corn on the cog 

Well thank you then!

Cheseldine

Well shoot, I was going to look at that blue Trek 400 this weekend, but it sold just today. I guess the hunt continues!

jimmuller 

When you find a good bike that you really like and it isn't too expensive, it pays to jump quickly! (There will be others.)

Cheseldine

Ya, I would have taken a look at it sooner, but it was in the next state and about a 3 hour 1 way drive so it had to wait till the weekend. Still a bit disappointing though.

Cycle Tourist

A decent frame will probably have decent components. It's surprising that even an old steel derailleur that is rusted and held together with rivets will usually work just fine. Get a nice lugged frame that sits on alloy rims and you can pretty much make anything you want out of it. My favorite touring bike was a Univega Grand Touring. I added bar end shifters and a decent triple crank with a granny (low) smallest ring and it was far better than the expensive touring bike I traded "up" to get later. It was an entry level touring bike and was stiff enough to handle all my gear and me comfortably. Univega, Nishiki, Trek, Cannondale, are all bikes you can't go wrong with. I like Raleigh but often they have an odd British thread that makes them incompatible with easily attainable upgrades. Yes you must act quickly to secure a good deal but some nice older bikes will hang around and be available for you. Get one that fits!! Do not compromise in that area. Happy riding.

slowrevs

Race bikes are not $300. OEM 80's Suntour shifters, derailleurs, and freewheels were probably better than Shimano components of the same era, not tempermental at all. Once properly adjusted, solid as a rock. The company went upside down and the brand name was acquired by a Taiwanese company, IIRC. Pity. Their stuff had a lot to recommend it. Can't get replacement parts for much of the above, so replace components with appropriate Shimano pieces. You don't need $600 shifters or brake handles on an 80's road bike.

Cheseldine

Well folks, here is the newest update: Over the holiday my uncle let me know that he had an old bike in the shed I could have for free if I wanted it. The bike is a Silver Motobecane Super Mirrage with chrome fork ends and what appear to be hand painted gold lines where the tubing meets.It does not appear to be very high end, but should be a fantastic first bike project. It has the following:

Silver Frame with chrome tipped forks and gold paint around joints
Tubing sticker says 1020 forge? and stays (sticker is a bit roughed up) - I am assuming this is a lower end tubing
Shifters on the stem
Someone replaced the stem and seat post in the past with very tall ones - I'd need lower
Weinmann 610 Vainoueur 999 brakes
27" alloy unmarked wheels
Old tires need to be replaced
Rear derailleur marked Suntour V-GT Luxe
Bars look like they were wrapped in old black electrical tape
Cables seem pretty stiff and worn out

Any idea how hard parts will be to track down for this bike? Are many other parts compatible if some need swapping?

It has quite a few little chips in the paint that are dark with surface rust - do any of you know a good way to clean these up?

Thanks!

dddd

You could just fill in the chips with paint on a toothpick (without overlapping the chip's edges). Unless you live in a very wet environment the rust shouldn't reappear any time soon.
Keeping the paint "repairs" to as small of a footprint as possible will ultimately give the best chance of the defects appearing invisible.
"Scabbing" a paint patch out beyond the edges of the chip only makes the defect bigger and more noticeable!

curbtender

Motobecane Super Mirage
My go to rust remover now.
https://www.evapo-rust.com/how-to-videos/
Little heavy, but great riding bike.

jimmuller 

Nice bike. The Super Mirage wasn't high-end but it wasn't low-end either, a solid mid-range bike worthy of being ridden everywhere. The 1020 steel is decent too, certainly not "gaspipe". The thing about frame steel is this - the "better" steels are have higher tensile strength but all steels have the same elastic properties. So to make a lesser-steel strong enough the tubing is a bit thicker. That makes it a bit heavier and a bit stiffer. Depending on your weight, stiffness may be good, and the greater weight is insignificant for most riding. The chrome helps it resist rust and looks pretty. The lug lining is cosmetic but makes it look pretty. Anyway, Motobecane was making very good bikes back then. So that is a great frame to start with. Parts are available though you may need French sizes and threads. The VGT-Luxe read derailleur is a keeper, smooth, accurate shifting, and bombproof. Were it my bike, I'd ditch the stem-mounted shifters for downtube shifters.

