Mystery Track Lopro Strip & Rebuild

So the time has finally come to refinish and rebuild my Lopro. Originally bought off here from @Sam_Doman a couple of years ago it used to be my daily hack to work. After moving further out of town 25 miles a day round trip didn't look to favourable so a shift to gears and this has sat dormant for the best part of the last 6 months. When I bought the frame Sam said it could do with a respray but as it was to be my daily driver I thought what the hell, I'll leave it as-is so I won't be too precious about the paint etc when locking up. Now the mood and opportunity has taken my to rebuild it as a fair weather hang on the wall beauty.

Here are a couple go not so great snaps whilst I've owned it;

The history;

When I bought this frame off Sam, and indeed if you google "Poyner Lopro" you get pics of it in its former glory, red and white fade looking good and some nice parts to boot (LA94 pursuit bars IIRC). Now I did a bit more research and Poyner is a rather mysterious brand, and was essentially a bike shop in Wolverhampton founded by Fred Poyner and later run by his son Joe Poyner. Apparently the shop was demolished in the 70s when they build the ring road, but lopros we're not around in the 70s and I'm fairly sure mine is an early 90s. Rumour also has it that most, if not all, of the Poyner built frames were actually build by Bob Jackson. I have no way of verifying this it if true is awesome.

The majority of my info on Poyner came from a CTC thread which I will link to when I work out how to on the iPad :-/

The frame;

So what I do know about the frame is as follows...

Reynolds 531c
1" threaded forks
Track dropouts
700c front and rear
Drilled for a front and rear brake
Three slots cut in the BB shell
Heart shaped cut outs in the lugs
27.2mm seatpost
English BB thread

Now the frame has no serial number whatsoever which coupled with the front and rear brake drillings leads me to believe it was a custom built frame for someone to road time trial on, likely by Bob Jackson but that's more me wanting it to be than it actually being.

I'll update with pics etc shortly and start talking about the plans for the build in the next post...

So I'll own up and admit that the trigger for getting the bike finally refinished and rebuilt is thanks to @6pt and his Serotta CP thread (link to be added). I was speaking to Tom and he basically said "I'm thinking of getting a horrendous fluoro fade on the new old Serotta, it would look awesome on your Lopro". Wasn't sure what to make of this comment at first but alas the decision of getting the frame sprayed and what colour had been done for me so there will be a pair of polar opposite "his and his" colour scheme bikes rolling around soon...

I've been and spoken to Vaz and his bro Winston and the bike has been stripped down ready for handing over, hopefully tomorrow. The orange to pink fade is going to look awesome as far as I'm concerned.

For the build itself, I've been backwards and forwards for the past couple of weeks on what to do. I have deliberated the following "themes"...

• Full NJS build, just because. Would consist of Sugino 75's with Zen chainring and super lap BB. Nitto finishing kit, DA hubs etc.
  
• Period correct build, hard given I don't really know what the frame is or what would have been on it in the early 90s. Probably would consist of an endless eBay hunt for Wolber rims and retro shimano parts, Mavic Starfish cranks, rare stuff, I dunno.
  
• Modern but not over the top Italian themed consisting of something like Miche hubs and cranks with H+Son rims, deeper at the back than the front to give the illusion of a 650c front. All in all better for the bank balance but a bit meh and not that special.
  
• Pimping American style consisting of lots of Phil Wood stuff and random parts of eBay. Hubs etc expensive but easy to source, bars, stem and rims not so much.
  
  

The main thing that annoys me about most of the above builds is lack of matching parts, I like a complete set if you know what I mean. The NJS idea has that, but then the frame is definitely European so seems a bit pointless. I was flitting back to the modern Italian style build mainly because it's easier to find parts and as much as I have patience I don't really know what I'm hunting for on eBay, then a thought struck me - modern Campagnolo Record pista stuff - I can get hubs, cranks and even a matching 1" threaded headset, winner.

So that's the plan for now, watch this space...

Something entirely French? Mavic made bullhorns, stems, seatposts, cranks, wheels.

^that would be ace, but €€€€

Looking tired but off to paint tomorrow...

It is gone! Removed your seatpost clamp bolt, will hang onto it for ya.

Cheers mate! I am soooo excited about this, it's been a while since I actually thought about a build, epic times :-)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Campagnolo-Shamal-16-track-pista-very-rare-in-great-condition-c-record-hubs-/181575695974?pt=US_Wheels_Wheelsets&hash=item2a46c13e66

€€€lols

Also just cc-ed you in on a lengthy email to Vaz so you know what I've asked for and what's going on. I said as much to him in person this morning and will do again when I drop things off later in the week - if I missed anything please chime in!

Ok great, I assume my hotmail addy?

Hmmmmmmmm......

gmail - it's the one that comes up on my autocomplete when I type your name in so assumed it's the right one. looking back through my inbox I've never actually received anything from you on it so no idea wher eI got it from.

Ah, I'll text you, I think I have an account from ages ago but don't use it.

So progress update... Dropped in to see Vaz and Winston today with @6pt and @Loic to chat bikes and see the various stages of stripping, brazing and building that's happening between our random collection of bikes.

I'm happy to report that the lopro has been stripped and primed in gloss white ready for rubbing down. Apparently the gloss white primer is required for a base for the fluoro colours that will be going on.

Excited!

@veLLo, not @Loic...

Oh yeah! Sorry whoever Loic is!

Also, it begins.....

Is the blanket campag too?

This is going to be so good, what rims are you going for?

I've always liked this frame, sure I saw it ridden with an arrospok at some point.

No but it is a custom build by the missus

Yeah it did have a white arrospok for about a week until I realised my folly. Rims are going to be H+Son TB14's - currently debating between the ano grey and black but grey is currently winning.

Ahh ok, my vote is grey too.

With black it'll be so much more obvious when the anodising is worn off one rim from braking and not the other.

True, plus I think the black will stand out too much against the silver spokes, this is going to be a very clean fine weather bike :-) I did consider going for something modern and deep (formation face/deep v) but I quite like the idea of the style of an early 90s bike but with modern day parts hence the shallow early Mavic/Ambrosio ripoff TB14's are perfect!

I like the sound of this build. Reckon you're on the right path for components.

What's the plan for bars?

Well I have some Profile Air wings that used to be on there but they're black and won't fit with the "matching" thing that I have going on. Current thinking is to go for Nitto bars/stem/seatpost as they're about the best quality modern bits you can get and will look suitably early 90's in silver. Open to suggestions tho!