Is it worthwhile repairing old components?

One of the fundamental problems in restoring old bikes is trying to source the period correct components to go on your frame. As the years slip by with ever increasing speed, the availability of the components you seek, seems to diminish. Occasionally, you may find the part you are looking for may turn up, but damaged. I have a frame belonging to a clubmate, that I know from over forty years ago. It lay rusting in the clubroom, having been used as a complete bike for riding rollers. Sweat had taken it’s toll on the paintwork, the frame had been stripped of all of it’s original components, but I had the frame refinished in original colour with original pattern transfers/decals reinstated. The restoration became moribund, because of the difficulty in trying to source period correct parts. It is my intention to build the bike up with parts sold by the late Ron Kitchin. The original owner was a big user of parts from ‘Everything Cycling’.

I had a large flange Normandy front hub from the 1950s/1960s, with the round holes in flanges, but I only had a damaged suitable rear hub. The flange was bent inwards from having the chain derail off the largest sprocket and wedging between the freewheel block and the flange. The flange was also heavily pitted from the incident. I have searched in vain for more than five years to find a better example without success. The one thing in favour of the damaged example, was the bearing cups in the hub are perfect. I asked a friend back in 2019 if he could repair the hub. The reply came back in the affirmative.

Now in fairness, it has taken a while, but my friend had just moved house and has been fully occupied renovating the property, back into a home for him and his family, in addition to all the other work, he has had on his plate. A recent visit, resulted in him showing me the tooling he had made to repair the hub. My friend explained that he had mulled over the problem of repair, analysing how best to tackle the repair, resulting in the best chance of success. Any way, I called with him a few weeks later and was presented with the repaired hub. The damaged right hand flange has been straightened, and the damage aluminium has been welded and ground back. Although some evidence of the repair is visible, it will not be visible, once the hub has been built into a wheel and a freewheel block fitted. Importantly the repair will not be visible from the usual viewing position at the back of the flange. One caveat. I don’t know how durable this repair would be for everyday, frequent use. However, for use on a vintage bike, probably doing no more than thirty miles on a vintage run, it should be more than adequate. The satisfaction is that this had made a damaged part useable once more, as well as a problem overcome in the journey to putting an old frame back on the road.

1982 Peugeot PH12E Centenary Model

I was recently very kindly given a Peugeot frame – a PH12E Centenary model with some of the original parts still fitted. Unlike a lot of the similar survivors on the internet, this example has been used and obviously had an active life. Paintwork is tired and transfers are rubbed. The question arises, is it worth restoring? My answer is a resounding “Yes”, firstly because the bike rather than been put away, “because it is a centenary model and might be worth something”, was actually ridden as intended. It has a history of use and shows signs of that use. Secondly, Peugeot embraced the 'aerodynamic' culture of the time and fitted some now rare parts to the bike. The great French rider Bernard Hinault, 5 times winner of the Tour de France had ridden a specially built Reynolds tubed aerodynamic Gitane time trial bike in the late 1970s. Cycling Weekly (UK) coverage of the time featured riders in skinsuits riding time trials which was to lead to the development of low profile time trial bikes with smaller front wheels. These would see use in the professional peloton time trials, until banned by the UCI. Greg Lemond pioneered the use of Tri-bars to obtain a more rider aerodynamic position in the professional peloton. Shimano produced it's 'aero' AX600 and AX Dura Ace between 1981 and 1984 according to the Velobase website.

