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My Passion: Rebuilding Vintage Road Bikes

22K views 68 replies 18 participants last post by  GKSki 
#1 · (Edited)
My Vintage Rebuilds

Here are some photos of some of my '70s and '80s rebuilds over the last few years. These first three are my keepers:

'76 motobécane grand record


'84 davidson challenge


with a carradice zipped roll. it allows me to grab lunch, a few groceries, or spare bike parts pretty easily.


'73 falcon san remo
 
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#4 ·
Those are beautiful. Very nice work. Just curious, what approximate size are they? :p
thanks. I ride 56-57. the grand record is a sport-touring bike that has a little longer top tube. even with a shorter cinelli stem, it's a bit too long for me.

the bars on my three keepers are all cinelli 64-38 bars, my faves.
 
#13 ·
thanks.

I'm a Frank Black fan too...
yeah, my id is kind of a play on frank black and françois truffaut. the avatar is from the film, 'the 400 blows,' when antoine feels pure joy in the centrifuge. i've seen frank black, the breeders, and the pixies a few times.

Good grief. What a collection!!
ha, yeah, well, i really wish i could've kept more of them. my first post shows my three keepers. i really like to wrench, rebuild, and pass on another bike to a new rider. i get a big kick out of turning people on to mid-level vintage bikes.

had a Motobecane (bought new by me (in '74) - Mostly Campagnolo with a Stronglight crank.
that's the one thing mine is missing, and aficionados will notice the crank right away. it was my second build after the falcon. once i built and rode the falcon, i had to rebuild the moto in the same mold. so they're basically the same bike. the differences are the falcon is a little lighter in the rear stays and has a shorter top tube. the moto makes the perfect grocery getter.

I'll bet that Falcon was built be Ernie Clements himself.
such a cool badge, eh.

 
#8 · (Edited)
'79 sekai 4000


'81 mondia super, made of 531sl, the lightest steel tubing i think i've owned


'87 schwinn letour


'80 windsor touring elite, made of columbus sl/sp


there are several more, but these were my favorite bikes and pics.
 
#9 ·
there are several more, but these were my favorite bikes and pics.
Way to rub it in dude, way to rub it in. Seriously though very nice. I'm a Frank Black fan too...not sure if that is who your username nods to or not, not that it is relevant here but none the less am a fan of his and your bike collection too apparently.
 
#14 ·
You've got some nice bikes there, but a coupla them are deserving of nicer brake lever hoods. I've found Campagnolo repo hoods at cycles de Oro for a good price, and while they aren't shown on the link they might be worth a call. Hillary Stone has them in gum, black and white, for what seems to be a fair price.

Hilary Stone Spare Parts Brakes

cycles de ORO's current in stock vintage stuff

Brown Product Yellow White Tan
 
#15 ·
^ i agree.

a shop in town sells those nicer repro hoods for about $24. that's about $10 more than the dia-compe 204s i've been buying for nicer bikes.

on flips, i had been buying the ubiquitous cane creeks, but i really hate them. they're ugly and don't fit right on anything.

my three keepers now sport 204s. but the next time i retape the bars, i'll probably take your advice and upgrade to the more gum looking repros.
 
#17 ·
i had been buying the ubiquitous cane creeks, but i really hate them. they're ugly and don't fit right on anything.
I humbly disagree. I like the Cane Creeks because I have big hands. Those original non-aero brake levers feel like I'm holding a ruler when I ride and for that reason I have them on all my restorations that use aero cable routing (even on my Colnago Export with Campy C-Record).

+1 on the Sum M13ii rims. I tried to buy a purple pair directly from Sun when the internet was new (AOL and 56k modem) to match my purple splatter PDG Paramount.
 
#21 ·
Good thread revival. Nice bikes! I really enjoy giving new life to old classics as well. I currently have a Ciocc Columbus EL that I got with a lot of scrapes and a little rust. It came with pretty beat up Shimano 600 but I'm going to put a Chorus 8 speed group on it.

This is my Merckx Century that had really eaten up chrome (the pics don't do justice to how bad it was) and dinged up paint. I painted the fork and NDS chainstay, a lot of touch up paint and now one of my favorite bikes.
 

