Free Bike....

buddy_club

Alright fellas,
My grandads just given me his 1970ish steel road bike, he used to ride for the Italian team back in the day and as such the bike is what I believe to be quite a high spec, it's been well looked after but as I normally ride mtb and this is my first road bike I don't really know what's what, but I just though I'd say hola and I'll put some pictures of it in the your road bikes thread tomorrow.
Cheers,

keef66

Ooh, how exciting!

buddy_club

Sarcasm?

team47b

Can't wait to see what it is

(Not sarcasm BTW)

drlodge

Photos please. I'm guessing its Reynolds 531???

buddy_club

Hahaha will be up in about 5 minutes, I now know it was custom built to my grandads frame specs, and that it is 55 years old, seems to have some kind of Campagnolo gearing as well .

buddy_club

Right picture time, tried to keep in order with the OCP thread but its an iPhone camera so not brilliant.







Looking a bit tatty at the moment, but she rides like an absolute dream and after a little clean up and some touch up paint i'll hopefully have her looking better this weekend.
(Sorry about the dog in the last pic :roll: )
((If anybody could try and identify the stickers as well i'd be grateful as i would love to get a new set))

simon_masterson

Looks nice!

buddy_club

Cheers, think i'm gonna get some new bar tape for it and try to remove a bit of the surface rust from the stem, don't know if its possible but i'll give it a go.

Mikey23

Beautiful

team47b

Like the tyre scrapers

buddy_club

Cheers guys.

team47b wrote:

Like the tyre scrapers

Retro ay

Moonbiker

Looks a beauty

Whats the gearing on it 53 - 42 with 12-21 5 speed block or ssomething?
:P

rolf_f

team47b wrote:

Like the tyre scrapers

Yep - excellent!

The stem should polish up to some degree. A sacrifice of fingernails and T Cut should reduce the rust spots to pinholes.

buddy_club

Moonbiker wrote:

Looks a beauty

Whats the gearing on it 53 - 42 with 12-21 5 speed block or ssomething?
:P

14-22 on the back my Grandad reckons, he thinks about 54-48 on the front, 5 speed block yeah. Thanks

Rolf F wrote:

team47b wrote:

Like the tyre scrapers

Yep - excellent!

The stem should polish up to some degree. A sacrifice of fingernails and T Cut should reduce the rust spots to pinholes.

Yeah gonna get some Autoglyme or something like that, alot of guys on Retrobike have been giving me some advice on it

ashleydwsmith

is that bottle an original? is it empty???

bike is stunning by the way - once cleaned up its going to be mint.

buddy_club

Bottle is original + yes it is empty

keef66

buddy_club wrote:

Sarcasm?

NO, genuinely excited to see it. That's a proper bike you've got there. Liking the lugwork, the tyre scrapers and the period bottle and cage.
Deserves a proper paint job though. At the very least take the paint off the seatpost lug.

buddy_club

Aha sorry, yeah shame about the seatpost lug, if I rub off the paint will the metal underneath polish up like the rest of it?

simon_masterson

buddy_club wrote:

Moonbiker wrote:

Looks a beauty

Whats the gearing on it 53 - 42 with 12-21 5 speed block or ssomething?
:P

14-22 on the back my Grandad reckons, he thinks about 54-48 on the front, 5 speed block yeah. Thanks

Rolf F wrote:

team47b wrote:

Like the tyre scrapers

Yep - excellent!

The stem should polish up to some degree. A sacrifice of fingernails and T Cut should reduce the rust spots to pinholes.

Yeah gonna get some Autoglyme or something like that, alot of guys on Retrobike have been giving me some advice on it

Ha, you may just find that 48x22 is a bit hard on the hills!

You may also want to consider converting to 6 (or 7) speed in the future; whilst freewheels do last ages, the availability of new 5 speed kit does seem to be declining. There are a fair few secondhand blocks out there, but unfortunately it can be hard to tell how worn they are from pictures online. With 5 cogs it's high high gears, low low gears and close ratios: choose any two. I currently have 13-20. Sunrace still make 6 speed 14-24, which is a decent compromise.

buddy_club

Is it not possible to fit a smaller front cog? Obviously it would have to be within the shifting ability of the front derailleur but the rear cassette (or block) has been on there for about a year and hardly been used?

simon_masterson

Yes - you need to know the BCD of your crankset, and the range of your mechs. 54/42 was a common configuration once. 40t would give you the same difference as a modern double (53/39), and 39t ought to be fine as well. In principle it should be possible to go down to 38t with the same big ring (assuming chainring availability); you'd have a big jump, but old tourers pre-triple used to have 50/32, so it's possible with the right derailleurs.

buddy_club

Okay thanks, this is eventually gonna get a respray as well

rolf_f

I wouldn't mess with the crankset. The bike is what it is and I think it would spoil it if you start changing too much. I reckon a new freewheel is all you need subject to the rear mech being able to handle it. My Raleigh Record Ace has 42-28 as the lowest gear and it is fine on the Sussex hills. Harder than my modern bikes but still perfectly rideable.

