Anyone restore bicycles?

Resurrection!

So I'm in the middle of moving, no work is really being done to any of my motorcycles. Soooooo I finally took pictures of some of my bicycles, I've seen pictures of your bicycles floating around, post em up!

This is an SE frame I got, and started to build a bike with only modern parts...I don't like they way the frame handles, it gets a meh.


This is my baby. My beater Raleigh that I got off the side of the road for 25 bucks about 4.5 years ago. Ripped everything apart and put on what I needed. (mix of Raleigh and modern parts)

Nice machines there Woody. I like the sport fenders.
Fixed gear, no brakes = stylistic Darwinism. I'm always amazed by the hipster ladies here in PDX riding a fixie, in cute little "vintage" pumps, no brakes, no toe clips :......Y'all know about the Pistadex? http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2007/11/bsnyc-fixed-gear-apocalypse-watch.html
I'll show some of my machines. I been a bicycle mechanic for more than 15 years....Crikey!!!
NE

Har Har, I hope you're not calling me a hipster lady. I have the brakes on the green bike temporarily. Although I rarely use the brakes anyway. Then again I don't ride like an idiot.

woody1981 said:

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That thing is so nice. Well done.

Thanks LL,

I can't believe this thread popped back up. Cool though.

Since that pic was taken I switched out the black cables for Jagwire gold cables that are a crazy close match for the frame. I also had the whole thing pinstriped buy a friend of mine named Josh Christy that owns VanChase Studio (www.vanchase.com). Nobody around here pulls a finer stripe... he just striped my CL350 too, pics soon.

Here is a pic that shows some of the striping and the cables. You can view more pics of the striping on my flickr if you want to check it out. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ictwoody/sets/72157603564780013/

Thanks,
Woody

LL said:

That thing is so nice. Well done.

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Guess this is a good time to jump in. I put myself through college back in the late 60's/early-mid 70's wrenching for a Schwinn/Raleigh dealer in Erie, PA. Got out of cycling in the late seventies due to getting my motorcycle license and my first cafe racer, got back in four years ago having followed absolutely nothing of what had happened in the intervening 28 years. You should have seen the look on my face the first time I walked into a bike shop. Heavily into the vintage roadbike scene, mid-60's thru mid-80's and have a couple of fairly modern (aka, this decade) stuff, too. I finance the hobby by periodically building fixies for the local college students.

1967 Magneet Sprint - set up for long haul touring:



1971 Gitane Tour de France - I've got a particular love for Gitane's going back to college days:



My favorite ride - a 1986 Rossin RL. I've got this real love for Rossin's:



My fixed gear (which I usually ride singlespeed), a 1986 Centurion Accordo. The mudguards are there as it's my primary ride on the 0600 morning workouts if it's rained the night before:



Finally, one of my two modern rides - a 2000 Trek 2000T, done up in the livery of a Mavic neutral support bike. This gets some odd looks from the local poseurs on their Colnago's and Orbea's:

DrJ said:

I have an interest for Reynolds-framed British road racers from the 70s and 80s. I currently own a Mercian, Raleigh Carlton and a Falcon in Eddy Merckx orange. Also have a Legnano. Bicycles are easy to restore compared to motorcycles.

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And a lot cleaner. Until my co-worker bought that CB450 that we're current caffing (pictures to follow in a couple of weeks) I was starting to wonder if I was ever going to work on a motorcycle again, other than maintenance.

I have to admit, while I'm competent on British twins, can handle like vintage Japanese as long as there's not too many cylinders, I'm not all that comfortable as a motorcycle mechanic. However, I'm a damned excellent bicycle mechanic! Only thing I haven't done is braze my own frames.

Someday . . . . . . . . :

Your Magneet is beautiful. The brooks, the lugs, the bar-end shifters, and especially the hammered fenders are some really nice touches. It's nice to see when someone realizes what parts to modernize on a bike without destroying the character of what it was intended to be.