The frame I was given was missing the wheels, Simplex SLJ6600 rear mech and the top mounted down tube levers. The orginal parts fitted would obviously stay, but could I find the correct replacement parts? The most serious challenge would be the Simplex rear mech. I believe the SLJ6600 was introduced in 1982 and was the first mech to to have an angled parallogram like Suntour and Shimano. The original rear mech was branded 'aérodynamic'. Apart from the scarcity of the mechs, the other factor would be price and condition. According to to Disraeli Gears page entry for the Simplex SLJ6600, the springs lost tension very quickly rendering the mech less than effective. This probably explains why the original rear mech was missing. A search on French ebay over several weeks identified a few examples for sale. Some were the later 'SPIDEL' branded version and other examples looked to be in poor condition from the seller's photographs, but not reflected in their asking price. I eventually located what appeared to be a good example and managed to secure it by auction including delivery for a fraction of some of the asking prices on ebay in the UK. Probably one of the biggest hurdles in terms of sourcing original parts had been overcome. I was also gifted boxes of parts along with the Peugeot frame. During the sorting process, I came across a set of Maeda Suntour top mounting down tube levers carefully bagged up. A quick check proved these were off the Peugeot, so another major headache in terms of original parts, was thankfully overcome.

The Peugeot PH12 model was usually made from steel Carbolite tubing, the frame having the appearance of being lugless, but in fact the lugs are internal. Whilst a carbolite tubed frame is not as light as one built with Reynolds or Columbus tubing, fitted with a decent set of wheels, these Peugeot bikes ride very well indeed. Probably a lot to do with the French frame geometry. The 1982 Carbolite tubed Centenary PH12E has an 'aero' seat tube and down tube. The gear cables are routed internally through the down tube from the top mounted friction levers. The other significant thing is, the down tube friction levers and chainset are Japanese, not French. The chainset is an alloy SR Custom model with detachable alloy chainrings, a change from the usual Stronglight alloy crank with swaged steel chainrings.

The 'aero' style seat tube means the seatpin, from necessity, is very short. The top of the seat tube is round to accept the seatpin, but as the seat tube quickly changes profile, the seatpin has to be much shorter than would be found on a bicycle with a full round seat tube. Again, Peugeot use a much smaller diameter seatpin than found on other bicycles. The original seat post is a plain model, necked in at the top, the original saddle being retained by a steel seat clamp bolt arrangement. In amongst, the various store of parts within the Springhill Cycle Collection, there was an alloy one piece seatpin with an integral seat clamp. It has been in the store for a number of years and although not original to the Peugeot it will be used on the bike as a nice finishing touch. It is an unusual and certainly period correct part. The upshot of all this is, the 57cm frame will not suit a tall rider because of the short seatpin. 

It is my intention to restore the bike as close as I can using period correct parts. I still have to source the correct Mavic rims and a small flange Q/R rear hub with a 1982 date code to complete the wheels.  The fact some parts are missing may have more to do with their lack of durability/suitability as the bike was heavily used. I will probably fit a pre-owned Concor saddle and replace the Lyotard flat steel touring pedals that have been fitted in lieu of the 'aero' type pedals that were original to the bike. Although the Shimano PD-1050 105 are 5 years later than the bike, they will make a reasonable substitute. They are in keeping with the 'aero' theme and could represent a likely modification during the bike's working life. The Springhill Cycle Collection is happy to restore the bike in an as used condition. It means the collection now holds a 1982 Peugeot Centenary model along with a similar, used, 1987 Raleigh Centenary edition bike.

V-CC Rides 2016

As the summer slips past and cooler shorter days take hold it gives time to reflect on the years rides with the Veteran-Cycle Club. This is not a cycling club, although many members are cyclists. The club is for people interested in old cycles and encourages members to meet and ride these old machines. I was not able to attend all local section rides this year, but I did make the effort to attend as many as I could.  The summer in this part of the world has been wet and often windy.

Events take place across the province of Ulster, the last ride of the summer season was in County Donegal on the Fanad Peninsular. The route afforded some spectacular views of Lough Swilly on reasonably lightly trafficked roads starting and finishing on the quayside at Ramelton. There are buildings on the quayside with a date stone above the door 'L & L S R 1864'. The interesting thing is the Londonderry & Lough Swilly Railway never had a station at Ramelton!

