The Thread about Nothing....

[stevebaby]

Originally Posted by matagi

That's a lovely thing, SB - what's the frame?

Like the stitched leather grips.

At a guess, the frame is a late 80s-early 90s Japanese or Taiwanese. It had been used as a training bike and resprayed. It was pretty light (1.6kg IIRC)with no dings or rust. One of these days I'll get the serial numbers and do a search on its provenance, but I'm not really fussed about it. The size and fit were more important to me, and I was pretty lucky with that. The bike is very comfortable. The rando bars and saddle help there.
If I was to do a frame in clear again, I would spend a lot more time sanding it and probably buffing it. I had the frame chemically stripped, and they obviously used a powered wire brush to remove the last of the paint. That left a lot of coarse scratches. I thought I had most of them sanded out and that the clear finish would conceal the remainder. Wrong...it highlighted them.
The leather bar covers are from Velo Orange (elkskin), very soft and thick and very comfortable. When they are stitched on, a hole for the brake mountings has to be cut in the leather, and that really can't be done until halfway through the stitching. I was deceived by the softness of the leather into believing that it would cut easily. It didn't, and when I finally got a razor sharp knife through it, the blade slipped and put a large gash in the leather and continued through one of my fingers until I felt it scrape the bone. I didn't much feel like hanging around Cas on a Saturday night, so I immediately pulled the cut closed and wrapped it firmly with one of those new fangled "wet" bandaids, large size. Then I kept a very careful eye on it for any signs of infection of inhibited circulation. It's healed well though, and as the knife was extremely sharp (I have a sharpening fetish), the scar is imperceptible. I do have a slightly numb point at the tip of my finger, but my GP says it's OK.It matches the part of my leg where a tendon was removed to rebuild my shoulder, and a large part of my brain (such as it is).
I couldn't disguise the damage to the covers, so I'll be doing it again with new leather in a couple of days. I can reuse the old bar covers, so that doesn't bother me.
It's still in the "running things in and fine-tuning the shifting" stage, hence the current use on shortish rides to the pub. It's keeping me pretty sober...I'm dreading the inevitable first scratch. Everything is either new or NOS except the frame.
It took more than a year of searching ebay and the net to get all the parts together, but I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted and I was prerared to wait until I could get NOS stuff at a reasonable price. Originally I wanted 700c 28 tyres, so I bought a set of Schwalbe Marathons, which fouled the brakes when inflated. They'll be going on the next project though. Eventually, after much searching of the net and LBSs, I found a set of Kendas...$17.50 each, which were exactly what I wanted. I had a set of black Vittorias on it, but the gumwalls really transform the appearance.

All up, it cost around $3200 to assemble. As it's virtually a brand new bike with almost a complete DuraAce group, I'm pretty happy with the cost. I doubt I could buy anything like it off the shelf at that price.

Just found an old mixte at the auctions for $60, which will be the next project, with a Shimano 600 arabesque drivetrain and derailleurs and a Brooks B17 to be added. I don't think I'll clear coat it...a mixte frame looks like a bugger to sand around the lugs.

[stevebaby]

Faaaaark! Did I type all that?
Ride time now methinks...weather in the Emerald City is absolutely perfect for it right now.

[matagi]

Steve, I may be wrong, but I *think* back then there was only one Japanese frame maker - Miyata (they even made their own tubes) - who made frames for all the other Jap brands.

If it's a Miyata, the serial number is on the underside of the BB and there's an online database of their numbers somewhere. There's a dude called TMar who used to hang out on Bike Forums (don't know if he still does) who is an expert on Miyatas and could give you a complete rundown on what you have if the serial numbers suggest it is a Miyata.

Either way, it's a beautiful looking bike. You've done well - even if you almost amputated a digit in the process.

[Thylacine]

Yeah, nice Nannamobile there Steve.

Ma, I can't believe there was only one Japanese frameshop working in the late 80's. What about Panasonic? My old Diamond Back from circa 1988 was probably Japanese made. Likely they were all made from Ishiwata or Tange tubing too as I'm not sure Miyata drew their own tubes, but I'm only guessing.

[classic1]

Originally Posted by Thylacine

Yeah, nice Nannamobile there Steve.

Ma, I can't believe there was only one Japanese frameshop working in the late 80's. What about Panasonic? My old Diamond Back from circa 1988 was probably Japanese made. Likely they were all made from Ishiwata or Tange tubing too as I'm not sure Miyata drew their own tubes, but I'm only guessing.

Those Panasonics were nice bikes. The bloke who was the Ti-Raleigh /Panasonic/Novemail head mechanic reckons they were the best frames the team ever had. Pretty big raps when you consider they rode Raleighs from the Raleigh speciality house, Merckx, Colnago, and Look at various times.

I had some old mags dumped on me recently, with ads from 1988 for the Panasonic PICS bikes, including a picture of very nice looking Ti frame with Dura Ace

[Thylacine]

Originally Posted by classic1

Those Panasonics were nice bikes.
I had some old mags dumped on me recently, with ads from 1988 for the Panasonic PICS bikes, including a picture of very nice looking Ti frame with Dura Ace

Great, now you've made me go drag out those 80's Bicycle Guides.

[matagi]

Originally Posted by Thylacine

Yeah, nice Nannamobile there Steve.

Ma, I can't believe there was only one Japanese frameshop working in the late 80's. What about Panasonic? My old Diamond Back from circa 1988 was probably Japanese made. Likely they were all made from Ishiwata or Tange tubing too as I'm not sure Miyata drew their own tubes, but I'm only guessing.

Miyata was actually a gun manufacturer, and they definitely made their own tubes. In fact, I have been told they were the only bike manufacturer in the world who made their own tubes - no idea if that's correct, but the fact that Miyata made their own tubes is certainly correct.

[thunder]

esoteric tagsi

[matagi]

Originally Posted by thunder

esoteric tagsi

Stop trying to sweet talk me!

[531Aussie]

Another annoying Yankism: for 'I work out', 'I do weights', or 'I pump iron', etc, they say "I lift". BLAH!!! ....."I've been lifting for a few years"

eeeek.....erk.......blurk.....

[531Aussie]

Originally Posted by classic1

Those Panasonics were nice bikes.....

Were 3Rensho frames made by someone else?


http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Japan/japan.htm

[matagi]

Originally Posted by 531Aussie

Another annoying Yankism: for 'I work out', 'I do weights', or 'I pump iron', etc, they say "I lift". BLAH!!! ....."I've been lifting for a few years"

eeeek.....erk.......blurk.....

I just "go to the gym" or "ride my bike".

[531Aussie]

Originally Posted by stevebaby

All up, it cost around $3200 to assemble.

Crikey! That's a fair bit.



Some old Guido come into Bicycle Recycle the other day with some piece of ****, fake steel Colnago, with those stickers we used to buy for $10, and he said something like: "can you service my lovely, expensive Italian bike, and look after it while you're doing it?"

He also had a piece of ****, old '80s Peugeot, with total **** on it, worth farkin nothing, and he goes: "someone recently offered me $1,000 for this bike." I said: "take it." He goes: "no, I would never sell this beautiful bike." It was farkin junk! Ya wouldn't even take it off someone's hard rubbish crap

[531Aussie]

Originally Posted by matagi

I just "go to the gym" or "ride my bike".

Have you bin going to the uber-trendy Brighton Baths gym with all the cebrelities and rich turds? I think Sam New-Man goes there

[531Aussie]

Gold FM newsreader chick, talking about the Port Adelaide forward: "Warren Tr'drAY"