L'Eroica Rat

Got everything I need now either on the bike or in boxes in the kitchen - time to compile a final summary of project costs & final bike spec.

Dawes Frame/Forks + Cable bands + canti stirrups & yokes + Primax Headset + seatpin bolt - £11.50 (ebay)
Chrome Handlebars & stem & endplugs + Weinmann Brake Levers £0.99 + £8.50 p+p (ebay)
Campag Nuovo Tipo s/f hubs + Wolber Classic 290 Tubulars + Suntour perfect freewheel - £10.50 + £12.50 p+p (ebay)
Vintage Pete Matthews sprint rims (36H) 99p (ebay)
Bottom Bracket Cups & Bearings - £5.99 (LBS)
BB Axle - Freecycle
Solida Cottered Double chainset - Freecycle
SR Apex Cotterless Double chainset - £5 (purchased in error from Forum Classified)
Simplex Prestige Criterium front and rear mechs and shifters - Swapped with MrWolf69
Strong 26.6mm microadjust Seatpost £0.99 + £3 p+p (ebay)
San Marco Freccia D'Oro Saddle £0.99 + £3 p+p (ebay)
Bar tape - Vintage white cloth £5 (Dave Marsh)
Bottle cage - vintage-look cheapo - £1.99 (ebay)
Thermos Water Bottle - £10 (Dave Marsh)
Brake cable set incl. ferrules and enough for rear mech outer - £5.99 (ebay)
Gear cables - parts bin
Spokes - parts bin
Cantilever brakes & pads - Lee Chi (Dia Compe 960 copies) a gift from Stedlocks
Vintage Clement tub glue - £0.99 + £1.50 (ebay)
Outwell Seamguard to proof tub sidewalls - £2.80 (Cotswold Outdoor)
Stan's Sealant - £3.60 (ebay)
Zeus track pedals - £9 + £3 p+p (ebay)
Galli clips & Alfredo Binda Straps - £6.50 (ebay)
Clark 6spd Chain - £5 - Chain Reaction
Chromeplastic Toestrap buttons - £0.99 (Dave Marsh)
Zefal Pump - £0.99 (ebay)
Chrome pump pegs - £2.60 (Halfords!!)
Headtube Decal - £7 (Lloyd of Penrith)

Total Cost of parts - £130.90

To offset costs, the following parts were also sold on ebay
Shimano STX Chainset - £28
Deore XT rear Mech & Suntour front mech - £22.50
SR Apex Chainset - £15
Total cost of sale parts - £65.5

Final cost of complete bike - £65.40

This is a pretty honest summary of what the bike costs, other forumongers (stedlocks, sandbag & MrWolf69) have been very generous, and all I swiped from the parts bin were spokes and gear cables (in fact the parts bin ended up heavier as a result of the project as I now have Shimano PD-M525 SPD pedals, an STX Bottom bracket, 8mm AK crank bolts and a set of STX Cantilevers/Pads).

Rik, I've got all sorts of 70's/80's value components required to finish that, so drop me a pm if you're short of anything.

Cheers tjcooluk - thanks for the offer.

Finally the parcel of NOS-niceness arrived from Dave Marsh containing the REG thermos bidon, 70's NOS cloth tape and chromeplastic toestrap pulls, the finishing touches to the build!

I do love a bit of dusty musty NOS on my doorstep when I get home of an evening! I also like uncovering NOS in unlikely places, e.g. the chrome plated Weldtite band-on pump pegs at the Staines (West side) branch of Halfrauds!

Quick update on WP3 (Sartorial statement): The Euro-style Butt'r works a treat, 1 sachet was enough to soften up the chamois to a beautiful softness. It also contains some menthol & aloe so it makes you smell like a fully embrocated road-convict - perfect & heartily recommended - mine came from Bike Tart on ebay.

