just found my SS road bike!

[bonefishjake]

i was driving down the road last night and saw a bike. i couldn't tell what it was so i figured if it was there today i'd grab it if it looked decent since i wanted either an SS roadie or a fixxie. so, checked it out today and this is what's sitting in my garage right now:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/retroraleighs/catalogs/1976/pages/06-76-competition.html

aside from some surface rust and a small ding, the bike is in really great shape. the rims are true and the hubs even sound good (they roll so that's a start!). a new set of tires, some new wrap on the bars, a little love and bam! roadie SS!

gotta love what people will toss out these days!

 

[Fogerson]

Congrats...

SS road bike? What gearing?

 

[bonefishjake]

i dunno yet. big ring, smallish cog?

 

[Pearl]

looks like im in the same boat you are, except i have no idea what gearing is good for me

cool rig though

 

[Fogerson]

Ya' got me there.

I may be diggin' the SS mtb thing, but I can't even imagine a SS road bike around here. Of course, I remember saying the same thing wrt SS mtb

Maybe a 53/17 or 19?

Over in this part of Morris/Sussex Co., I can't think of gear that wouldn't have me walking a lot, spinning my brains out a lot, or both.

Though, on my little BVR out-and-back, I probably spend 80% of my time on 53/17. Constant rollers and no huge/steep/drawn out climbs. You're stronger than I, so you could probably pull a bigger ratio.

I guess that lines out a strategy anyway. On your most common road bike route, what gear are you in most of the time?

 

[walter]

Score!

 

[axcxnj]

i found 48/16 to work well for me on my fixie, i can get up 90% of hills and move comfortably on flats, for the downhills though ill get spinning pretty fast, i think i can max it out around 27 mph

 

[The Kalmyk]

How does the crankset look...I have a collection of old 10-12 speeds and one thing I experienced on two of them was the bottom bracket siezed in the frame...What a bitch to get em out...Even if you bought it from grandpa who has had it in his garage for twenty years...Nice bike

 

[bonefishjake]

well, i spent about an hour pulling it apart and franky i'm amazed at the condition it's in. i hit the fork with a little POR15 metal shine and it came right up. there's a little pitting but that's to be expected on a 30ish year old bike. everything came apart really easy. the gussets on this bike are beautiful. i really hope that i can salvage this. i really see no reason why not.

anyway, i did a little more research and found this on sheldon brown's website:

"WH9..." serial number, Heron headbadge. Black, with half-chromed forks and chain and seat stays. Gold pinstriping around lugs. Reynolds 531 double butted tubing throughout. Campagnolo eyeletted drop outs, long horizontal in rear. Components are from the Campagnolo Nuovo Gran Sport group, except for Weinmann 605 brakes. Rims are also Weinmann. Saddle is Brooks, Stem is marked "Raleigh", no markings on handlebars.

the thing that first tipped me off that this may be worth picking up was the brooks saddle which isn't in horrible condition. as for the cranks/bb it spins pretty well. i haven't tried to mess with it yet (ran out of time...i do have to work!) but it appears to be in good working order. the chain...eh...not so much. there is a small dent on the top tube too, but nothing crazy. no idea if it's worth it to bring it to a shop (body shop?) and try to get it pulled out. who knows. but, like i said, everything else is in good working order. hopefully this will be a fun project.

 

[Shaggz]

brooks saddle, huh? nice score.

 

[ChrisG]

Sounds groovy. I was into all that stuff when I was a kid in the 70's, very cool.

Just to add to the "what gearing?" discussion: I run 42x16 on my fixed. That's a 70 inch gear. I can pedal it up anything I've yet to encounter, and can spin it up to around 32mph on downhills before I need to pedal against the front brake. YMMV on the spinning part, but it's just a matter of working up to it.

 

[bonefishjake]

yep, brooks saddle. it looks to be pretty beat so i may have to replace it. i was shocked it was there though.

as for the gearing, well, i'll have plenty of time to figure that out. the bike is in pieces in my garage and will probably sit that way for awhile until i figure it all out. still cool though but i'm amazed that it would just get tossed out like that. i mean, i'm pretty sure if i wanted to i could have just put air in the tires and ridden it.

 

[THATmanMANNY]

my GF wouldn't let me take bike on side of road

Great find. I'm jealous. You lucked out and you had no one telling you not to grab it.

Story goes... I had been eyeing this vintage road bike left on the sidewalk in the pleasantville-ish town of Princeton. I told my GF that if it was there on the way back from our destination I am going to take it. It was a very good condition blue schwinn with frame shifters and the same type saddle and that old school type fork (which BTW I like those Masi's). She giggled (implying no that's mean). It is my wish to rock out on a vintage bike and pass others on their carbons.

After coming out of a nice dinner and on the way back to the car, I wanted to take it so bad, but she said no that's mean which means i was right about the giggling. I tried to persuade her but she was making me feel bad. So I never took it. So just some words of advice, when your more decent half is with you and this situation occurs don't say anything to her/him about the find. Just take it and throw it in your car, bounce, and leave her behind. JK about the last part.

 

[bonefishjake]

thanks, i thought so too.

ya see you asked. that was the problem. i just bring them home. i don't ask, i just explain.

but, here's a quick re-hash of the conversation:

mrs bfj- uh, wtf is that?
me- i found it
mrs- where?
me- on the...uh...road.
mrs- so you garbage picked it.
me- no, i found it next to the garbage. i think it may be a good bike
mrs- ok...so...you're going to sell it then?
me- no i...
mrs- closes garage door.

a lot of our bike related conversations go like that.

 

[The Kalmyk]

Sometimes it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission...


I found it on the road:rofl::rofl::rofl:....Sounds too familiar

 

[stb222]

if I could "find" a bike, I would be set. I started to lay the groundwork for commuter "beater" bike last night. Didn't go over so well but the seed was planted....

 

[Pearl]

ahaha "closes the door"

 

[The Kalmyk]

if I could "find" a bike, I would be set. I started to lay the groundwork for commuter "beater" bike last night. Didn't go over so well but the seed was planted....

when ready i have a Shogun 400 Tange CroMoly for ya...Old school with ridiculous flavor...

 

[bonefishjake]

i shot an email to Raleigh this am to see if it'd be possible to get a set of the original decals for the bike. hopefully i'll be able to do that but i doubt it. if not i suppose i'll have to tape them off somehow. or something. since i'm going to repaint it (homebrew, pixy-style) i'm just going to use some dent filler from autozone for the ding. after it's painted no one will ever know it was there. as for the paint...if i can, i'm going to use POR15. the only reason i wouldn't do that is if i decided that i wanted to get real creative with it or something. even then, as long as i chose a decent base color it'd be fine. they make a pretty wide variety of colors and since it's self leveling you can use a brush to put it on. then all i'll have to spray/sand is the clear coating. this is gonna be a cool project to do. well, as soon as i finish all the other projects i currently have going on around my house...