Gazelle Champion Mondial AA restoration

Thanks. I considered a respray but decided not to - first of all it's expensive if you want to get it done properly. Also it's original only once ;) and scratches add character.

A little more of hub porn. Now I've put new ball bearings in both hubs - so smooth. Hopefully they will stay like that ;)

Now I'm waiting just for the spokes. Went with Alpina 2.0 x 1.6 x 2.0 spokes (at least the seller claims them to be 2.0 x 1.6 x 2.0 because I can't really find any info regarding these spokes on the net). They were much cheaper than the Sapim/DT offerings.

Hmm I've searched far and wide but can't find the solution (probably there isn't any). As I've said earlier one of the brake hoods was torn. I tried gluing it and it seemed to work but in the end the hood simply cracked just right beside the old tear. So I glued it again and the situation repeated. Now I'm not even able to glue it back together because the area became so "brittle". While it doesn't affect the way the lever works (and the tear probably won't spread any further anytime soon) I'm slightly OCD in this particular matter and it won't let me rest. Can anyone recommend a fitting replacement / replica in case the tear gets worse? NOS stuff is out of the question because of the price and it would probably tear soon anyways. There is a seller on eBay who sells generic replicas at a fairly low price but they look awful. Dia compe 204 hoods seem so much nicer but what about the fit?

Hope the hoods will hold up nicely after the bike is finished and gets ridden - they're in pretty good shape overall and it would be a shame if they deteriorated quickly :/

hoods are a bit of a nightmare...
Agree that the cane creek ones on ebay are hideous!!
You're not alone in this, no doubt a quick utfs will tell you whether 204's work on campag.

Here are the options that I know of......

1) campyoldy - £50 for Nuovo/Super Record Gum - as far as I can see this is what you've got - this is probably your best bet for NOS

2) Bicycle Classics in the US do reproduction Campag ones for US$39 - these are NR/SR gum hoods

3) There's a guy named Robbie Fellows in california who moulds reproductions - possibly the ones BC are selling, also around the US$40 mark, and well respected as a faithful replica. I'll PM you his email address and you can see if he has any stock or find out when he's cooking another batch.

4) I recently spotted these on wblenkin's webpage - it appears he's found a repro hood that fits - he may share this info if you ask nicely...

Hope this helps.

Didn't know about option 3) and 4), thanks. I'm talking about these hoods:

http://www.ebay.pl/itm/Standard-Brake-Lever-Hoods-Campagnolo-Universal-/290866526048?pt=Ricambi_per_biciclette&hash=item43b8fef760#ht_3372wt_1037

Would not be bad if they weren't so translucent (but he also has the black version).

EDIT: Ohhhh Robbie's replicas look killer.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8379107@N03/5371107855/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Jackpot, if you ask me/

The tubs arrived and I finally managed to get rid of the old glue. It was all dried up but not enough to scrape it easily with a screwdriver. Don't even want to think about the amount of paint thinner I've inhaled in the process :P

BTW. I know that Milano tubs are cheap stuff but the weight consistency (or lack of it) is surprising:

At least they look very nice, gumwall is the way to go.

EDIT:

Great stuff:

The saddle was in pretty good condition to start with, but after applying shoe polish it definately improved.

The build is definately nearig an end - I think the bike should be finished next week.

Here is a quick (and bad) photograph of what it looks like at the moment:

Front wheel is finished, rear is just laced and still before truing and tensioning. Because I build my wheels on my own they definately won't be perfect but should be of decent quality. I'm quite satisfied with the results regarding front wheel - especially because I have no truing stand.

Tubs are obviously not taped yet, just stretching them. In the background you can see that all the parts are neatly arranged and waiting for the final assembly. And my teddy bear is supervising everything :P

really nice!

Need advice about bottle cage. Can't really find something nice and matching. Nitto R cage is great but not gonna spend so much. Thought about Ciussi Elite Inox. Still nice but not as expensive as Nitto.

I'm also torn whether to restore the Campy pedals or not. They're spinning very smoothly but are quite beaten-up with deep scratches etc. Because of the shape of the pedals I think they're the hardest of bike components to polish. And I'm not gonna use them at all (I think) - I want to use my Shimano PD-5700 instead as I really think that when it comes to pedals you should really use the ones that are most comfortable/secure in your opinion and IMHO clipless pedals win in every aspect (except looks). On the other hand the G.S. pedals are a part of this bike so why not to restore them too. Plus they would look good on the photographs :P

Advice?

