1979 Fuji Royale (September 2012)

Make: Fuji
Model: Royale 
Year:  1979 
Obtained: September 2012 
Found: Bike Works 
Paid: $25.00


While visiting my favorite place for project bikes, Bike Works, on a Wednesday  I spotted a Fuji frame-set that gave me pause.  I thought to myself  "stop buying frame-sets! its easier to do complete bikes" and so I passed it by.  I really liked the look of it, however, especially the world championship-like banding on the down tube and I had been hankering to work on a Fuji for a while so on Thursday I was back to buy it.

The excellent site -Classic Fuji- helped me identify my prize as a 1979 model Fuji Royale

My frame-set came with a front derailleur, stem, seat post, brakes, bottom bracket, and a crappy headset.  I bought a new Tange headset and got most of the other parts out of the parts bin.  Unfortunately I did not get a frame-set only picture.  Have I mentioned that I really like head badges?  The Fuji's head badge is a classic.

I ran into issues with the rear derailleur and the crank-set I had out the parts bin so I put a new Shimano TZ-50 RD on the frame (cheap but effective) and lucked into a Fuji panto-graphed crank-set at Recycled Cycles to fix the crank issue.  I even found a (modern) Fuji branded saddle for this build.  The crank cleaned up nicely with the application of some Mother's Aluminum polish, a  great tip from my friend Hugh -Mothers really does the trick.

When I brought this bike home I had a vision of doing some orange accents to tie into the orange band from the world championship looking rainbow stripes and the orange lug lining on the frame.  I think the orange bar tape and toe straps add some color to an otherwise understated silver frame.

All in all I am happy with how it turned out and it was snapped up off Craigslist fairly quickly, so I guess the orange accents worked.

On a side note a new job, hurray for income!,  has kept me away from regular posting on the blog but I am hoping to finish up both the Raleigh curbside find project and the Fiorelli project soon. 

As always. Ride.Smile.Repeat.

Myth Busted "There are very few options for 27 inch tires"

On one of the bike mailing lists I frequent a gentleman was building up a old school mixte for his lady friend and wanted suggestions for 27 inch tires, in response several well meaning folks mentioned that there were "very few options" for 27 inch tires.  On other bike forums I have seen this expressed by members urging people working on old 10 speeds to convert them to 700c wheel-sets "so you have tire options".  Now I do not dispute that 700c tires have a tremendous variety of widths and options BUT as one who has spent way too much time searching online for tire deals I can tell you  the 27 inch tire cupboard is far from bare.

Sizes

You basically have 4 widths to choose from for 27inch tires from a 25c narrow width to 37c fat width -see options below

27  inch size	ISO	rough metric equivalent width
27 x 1	630x25	25c
27 x 1 1/8	630x28	28c
27 x 1 1/4	630x32	32c
27 x 1 3/8	630x37	37c

Brands

There are a bunch of companies making 27 inch tires including;  Avenir, Bell, Cheng Shin, Continential, Kenda, Michelin, Panaracer, Schwable, and Vittoria to name the big ones.  Just do a search on Amazon and you will see for yourself.

Price Range

You can spend $8 a tire for some Cheng Shin gumwalls or $36 a tire for Continental gatorskins and every where in between.

Options

You want a traditional gumwall, my favorite, you have choices in every size.  I personally like the Kenda K35 which is a great looking tire, sturdy and a very good bang for the buck.

You want a lighter tan than the gumwall but not quite a whitewall then go with a skinwall like the Kenda K36

You want to "pimp your ride" with cool white walls - no worries check out the Schwalbe HS159

Like a more modern stealthy all black look - your covered with something like the Vittoria Zaffiiro

You like color matching the side walls or treads to your bike?  your covered- check the selection from Junky Rusty Bikes

You want something knobby for cyclocross of just winter commuting check out the Kenda K161 I put on the Tiger rebuild

Conclusion

So if you want; skinny or fat, colored or black, hip or retro, road or cross, you have choices with 27 inch tires.  Don't get me wrong 700c is a great size with tons of options just don't convert your old school 10 speed to a modern wheel size out of the misguided notion that there aren't many options for the old school 27 inch tires.  That's just a myth..  As Always....

Ride.Smile.Repeat.

