"It's easier on a Grubb" (tandem)

Last night I was sorting through the box of parts working out what to keep, what to chuck, what to get rechromed, what to paint, etc.

At least most things are present and correct. Amazingly the only important part that seems to have gone missing during the 25 years in a frequently moved mouldy cardboard box in a chaotic workshop of a cellar is the lockring of the old style headclip headset. Unfortunately I think these are quite hard to come by in prewar tandem size, so I'll start the search now (starting with the cellar!) Hilary stone is selling a whole headset for £75 but...

The chater-lea headclip itself has a couple of hairline cracks in it, and in my dad's old parts bin I found another headclip with similar but longer cracks. Presumably these old headclips got a lot of abuse on the front of a heavy tandem - not least because they grip the stem in place as well as their other job as a bearing race.

It's testament to the fastidiousness of my old grandpa that every rusty nut and bolt came apart easily, they'd been well greased before assembly.

So I'll be rechroming:

• crank arms, but not the rings because they're so worn out. Suitable rings show up for reasonable money on ebay so I'm keeping my eyes on them
  
• fork crown (and maybe the ends too, I'll discuss with the chromers if this'll mean making the metal much thinner)
  
• seat posts and clamps
  
• maybe front rim
  
  

The Resilion cantilevers are pretty rusty so I won't get them rechromed as the metal is thin enough as it is for a safety critical part. I'll remove the rust and then paint, I've seen other people have painted them and they can look smart enough.

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