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#24 ·
This is my Merckx Century... I painted the fork and NDS chainstay, a lot of touch up paint and now one of my favorite bikes.
sweet.

i've had great success lately touching up three black frames. i use humbrol enamel in a little tin. from just a couple feet away, the paint looks great now. here's a recent one, an '80 shogun 600.



i put the honey fizik tape on four recent builds. feels better to me than leather, and it's only $20.
 
#26 ·
I see that our tastes are similar, with a few exceptions: I prefer aero levers (can't stand the sight of cables all over the place..), and bar-cons (being 6'3", downtube levers are a longer reach). All in all, my ideal 'look' is about 1986-ish, whereas yours looks more 1972-ish. I'm 55, and I assume you are probably 65+?
 
#27 ·
^ yeah, i prefer non-aero levers on bikes that originally came with them, usually through '84 or so. i prefer the look and feel of non-aero. for me, there is no better lever than campy record non-aero. when they have their original glowing anodization, they're so posh. and they feel great. i like that they require more hand force.

i wasn't always like this. when i first started rebuilding bikes, i would replace the non-aero with modern aero for the fatter hoods and to hide the cable. as i learned more about these bikes, my tastes changed.

it's much easier to adjust quill stem height with non-aero levers. this is very useful when selling a bike. i like my stems at a certain height, but i realize buyers, especially newbies, may like them higher. i usually build a flip with a bit of extra cable so the buyer can raise the stem without worry.

i prefer paint schemes of '60s and '70s. for me, the late '80s paint schemes signaled the end to classic styling.

i grew up in the '70s, but never really had a road bike. i rode bmx as a kid.
 
#29 ·
I jst finished my first resto build attempt. I had to get help with a few things but I did as much as I could and learned a lot. The most important lesson I learned is to just buy the bike already done it will be cheaper lol.
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for a new build with campy gs levers, i picked up some rustines at modernbike.com -- only $23 with free shipping.
Your bike deserves brake hoods that fit, check out the Rustines linked here or Velo Orange also carries them. The gum are pretty close to the originals.
 
#33 · (Edited)
If a person can find the proper arm twisting technique, Bill has been known to refurbish a bike previously designated as the rain bike.
If you have the opportunity to ride with him, watch out for the 3 beer lunch, halfway thru a long ride! The skinny devil has a hollow leg.
 

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#34 ·
Blackfrancois, perhaps you've addressed it, or it's something I just don't know, but why are all the quick-release levers on your bikes front tires (save for that black Trek 414) on the drive side?
 
#38 ·
yeah, i've caught flack for that before. B^)

i don't have any old school experience in racing or wrenching. so there are no real rules about that to keep me from showing the front skewer lever on the drive side. i simply love to see it, especially if it's a pretty campy one. just hope it doesn't make me look too scatterbrained.

if there's a rule i follow about that, it's that the better lever goes on the front, and the better skewer nut goes on the rear. basically, all the nice stuff goes on the drive-side (like the best dust caps). if i wreck, my hope is i damage something on the nds, not the ds... and it's all good. B^)
 
#35 ·
Wow, I've seen a LOT of guys here need a cable cutter for Xmas! Geezus, I'd NEVER ride a bike with brake cables scratching at my chin!!!

BTW, Blackfancis, I also notice that you do a lot of 'low-to-midrange' bikes. I really don't see the point in doing a full resto on anything less than a full double-butted frame, no matter how 'nice' it looks. I also like doing a bit of a 'resto-mod', like on my 1978 Trek 710, which will soon be updated to indexing, but in a non-noticeable way. It will still LOOK good for it's period, but it will have more modern shifting.
 
#40 ·
thanks, santacruz.

i overhauled both his bikes above. one is an early '80s mondia 'super' with 531sl. i wish it were my size. it's the lightest steel frame i've owned. and the pinstriping is badass. mondias are really stylish.

the other is an astro daimler, on which i did a lot of touch-up paint work. it turned out great with his choice of brown saddle and cotton tape.

his bike collection is really bîtchin'. and, for an old hippie, he's a really strong rider.
 
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