With new Koolstop brake pads and new cables and housings with Teflon lining (if it doesn't have them already) those brakes will stop just fine. Alloy wheels are good but you will want to check how true they are and how even the spoke tension is. 27" tires are not as prevalent as 700c but several good brands are still made. You can replace the wheels if you wish but do save the hubs and maybe the rims too, if only so that one of us can use them! If I remember right, it would have come with brake "safety levers" (a.k.a. turkey levers). Some of us would remove them. They work okay but take up some of the lever travel and require that your brakes be adjusted close to the rims and the rims be true. Be aware that cable housing these days is different for brakes vs. shifters. Your LBS (local bike shop) may try to sell you derailleur housing, but the greater stiffness isn't necessary for friction shifters. In fact it can be a liability. You can wrap the bars yourself. The stem and handlebar stem may go down further if they are at their highest positions.

That s a great bike project. (We need pics!)

mountaindave 

Cheseldine

Thanks for the help with the pics Dave! I believe it is a 1976 (the First Super Mirage year) as in '77 they added 2 stripes to the seat tube.

It is covered in a layer of thick dust that I'll need to clean off before I can really ascertain condition. Does the front derailleur look original?

I'd like to get rid of some of the extras on this bike, like the reflectors, plastic cassette disc, and the additional brake levers.Do people typically remove the outer, protective chain ring guard?

mkeller234

jimmuller 

I'd be surprised if you'd want to fit a 38 or even a 42mm tire in there! Which is to say, not all of us are enamored with wider tires. What is on there now? 1-1/8" maybe? That's equivalent to a 28mm. Or 1-1/4", equivalent to 32mm?

As @mkeller234 said, some of us would remove the chainguard, but some don't. That crank looks good with it, and it does serve a purpose or two. We usually remove reflectors and such, but you do need to be visible if you ride at night. I don't know the laws where you live but here, and I suspect it is typical, state law requires bicycles to have pedal reflectors or the rider wearing reflective ankle bands from half-hour after sunset to half-hour before sunrise. I'm pretty sure it also requires front and rear reflectors, if not light. (I commute by bike, 35 mile round trip, until the snow falls, so I ride a lot at night. I am always amazed and frightened by the number of cyclists I see on the Minuteman Bikeway at night with no lights at all, or a red light in front which looks like a taillight. And pedestrians who never learned to wear light colored clothing. But I digress.)

That "plastic cassette disc" is properly called a spoke protector, and often called a dork disc (or dork disk). Your bike has a freewheel, not a cassette. It unscrews from the hub, then the spoke protector can be removed. You do need the proper tool to remove the freewheel. The dork disc doesn't protect the spokes so much as prevent the rear derailleur from accidentally getting caught in them if it isn't adjusted right. Trust me, that's something you really really don't want to experience unless you like bouncing on the ground, which most of us don't.

You have yourself a really nice C&V bike, one I could certainly happy with if it was the only bike I had. Keep up posted with your progress.

mountaindave 

Cheseldine

Well, I've started to dig into it a bit. Last night I pulled apart the rear brake to clean out decades of built up grime. While it was apart I hit the components with a bit of Mother Mag Polish on a rag and was quite pleased to see them take on an almost mirror-like sine - a large improvement over the dark gray-ish silver they were.

The seat post also came out very easily and the clamp appears to be in excellent shape - it is perfectly round and does not ever appear to have been over tightened. The seat post had a little piece of what appears to be foil paper wrapped around it - I assume this was either to act as a shim or to prevent it from being seized.

Ironfish653

Cheseldine

Rear Brake
I got the rear break pulled all apart and cleaned up.