On the opposite end of the spectrum, my latest acquisition

A Huffy Windsprint 12 speed circa 1985. I go weekly for an appointment, and there is this kind of musty-smelling Salvation Army store next plaza over. If I have time to kill, I will cruise through quickly, looking for Jerry Garcia ties, which I now collect, and I often find a new one for the collection - did tonight. I picked up this for $20 - a real gem of vintage mass market Americana made who knows where overseas:

 

My tear down and rebuild bike - I think I could learn a lot by doing that. It is such a piece of crap as-is. So, if I do it, should I do it one component at a time, say, brakes, or cassette or crank or whatever? Or, just tear the entire thing down all the way and hope I can figure it out?

 

First thing probably if you are planning to use it would be having it checked on a LBS... They might find cracks or whatever...

There was an unlocked carbolite peugeot abandoned on my buildings roof for years... I finally decided to "borrow" it and maybe turn it into a commuter since it was obviously abandoned.

I managed to remove the seat and yes... It was rusted... the whole internal of the frame looked like it was pulled from the titanic...

So I just placed it back to the roof and left it there...

Maybe start with the frame, then the wheels?

 

It actually appears to be in amazingly good shape in terms of the integrity of the frame and metal- no signs of rust, but i haven't torn into it yet. I'm tempted to strip it entirely down to components and rebuild from there. The quality of brakes, shift levers, pedals and other components is ... hilarious. Instead of tape on the handlebars, it's very cheap sponge foam rubber. As cheap as they could be. I mean, seriously, not expecting the quality of a high end road bike, but it is just funny to me. I'm a snob, what can I say??? I kind of laughed under my breath. the volunteer clerk and another volunteer were ooing and aahing over this thing when I bought it. I said I was going to tear it down to learn bicycle mechanics, and they were aghast, because "but it's such a nice bike." I probably would have freaked them if I told them how much I paid for the Roubaix.


So, is it worth investing a few hundred bucks to make it into something slightly less laughable? Possibly. I have some components stripped off of my other bikes that are decent enough for this project, saddle, pedals, bottle cage at a minimum.

 

Hmmm... Just from the photos:

The frame (if Ok in the inside and the LBS says its ok) seems ok-ish. The slight discoloration of the red paint (why does red paint always turns pink? ) could be kinda restored with a bike frame wax, maybe a slighty colored one?...

But... Just to start with maybe strip everything from the frame, including the fork and spray the inside of the frame with an anticorrosive. If you check the website from Surly they recommend a product to use on their new bikes, I think its a "Wurth" something but dont remember it now... (about 5 euro, but its nasty stuff that chemical, maybe get a shop to apply it?)

After having the anticorrosive applyied, then you could proceed with the refurbishing of the paintjob. (another 5 euro)

Leaving the frame aside you could try to clean the wheel hubs from the little bit of rust they seem to have, remove and regreasse the ball bearings on the hubs and re-seal them. After that and if the rims are not in terrible condition you, you can ask a bike shop with a truing bench to true the wheels for you. You could probably do that your self but a truing bench and a spoke tension gauge might cost alot... I paid 5 euros for having my rear wheel trued the other day... (Total 10euro?)

After that you could proceed with the components. Given that the deraileurs work ok, you can refurbish them with either some very good cleaning or if you wanna get them clean fast and easy maybe use an Ultrasonic Washer? Some come out looking a bit discolored but they are clean from contaminants and probably rust too... A jewelery or auto parts shop might have one of those. (another 10euro?)



Then if you need new tires and tubes... Depends... New brake pads... New cables... New tape.... New... Bike???




I think that without tires and tubes and stuff you can have it refurbished for about 40euro or something???

Quote:
"but it's such a nice bike."