USAZorro

lighting

cyclotoine

Loving the two-tone on this. Great project Zorro!

USAZorro

There's been background progress, but now things are coming down to the wire. I have complicated thngs myself by losing parts, temporarily misplacing parts, forgetting I needed a couple things, and pondering what needed to be done. The bike is ridable now, though I have to make several of the usual adjustments - seat post height, cable tensionings, etc. What remains are installing fenders, racks and lights. Trying to get as much of that out of the way as possible before Friday, when I'm packing the show up for a ride in Paducah on Saturday.

Note that I'm not 100% pleased with my paint job. It is passable, but...



Am going with the stem as shown, Partly due to changing wheel size, and partly as a concession to age. I have another stem with a removable face plate that's a more traditional quill that could be swapped out in a couple minutes if I ever feel inclined to.

USAZorro

and into the home stretch. Was hoping I'd be 100% about now, but I need to think through how to attach my lights. They don't conveniently bolt on, and I don't want to rush headlong to a disaster on the maiden voyage.

Here's the bike (in suboptimal lighting) with fenders and racks on. I had to perform minor surgery to get the rear fender on. It was a challenge getting 650b fenders on, and still make it possible to remove the rear wheel.




A bit closer view of the front. I was able to score custom model name decals. Since the other reference to Gugificazione is very subtle (to the point of being necessary to point it out), I decided to have a little fun - despite there actually being a "Competizione" model offered by at least two marques.



This also lays bare some of the flaws in my paint job.

Another shot showing a bit more of the "cockpit" details. There's quite an eclectic assortment of parts here. Sunlite stem, Nitto Randonneur bars, Modolo levers, Tange headset, Tektro cantilevers, Dura Ace 9 speed bar cons, Velo Orange rack and bell, Grand Bois Hetres and Papillon rims, Shimano Alfine front hub, cable hanger from a helpful C&Ver, Tiagra derailleurs, a pre-softened Brooks Professional, Sakae seat post, Truvative crankset, Shimano A520 pedals, and a rear rack that I thought was cool and ordered from Merv's Bike Shop of Shippensburg, PA about 6 years back.



a larger than life shot of the super-cool 531 fork "decals" that rhm and gugie hooked me up with...



The main business in the rear...



Mark Ball at Velocity Bike and Bean in Florence, KY (my LBS) persuaded me that I really should use the quick link. I will give it a try on this build.

and... I couldn't have a bicycle this nice re-made without retaining something to speak to it's original heritage.




The journey is not quite through yet. I have a fitting shake down on tap this Saturday. speedevil, RobbieTunes, pilotfishBob and I are riding a route of the Misaligned Minds annual classic. Hope to have a good report afterwards, and then as I get lighting set up, will be back yet again.

Sincerest thanks to gugie, who has been an excellent guide on this project from the start, and who has also been very remarkably patient with some of my post modification near freak-outs.

gugie 

Looks like you struggled, then found a solution to get that front rack attached to the canti studs.

Well done!

USAZorro

Cant take full credit for that. I had to steal the rack off the Giant Iguana, and Mark Ball set that up. The Iguana really won't miss it.

mountaindave 

noglider 

Amazing.

ryansu

Looking good sir, and who here has never lost a part! I lost the rear brake adjustment ferrule for an early 70s Raleigh Grand Prix which is a very unique size and fortunately found it again

USAZorro

Well, I got in a bit over 40 miles on it this past Saturday. A couple things that I hadn't done exactly right revealed themselves to me. The bicycle is very comfortable, and when my body reacclimates to cycling distances, this is going to be the go-to more often than not. I was concerned that the dyno hub would create noticeable drag, but that was not the case. Still need to work out how to mount lighting, and will be evaluating bag options. Unloaded, I'd estimate the weight at about 26 pounds. Easily a couple pounds less than prior best efforts, and the handling is steady, even with the front bag effectively bungeed to the rack.

That said, an issue with the headset reared its head on the return trip. I think my solution will need to be replacing the front cable stop with something that doesn't take up space on the stack, as the top nut on the headset is not properly engaging the threads on the steerer.

gugie 

Many think this to be a good solution.

PilotFishBob 

Rode with @USAZorro on Saturday. And I must say, his Competition as configured is one seriously sexy bike.

mountaindave 

gugie 

If'n that be the case, there's always the funky monkey:

USAZorro

Is that the technical name? Looks like the part I need.

rhm

The solution to your brake problem is a power lever.



No headset problems, and better braking.

Here's what it looks like installed. This is a rear brake, obviously, but you get the idea....

USAZorro

Google and eBay aren't leading me to this item. Might you have a link you can share?

himespau 

I don't think I've seen one of those before. Who makes them?

rhm

The brake boosters? The originals were by Suntour. I think they were called "power hangers." The ones on my bike appear to be made by Trek. There are a lot of them on eBay, some pretty cheap, but they are hard to find due to confusion about what to call them. Power booster, power hanger, etc.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/BRAKE-POWER...UAAOSwEN9bWSEr

USAZorro

The question I still am trying to figure out is - how to attach them? Would they be held to the fork by the center bolt on my front rack?

rhm

Oh! Right. Sorry, I missed the photos of the rack installed. Well okay, here we go, let's go extreme makeover here. I have the same rack and I had the same problems you did. Here's what I did....

As you know, the rack mounts at the top to the hole in the fork crown. The rack has a stainless steel tube brazed or welded to a m6 x 1.0 bolt (standard brake bolt) that is, well, not quite right.

I cut the bolt off with a coping saw, then split the tube up the bottom, also using the coping saw, then pried the cut edges apart. The first couple photos I took did not come out; here's the first decent photo I got:



I gradually got it flat enough to pound the tube into a flat tab:



I filed the cut end round, drilled a 6 mm hole in the end, bent it over to the appropriate angle (around 90 degrees) and mounted it between the bolt head and the power lever:



In the last photo above, the silver doodah is the Suntour Power Hanger. The black Trek (or Tektro?)-made ones are a slightly different design and I found the black one to work a little better, so I changed to the black ones. In fact I still have the Suntour ones if you're interested....

My only reservation about this setup is that there is very little slack in the cable; not enough to pull the cable off the brake to get the tire out past the brake when removing the tire. I was able to overcome this shortcoming by using a brake lever with a built in quick release, and a separate barrel adjuster (the blue thing in the photo of the rear brake above). But removing the wheel is still more trouble than I'd like.

USAZorro

Giving that thought. Thanks.

fordbailey

I've just started on my journey. I bought 2 Raleigh Competitions of similar years- '73 - '74 I'm guessing.

One is a well worn frame. The paint has been ridden off of it, but it seems to be decent enough shape. Prugnat 62s lugs, no chrome on stays. If there are cracks- I guess they will make themselves known at some point. I'm building one up as a 650b with fenders an front rack. I'm doing the building first to get it all sorted out. Over the winter if it goes well I will braze brake posts, fix bridges and derailleur hanger, paint etc...

The other is in really nice shape, with almost all the original equipment, including both Jubilee derailleurs. Even thought they are both the same size frame, this one seems to have a top tube about a ½" shorter. It's such a nice example, with a nice dealer sticker still on it, that I'm thinking of selling it.
with 42mm Paselas for the time being


with 27" wheels- have original tubulars

USAZorro

Might be the camera angle, but the Competition on top looks to have a slightly steeper head tube angle. I think you'll be quite pleased with how it handles and rides with 650B wheels.

gugie 

Yep. Pricey. You can find similar stuff for less money.

I do an integrated cable stop on my decaleurs. I decided to call it the Oogly Googly.