Addendum

Based on some comments it appears some folks think that 700c tires and 27" tires are interchangeable, THEY ARE NOT, and if I have said anything here to make you think so I am sorry.  To be very clear 27" tire will NOT work on a 700c rim and a 700c tire will NOT work on a 27" rim. I have tried.  The diameters are too different a 27" tire has a bead seat diameter of 630 and at 700c tire is 622.

If you are in doubt about what  size you currently have look at your rims which usually have a size stamped on them and look at your current tire, in addition to having a size on the sidewall, they should also have the ISO number expressed in (parentheses) as below.

This is a 27 x 1 3/8 tire and the ISO is expressed as width and diameter (BSD) so (37-630) if this were a 700 x 23c tire it would be (23-622).  So step 1 - determine your rim size, step 2 - buy tires that match that rim size, Step 3 - don't let tubes confuse you, since they don't have a bead they can be used in either 700c or 27" and you will see both sizes on the box the tubes come in.

As you can see above the phrase "Get the grip" it shows sizes for 700c and 27", tubes are interchangeable, Tires are NOT.    Again tires must match the rim size. I will close with repeating that 27 inch tires and 700c tires are NOT interchangeable.  Thanks.

1970's (?) Fiorelli Part I

Make: Fiorelli
Model: Unknown
Year:  Unknown
Obtained: September 2012
Found: BikeWorks
Paid: $20.00

 I am taking a break from the curb find Raleigh due to a stubborn #@$% bottom bracket cup and so I thought I would post another bike I am working on in tandem with the Raleigh, a 70's something Italian built Fiorelli.

I found this rough diamond at my favorite haunt- Bike Works and I just couldn't resist it.  It's a bit of a head scratcher; a cottered crank but also Shimano 600 components.

Lots of chrome on the lugs and a crudely welded bottom bracket.

A rather weathered Brooks saddle but wing nut front hub bolts. 

I am not really sure what to think but I am a sucker for Italian bikes and it was only $20 so I figured what the heck!

Based on the condition of the saddle, paint and chrome bits it obviously spent too much of its life outside and I am not really sure how much of it I can bring back to life but its worth a try. At the very least I can create a "shabby chic" Italian commuter for someone, rough on the outside mechanically sound on the inside  Unlike the curb find Raleigh I have been able to take this bike down to the frame and so while I struggle with the Raleigh's BB cup I will begin working to bring this roughed up Italian back to La Vita Dolce.  I am trying to be restrained in this build but I did already decide the headset was too rusty to deal with and have ordered a new Velo Orange Alloy ISO headset.

Time will tell if this project will be folly or fortunate but it should be fun and a learning experience along the way.  Until next time.

Ride. Smile. Repeat.

Curb Find Raleigh Part 2 -crumple zones? (Jan 2013)

Due to the condition of the frame mentioned in part 1 of this series I had thought of building this bike up as a "stealth" bike, ugly on the outside but immaculate mechanically, or what Randy at mytenspeeds calls a "Junk Bike".  I started by taking it down to the frame set and immediately hit my first ever stuck stem! I tried lots of methods to get it unstuck but eventually I had to amputate.

I was able to get everything else off the bike and eventually came up with a nice box of parts ready for cleanup and reassembly.

The rust spots on the down tube and top tube just behind the head tube kept worrying me though and upon taking the bike to the good folks at Bike Works for a second opinion my concern was confirmed "I wouldn't ride it the frames compromised" stated the wrench on duty.  Sigh.  So I left the frame with them so they could get the scrap value out of it and went to the warehouse in search of a donor frame-set for the box of parts I now had.  It had to be a Raleigh of course because I had all these cool Raleigh  branded parts.  Luck was with me and I found an early 70's Raleigh Record frame-set that I think will do the trick.

As always there are few areas of concern.  With any bike of this vintage you can expect some nicks and scrapes, while the Record is miles ahead of where the Gran Prix was, as far as the paint goes, it does have some rust spots I need to address before I can start spiffing it up.

Also this Record frame is old enough that it was equipped with a cottered cranks as you can see from the legacy Bottom Bracket.