There is new old stock out there and second hand freewheels will be cheap enough to take a chance on - I suspect most won't be worn out as they last so much longer than modern cassettes. You just might need to be patient until the right component turns up. Retrobike should be able to give some advice as to what there actually is (eg whether there are 28 tooth freewheels available in 5 speed - mine is a six).

buddy_club

Okay thanks, I haven't actually taken it on a 'proper' first ride yet anyway, so it may well be fine

secretsam

Now, that's properly old. What make is it? I'd be tempted to keep it tidy and (pause) flog it as is...it's virtually a museum piece so updating it somehow would be wrong. More photos please.

markhewitt1978

Lovely bike, looking forward to seeing some pictures of it cleaned up a bit. I do agree that you shouldn't mess with it too much, it is what it is, gears included, so anything replaced would be best done like for like. Hard on the hills, but it's the same as you don't use a vintage car to commute to work.

buddy_club

No way am I going to sell it, no matter how much it's worth, my grandad had raced on it for years, he had it custom built for his sizing, triple paralells and all, this is going to get ridden on hot Sunday afternoons for blasting around the countryside on! But thanks, It is a properly old bike but still rides perfect. As for the make I don't know, it has 'metro' stickers on it but they are faded and unclear.

buddy_club

markhewitt1978 wrote:

Lovely bike, looking forward to seeing some pictures of it cleaned up a bit. I do agree that you shouldn't mess with it too much, it is what it is, gears included, so anything replaced would be best done like for like. Hard on the hills, but it's the same as you don't use a vintage car to commute to work.

Thanks and exactly, I'll probably just keep it as it is.

simon_masterson

Rolf F wrote:

I wouldn't mess with the crankset. The bike is what it is and I think it would spoil it if you start changing too much. I reckon a new freewheel is all you need subject to the rear mech being able to handle it. My Raleigh Record Ace has 42-28 as the lowest gear and it is fine on the Sussex hills. Harder than my modern bikes but still perfectly rideable.

There is new old stock out there and second hand freewheels will be cheap enough to take a chance on - I suspect most won't be worn out as they last so much longer than modern cassettes. You just might need to be patient until the right component turns up. Retrobike should be able to give some advice as to what there actually is (eg whether there are 28 tooth freewheels available in 5 speed - mine is a six).

28t is very easy to get in 5 speed. In fact, it's pretty much all you can get now new from Sunrace and Shimano. The issue is that with only 5 cogs the jumps are huge. 14 and 16 are great cogs to have, but having nothing between 16 and 20 is annoying, as is only having only 24 and 28 after that. You also don't get anywhere like as high a gear for any hard downhills, even with a 54t, than you do with the 11 or 12t sprockets that everyone else takes for granted. Just by upgrading to 6 speed you can have 14-24, which is a decent compromise.

rolf_f

Simon Masterson wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

I wouldn't mess with the crankset. The bike is what it is and I think it would spoil it if you start changing too much. I reckon a new freewheel is all you need subject to the rear mech being able to handle it. My Raleigh Record Ace has 42-28 as the lowest gear and it is fine on the Sussex hills. Harder than my modern bikes but still perfectly rideable.

There is new old stock out there and second hand freewheels will be cheap enough to take a chance on - I suspect most won't be worn out as they last so much longer than modern cassettes. You just might need to be patient until the right component turns up. Retrobike should be able to give some advice as to what there actually is (eg whether there are 28 tooth freewheels available in 5 speed - mine is a six).

28t is very easy to get in 5 speed. In fact, it's pretty much all you can get now new from Sunrace and Shimano. The issue is that with only 5 cogs the jumps are huge. 14 and 16 are great cogs to have, but having nothing between 16 and 20 is annoying, as is only having only 24 and 28 after that. You also don't get anywhere like as high a gear for any hard downhills, even with a 54t, than you do with the 11 or 12t sprockets that everyone else takes for granted. Just by upgrading to 6 speed you can have 14-24, which is a decent compromise.

Hmmmm, my Raleigh is 6 speed with a 14-28 cassette. Obviously one less gap to worry about but, low end aside, I can't say I notice any problems with it. 52-14 is a perfectly decent top for a bike like that so as long as you don't expect it to be that easy on steep hills it's not worth meddling with. Got up Steyning Bostal on the 42-28!

Still, if you prefer a narrower range at the expense of climbing ability 5 speed 14-24s aren't hard to find. Plenty on Ebay many for less than a tenner new!

I think if the gaps are a problem, it's just a case of getting used to a wider range of cadence! Adapt yourself rather than the bike!