finished bike: about 22 lbs. (pre-basket) |
Against my better judgment, I pulled this frenchie road bike from the pile of crappy bikes in our breezeway and set about removing all the heavy steel parts and making it a useful city bike. I admit I was seduced by the cool "Stella" cursive script and especially the "VAINQUEUR DU TOUR DE FRANCE CINQUANTENAIRE".
VAINQUEUR DU TOUR DE FRANCE CINQUANTENAIRE |
This means more or less "winner of the 50th anniversary of the Tour de France", for you non-francophiles. Turns out that was 1953, and it was won by the great 3-time TdF champion Louison Bobet, and on 100%-French bikes (last guy to do that, I think). Of course, the actual 50th Tour was the 1963 (several years were skipped due to wars, etc.), which was won by Jacques Anquetil on a Gitane, as was his habit.
thanks to the Park BTS-1 threadcutter, the Ultegra 6500 BB and 105 crank (with half-length chainring bolts) could be installed - 24 TPI English threads, yay |
Anyway, about this project -- absolutely everything on this bike fought me:
- bottom bracket: wacky french threads... I actually bought a $500 Park bb threading tool and fixed the threads (24 TPI English). Then the shell width wasn't quite standard -- a 68mm stuck out a bit in square taper, but an octalink one finally worked well. Kind of silly to put an Ultegra BB in this thing, but I had a 105 crank, so it worked out.
- fork interior diameter: 22.0 mm.
![]() |
"adjusting" the 22.2 mm Serotta stem down to 22.0 mm |
Say what? The nearly universal standard for stems is 22.2 mm, but no, the frenchies go .2 mm smaller, so I had to get some sandpaper and manually "machine" this old scratched-up Serotta quill stem to the french standard... but now it works fine.
seatpost: 26.0 mm, but had to be filed to accept a modern post
before: 36 lbs. or so and really ugly |
Component highlights:
- Serotta 22.0 mm stem (custom!)
- Tektro purple brake levers (yeah, I got a deal on a bunch of these, despite their questionable taste)
- Cannondale (Tektro) rear dual-pivot brake
- DiaCompe super long reach dual-pivot front brake
- Specialized Alias 130mm seat (silly overkill, but I had it and it matched)
- pink Velocity deep-V rims w/ Godspeed hubs (again, more than I wanted to spend, but they presented themselves with tires, freewheel, and fixed cog for $199 brand new)
- Topeak removable shopping basket
- Planet Bike fenders
- Ultegra 6500 octalink BB
- Shimano 105 crank
- Kalloy Uno seatpost
- Nitto handlebar
handsome Nitto handlebar detail... and dig the purple lever |
My brother rides this bike around now with his 2-year old in an iBert. Cute!
2 comments:
Looks great! Good job.
Top 10 Casinos Near Bryson City NC - Mapyro
Casinos near 이천 출장안마 Bryson City NC 안동 출장마사지 · 1. Lincoln Casino · 2. Hard Rock Hotel 광명 출장마사지 & Casino · 3. 광주 출장안마 Pautipaug Casino · 김천 출장샵 4. Hollywood Casino Hotel · 5.
Post a Comment