The Accidental Continental

I bought this frame on Ebay a little while ago. As the title suggests it wasn't a planned purchase.. I was actually trying to address the n+1 scenario in our household by buying my partner a bike to even things up a bit. This was one of a pair - the mixte intended for her went for silly money - so my plan backfired somewhat. It's been sitting around for a while and I've been working out some of its idiosyncrasies but the time has come to do something with it.

It's a French frame, branded Continental. It's pretty dinged up and the drive side bottom bracket cup seems to be completely seized in place. I'm not going to throw much money at it but thought it would be good to do something in keeping with its age as a learning curve for installing older parts.

I've widened the rear dropouts by stretching them in a bench vice, ordered a 25mm dia seatpost and an adaptor for the vertically drilled rear brake bridge and that's about it so far.. My first dilemma is whether to persist with the cotterless cranks or swap out the axle for a square taper..

square taper and budget crankset would be a better solution.

Agreed. I swapped the axle out yesterday and threw some parts bin bits on it to test it out. Also got a super long reach front brake (don't worry Ed, I'll get a back brake too!)

Next problem found is the down tube derailleur braze ons. The right hand one is there but the left hand one is missing - there is only the smallest mark where it was brazed. Obviously not well enough..

Regarding the shifter braze-ons,you know what that means...build her a TT machine!

Maybe - the bars I put on yesterday were some reversed moustache bars which looks pretty TT.

Here is what I threw on from the Parts Bin this weekend:

The wheels and cranks are from a 90's Raleigh Scorpio that has been in bits in my garage for quite a few years now. Not sure where I picked up that black stem and it is easily the thing that needs changing first.

Arrived at work after a week off today and found that my boss had had a clearout and left some old bars and a stem on my desk - he's good like that.

The bars and stem are off an old Danish bike and have a really nice dull finish. They make the new 25mm dia seat post I bought look horribly shiny so will try to think of a way to dull that down if I keep the stem/bars on.

I haven't had straight bars since I was about 10 so I'll probably keep it this way for awhile for a memory lane trip.
Picking up some more suitable pedals and an old derailleur later this week to get up and running..

It's also got a quaint rear gear cable routing that I'll get better pictures of next time. Rather than routing bare cable under the bottom bracket there are two braze-ons (at the bottom of the down tube and the crank end of the chain stay) for a short length of cable outer that will sit behind the chainrings.

Progress... of sorts.

I fixed up the rear derailleur last weekend but a quick once up and down the lane reminded me why I had moved on from that rear wheel in the first place - the sprockets are knackered and the chain slips every 10 yards. Should have binned it. So, just to get things going I've set it up a SS until I can solve the shifter braze-on issue and sort a different rear block. It rides really smoothly considering it's such a mish-mash of bits but the 52 tooth chainring doesn't make for speedy starts.

The braze-ons look like this on the drive side:

and this on the other side:

It feels like I am going to have to remove the drive side braze-on and use a band-on. Any other ideas??

Project Resurrection.

I've been riding the Continental as a pub bike all winter but gaining a place at L'Erocia Brittania has forced me to get on with getting it geared up. I've been getting a few bits off the forum over the last few weeks and have got most of them on the bike now.

I resolved the issue of the missing down tube lever braze-on with a band-on located just above the one that is there. I got the fear about dremelling it off smoothly enough without mucking up the paintwork and it seems to work fine..

I have a wingnutted rear wheel to match the front but it will have to stay on the missus' bike until I can cold-set hers to take the 130mm I have in the Continental at the moment. Toe clips are on the way..

Was hoping that second hand Brooks tape would be a better match for the very aged leather of the seat but it's still a little jarring. Need to dull down the shiny seat post too.

I'll be on the lookout for a more suitable crankset over the next few weeks. The current one is a Parts Bin offering from a 90's Raleigh. All suggestions welcome..

Remove the suicide levers. Please.

^thought that might come up.. Will do.

Nice job!

I'm not sure it had a shifter mount brazed onto the left: the marks in the DT don't tie-in with the other one and I can't see the paint being in that condition if there was one.

Wire wool on the seatpost?

Thanks.

I agree about the paintwork on the left side not really looking like there was a full braze-on there but there are cable guides for a front derailleur.. Maybe it was some kind on combined braze-on, band-on thing (which would explain the slight marks on the left hand side that are in line with the braze-on right hand side)

I'm pretty sure I've seen a band-on/braze-on combo before, but can't think why it would be done that way...

A lot of french frames only have a rear mech shifter braze-on. There are left-side boss-on-band bits that have a cutout to allow the brazed-on boss to poke through. Check ebay item 131115024231 for an example.

You should also check if your frame tubes are metric sized - if they are, keeping the front mech from slipping means either getting a smaller clamp or making a shim.

^ thanks for the tip and the link. I'll follow it up as it will look nicer with the right band.