It was a beautiful Sunday so I had to ride to the market, with the influx of new bikes I felt I owed to the Handsome Devil to get the nod for bike of choice.
The HD is sporting its "new" flat pedals that came off the Trek 420, I was thinking the HD would eventually get MKS sneakers as I was never using the SPD side of the Shimano M324s, and I was tired of always flipping them with my toe to the flat side, but these SR SP 154 alloys are paid for so they will get a trial run.
For about the last year I have been meaning to try the breakfast sandwich stall at the market and when I finally did I was not disappointed, a nice pairing with the Dragon Bloom IPA, from Grimm Brothers brewhouse.
On the way back to the bike I picked up some smoked wild salmon and a loaf of sour dough bread as I walked through the market. Next week I hope to find Fresh strawberries.
1987 Nishiki Cresta GT
I think I have mentioned that my long awaited Hozan head set pilers had arrived from Japan. A very nice tool that I am sure I will get use out of but it wasn't the solution for my head set spacer issue.
Since this was my 3rd strike I gave in and went to my LBS, I needed bar tape for the Trek 420 anyway.
I was glad I did as they were successful in loosening the #$%^#@ threaded spacer. Ironically they used a method I tried and failed at, tightening the race that sits below the spacer, that relieved the pressure on the spacer and that did the trick. At this point I am just happy its loose.
Once I was back home it went back in the work stand, and I got to work on finishing the tear down.
The spacer came the rest of the way off as did the adjustable race and out came the fork.
Then I knocked out the top and bottom cups to get down to a bare frame.
It took longer than expected but I am finally down to just the frame on the Cresta GT so the rebuild can begin, once I am done with the Moto_GT that is.
After this experience I don't want to deal with threaded spacers again so a Velo Orange Grand Cru 1" headset is on order along with some spacers.
Using a great resource put together by a Bike Forums member I have determined that this bike was made for the US market (W), and was built in 1986 (F), still trying to work out if there is significance to the 5 digit number.
1978 Motobecane Grand Touring.
I was thinking I would start the final coat of wax on the Moto_GT today but I had noticed that there was some rust in the engraved serial number so I dealt with that instead.
I taped off around the serial numbers.
And brought out the rubber gloves and Naval jelly. I did two stints for about an hour total.
I wasn't totally satisfied with the result so I used the dremel with a brass wire brush to finish the job.
Not perfect but much better, it will need a bit of rubbing compound before the carnauba wax, I also need to finish cleaning out the BB shell and the inside of the fixed cup.
I thought the Moto_GT deserved more than odds and ends from the cable & housing box so I ordered some Ice Grey brake cables and housing, some shift cables and both the Moto_GT and the Crest_GT are going to share the red shift housing, since they are both down tube shifter bikes they don't need a lot of shift housing. The brake pads and rubber is already new and the original leatherette bar cover is going to stay and I have new brake hoods in the parts bin, so its really down to cleaning components and dealing with bearings.
Ride. Smile. Repeat.
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