Post images of beauty (quote pics sparingly) - see Mod warnings in OP

sleepyholland wrote: »

i always feel the symmetry of the front view is ruined by brake levers not running flush with dropbars. I have this problem too.
Is there any way around it?

Longer fingers.

Beautiful bike best of luck with her i hope you get many a great ride from her :D

Con

I got two from eBay, €9 each shipped. Home:Ballyhoura recommended them, thanks for that. They work extremely well, better than Tacx Taos which I have on all my other bikes. I have them on my winter bike:

disneyonfire wrote: »

My refurbished 80's steel frame Atala .

Looking nice, can I ask you did you get it sprayed somewhere, or was it DIY?
I'm paint stripping my old Peugeot 502 frame at the mo, and new parts arrived today from CRC:D. I'm not going down the vintage NOS route, just upgrading the drive to Shimano 8 speed. My only concession to the past is a lovely Rolls saddle, cracking value for £40 and really looks the part!

disneyonfire wrote: »

No, luckily the frame was nearly perfect when I bought it. There are a few scratches on it, you just cant see them in the photo. The only thing Im worried about is the stickers peeling cos I dont think they can be replaced, so Im gonna try and avoid cycling it in the rain.

You could get a clear cloat applied over the stickers which would keep them intact. I repaired some paintwork damage on a steel frame, albeit just a couple of small areas, and I used a can of clear coat spray from Halford's to finish the job off. It came out looking just like the original finish.

disneyonfire wrote: »

Cheers, thanks for that. I'll have a look in Halfords.

Would that also be any good to apply to a part of a frame thats had rust sanded off it? I mean would it seal/protect it?

I had to repair scratch damage that had exposed the bare steel of the frame in a couple of places. I sanded the areas, applied primer, applied paint and then applied the clear coat. I sanded and reapplied a few times at each stage. So, my experience only really applies to repairing small areas. In your case, you would be looking at clear coating the entire frame, which is a much bigger job. I'm not sure if a spray can from Halford's would do that satisfactorily or if you should look at getting it done profressionally. However, my bike has decals which are clear coated over (this was done professionally) and looks great and the decals are protected. So, in principle, this should be a good solution for you for the decal question, I'm just not too sure if it's a DIY job to do the entire frame. For repairing patches of damaged paint, then yes, I'd say it's something you could do yourself.

Hey, this sticky is supposed to be bike porn. All this talk of scratches and sandpaper is turning me off! :eek:

Definitely needs more white.

Lumen wrote: »

Definitely needs more white.

I think it has cost a lot of money to make a bike look that cheap.

Would look better without the logos on the seat tube and head tube/forks.

I think the seat pin collar thing is a bit fugly. This is often the case with integrated seat posts, but particularly here.

Incidently, Principia is one of those bikes I wouldn't want to own because of the sound of the name. At the risk of offending some owners of these bikes, there are few others, such as Ribble and Dolan. I know that's a bit stupid, but there you go...

ten speed racer wrote: »

I think the seat pin collar thing is a bit fugly. This is often the case with integrated seat posts, but particularly here.

Incidently, Principia is one of those bikes I wouldn't want to own because of the sound of the name. At the risk of offending some owners of these bikes, there are few others, such as Ribble and Dolan. I know that's a bit stupid, but there you go...

I'm with you there ten speed. European, especially Italian, sounding names are the best. I heard they make you go faster