I did most of my musing on what to do with a crap £11.50 ebay bike to make it worthy of a legendary Italian ride whilst on my hols in Co Sligo, Ireland.
My holiday reading was a history of the ras tailteann, where I was inspired by the ruggedness and self-sufficiency of the riders hitting tough terrain in crap weather, carrying all their own food, tools, spare tubs and pump, and the Polish & Soviet teams coming over and risking the wrath of the UCI. Another thing that caught my eye was that the Irish riders based in English clubs would ride under the "Exiles" banner with "Exiles" written in felt letters on their wool jerseys.... I'm toying with the idea of cutting out Exiles in black felt for the wool jersey... not sure whether that would be a bit lame....?

I'll be meeting up in Modena just before the ride with my brother Benj (the no-hands trackstander in the above image) who's also participating.
For lovers of vintage rat-racers here are some shots of his 1970's Santi for you to enjoy - it would appear that the ratty road-race aesthetic run in the family.

Just about to head off for an inaugural ride; a 10mile commute in tipping rain - perfect. During my lunch break I'll hopefully find time to do a bit of brake/gear dialling and find the final position for the brake levers.

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Spotted this on the internet yesterday....
[URL="http://vintagebikecave.com/wp-content/uploads/FR072-1-500x375.jpg"]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/72712370/2012-09-26%2007.17.44.jpg) Same dropouts and similar seatstay caps.
It's up for sale with VBC who claim it's a Viking Master - but my frame number (P4211) doesn't fit with any of theirs, and the headtube lugs are not alike.
It will remain a 90% Dawes until conclusive proof is arrived at...

What a lovely bike. Levers up a tad?

p.s. I like the exiles idea. You'll be surrounded by people trying very hard to look cool. At least you will have done something different.

Cheers, you're right on the levers -that was apparent by the end of my road!
Re: exiles Jersey, it'll be a case of "if time allows, and time's in pretty short supply right now!!

Looking hard as nails mate.... Glad the cantis are being put to good use :0)

Cheers Pat, the canti's have been set-up and tested on some modest descents last night (one lap of the 1948 Olympic route seemed appropriate for a period-correct shakedown ride) the brakes performed excellently and now that it's all working smoothly I can really enjoy riding it, it rolls beautifully on 120PSI tubs, the wheelflop is horrendous, but as long as you don't do anything too wild it handles pretty well and the brakes are incredibly powerful.
Not sure how much walking I'll end up doing on a 42x24!
The only other observation is that 60's NOS handlebar tape is not such a bright idea, all the adhesive has passed through the cotton over the past 50years of storage making the outer surface sticky. As a result, bits of grime and track-mitt pigment have ended up getting stuck all over the cloth leaving a generally grubby appearance... This answers my question on whether or not to shellac!!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/72712370/2012-09-30%2018.21.05.jpg[URL="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/72712370/2012-09-30%2018.21.05.jpg"][/URL]

Minor disaster on the way to work this morning, the walls of my vintage wolber 290 rear tyre delaminated.... starting to worry about the condition of the front tyre and what to do about spares - I think some tub-booting will be in order this evening..... photos and frustration to follow as I attempt to repair ageing rubber!

If you can get to me, I have quite a few nice mature ones knocking around....I won't have time to post etc, but you can come and have a play and take what you need....definitely have some wolbersand have others too.....I've got Thursday off work for fettling and a final ride.

Cheers Pat, I've just fitted a brand new Vittoria Rally that was going to be my spare so I'm fine till Sunday... I'm a bit worried about my front now so I'm definately going to be bringing 2 spares.
I've just been rooting about in a dark shed (road-test for my new headtorch!) and managed to find a Clement Brio in pretty good condition so that'll be one of the spares for sure. I've also started to repair this mornings shredded Wolber, so we'll see how that goes (I'll have it sat at full pressure on a spare rim till I leave on Sat. morning). I'll also have another hunt in the shed tomorrow morning and see if there's anything floating about in there! - If both strategies fail I'll give you a bell!

