Sunday, May 22, 2011

Bill's Bike

I got this bike, this week, a 60 cm (or 24 inch, as the Trek catalog refers to it) Trek 710, from 1981.  It was updated, sometime in the 1990s, from the looks of it.  The changes that have beed made are all the "upgrades" we did in the bike shop, for owners of older road bikes, back then.


Here it is just after I test-rode it, with the seat and bars set to my height (5'10").  Actually, now that I think about it, I had raised the seat, for this photo, because it looked stupid with the seat at my setting.  About half of the fluted part of the post was inside the tube, when I rode it.

Here it is with the  SR seat post and Nitto Technomic stem both at full extension, according to the factory markings.

SunTour indexable barcons...

controlling CX 9000 derailleurs rear...

and front.

The mtb derailleurs allow the use of this:

A Specialties TA crank set up as "half-step plus a granny" (50/44/28 teeth rings).

The crank arms even have the original dust covers on both sides.

There is an 8-speed Shimano cogset (note the Shimano dropout, as well)...

mid-90s Shimano 105 hubs...

laced to Mavic Open 4 CD hard-anodized rims.  That is a nice wheelset, from back in the day!

Tange headset is probably factory stock.

The cro-mo Tange fork is not.



Old-school Trek headtube bade and pantographed seatstay caps.  (Too bad the Reynolds 531 tubing sticker is damaged.  That can be replaced, though...)

Single-pivot Gran-Compe brakes could be improved upon.

The aero-style, perforated Dia-Compe levers are fine, though.

They are mounted a 42 cm...


flared SR World Ranonneur bar.

The frame was Proudly made in...
























Unfortunately, the bike is just too big for me.  Fortunately, Bill is looking for a Rando rig.  So, this bike is heading to the Great Midwest, before long.  I hope it gets a lot of happy miles (kilometers, I guess I guess, in a rando context) piled onto it!
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Saturday, December 18, 2010

Christmas Present

Mike, at work, wanted a bike for his daughter to ride at college. I've had this pink Univega frame set sitting around for 2 or 3 years, waiting for me to get inspired to build it.  So, I showed it to him, and Mike gave me the thumb's up to build it.

He likes the Performance Dartmouth tires which I put on the bike I built for him, a while back, so I went with them on this bike, as well.

The handlebars, stem, headset, seat post, brakes and levers are all stock to the frame.  The wheels and drivetrain came from a pre-Trek Gary Fisher that I got from Mark, recently.






 The brake pads, WTB women's saddle and Wellgo platform pedals are all new.  The bike rides great, and I think it will serve Mike's daughter well.  I hope she likes it as much as I do.

I actually almost sold this frame as a fixed gear, a couple of years ago, but the buyer wanted me to have it stripped and powder-coated.  I refused to do it, because I love the pink bikes, and he ended up not buying a bike from me.  I still have no regrets about that...

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Photo Archive

Cross-post from Two Wheels:

Check out the Grinderbikes Photo Archive (it's in the blog list, to the right).  I loaded the rest of the photos from the Grinderbikes website, which should disappear in about a week.

I will work on some descriptions and anecdotes about some of the builds, as time goes by.

x

Sunday, May 9, 2010

DiamondBack Voyager II Cruiser Conversion


Built this up for the wife of a buddy at work.  More pictures and details here.

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Sunday, April 18, 2010

Liberia Singlespeed

The little 49cm Liberia went home with a gal, today, as a birthday present from her boyfriend.  Grant bought my Raleigh Sprite/Clubman project, which was too big for me, last year and emailed me looking for a bike for his girl, earlier this week.

I swapped the the drop bars for one of the original Bridgestone Arc Bars (from a 1993 XO-3), installed a basket and converted the drivetrain to a singlespeed set-up.


I thought the white grips and seat gave it a bit of flair.  Some vintage mismatched tourist levers control the Mafac Racer brakes.


Here it is without the basket and kickstand, for those who appreciate the more streamlined look.

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Friday, March 12, 2010

49cm Liberia Road Bike For Sale -SOLD (see post above)


I just picked this early-70s French bike up, today.  It is a Liberia, a brand I've never heard of and can find little info on.  It has a 49cm seat tube, 54cm top tube and a stand-over height of 30-3/4 inches.

It has a pretty odd mix of parts (which appear, with the exception of the tires, saddle and bar wrap, to be original).  Lyotard pedals on a cottered crank...

Nylon-bodied Simplex derailleurs (in good working condition)...

But, the wheels have quick-release hubs and alloy rims.

It has been recently overhauled, from the looks of things, and everything is in good working order.  I rode it around a bit, after adjusting the squeal out of the Mafac racer brakes.
Unfortunately the model name is illegible.  It is "Type Somethingoranother".

The rest of the graphics are in pretty good shape.  I love the logo on the fork leg.

Olympic rings on the seat tube.

Down tube.

Head tube.

I have a set of tourist (upright) bars with brake levers on them, out in the shop building, if someone would rather not have the drop bars.  I think it would be a cool little city/campus/commute bike with the tourist bars.

Somewhere around a hundred bucks, depending on what you want.

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Sunday, February 7, 2010

Miyata Six-Ten on eBay - SOLD

As part of the deal on the Six-Ten that Mark got from me, he agreed to list it's near-twin on eBay for me. With all of the stuff that's been going on this week, I forgot to post the link to the auction, until now.

Of course, it's Superbowl Sunday, and the auction ends right in the middle of the game, so I'm not really thinking of this as a marketing move. Just thought you might be interested in seeing how it ends up.

Right now, it's sitting at $230.00, after 9 bids.

Look HERE.

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