Friday, February 27, 2009

First Ride!

Last Sunday the bike was taken out for its first ride on the ride since it made it to Australia.

A mate and I rode Beach Rd from St. Kilda to Blackrock in the marvellous sun. I struggled on the way there as there was a slight incline and the bike is without shifters so I was in the smallest rear gear for the entire length, the way back was amazing though.

The bike handled really well! There was some slight squeeling of the brakes but the new Kool Stop pads work much better than the old dry Mafacs, I truly felt as if the bike would stop when requested. The bottom bracket and hubs seemed to all be fine and run smooth. I guess when you consider the fact that in Melbourne one is always battling a strong wind; the bearings can be sticky without one noticing.

Alas, I didn't take any pictures but I will endevour to take some on the next ride. 

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Dating the Frame

I'm going to have to change the blog description.

So it turns out that I was very slack and just guessed that I was dealing with a 1970s frame. After visiting cykelhobby it turns out that the frame is really from the 60s! The linked page describes that frames with a serial number starting with a 3 are from the 1960s and a serial number starting with 4 is a 1970s. I have no idea exactly when and would love some help but if the brakes are original then it is most likely mid-late 60s.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Tires Good, brakes bad


I've finished the gluing process and the tires seem fairly well stuck to the rims. I will see how they are tomorrow night but I would be confident riding on them at the moment, I just can't imagine the tires rolling off the rims as the force required to move them with my thumbs is more than I can foresee occurring on a road.

The brakes, however, do not inspire confidence. Only the front brake is connected at the moment and on application the entire bike shudders. I will replace the pads when I can find a good replacement here (Such as the Kool Stop Salmon pads recommended by Sheldon Brown) in Melbourne but I am not convinced that will solve all the problems. The stray bits of tire glue would probably not be helping the braking either.

I've followed Sheldon's advice here and am trying the Shimano RX2000 levers that were already on the bike. Whilst I would like to get some Mafac levers for appearance's sake, if I am going to ride this thing down Mt. Dandenong then I want the best brakes I can get my hands on.

The wheels most certainly need to be trued and I guess the bike shop would need to take the tires off for that. That is a shame.

Anyway, I will head out on the bike for a cruise after work sometime this week when I've installed the rear brake and report back on how it felt.

Edit: I have ordered some Kool Stop Mafac/Campy replacement pads and will report on their usefulness shortly.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Tubular gluing has commenced.

Following Dave Moulton's procedure I have begun gluing my tires.

Major problems I will know about and document by the weekend, minor problems with my technique, however, I will probably only find out about when road starts to eat at my face and sides.

Off to buy some brake cables tomorrow to see if the Shimano levers currently aboard can at least get me out on the road.