No worries mate....let me know

Here's the damage to the tyre wall.... the outer of the 2ply has failed where it meets the tread and tube pressure split the inner ply allowing innertube to bulge out of the casing

To get at the problem area the tape is peeled back and stitches cut through with a razor blade and unpicked. Open up about an inch beyond the problem area at each end for easy access.
A "boot" is cut from the walls of an old tyre. The hem's cut off and the tread peeled back, & a razoe blade is used to feather the edges. This is pasted with Copydex and glued into place.

Once the adhesive's dry you tuck everything back in and sew up. If you have a Velox repair kit use the needle and thread. I don't, so I used a big curved needle and dental floss. (don't use normal sewing thread it's not strong enough).

I believe there may be some fancy stitches out there (Jobst Brandt refers to a "Zip-stitch") but this was no time for learning needlepoint! The main issue here is to do this without poking the needle through the innertube!! Don't listen to anything too challenging when doing this job, I went for Dandy Livingston for stitches in one direction and then King Tubby for the ones in the other).
Here's the final result.....

Before beginning the cross-stitch I quickly pumped up the tyre to be sure it was still holding air.
Lastly you stick the tape back on, with Copydex, mount it on a spare rim and pump it up to a decent pressure to be sure the job's done!

You want to forget about having 'exiles' on your jersey and just get 'copydex' ..... The amount you've used!!

+1 for 'copydexile'

^ Like it, and very tempted - the colourscheme would go as well!
The main issue now is time, I'm flying out early on saturday and have a rather overwhelming list of jobs still outstanding! Looks like snipping the felt letters will be one job too many and of limited benefit vs. stopping the BB cups working loose, trying to get a decent location for the shoeplates, final dialling of gears and brakes, digging out a spare tubular, making a round of flapjacks, putting shellac on the bars and packing!!!
Anyway, here's one spare tyre and folding technique!


The trick here is to make sure the pre-glued tape is not in contact with the rubber tread or things can get messy.
Now it's pretty easy to roll up...


And stash under the saddle

No doubt there are several other ways to skin this particular cat, but this one works for me.

Re-fitted the bottom bracket at lunchtime today with some loctite 222.
Made a schoolboy error with the cotter pin removal impatiently walloping them out with the back end of an adjustable spanner trashing the threads in the process.... Rescued by the LBS! I bought their last pair of 9mm cotter-pins from the drawer marked "continental parts"
This morning I found a Wolber Pro SP1 and a Vittoria Corsa in the shed, both in better condition than the repaired 290 - looks like I'll be OK for spare tubs.
This evening I hope to finish the shellac tape cover - so far so good, very comfortable and grippy and were it not for all the crap left on the adhesive, quite nice looking too
Gears are working pretty well, not 100% happy with the shoeplates, but the end is certainly in sight...

Calling time on fiddling - bikes going to be packed as soon as I get home this evening... Bit of a disaster last night, in my lunchtime haste yesterday I'd forgotten to fasten the drive side cotter pin - it fell out and was lost 2miles into the commute so I had to walk 2miles back to the office in bare feet (or risk trashing my cleats) - feeling like a cold coming on (and with rather sore feet). Managed to revive one of the mashed ones and loctited in place. Hammered home and took the hilly route in this morning so it looks like it's good to go.
Here she is....

Apologies for the crap lighting, there wasn't much natural light around at 7am, Didn't quite manage to shellac the tape to match the saddle, but not a bad attempt - hides the grubby stains from the adhesive..
There are 2 spare tubs in the nylon sack under the saddle, if I remember at bologna, I'll get a copy of la Gazetta to cover the unsightly blue nylon!
Overall a pleasing effect.

that cotter pin incident sounds pretty grim. the bikes looking great though, especially for 65 quid!

Cheers, I'm glad the cotter pin occured in Surrey rather than Tuscany!

After looking around the market today, you will find something here, no problem... Loads of stuff. I'm tempted by the wool shorts.... Ranging from €25 to €50. Can't find a supermarket though!

Wool Shorts!!!!
You're a braver man than me!

Great read this.