Passage refit Part IV upgrades and Frame

Clean up BB

I am working on cleaning up the Passage and as I was working on the bb I discovered that my bb was unique.  Usually the bearings are in cages and are separate from the bb cups, but in the case of the Passage not so much....

cups bearings and cage is all in one

This would be a problem if the bearings were beat up but they look fine so I'm just going with the originals.

I've already gone into the change ring changes so we'll skip them.  When I was riding the Passage at first I didn't like the stock Pedals, and I have wanted to try the MKS sneakers for a while so that upgrade was pretty easy.

Old up top and new below

I also knew the stock bars were too narrow and the stem was too short so that's my next upgrade.

I also wasn't thrilled with the size or action on the brake levers.

Old Levers

New drilled levers with a larger grip area.

drilled

I talked about the new rear derailleur but here is a visual of the longer cage on the Shimano LX.

The Passage came with a Nashbar faux leather riveted saddle.

I moved it over to a project bike and replaced it with a WTB Rocket but I wasn't feeling that saddle  and Velo Orange had a closeout on a leather sprung saddle so I went for it.

Since I am down to the frame it was time to deal with some rust spots.  I like to tape them off because my first step is using Naval Jelly which is good on removing the rust but is nasty toxic stuff, I use gloves, glasses long sleeves and work outside with that stuff.

After a dose of the Naval Jelly and a rinse and dry, I use the dremel.

The small brush works well in the fender and rack eyelets, and some of the ones on the Passage had rust.

Once the dremeling is done I move on to the protection of the bare steel.

Yep nail polish, I read about using it for touch up on the Rivendell site a long time ago and this paint is fairly close to the frame color.

touched up

No I am not going to win best in show but I am going for functional here.  I am hoping to make some more headway this weekend.  Until next time, Ride.Smile.Repeat.