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Bonus story:

This is one of 50 made, badge has the Swedish bike brand's name "Crescent", gold plated - but the frame was made by Speedwell. Now, mine belonged to the director of the company, who, when he moved out of his house at old age, gave it away to the removals driver. Who in turn sold it to me.

Mine could even be the prototype for the series, since it lacks the badge with the builders signature and number in the series that the others have...

Attached is the ad they ran. I read on the Swedish page linked above that this thing sold for 4000:- SEK in '76, when a good normal bike went for 470:-

I love beautiful bikes, but I'm no collector, I just want a great bike to ride, hence my original question.

A shame not to ride it, but yes, also a shame to ruin it...

The first 50 had Nuovo Record, subsequent bikes had Shimano groupsets.

Not my picture I have to add.

@Midi actually it was sold with that rack, see also below :)

Mine is identical - but it came without the rear rack and mudguards. Even the brake hoods, saddle and bar tape are original on mine, and same as on the pic. The chain on it is still in good nick, not stretched out at all, and looks original, so I kind of seem to have gotten one that wasn't used much since new.

Makes it a shame to even swap out the handlebars come to think of it, but I really do not like those, and do love drops...

Maybe buy new stem and brake levers as well so that the original one can be removed and put back if a museum decides to buy the thing :P

I was thinking, since it is all titanium / aluminium alloys, it wouldn't take that much of a beating with the snow, but OK I'll take your advice :(

Thank you!

Hi!

I just bought a titanium speedwell bike, with a full nuovo record groupset. My plan is to make this my main bike, for year-round commuting here in Stockholm Sweden.

But, given its age, historical and monetary value, I am a bit worried it is a waste of a classic.

Would it withstand such a use, or should I just stick to my boring specialized and keep the speedwell for sunny summer days?

Attached is what it looks like now, I'll swap the bars for drops and add a front rack, otherwise keeping it original.

If any Swedes are reading this, here's some more info on it: http://www.cykelhobby.com/executive.htm

I got these here and noone's stolen my wheels yet :)

http://www.pinheadcomponents.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=35&Itemid=56

Costly though.

I love this picture!

Just to point out with a bit more evidence than some might want that good bike porn needn't involve nude ladies :)

Bought this last week...

Seeing that frame made my heart race and my mouth water....

Or is it the kind where you pedal backwards to brake?

It would be a shame to respray it, try and keep some of it's identity.
Are you planning to convert it? Because those dropouts aren't going to allow much adjustment.

No I'm no fixed gear / single speed rider, I like my bikes to have derailleurs on them :)

I still love to read londonfgss though, because of the DIY-ethos of the people here and the emphasis on bike aesthetics.

Regarding the look, the paint is really chipped on the other side and bottom of rear triangle, plus there's rust here and there that I cannot remove without further damaging the paint.

...And I much prefer the supercorsa look to 90's sparkly purple :D

The chipped paint on the bottom of the rear-triangle reveals some chrome which I'm hoping to find on the top as well. I really love the chromed rear-triangle look, wouldn't want a bike without it now that I've seen it :P

Hi!

This will be my first restoration project; I've had many bikes before but never stripped one down completely like this. A good friend gave me the bike, bought new in 93, and told me I should pay him as much as it takes for me not to feel ashamed for taking it off him :D

Help me out with valuing it so that I don't rip him off completely :P

This is what I want to make it look like:

...A poor mans Cinelli Supercorsa in other words, bar the red pedals of course :D

Do you think this bike is worth the effort of respraying, possibly chroming etc, or should I just buy a lookalike frame/bike instead? It's a relatively common look, so they crop up on ebay now and then starting from about £300. I enjoy the tinkering of course, but I wouldn't want to spend too much time polishing a turd so to speak :)

Tube stickers say "Made in Italy", and "Columbus speciali trafilati, acciaio CrMo, GARA Tre tubi". Brakes are Shimano Exage 500EX, derailers 300EX...

P.S. Apologies for the large images, if this isn't something you do at this forum let me know and I'll reduce their size.

Coming from sweden I know a thing or two about these Kronan bikes. They used to be the main supplier for the swedish army, and were heave steel bikes coming only in one colour, olive green :)

The kronans sold now are of asian origin, and have a reputation of terrible build quality. All vintage style and no substance; if something is THAT heavy the least you'd expect is that it doesn't fall to pieces when you ride it :D

The original army Kronan bikes sell for very little money in sweden, so they would make a great restoration project! 30£ for the bike, another 30£ for the shipping, if you can find someone shipping these outside of sweden that is... just google arme-cykel or militär-cykel, and you'll get something like this:

http://kopochsalj.eniro.se/query/what/gti_info/ax/eallan/id/A21987076

I have to say, these look really good when rusty!