When I tried to upgrade to a cotter-less crank on the 74 Raleigh Gran Prix (Green) I found that a newer BB would not work with the proprietary Raleigh threads.  This time, however, I have the BB from the 77 curb find Raleigh Gran Prix (cotter-less) so I am hoping it will work, if not its off to Bike works for a cottered crank to work with the legacy BB.

Next time I hope to post some actual progress on this build.  By the way that is my brand spanking new Park work stand pictured with the Record frameset,  purchased from Hugh's Online bike shop  PLUG.  The stand kind of makes me feel like a big boy bike mechanic.  Until Part 3...

Ride.Smile.Repeat.

Curb Find Raleigh Part 1 (Jan 2012)

I had read on other blogs about people finding bikes in dumpsters, put out for trash day, etc but had never had that kind of luck, until.... I was riding my bike home from downtown when I spotted a Raleigh Gran Prix in front of a pile of garbage and cast offs in the front yard of a rental house.  It appeared that someone had moved out and ditched the bike along with an number of other items and after taking a closer at the Gran Prix I could see why.

I had first thought to "ghost ride" the bike home but after pushing it a few feet I realize it wasn't exactly a smooth roller, so I decided to just walk it as it was only about a mile home.  I also realized that the paint job was a little on the rough side, like someone had put the frame in a cement mixer with a bunch of gravel, let it go for a few minutes and the result was not one square inch of the bike was clear of pits, scrapes or scratches.

Yep it all pretty much looks like this

And the head tube wasn't a whole lot better. I mean how do you manage this kind of damage?

However, there were a lot of cool Raleigh branded Suntour parts that were worth the trouble getting this bike home.

And best of all the famous Suntour power ratchet shifters.

You may notice, as I did that there was a discolored and rusty spot where the down tube intersected the head tube lug and a similar spot where the top tube intersected the head tube lug (look under the rusty broken bell in the picture of the head tube).  Hmmm that might indicate there had been some trauma like front end crash.  Better get this checked out by a real mechanic.  To be continued.....

1970s Tiger (October 2011)

Make: Tiger
Model: ?
Year:  1970 something
Obtained: Sept 2011
Found: Bike Works co-op
Paid: $5.00 (Frame-set plus a few parts)

At the same time I picked up the blue Peugeot UO-8 frame-set at my local bike co-op  I  found yet another lonely frame-set from the island of misfit toys, a yellow, dirty 10 speed with a very cool Tiger head badge.  I had never heard of this brand, neither has the internets, and I ended up getting the same "please take that thing and get it out of here" deal that I got on the Peugeot.

it's grrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!

So armed with two frames and a couple of used 27 inch wheel-sets I went home and inspected my haul.  After looking at the Tiger I had to laugh, it appeared someone had been in a muddy cyclo-cross race with this bike and then parted it out without ever cleaning it up and to top it off it had sections wrapped in packing tape..WTF!?

Why would you put packing tape on a 10 speed frame I ask?  Why! it took a while but eventually I got it all off and after some inventory realized that I had a BB, cable guides, seat post and faux velvet seat and set of no name center pull brakes to work with -in addition to a used wheel-set.

More importantly I had a vision for this bike.  I had recently come across the Kenda K161 cyclo-cross knobby tire on Amazon in a nice fat 27 x 1  3/8 inch gumwall tire (that equates to 37c).  As it was getting onto the wet season I though this would be a great rain bike build with the Kenda  tires and some fenders.  You can can check out this tire over at bikeman4u here .

.
After doing some major cleaning and then waxing of the frame it was time to source some parts to get this baby back in the road.  In my parts bin I had; derailleurs, 6 speed freewheel, a sealed bottom bracket, stem and a better seat as using a faux velvet seat on a rain bike is just not done.  I hit Bikeworks for;  stem shifters, handlebars, brake levers, pedals, and a crank-set.  As always the bike got new; rubber, cable and housing, chain and bar tape.  I had been so pleased with how the red accents looked on the white Peugeot that I took a flier and used red housing and bar tape on the Tiger too. I thought it worked out fine.

From ugly ducking to ..well not exactly a swan but at least a plain looking duckling, and it got snapped up on CL by a UW student so it all worked out.  Now I need to build myself a bike around those fat Knobby tires some day.

Ride.Smile.Repeat.