The route went via Rathmullan on the shores of Lough Swilly. A short detour was made to Rathmullan House, now a country hotel. This 18^th Century house was bought by Robert Batt who was the youngest son of Narcissus Batt (1760 – 1840) , a founder of the Belfast Bank. The Batt family had property at Ozier Hill, in Co. Wexford and at Purdysburn, Co. Down. Rathmullan House was part of a 4,377 acre estate in 1876. Robert Batt purchased Rathmullan House in 1837 and it remained in family ownership through the generations until 1939. The associated land was bought by the tenant farmers under the various land acts passed by the Liberal Government between 1870 and 1906.

Rathmullan is also notable for seeing the end of the Gaelic Order with the 'flight of the Earls' to the continent of Europe. There is a statue on the foreshore below the Victorian Coastguard cottages at Rathmullan, to commemorate the event.

One of joys of taking part in the V-CC rides is to see a newly restored machine make it's debut back on the road.  Cycles which made an appearance this year are a Sunbeam roadster, Claud Butler Lady's bike and an early Leader of Croydon.

The weather was kind for the last summer run and the food bought in Rathmullan was excellent.  A pleasant ride back to the start followed as the clouds cleared. The tide had come in at Ramelton by the time of our return.  The run ended with a lovely sunset to round off a great day.

1986 Ammaco 'Monte Carlo' Restoration - stripping the frame

The Springhill Cycle Collection recently acquired a 1986 Ammaco 'Monte Carlo' road bike. The seller has asked for photographs of the restored machine and it is intended to move this restoration up the works list.

Ammaco came to notice in 1985 when they jointly sponsored the 1980 and 1985 British UCI Professional Pursuit Champion, Tony Doyle with RMC-Security Grille Protections. Tony's professional Ammaco branded frames were built by Charles Roberts in London. The Ammaco professional team consisted initially of Tony Doyle but for 1986 became Ever Ready-Ammaco and also had Australian Danny Clark and Nigel Dean on their strength. The team increased in size to 7 riders for the 1988 season which marked the end of Ammaco's involvement as a major sponsor of professional cycling in Britain. The Ammaco brand is sold by the family owned chain of Cycle King cycle shops based in the English Midlands and southern England.  A major selling point appears to be price. 

The 1986 Ammaco bike frame has 3 x 4130 Cro-mo main tubes, but the forks are Hi-Ten.  The handlebar stem is a heavy 80mm alloy of Taiwanese manufacture and would indicate this is probably the source of the lugged steel frame. What is obvious is that price point was a major selling point, along with the similar colour scheme and branding to the professional team bikes. Having bikes and frames produced in the far east was nothing new as the now defunct Evian (G.B.) Limited had marketed a range of 'Hirame' branded bikes and frames in the late 1970s/early 1980s produced by Kuwahara in Japan. Their range started with Hi-Ten tubed road frames up to full Ishiwata tubed road frames. The Hirame frame in the Springhill Collection is nicely made with Kuwahara's own forged drop-outs.

The Ammaco machine came with some original parts, but the original paintwork is now very tired and in need of renewal. The frame has 'Ammaco' branded seat stay caps and fork crown. The first problem to be addressed for any potential restoration will be that of the availability of original pattern transfers/decals. The second problem is the actual stripping down of the bike, specifically, whether the seat post and handlebar stem are seized in the frame and the alloy cranks seized onto the steel crank axle. I intend to deal with the stripping down of the bike here. 

The threads for the screw in crank extractor were very, very dirty and required cleaning with Brunox and Scotchbrite before wiping clean with kitchen roll. The crank extractor then had to be carefully screwed into the righthand crank, checking that it was square to the crank as the initial first threads were damaged.  I wanted to make sure the remover was not cross threaded before fully screwing the remover home using a spanner/wrench.  Thankfully the crank did move relatively easily and the left crank was also successfully removed without any damage.  The chainset is a Japanese made Sugino 42/52T.  The chainrings are steel which are swaged onto the alloy crank.  It was typical fare on lower end sports road bikes in the 1970s/1980s with Peugeot using swaged Stronglight or Nervar and British manufacturers such as Dawes, Falcon or Raleigh using SR Silstar. The seat post was chromed steel and although rusty came out with the use of Brunox. The handlebar stem being alloy was more of a problem.  It was seized into the fork steerer tube.

