L'Eroica Rat

Cheers - I'm away this weekend so there'll be no progress for a while.
Hopefully I'll have time to build the wheels next week...
I also plan to start on the other aspect of the project (i.e. fitness).
Minor miracle - my knees appear to be fully functional - it must have been a dislocation - on Wednesday I could barely walk, and then on the way home last night I pulled a monster skid on a 49x15 and felt right as rain afterward...
I plan to ride the Olympic road race route next Saturday if anyone's interested in joining - PM me!

Thought I had the brake situation sorted courtesy of ebay but got sniped...
Back to the drawing board. Wondering whether a pair of Tektro CR720's debadged in Silver might be an option.... (in other words, starting to get a bit desperate).

Other than the above Mafac Crits which are the obvious choice, the only other options I can think of are Weinmann

Dia Compe 981's may be pushing it a bit in terms of era...

There are some Modolo's and CLB's too that would look the part (but way outside the project cost model)

There were also plenty of crap copies of the 981 - I'd assumed it would be pretty easy to unearth something that looks suitably ancient as just about every cheap raleigh or peugeot in the early 90's had a set of faux 981's made by chang star or someone like that!! _ I'll need to do a decent search on Retrobike and see what I can find.

O_O this thread is amazing keep up the good stuff!

Now that's a nice part bin!!!
And a nice thread as well, can't wait to see whats coming next!

Glad you're enjoying it - I'd hoped it would be mildly entertaining if not inspiring - I'll try and get moving on the build this week, and keep my rants in check so it doesn't become too much of a soap box!!

I'm also very encouraged by the generous offers and enthusiastic rooting through parts bins re: cantilever brakes - much appreciated.

I've found some.....lee-chi I think....pm me your address, and I'll bung em in the post ;0)

Nice one, thanks.
PM Sent

An interesting selection of bits and bobs arrived with todays postman!
Hopefully start wheelbuilding tomorrow!

Thanks for the canti's stedlocks - they're perfect for the job

No woories mate, I look forward to seeing it built!
I'll be on that other thing next week.....

Finally got round to lacing the rear wheel - it looks rather nice.
I sat down last night with a pot of tea and a Mazzy Star record - laced it on my lap in the kitchen and it runs pretty true - I'll need to get the truing jig out to get a bit more dishing in it, but apart from that it's good to go.
The rim was cleaned up with a bit of brasso, but the hub took a bit of stick from a buffing wheel before it was willing to look any good, - anyhow the final effect is rather pleasant.

Whacked a track tub on it to see what it looked like in the frame

Ah... I should have checked this earlier - the frame appears to have been cold set from 120 to 130 or 135mm - the Deore XT rear mech should have been a giveaway!

Using the QR to bring the frame back in leaves the under-dished wheel way over on the non-drive side of the stays...

I'll give the wheel a bit more dish but it certainly seems like I need to reset the rear triangle to get it back where it needs to go....
Anyone got any tips on cold setting and simple (scissors/paper/string) ways of checking frame alignment?

I hope to have wheels built and frame aligned and the BB/chainset fitted by the end of the weekend, but my main focus this weekend is on the other part of the project, a set of vintage racing legs to match the bike....
If it were merely a case of speccing a set of vintage legs I know exactly which ones I want, I saw them in Down Ampney village hall at a Cotswold league road race. I'd heard rumours Grant was bringing his dad, but was unaware Grant's dad was Phil Bayton. He must have been in his 50s at the time and posessor of possibly the finest set of vintage racing legs on earth....
Right now I'd have those over Eddy Merckx's flabby "pride of the nation" pins anyday.

Sadly it's not that simple, so I shall be suffering on a 49x18 on the olympic road route tomorrow in the hope of getting as close as possible.

To complete the Down Ampney story, 2nd Cats set off nervously waiting for it all to kick off - toward the end of the 1st lap it did - the roar of spinergys rattling a C40 - blind panic - hung on to the top of the climb but dropped on the descent - (in my panic and awe I'd failed to notice I'd spun out a 42T ring) - home with the stragglers & also rans (as was my custom).

Useful info on the web re: cold setting....
http://sheldonbrown.com/frame-spacing.html
http://sheldonbrown.com/forkend-alignment.html
Includes details on how to bend the triangle back

and how to measure your handiwork...
I know what I'll be doing this evening!
Good old Sheldon, where would we be without him?

Just measured the frame with my verniers and sheldon-special string-jig!
Dropouts have been opened to 125mm, with DS 4mm further out than NDS.
The hub has 120mm OLN.
A bit of four-be-two on the drive side and we're back down to 120mm bang centre. Smashing.

Centring the wheel is now mostly about dishing so I'll need to get the truing jig out.

This was never going to be a weight weenie build with a 3.4kg F+F, but the 36H back wheel and tyre come in at 1130g, about the same as a kyserium with a GP4000!!
(admittedly once I've got the freewheel on we'll be in trouble, but there's something to be said for a decent set of vintage sprints!!)

