8valve's vintage meanderings

So, it has been a while, you could say…

Up until recently, I hadn't set foot in the shed in over a year.

My daughter, Sarah, passed away from brain cancer and it left us all utterly and completely devastated; as I've said to a few people at this stage, I never realised that grief could feel actually physically painful and debilitating. All motivation and enthusiasm for anything in my life was completely swept away. It has been a very tough year.

But I can look back now, not with a feeling of being 'over it', but with a level of acceptance, and learning to live with it, albeit in a very different world, with a very different outlook on life…

The support and encouragement of my partner, family and friends, and sometimes the kindness of strangers (some of whom are on here - you know who you are - thank you sincerely for your support and very kind messages) has helped me through what I can say has been the most traumatic period of my life.

But this is a cycling thread, specifically about vintage bikes, so, now that I've recently swung open the shed door and swept away the Indiana Jones levels of cobwebs, I will make my tentative return to the subject at hand.

A local gent, while on holiday in Tuscany, saw that the L'Eroica event was taking place in October of this year. He asked in a local bike shop and they put him in touch with me. He reached out, we chatted, a plan was made and the following pics are what he'll do the 200km event on, this October.

The bike has been built to meet the L'Eroica rules, with some adjustments for easier gearing: 48/39 tooth chainrings and a 11/28 freewheel (rear mech extender fitted, so an MTB freewheel with up to 34 teeth can be fitted before the event), modern sealed-bearing bottom bracket and headset for ease of maintenance, modern brake pads, modern retro-style Dia-Compe brake levers with the obligatory cable routing over the handlebars.

Derailleurs and chainset are early 80s Shimano Golden Arrow (precursor to Shimano 105);

Brake calipers are early 80s Modolo Sporting;

Wheels are Wolber Gentleman 1982 rims on Suntour hubs;

Frame-mounted gear levers (mandatory for the event) are Simplex retrofriction;

Pedals are Lyotard rat-traps, with old-but-unused AFA toe-clips and a couple of random red footstraps I found in a box of bits.

Frame was in a sorry state when I got a few years ago; it's been blasted, etch primed, then given three coats of aerosol acrylic high-build primer, followed by three coats of aerosol acrylic automotive paint, reproduction decals applied, then finished with a couple of generous coats of gloss lacquer applied with a spray gun. Turned out nicely in the dark metallic red, which suits the era of the bike.

I've a couple of more projects in the shed at the moment.

Will post pics in due course.

P.

I'm open to correction but as far as I am aware, that sloping top tube geometry on road bikes only became prevalent in the late 90s with aluminium (and subsequently, carbon) frames. I'm sure a modern artisan frame builder will be happy to build you one, but are you prepared to sell a kidney?

Something tells me it was originally borrowed from MTB frames by the likes of Mike Burrows, but again, I'm open to correction on that.

So, another bike…I actually finished this today.

I got this frame from another boards member, probably about 3 years ago at this stage.

It's a Concorde, fillet brazed in Columbus MAX steel, with matching chrome fork.

It was originally a metallic burgundy, which I felt was a bit boring (plus the paintwork was a bit tired), so I went with a homage aerosol paintjob and repro decals in the iconic PDM team colours….with a little bit of artistic licence!

As it's too small for me (54, from memory) I built it to appeal to someone who just wants something usable, with a bit of retro-cool. Perfect for leisurely spins or a relaxed ride to the local cafe…it will certainly stand out amongst all the modern carbon and aluminum machines as a conversation piece.

Rear spacing is 130mm, so it'll take a modern wheelset; its currently on a uniglide rear 7spd ultegra hub, with dura ace front hub; both are laced to Wolber TX Profil rims.

Derailleurs are 7402 8speed dura ace, with shifting done with modern Claris 8spd shifters (yes, it actually works!).

Chainset is an 8spd Sachs New Success (were they made for Sachs by Campagnolo? It looks very very like old 1990s Chorus?) simply because it suits the vibe of the bike and looks cool.

I've fitted a quill stem adapter with modern stem and flat-topped handlebars, but this can all be easily swapped out for a more traditional set-up should its future owner prefer those aesthetics; seatpost and saddle are also modern items.

I built this simply beacuse it's a quality frameset that I wanted to save, and it's built for someone to enjoy.

I'll let the pics tell the rest of the story.

I've added mech hanger extenders to both the basso and the Faggin, so they'll both take MTB freewheels up 34 teeth.

With their current cranksets being 130mm bcd, 39 is the smallest chainring available but there are compact 50-34 square taper cranksets available online.