Early 1970's Torpado Alpha Part II Disassembly

Standard FW on the left Racing on the right

The next step after acquiring the bike and giving it the once over is to take it down to the frame so it can be cleaned up and rebuilt.  I usually like to reuse as many of the original parts as I can, excepting the consumables like; rubber, bar tape, cables and chains etc., but in the case of this bike I am not sure about keeping the stock free-wheel.  As you can see from the picture above it has a minuscule range that while great for racing isn't a great fit for hilly Seattle.

One lesson I have learned is the importance of documenting how things are put together - before I take them apart.  With that in mind I tried to take a lot of pictures while taking the bike down to the frame.

rear brake attachment

Headset spacer order

Front brake attachment

Another thing about taking the bike down to the frame is you find things you can't detect from visually inspecting the bike while its complete.  Is the seat post stuck? is the stem stuck?  thank goodness neither of my biggest fears were realized.  I did find a few unexpected issues though:

a bent seat-post bolt

a bent cotter pin

In addition to the seat-post bolt being bent the cable guide is also pretty rusted so I am going to replace them both.  The bent cotter pin gave me a little fright as I was worried I wasn't going to be able to get it out and then I would have to deal with potentially replacing crank and BB.  Fortunately I was able to straighten out the cotter pin enough to drive it the rest of the way out with the cotter press and that was a big relief.  I have two new cotter pins ready to go and will be able to use the stock crank and BB.

Finally it was down to removing the headset and fork to complete the take down.  One thing I try to do with headset parts is keep them in order and then zip tie them once I have them removed.  They can even be cleaned in the sonic cleaner like that so that I can put things back in the right order.  That is especially helpful when it might be a weeks between disassembly and putting things back together.

Headset removed except for cups

Fork out with lower bearings

Keeping headset pieces together and in order 

So now the bike is down to the frame and ready for the next step - getting all those parts cleaned, polished, lubed and back together.

down to the frame

Speaking of polish I was pleased with how a quick Dremel with brass wire brush worked on the chromed head-tube lugs.

a little Dremel work in the middle of the lug

Now I just need to get motivated and start getting parts cleaned, framed cleaned and waxed, and all four main bearings rebuilt and we can get this Italian beauty back together.  Until next time; Ride.Smile.Repeat.

In the work-stand: Early 1970's Torpado Alpha

Now that I am done with the campus bike project for my Niece its time to move onto the next bike in the queue while the weather is still nice.  I wrote about the Torpado here back in January, since my options were to work on a complete bike or build one up from a frame-set, old Motobecane Mirage, I went with the complete bike.

I've noticed that on last few projects that I have jumped right in without much thought to whether I had all the parts I needed, so for this project I decided to give my parts bin and the bike a careful going over.  That helped me realize that I did not need to order brake pads, but that I was out of new chains and 27" tubes.  It was pretty obvious I would need new tires.

"All Original"

One benefit of a careful inspection was I discovered something about my brake levers.

The sharp eyed will notice that the levers are not the same.  One is fairly nice with a built in quick release.

The other is a converted "safety lever" model and is a bit Rube Goldberg to my eye.

Call me anal but it would bug me to finish the bike with this set up, fortunately I have a nice set of drilled Weinmann's that I can use instead of the existing set.

However there is one issue, ain't that always the case!, the drilled levers have no clamps for the handlebars so I am hoping I can cannibalize the mismatched set to make this work.

Giving this bike a careful once over also made me realize I would need to change how I route the brake cables.  Normally I like to run the the right lever to the rear brake but on this bike there is internal routing for the rear brake cable on the left side of the top tube so using my normal routing would mean some messy cable routing, so for this rebuild I am going to run the left lever to the rear brake (which I believe is how motorcyclist run their brakes) to keep things tidy.

So now that I have things scoped out and all the parts assembled (I hope) the next step is to take this Italian beauty down to the frame and start the rebuild, and find out what I have missed ;-) 

Until next time; Ride.Smile.Repeat.

1960s (?) Torpado Alpha

Yesterday (Saturday) I spent the morning breaking down donated bikes for Bicycles for Humanity Seattle or B4HS for short.  Now I have this issue in that sometimes I just can't get out of my own way, especially in relation to vintage 10 speeds, as much I as dislike quoting washed-up pop stars in this case the shoe fits.. "Oops, I did it again (I picked up a bike...where will I begin? oh baby, baby)".  I brought home another project bike to add to the ever lengthening queue. A 1960 something made in Italy Torpado Alpha.

I am guessing 1960s based on the following; wing nut style hub nuts, cottered crankset, and a stamped steel pump bracket.  Torpado made some high-end race bikes with fully Campy components, this does not appear to be one of those.

When I think of Italian components the first name that springs to mind is of course Campagnolo, however there are/where other Italian makers and this particular bike seems to be a whose who of those companies:

Brakes from Balilla

Shifters from Gian Robert

ttt Stem

Like most bikes of the 10 speed era its got its issues and its quirks; the main decal is pretty chewed up, there is surface rust on a lot of the chrome and we will have to see how the paint comes through after a thorough clean and wax, the Italians didn't have the best reputation for paint.  On the other side of the coin; its a cool green color, it has internal cable routing (which I have never worked on before) chrome head tube lugs, chrome fork ends and the aforementioned raft of Italian parts.

the ol' disappearing cable trick

Should be fun but I need to finish the Peugeot AO-8 project currently hanging in the bike stand, the last little lost 10 speed I brought home from B4HS, before I even think about taking apart the Torpado.

seat tube decal 

Down-tube decal- really its Torpado, Not Tornado or Torpedo

A very small freewheel group must have belonged to a racer.

Until next time I hope to take my own advice and ..

Ride.Smile.Repeat.