And still this thread gets more interesting... makes me want to go find a bent frame to play with!

This is very interesting indeed, starting to look like less of a rat and something more respectable. I look forward to seeing this finished.

I sent a link of this thread to my brother (also riding L'Eroica but on a 70's Santi with full super-record) - his comment was "If it helps you come to terms with Dawes ownership"

Work Package 1 (Bike Build)
Found some old red spraypaint in the shed and painted the rusty seatstays
Dished rear wheel to centre in realigned stays
Built front wheel - wheel & tyre come in below 1kg!
Cleaned & fitted original Suntour Perfect 5spd block - the only degreasing agent I could find in the shed was A1 Jet Fuel (worked a treat)
Fitted a cottered Solida 3-pin chainset from a a Freecycle donor bike - a BSA Tour of Britain courtesy of the forums own Sandbags. A chrome chainset is a bit of a weight penalty, but the 70s SR Apex I'd planned to use really looks too "paperboy 10 speed" the Solida is in excellent condition and is a 70's version of a much older design and looks more in keeping

The wheels have been a real highlight of this build, high quality, lightweight, low cost and most importantly, both the rims and original wheels would have ended up at the tip! The hub rebuild was interesting -every washer, cone, and lock nut is stamped CAMP 77 (which understand to be the year of patent) and the cones are marked M10 x 26tpi (a curious anomally which I believe goes back to the Marshall plan where US-supplied lathes could only do imperial pitches - 26tpi was the closest fit to M10x1mm).

Work Package 2 (Fitness)
140km ride on Saturday riding the olympic road route.
I wimped out of multiple Box hill loops as the storm clouds were gathering, but still hit by a monster thunderstorm in Richmond park (ended up eating chocolate cake at Petersham Nursery! before heading home on flooded roads). Not a bad start and the knees/back seemed to hold out! (If I did the route again I'd probably fit a brake as the descent to Shere was a bit sketchy in the wet - I had the back wheel locked and was still doing about 20mph - Great route though and the road surfaces were a joy to ride on!)

the cones are marked M10 x 26tpi (a curious anomally which I believe goes back to the Marshall plan where US-supplied lathes could only do imperial pitches - 26tpi was the closest fit to M10x1mm).

Fascinating! Little bit of history there.

Yesterday morning I gave the BB threads a good clean and screwed the BB from the BSA donor bike about 1/3 of the way into the frame. before hanging the solida cranks on to see what they look like.

The BSAs BB cups had a 16mm "dog" so to complete the fitting I tried using a big vice to grip the cups...

They only went about 1/2 a turn so I gave up and went inside for a cup of tea. and considered purchasing the park tool for the very job.

Halfway through my porrige this morning a thought occurred to me.... wouldn't it be curiously ironic if the threads on the BSA were not BSA?
When Raleigh took on the BSA name, it would make sense that their cheap 10speeds such as my donor "Tour of Britain" would also take on their whacky threads!!! (34.9 x 1.06mm, 26 tpi instead of the BSA/ISO 34.9 x 1.06mm, 24 tpi) - I put a vernier to the BB shell and voila 71mm. Glad I didn't push it too hard then - hopefully I've not done any permanent damage to the BB shell with my fiendish vice-pushing. I'll head to the LBS at lunch and see if they've any sensibly threaded BB cups to offer!! I suspect that the extra 3mm's worth of protrusion on the NDS will not cause any problems so I can probably get away with just the cups if they don't have any complete cottered BBs!

Fantastic thread - has got me riveted as to how this'll turn out. Love the thrift involved.

and considered purchasing the park tool for the very job.
I can lend you one if you like.

I also have a few BB cups, with LuckyDip threading (could be new / old BSA / Raleigh threading).

Dropped into the LBS at lunch and picked up a set of BB cups + bearings + Lock ring at 24TPI - Splendid - saves me having to wait for the postie.
I'll have a go tonight with my 300mm Bahco adjustable spanner but if it goes awry I'll give you a shout TW2 re: borrowing your Park Tool - thanks for the offer.

The jammed up threads took a bit of elbow grease to release and I ended up having to tidy the threads a bit with a Stanley knife, but once cleaned and greased the cheap LBS BB went in ok with a pipe wrench (and no damage to the 16mm dogs either)

went into the frame allowing me to hang the chainset...

I've not fitted a cottered chainset since childhood so before I did it I thought I'd better consult the oracle - There's a debate raging on Classic Rendezvous at the mo over which way round you fit the cotter pins - but it seems that "Pedal forward, Nuts up" is the order of the day.
This consultation was a waste of time as the Solida cranks only accepted the pin in the "Pedal forward Nuts Down" position anyway! - but with my puny legs I think this is academic....
Took a couple of pics of where we're up to now - made some tangible progress...

Looks fantastic.. Great thread to!

Looking good!

I haven't been able to see Chris yet, he has had a bereavement and won't be back for a few more days.....

Absolutely love this RIK!
Whats the total spend so far on this?

Rat with shiny parts lush!