The Secret life of Friction shifters (Old Ten Speed edition)

In my last post I mentioned my good fortune that the 1974 Peugeot frame-set came with stock friction shifters because Peugeot had a unique way of mounting their down tube shifters.  That got me to thinking about all the different ways friction shifting got approached during the bike boom era for 10 and 12 speed shifting.   They are easy to remember because they all have the shifters location in their name; down-tube, bar-end, and stem. 

Many flavors of Down Tube shifters

In my mind the classic old 10 speed has shifters on the down tube of the frame but this was handled in many different ways.  The most common was to  have the shifters mounted on a band that mounts  to the frame above a brazed on lug, apparently in the early days there were no lugs and riders had issues with the shifters, under tension from the shift cables, coming loose and sliding down the tube causing paint damage and probably a few missed shifts. Some builders like to put the lug on the top facing part of the down tube (Raleigh super course shown) and others went with the underside (Miyata 912 shown).

note triangular "lug" below the shifter band

The route that Peugeot took is a bit different, instead of a lug they use a single shifter boss, on the drive side of the frame, and the (rear) shifter screws directly into the boss.  On the non-drive side  the band that goes around the down tube has the (front) shifter mounted to the band-like Shimano, Suntour, Campy etc.  On the drive side of the band there is a "window" cut in the band so it can go around the boss.  Hopefully these pictures will make it seem less confusing that what I just wrote.

Shifter boss on the drive side only of the down tube

Peugeot specific Simplex shifter with window in band to accommodate shifter boss on frame

Simplex shifters on a Peugeot UO-8

For a while in the mid to late 80s you could get this nifty center mounted down tube shifter "cluster" that bolted to the frame  -kind of like like a water bottle cage.  In the grand scheme of old 10/12 speeds these are kind of rare.

The final evolution is having a shifter boss on either side of the frame.  This is how current steel bikes that even bother to consider down tube shifters do it.  The nice thing about this setup is that if you decide to go with the shifters in a different place -bar ends, STI etc you can use the bosses to mount cable routing guides/adjusters.  Here is a Velo Orange frame with just the boss and then one with the shifters mounted.

Bar end shifters 

Like the name says these are mounted on the bar ends.  This type of shifting is popular on touring bikes where riders want the simplicity and bullet proof qualities of friction but don't want to look down to shift.  I like this set up as you can shift with your pinkie while on the bottom of the drops with a bit of practice.  These are also popular on Time Trail bikes because you can mount them on areo bars -facing straight out from the bike-and shift without changing your aero profile.  Yeah that sounds like a blast....

Not old or 10 speed but using bar end shifters

Stem Shifters

Again the name says it all, they are mounted on the stem.  I like these least of the three as they always give me a queasy feeling in the groinal area, must be a guy thing.  Anyway the bike companies marketed these in the mid 1970s as safer and easier than the classic down-tube shifters, but I think it was really a cost cutting move as they didn't have to weld an extra bit on the down tube anymore.  In general you tend to see these more on an entry level bike than on the higher end "race" bikes.

on the...um.. stem

As if those three weren't enough choices you can borrow from early Mt. bike technology and get some Paul's thumbies (or like products) and mount your down tube shifters on the bars!  As the name implies you use your thumbs (primarily) to do the shifting.

Why, you may ask, why would he ramble on and on about shifters! Well one thing I like about old 10 speeds is you can swap many parts from one bike to another without giving it much thought BUT there are exceptions (see French bikes) and shifters are one.  So this is just a little education for the new to the game.  For example if you get a frame built for a stem shifter set up and decide you like down tube shifters better you may end up with a your shifters slipping down the down-tube if you don't get a lug or bosses brazed on, or you may decide you don't want derlin plastic simplex shifters on your old Peugeot and go with some old Shimano 600's on a band and the realize "Oh dang what the heck where those French thinking with this boss on just one side!!!!!".  Anyway its not rocket science just pays to know what you are facing out there in the wide wide world of old 10 speeds.  As always....

Ride.Smile.Repeat.

Honorable Mention

For trying to teach an old dog new tricks I tip my hat to Retro Shift (http://retroshift.com/) who've come up, in the last year, with a rather unique way to mount friction shifters that combines old with new.

Part STI part retro all funky, chapeau.