfectly fine except for the 4th gear sometimes skipping on a 3>4 upshift but not on a 5>4 downshift. Might be an alignment issue but I was thinking on increasing the power on the clutch by combining two clutch springs soldered together. We'll see how that works.

I also have my eye on a 1996 Koga-Miyata RoadTourer. Basically the cantilever version of my SilverAce but it's lack of drum brakes should make it almost 1 kg (2 lbs) lighter at stock.
Not sure if I need it, but it would make for a very fun scorcher build when stripped down.

If only the seller would respond.

pcb 

Thanks! I did a shakedown ride yesterday, intending to do about 20-25mi but "having fun" and doing 35mi instead. I learned three things:

1. I don't have the legs/mileage right now for racer-boy gears. Either Rule #5 /HTFU, or go to 23/24t in the rear for some relief.
2. Hard-as-rock Brooks Pro saddles are a very different experience on 26.5mm/80psi tires than on 32mm/65psi tires. Rule #5 , or a modern saddle.
3. I am definitely no longer in my 20s. Either Rule #5 , or make a few gearing/cockpit accommodations, or don't go very far or climb very much on this one.

It was fun, though, until it was a little less so................................

bikemig 

The supply of cheap vintage MTBs is disappearing with the Covid induced boom in cycling. I hope this boom lasts but in the meantime cheap bikes are hard to come by. I picked up 2 Rockhoppers (a late 80s with a u brake and an early 90s) for $50 each over the past few years. I have a hard time resisting a cheap, quality vintage MTB. The late 80s Rockhopper got shipped off to my nephew in New Jersey. I'm almost done now with my early 90s Rockhopper which I'll be shipping off soon to a friend in Dallas. It has 26 x 1.75 tires with tire liners. I overhauled the bike and replaced the consumables. I'll ride it over the next few days before shipping it out sometime next week. The bike is not quite done as the cables need to be shortened a bit and I need to put on some cable caps. I dunno why but its always the last thing I do on a bike. The front canti needs a bit of tweaking as well. The bike, I think, looks good and rides great.

SJX426 

bikemig Cable ends are the last item for me too. I am not sure if the cables will need adjusting after a shake down ride. When I do "finish," super glue on the cable ends with a cap. Avoids the crushed look on the caps.

noglider 

I finally got my 1971 Raleigh Super Course gravel build running. I need to attach lights, fenders, rack, and water bottle. I need to align the rear triangle.

I took it for its first ride yesterday, and what a ride it was! I climbed 900 feet in 4 miles and turned around at the summit and screamed down the hill. The new handlebars are wider than I'm used to, and the reach is longer than ever and longer than any other bike of mine. I'm not sure if I'll keep things that way. The long reach does get rid of the floppy steering feel that the bike otherwise has. Pointing the bike through curves at high speed is trickier than on my racing bike but it's good enough. It has Vittoria Voyager Hyper tires which are very fast. But they're also slick, and they were not good for the little riding I did in the dirt. I think I'll live with them until they wear out, and then I'll get some Gravel Kings.

The 2x8 drivetrain is outstanding. 50x34 in front and 11x32 in back. I used the full range on the ride, and I could have used a lower bottom gear, but this is good.

There was one big oddity. The chain skipped and self-shifted a lot at first. As I added a bit of time in each gear, the problem went away. I've never heard of this happening. Does anyone have an explanation for that?

The last time I had these Weinmann 750 brakes on this bike, they were not good enough. I'm not sure why they're OK now, but that's fine. The front brake pads are Kool Stop and the rears are Tektro. The attaching nut on one of the Tektros cracked in half! I replaced both nuts. I think I need to get some inline adjusters because there is no quick release. I have to deflate my tires or remove brake pads to remove the wheels.

As has been said about the 1970s Raleigh Super Course, it punches above its weight. It is heavy when you lift it, but it responds really well to pedaling, both on flat ground and going up hills.

As for the ride and handling, it feels lankier than my 1974 Raleigh International. There are bigger clearances for the wheels, i.e. the fork is longer, and so are the seat stays. It makes for a great all purpose bike, and I would like to compare the geometry to the current production all-road bikes.

Link to my ride on RideWithGPS.

Gaff

My trash find is done. Except for possibly a new saddle.

Disassembled, cleaned and polished.

What’s new:

Tires & tubes
Chain
Rear derailleur
Cables
Stem
Bar tape

Wow! It’s a nice riding bike.

billnuke1 

This...ready for my first ride! Solo!
Love this stand!

Roland. Roland...


Rollin’. Rollin‘...

botty kayer

Just finished building up my 753 Merckx,I posted a few more pics in the 'Lets see you Eddy Merckx' thread.

ryansu

A little transplant to get the shifting on the Allez smoothed out. It went from inconsistent (iffy) with the GPX accushift drive train paired with a new SunRace 7 speed FW to smooth after I swapped the RD and right shifter for 7 speed era Shimano 105. Not a bad fix for under $50

noglider 

I started taking apart the Super Course I just finished. The gears are working poorly, and I'm sure it's an alignment problem. I know the rear triangle is off to one side. I'll bring that back into alignment, and I'll make sure the dropouts are straight and the derailleur hanger is, too. I went to take the chain off and could not find the master link. I went around for 30 minutes and didn't find it. I must have been drunk when I put it on, because I swear I haven't riveted a chain shut in a while. Oh well. I popped one rivet and have a master link ready when I put things together.