PS. I love it how pedals are usually marked L/R but the campy ones I have are marked S/D (sinistra / destra?) :P

sinistra/destra it is! and i'd say polish 'em up. elite cage sounds perfect

+1 on elite - a good cage with a reasonably retro look & feel

Personally I'm not a big fan of those nitto cages - they strike me as retrobollox - stuff designed to look old that never actully existed in the olden days for the simple reason that it's pointless (see also brooks leather handlebar tape etc).

If you want to go completely period correct, you'll need a TA or REG - up until the '80's these were completely ubiquitous.

Sadly they don't make them any more, just cheap crimped knock-offs... (available on ebay )
Dave Marsh also has some knock-offs in chrome & white and I'm sure you can find other sources

I have a blue Elite if you are interested

Rik - thx for all the info (again)

kenzo - thanks for an offer but I think this bike needs silver cage

Great work, that's a lovely job you've done.

These are, I assume, an earlier version of the Ciussi: a bit less fussy and a great price. May be a bit late for you though, they are more 90's to my mind.

On a side note, I really like the 980 derailleurs, I suppose the chunky, angular look has something Art Deco about it.

Yeah, people tend to ditch 980 for it's look but I personally think it's not that bad. I swapped it for a Nuovo Record because 980 is said to be inferior / positioned lower?

I went with Elite Inox bottle cage, PD-5700 pedals and R078 shoes, waiting for the delivery. Finished rear wheel yesterday evening and started mounting all the components. Everything went quite smoothly, the brake calipers still need fine tuning as they are not moving freely, might have tightened the bolts too much.

But the biggest problem for me is mounting saddle on the seatpost. I'm a calm man but am really close to snapping. I don't have the special bent campy wrench for adjusting the two-bolt seatpost clamp so it's a major pita. I can reach and tighten both bolts with a lot of fiddling but I can't seem to wrap my head around how to adjust the saddle angle. Which bolt should I be tightening first? I seem to get quite random results, none of which is proper setting. And each adjustment takes ages because I can turn the wrench like 1/8 th of a turn before it hits the saddle rails.

Anyone more experienced than me has got a hint?

*Seriously *nice build. I particularly like the fact that, judging by all the photos so far, you appear to be taking each part to bed with you before installing it.

Good choice of tyres too. I put Vittoria Rallys on my Gazelle restoration and literally haven't been on a ride since where they haven't punctured. I like the look of that pit-stop stuff though....

Campagnolo pedals are for photos only (crap attitude, I know). I bought a set of Superleggaris purely to complete the groupset; I've never actually stood on them. One word of warning though: the pedal threads on Campagnolo cranks are not very robust - the Campagnolo pedals fit fine but every time I put in my spds (same size thread), it's a greasy squeeze.

As for bottle cages, go Gazelle!

All is dandy now except one little detail - for whatever reason chain keeps rolling off the lower pulley of the rear derailleur when it's set to smaller chainring and smallest cog:

All other combinations work perfectly but for some reason small-small doesn't. Too long chain, wrong derailleur setup or something else?

I know that small-small is a no-no in general but is it really supposed to not work at all?

Apparently not!

Running in either extreme will stress the chain, be mechanically inefficient and cause excessive wear to the chainrings and sprockets.

If you punch the details of your set-up into this gear calculator, you can see where the gears overlap (between the large and small chainrings).

As well as causing less stress and wear on your drive chain, you will also be more efficient.

Great link. Hmm gonna play with it a little more and try to work something out. Even if I won't use such sprocket combination on purpose it may always happen accidentaly that I "overshift" - especially with friction shifting. Wouldn't want to jam the chain and damage rear derailleur :/

Nice project!

I can't really see from that photo, but how worn are the derailleur pulleys? If they are very worn it might make it more prone to dropping

Great thread! Look forward to seeing the end result.

I also suspected that the pulleys might be a little worn. To be honest this is my first road bike so I don't really have any reference and don't know how "worn" pulleys look. A bit better photograph of the derailleur was posted a bit earlier:

However - the chain was much too long, like 3-4 links. I've shortened it which helped a lot but didn't solve the problem. In the end with fine tuning I managed to set everything up in a way which prevents chain drops. Still - I think I'll get new pulleys and a new chain (don't really know how old is the current one, it might be a little stretched too).

So the bike is more or less complete - still waiting for the bottle cage and pedals. Also have to find a nice water bottle :P

But here is a quick snapshot of the completed build (better photographs to be made when all the final bits arrive and when I have more time). Sadly the gumwalls are already dirty after the first 10k ride. Doesn't seem like they will be easy to clean up for the pron photographs but really couldn't resist riding it. Riding a road bike after being "fixed" for so long is a little cumbersome at first - can't quite get used to braking with my fingers rather than legs :P

Looks excellent. Blue cable housings were definitely the right choice, but could they be a bit shorter?