Extreme Makeover: Bike Edition

philippec · 04-11-2005

OK, perhaps you won't see all the gory pictures the header may have led you to believe you would find here ... but here are some post-op pics of my el-cheapo-ish extreme makeover of a NOS Concorde frame into a sweet (at least I think so) travel bike.

First -- a bit of background.

Some of you who have ridden with me (Bill, MarkWS and a few others) know that I often lug my training bike around when travelling. Since I live in France, that means that the bike flies free *most* of the time -- but not always. Also, while I have a nice Decathlon padded and wheeled bike bag, it's sometimes a pain in the keister loading that baby into the trunk of a taxi. Sooooo, when I bought this NOS Concorde frame (see pic below) at our huge regional bike swap/sale back in November for 35 euros (yes 35 !, about USD 35 at the time!), I started thinking "travel bike".

With two trips lined up to the States in Jan-Feb and the dollar tanking against the Euro, I e-mailed Bilenky cycles in Philly (http://www.bilenky.com/) and asked them if they could do a quick turn-around on cutting and coupling my frame with some S&S couplers (http://www.sandsmachine.com). They could and so off to Philly went the frame. By the way, Bilenky did an excellent job -- if you are thinking of cutting and coupling a bike, go with them!

Concorde is a Dutch company that had their bikes manufactured by Ciocc in Italy and re-badged w/ their "seagull-C" logo. They sponsored PDM back when that team was a major powerhouse fielding riders like Erik Breukink -- interestingly enough, I have a picture on my desk that I took of Breukink, Lemond and Bugno at the top of the Alpe d'Huez in 1990. In any case, the model I found was a Columbus-Brain tubed "Giro" model -- not their top-of-the line frame at the time, but pretty high up there. Attached to the rear drop-out was a lead seal (see pics below) w/ the Concorde logo on one side and "N.1" on the other -- I'd like to think this was the first frame of their production run!

philippec · 04-11-2005

As I said, Idon’t have any pictures of the folks at Bilenky doing the dirty job but I was assured that the frame felt no pain. When it came back to me, the top-tube internal routing ports had been brazed over and split caple stops installed and the couplers brazed on on both the top and down tubes. The torch-damaged paint had been removed and the entire bike touched up in soft white (I didn’t care for the original purple highlights) except for the chrome rear seat and chain stays. Here are some pictures of the whole bike.

philippec · 04-11-2005

And below are some close-up pictures of the new business end(s) of the bike - the S&S couplers, the Columbus drop-outs, the head-badge (re-enameled by yours truly!), the Cinelli cockpit and the race number hanger! This baby is going to see some race action!

philippec · 04-11-2005

Finally, I put on some carbon forks to lighten up the bike (USD 50 from www.chucksbikes.com Taiwanese forks manufactured by Look’s supplier Martek) – but not without filing off those lawyer tabs!

philippec · 04-11-2005

And lookee what I bought on e-bay – for slightly less than I paid for the frame!

Concorde? - check,
Cinelli? - check,
Campagnolo? – check
my size? – ka-ching!

I got the backpack case and will be “officially” inaugurating this bike with a trip in two weeks to the Bay of Sorrento and the Amalfi coast in Italy, will post a report then!

A+

Philippe

bigrider · 04-11-2005

I read through this quickly. How much for the mod to the frame?

BTW, it looks great.

philippec · 04-11-2005

[quote=bigrider]I read through this quickly. How much for the mod to the frame?
Here are Bilenky's prices: http://www.bilenky.com/retrpric.html

w/ the current exchange rate, I paid 30% "less" in Euros!

A+

Philippe

ARP · 04-11-2005

[quote=philippec]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigrider

I read through this quickly. How much for the mod to the frame?
Here are Bilenky's prices: http://www.bilenky.com/retrpric.html

w/ the current exchange rate, I paid 30% "less" in Euros!

A+

Philippe

Back around the time I was 14 or so I remember seeing their ads in a Bicycling publication of some sort. Back then older guys I knew that rode had high end bikes; light blue Raleigh, a lime green Paramount, red Concorde. I was truly envious of some of those rides as I could only afford a used Schwinn Continental. I am speaking of around '73 or '4. Very nice and I like the idea of the jointing.

***Coolhand*** · 04-12-2005

Fixed the title for you as this thread seems to have most of the action (per your comment in the other thread). New title is my idea, hope it works for you.

philippec · 04-12-2005

Thanks! --

Philippe

MarkS · 04-12-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by philippec

Finally, I put on some carbon forks to lighten up the bike (USD 50 from www.chucksbikes.com Taiwanese forks manufactured by Look’s supplier Martek) – but not without filing off those lawyer tabs!

Teling us lawyers not to look is like waving a red cape in front of a bull.

The bike looks great. Hopefully we'll see it on this side of the Atlantic again.

I was looking at the number of bikes post the other day and noticed that you have a Bike Friday, too. What are the advantages/disadvantages of a Bike Friday versus what you have done with the Concorde for traveling?

philippec · 04-12-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkS

Teling us lawyers not to look is like waving a red cape in front of a bull.

The bike looks great. Hopefully we'll see it on this side of the Atlantic again.

I was looking at the number of bikes post the other day and noticed that you have a Bike Friday, too. What are the advantages/disadvantages of a Bike Friday versus what you have done with the Concorde for traveling?

I got the Bike Friday back in 1992 with the idea that it would serve as a fast touring bike. It's their New World Tourist model with drop bars, bar end shifters and cantelever brakes. I also got the travel suitcase trailer which allows you to turn the BF Samsonite suitcase into a trailer for the BF. The drill is that you travel to your destination w/ the BF in its suitcase and a bag of gear. At the destination, you unpack and set up the BF and place the contents of the other bag into the suitcase/trailer and off you go. I've done that a few times and this BF set-up is perfect for touring -- however, the 20 inch wheels means that you have to have very large chainrings to replicate the gears on a 700c-wheeled bike. I've played around w/ different sized chainrings but haven't found something that comes reasonably close to my race bikes' gearing.... hence the "need" for a more suitable travel bike for training and racing! I still plan on touring on the BF though...

A+

Philippe

cliffjumper · 05-08-2005

Hey Philippe!

Great looking Concorde. You've inspired me to get one also. Do
you know what year your frame is from? What spacing is your's? It looks like you're running Campy 10 (at least on your cranks).

Thanks,

cliff

philippec · 05-09-2005

My guess is that this is an mid 90's frame. The tubeset is Columbus Brain. As noted above -- I lucked on the frame NOS at a bike sale and had it cut n'coupled by Bilenky in Philly -- I'd go with them again. You can see this bike in action (and getting built up out of the backpack case) in this thread: http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showthread.php?t=30500

... oh, and yes, that is Campy 9-speed (same hub spacing as 10 speed) and the rear drop-out spacing is "modern" -- I think 130mm.

A+

Philippe

cliffjumper · 05-09-2005

Great!! Thanks.

c

Rene Vermeulen · 09-07-2005

Can anybody tell me what seat post diameter is suitable for this frameset. I have problems fixing a 27.0 mm seat post which will not be tighten enough.