Purple stuff

Woohoo! Looks so better. Small things make all the difrence.

@dazzrie Cheers! I agree, it does make quite a difference and I'm glad the frisbee is gone now...

I was thinking about replacing the cockpit with some compact drops. How about some pink bar-tape? I think it might work but I'm not 100% sure. Any other suggestions? I also threw on a flite.

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I quite like the Vanhaelen with its current cockpit. But if you was to change I would properly still stick with black bar tape.

Thanks mate! I've kept it as it is for now but I think I'll get drop bars in the medium term.
In other news, i finally succeeded in my long struggle to fit track cranks with a correct chainline without changing the french BB threading. The bike originally came with a 118mm stronglight BB which gave me a fine chainline with the beater 105 cranks and the ring mounted on the inner position. Although the BB shell width is 68mm, I wasn't able to use a 111mm spindle from a british threaded campa BB since the stronglight cups are thinner than campa cups and therefore require the spindle of an italian threaded BB made for 70mm shell width. I'm really glad it finally worked out so now I have DA 7600 cranks with my desired chainline of 43mm (cog is closer to 42 but 43 is better for clearance reasons).

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Well fuck, turns out my optimism was premature... I took the bike out for a quick 30k spin and my mix and match bottom bracket now has considerable play. That means I either have to play around with different ball bearings till I get it right, get the frame chamfered to fit an expander-type bb or get another frame with bsa or italian threading (this is probably just the frustration speaking). Anyway, none of the options are particularly appealing at the moment so I'll wait for a while till I find the enthusiasm to solve the problem :/

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Build looks great. You could get a Velo Orange Gran Cru bb with French threading?

Or a threadless Velo Orange BB.

Thanks for the input! Is the VO available with ISO tapers?

I think the answer is to get a two mm longer bb https://www.lfgss.com/comments/8756147/

Thanks! I also read that 7600 cranks work fine with 107mm Jis spindles even though they sit 'better' on iso tapers. I could also get an skf bb 110mm, iso, french thread for the bargain price of 150€ :D probably not... Btw, the beater rear wheel I bought from you is still going strong ;)

My 'investigation/research' has revealed that I used a spindle which was designed for 3/16 ball bearings with 1/4 ball bearings and cups for 1/4 bearings. Meh.

I sold the Gitane, it was nice but I need the funds for the cyfac and the Vanhaelen is a better fit and quite similar so the Gitane had to go. The aero chainring which I ordered from China a while ago turned up as a non-aero narrow wide chainring. Not really sure what to do with a NW that large, is it stupid to use a NW on a track bike? Having sold a bike also means that I can justify getting another one. Will probably look for a cheap vintage mtb to build up as a city bruiser 1 x X when the winter comes. I also thought about converting my workhorse roadbike to 650b after following @russmeyer 's excellent centurion conversion. The clearance between the rear tyre and the seattube is really tight and the fork crown clearance is rather large. The brake pads on the front amd rear are mounted at the lowest position already so I'm not sure if tektro r559 would have enough reach on 650b. So I'm not sure if it's an ideal candidate for a conversion.

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(622-584)/2 = 19mm more reach needed for 650b rims. Also, 320mm from the middle of the dropouts is where the fattest part of a 650b tyre is going to be. Measure and report back :)

Will do, thanks a lot for the detailed info :)

More here: http://www.bikeman.com/bikeman-blogs/650blog/1771-650b-conversion-guidlines

how much did you get for the gitane may i ask?

Sure, 210€ for frame & forks, headset, BB, seatpost, nitto jag and nitto risers = break even according to my spreadsheet :)

bargain

I should keep a spreadsheet...

ze german way, innit ;)

Thanks for the link! I took some measurements:
BB clearance with 23c tyres is 272mm. Width between fork blades at 320mm from the middle of the dropouts is 43mm and the brake reach is less than 70mm with the 18mm increase in brake reach factored in. I guess that makes it a suitable candidate. Two things are not ideal though, no mudguard eyelets at the rear and only one pair of bottle cage bosses at the downtube but I think I can live with that. I won't be starting the project in the near future though since I have a couple other projects that need to be finished first. But it's good to know that the Diamond is a suitable candidate since I was thinking about selling it for the sake of diversifying my stable. If I convert it to 650b I have a good reason to keep it other than my general reluctance to part with things I feel attached to.

There's one thing in the article on 650blog that I don't understand. If the outer diameter of 650b 38c wheels is the same as a 700c 23c wheel, why do I have to expect the BB to drop by 1cm? Shouldn't it stay at the same height?

I never got that either. But I was always crap at math. What I can say is your BB height will drop but it won't make much difference while riding along. Unless you switch back & forth between fixed and freewheel bikes like I do, had a few interesting pedal strikes when cornering with the 650b bike.

Maybe they thought about lower tyre pressure dropping your BB when you sit on the bike?

My guess is that the Japanese frames they were talking about were originally intended to run ~32 mm