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That’s a lot of bike for £400.
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Yes, alloy ones.
I’ve been surprised before by how early anodising appeared, but I think the green one is too recent and too bling (although I have an anodised green Coloral bottle cage so I could just go full kit wanker.The Grand Prix I think is more likely to be PC. It’s apparently dent and ding free and the gold anodising will strip off easily and I’ll give it a polish.
Or maybe they’re both wrong and I should bring in a never BiN when half cut rule.
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Difficult rule to enforce that one.
I don’t think I’d be shy of using that green ano one. I suspect the coloured Coloral cage is a few years later too. So a full middle aged FTW putting that on a late 40s bike. Oh wait, is this for your 52 build? I think the 1952 Browns lists the colour ano Coloral products.
I’ve been trying to figure out when the coloured CL hubs came in and they weren’t offered when the hub was introduced 1946/47. That’s as far as I’ve got.
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Yeah. Gillott is ‘52
It’s going to have blinging Gnutti hubs now courtesy of @Nbenja3 - when I find a 40h gear side in excellent condition.
The Hypothetical builder of my bike was a bit of a flash lad so the green anno might get used.The anodising fades over the years, a lot of these bikes would have been 😳
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I’ve got a nos green large flange front, again courtesy of @Nbenja3 ... I’m sure there was a rear on Ebay fairly recently and I remember passing thinking “pff I’ll never find the pair...”
I was going to say in response to @absurdbird that yeah the ano stuff is a bit much for me. You’ve reminded me how much I like this green Airlite though, it’s lush, probably better for being toned down by the years.
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https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Baines-Whirlwind-flying-gate-vintage-lightweight-bicycle-bike-racer-531-1940-s-/224418285400?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286
Some lovely parts and the paint work is in stunning condition -
Very nice
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Constrictor pedals at a very optimistic price-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284257212566 -
Years ago I had this mad idea that you could probably stuff a few extra gears into an old three-speed plunger mech without it looking out of place if you used gear plates out of a modern 10, 11 or 12 speed cassette. You'd need a narrower chain and switch the derailleur jockey wheels to modern narrow ones. Someone asked a question about setting up a Benelux Mk7 on Retrobike which prompted me to fish it out and have a measure up.
So the original idea was to use an older narrower 5/6/7-speed Shimano Hyperglide cassette hub. These are spaced at 126mm and lot of them have enough spacers that you you can reduce the width from 126mm to 120mm so it'll slot straight into an older 120mm frame. I know you can spread frames but I've lost count of the number of times I've pinched my fingers doing this over the years. Why not just take the spacer out and avoid the issue. Then, see how many gears you can squeeze in the space that the 3-speed freewheel takes up.
The answer is... not many. Probably not enough to make it worth it, anyway. Working in mm, the cog pitch on the 3-speed is 7mm so the total width is only 14mm. The throw on the Mk7 is about 16mm and you could probably increase this to around 18mm if you machined the back off the stop on the inside, and then the springs would be bottoming out. The pitch of Shimano/SRAM 10-speed is 3.95mm and 11-speed 3.7mm so I reckon you could just about squeeze 5 gears in there if you were lucky enough to be able to work between the limits at both ends.
So yeah, you could just about do it, but at the expense of having to run a foreign-looking 36-spoke rear wheel and a modern-looking hub and chain when you get up close.
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The only difference between the 3,4 and 5sp Simplex TdF and Juy 51 derailleurs is the length of the push rod and maybe the spring (?) I suppose you could modify the Benelux if you had a friendly machinist.
I have both the 4v and 5v Juy 51, I’ll take a side by side comparison.
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So the Older Apex pump (Grand Prix) looks like a goer. The gold which I thought might have been ano came off with a wipe of meths so it was just some primitive tinted lacquer.
There are no dings or dents which for a 70 year old aluminium pump is pretty good going. I’ll give it a polish, probably not to full bling (though maybe ... 😛).I need a new washer for it, anyone have any experience? Original is perished- looks like soft rubber, can they be found? I’m guessing there are tons of different bore sizes even if the fixing is standardised.
Or can they be fabricated?
Or will it just be a useless adornment to fill the pump pegs, while the Lezyne road drive goes in the pocket. -
Afaik they are available, there are certainly plenty of Apex, Bluemels, etc. washers on Ebay. Whether they work or not I can't comment, I don't have enough experience. This was my question to the seller I bought mine from:
I have an old skinny Apex pump. I measure the ID at 14.8mm, I guess I need a 9/16” washer?
and their response:
The Apex skinny pump is normally 5/8 inches (16mm) If you go smaller there will be no pressure. The washers have to be an interference fit.
I swapped it over without cleaning or lubing or anything in a bit of a rush and there is no pressure with the 5/8" although it does seem like it is the right size. I need to have another go at it but would appreciate any advice from anyone with experience in the meantime!
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Oh marvellous.
I didn’t expect it to be so straightforward (probably means it won’t be)
I should have thought that they’d be in fractions of an inch, and in easy 1/8ths increments too. -
The Grand Prix measures 15/16ths ID, so I guess I need a 1”.
I’ve asked the eBay seller, also asked about greasing etc.
On closer examination the grease saturated washer I have is actually leather - this is new stuff to me. -
What a decent chap!
I’ll let you know how I get on.
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I thought this looked really slick at first but these lug edges are a bit rough.
Or are the jagged edges intentional?
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Do these actually take 700c tubulars?
Were 27” tubs a thing?
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About
Pre 1950s rides of LFGSS: old bikes, vintage rats, classic lightweights
Posted by
@luckyskull
I got this skinny Apex Superlite for my late 40s lightweight ROH Lyta. Struggling to get it to pump properly though. I did change the washer but must be doing something wrong!
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