Nishiki Cresta GT Part I: the tear down

You may recall I ordered a handlebar shim for the Campus bike, well I forgot the golden rule of measure twice, order once.   I ordered a shim to make a 25.4 diameter handlebar fit a 26.0 diameter stem, one problem, my handlebar is 22.2.  I sighed, said a few choice words and ordered the correct shim, sunlite, from Amazon.  It will be here Tuesday, which left me with a bit of time Friday night.

So the Schwinn came out of the stand and the Nishiki went in.  I have been resisting the urge to fill a basket from Amazon or Velo Orange or Rivendell with all sorts of goodies for this bike.  I want to get it overhauled and then ride it to see how I like the fit and ride before I go too nuts on upgrades.

I do have the very nice Swift tire Sand Canyon's in 27 X 1 3/8 waiting for the rebuild, I did splurge a bit on them but I think they may be supple and smooth enough to justify that premium over a pair of much less expensive but stiffer Kenda K40s.  I hope to ride them enough to give a review.

I also have a pair of new in box tubes ready to go for the rebuild.

I had three cantilever brake pads in the parts bin, why 3?  I have no earthly idea!  I ordered a pair from Amazon and I'm sure once they arrive I will find a single canti brake pad kicking around somewhere but new pads will be ready for the rebuild.

I know from experience with the Schwinn Passage that the stock pedals on the Nishiki aren't my cup of tea, so I did spend some $$ and ordered my favorite pedals the MKS RMX "sneakers".  They will arrive next week.  I went from two bikes with these pedals to zero so I will be happy to have them back in the quiver.

I have a nice Jagwire shift cable set in the parts bin, not sure if the red will work, or make the bike too 4th of July but I have other housing bits I could use too so we'll see,

I have not one, but two boxes of Cinelli cork bar tape in the parts bin so one will go on the Nishiki.  I think it will look good with the bike, and with the initial rebuild I want to mostly use what I have on hand and not spend too freely out of the gate.

The Cresta came with the worlds shortest reach stem and stock 40mm handlebars which I find too narrow, so I am going to the parts bin for wider bars and longer reach stem and I'll move the stock brake levers over.  I envision that if I like this bike as much I think I will that it will eventually get a cockpit upgrade but between a set of Nitto Rando handlebars, Technomic stem and some Origin 8 drilled areo brake levers (I like how they feel in my hand) that is $140 I don't need to spend right now.   I also have my eye on a Brooks saddle, of course,  but will go with the stock Vetta for the rebuild.

I took a bunch of photos of the bike before starting the tear down, how the brakes are set up, the shift levers, the rear derailleur, brake adjusters in the brake bridge etc. so I can refer to them later if I need to.

After about 40 minutes work, mostly with Y wrenches, I was down to a frame with just the BB and headset left to deal with later and...

...a  box of parts, it mostly went smooth, the drive side pedal was stubborn but the cheater bar on the end of the pedal wrench convinced it to budge, all in all a good Friday nights work.

The Suntour Accushift downtube shifters have even more innards than most DT shifters, so I used the zip tie trick to keep it all together until I can carefully and deliberately take them apart, one at a time, to clean and lube them.

Today, Saturday, the bottom bracket came out, the fixed cup barely caused a fuss and I was pleased to see grease and not the Sahara inside the cups.

The headset on the other hand is a bit of a stinker.  I encountered threaded spacers like these before on a 74 Nishiki, but they had deep enough indentations that I could use a pin spanner to get them loose, that doesn't work in this instance.  I have a few ideas but I am deliberately taking it slow, first do no harm, is a motto I've heard somewhere.  I always have the bail out of the bike shop and I have a few in my area that work on vintage bikes.

That leaves me with a frame, fork and headset.  I am hoping for another ride to the Beer junction tomorrow, until next time. Ride,Smile, do no harm, Repeat.