- Woody

Syke said:

1967 Magneet Sprint - set up for long haul touring:

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Back in 1976, when I was building up that CB350, I'd spend my weekends touring on a Schwinn World Voyageur set up in roughly the same manner.

This one started with a freebie frame given to me by a riding partner of mine who collects vintage bicycles way beyond anything I've got. It was originally a bottom of the line bike (Campagnolo Valentino, cottered crank, steel 27x1/4" rims, probably sold for something like $75.00 when new). However being Dutch it was: a. Very well built, b. Incredibly well finished with a deep paint job, c. Very classic in it's decaling, and d. Rode wonderfully.

So I used a 1968 timeline, plus about three to four years beyond for owner upgrades. Crank is a Stronglight 99 triple, brakes are Weinmann (centerpull front, Synchro sidepull rear to clear the carrier), derailleurs are first generation SunTour Compe-V front, V-GT rear, with SunTour bar end shifters. Wheels are Maillard hubs on Weinmann alloy rims. The fenders are actually modern, Japanese Hondo's - expensive as hell but worth the effect. I've got platform pedals with clips and straps, but SPD pedals are my main concession to modernity.

I'll ride this one to work on Saturdays, 21 miles each way - fortunately, shop hours are only 0900-1500 Saturday, so I have the afternoon to take the long way home. I passed 2600 miles since I built it last weekend.

Almost forgot, the saddle isn't a Brooks. It's a NOS Czech Favorit - about two years ago some guy was selling a bunch of them on eBay. I picked up three, for an average price of $30.00 each, including shipping - and the leather is way thicker than on a Brooks. Typical Eastern Bloc product, "built strong like tractor." The Gitane's got one of them, and a Bianchi Nyala (non-suspension mountain bike) converted over to heavy touring (front and rear racks) has the third.

Been looking for more with no luck.

the rossin is lovely.

my bike stable is currently a 50's track bike with gorgeous nervex pro lugs that is my regular ride, and so beaten up i think i will be it's last owner,
a 1964 Gazelle sport A (like a three speed raleigh but dutch) which is a wet weather ride,
and a coaster brake bike with a giant front rack i want to get rid of. i'm looking for a 29er i can run as a fixed gear road bike, i think that will handle my abuse better, and be more forgiving,
i broke my wrist a week ago, and i'm going to blame it on riding track geometry offroad, rather then my poor bike handling skills.

great thread. Im currently restoring a bike for my girlfriend. This bike was her moms. Her parents are moving out of their house right now and they pulled this down from her garage rafters. I know its not a real expensive piece but I thought it would be cool for me to restore it as best as posible for my girlfriend. Her mom was going to just throw it away anyways. Its a 3spd Huffy. Looks like an 80s bike. It has fenders and everything. The front fender is off of it but it has a front one. I just ordered some white wall tires for it. I regreased the headset and am probibly going to get the bottom bracket done and bike complete by this weekend when the tires come in. Ill post up a pic of the complete bike when its done. but here it is for now

garagedoreen said:

great thread. Im currently restoring a bike for my girlfriend. This bike was her moms. Her parents are moving out of their house right now and they pulled this down from her garage rafters. I know its not a real expensive piece but I thought it would be cool for me to restore it as best as posible for my girlfriend. Her mom was going to just throw it away anyways. Its a 3spd Huffy. Looks like an 80s bike. It has fenders and everything. The front fender is off of it but it has a front one. I just ordered some white wall tires for it. I regreased the headset and am probibly going to get the bottom bracket done and bike complete by this weekend when the tires come in. Ill post up a pic of the complete bike when its done. but here it is for now.

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Definitely not high end, but a decent example of a mass market (read: K-Mart, etc.) bike.

From the looks of thing, you've figured how to disassemble the Ashtabula crank. Reassembly, of course, is just the reverse process.

Now, what's the rear hub, Sturmey-Archer or Shimano. If it's the former, take a look for a date on the hub itself, and that'll tell you what year the bike is - within one model year, of course.

If you're running into any problems reassembling, or need any advice, drop me a note:

sykerocker@yahoo.com

and I'll be happy to give whatever help I can.