I have written an earlier post about dealing with a seized handlebar stem.  The one thing to recognise is that it takes time to corrode in, so it logically follows, that it will take a bit of time to unseize it!  The first job was to put some PlusGas around the top of the headset locknut/handlebar stem interface and leave it for several hours.  I removed all the other components from the frame, chain, brake callipers, gear levers, front and rear derailleurs. The wheels were removed last and then the frame up ended so I could pour some more PlusGas down into the fork steerer tube and then leave it to soak for 3 days.  The wheels were then refitted to the frame, the allen key expander bolt loosened which showed the retaining bolt was still stuck in the fork head tube.  A sharp tap with a soft faced hammer released it, so the next thing was to try moving the handlebars and stem. I chose to use the original handlebars rather than substitute them for an MTB handlebar which would offer better leverage.   I wanted to initially try to see if I could move the stem with the steps I had already taken.  Obviously if I had failed, then it would have been back to a soak of PlusGas for a longer period and use of the longer MTB handlebar lever to break the bond. 

After gripping firmly and applying leverage, the stem moved. Brunox was then applied and the steerer moved again.  More Brunox was applied and the steerer moved more easily.  The same process was repeated until the stem was moving relatively easily and pulled upwards and out of the fork steerer tube.  There was plenty of evidence of galvanic corrosion on the shaft of the alloy stem as no grease appears to have been used to prevent it.  The photo shows the alloy stem after a quick clean with a brass brush. One alarming thing that did happen was one of the fork drop-outs cracked.  The fork drop-outs have the slot in the drop-out for the tang of a washer for what is euphemistically referred to as 'lawyers lips'. The drop-out cracked at this slot.   The frame will now have to go to a framebuilder for repair before it can be re-enamelled.

The frame once stripped is actually reasonably light.  The frame number is stamped into the bottom of the seat tube at the righthand (crank) side just above the bottom bracket shell.  The gear tunnels are plastic, afixed to the underside of the bottom bracket shell with a 5mm Phillips screw.  The frame has a chain stop brazed onto the righthand seat stay, double gear lever bosses brazed onto the down tube and three cable guides on the top of the top tube.  I will deal with components and transfers/decals in future posts.

Cleaning alloy cycle components

I was doing some internet searching in relation to a bike I had to work on for the Springhill Cycle Collection. The bike, an early 1970s model, had been stored in less than ideal conditions and the alloy components were showing signs of surface corrosion - not been cleaned before it was stored. The components were a Spanish copy of Campagnolo and in parody of the great Roman cycling god, the copies were named after the ruler of the Greek Olympian gods, Zeus. Frank Berto in his tome 'The Dancing Chain' doesn't rate Zeus components. Zeus components were never very common in this part of 'the oul sod', so to get a bike equipped with Zeus is unusual. The bike is local, has been ridden and used judging by the layers of dirt and wear to the parts. Anyway to return to the point, the large flange hubs are not Zeus and turned out to be of Japanese origin. I haven't seen photos of this particular model of hub on the web.

However, here at Methuselah Towers I have a confession to make. I haven't bought a news stand cycle magazine in 10 years and don't frequent internet forums, so therefore cannot claim any kind of expertise other than experience. So I have to defer to the 'experts' on the web, who advocate using various grades of abrasive papers and buffing wheels to polish alloy components. Personally I would have grave reservations about such an aggressive approach, as I have experience of alloy components such as Campagnolo and Stronglight cracking and failing. I also don't agree with re-polishing old alloy to a very high surface shine, far removed from the original finish. To me it detracts from the originality of the parts/machine and can, in my humble opinion, be a case of 'over egging the pudding'.

I prefer a more subtle approach, one advocated by a long forgotten source. I was told to use a brass brush to clean alloy and then wipe the surface with oil. I now prefer to use WD40 or an equivalent solvent, on a soft cloth or a bit of kitchen roll, to wipe the burnished alloy. The brush will get rid of the surface bloom and expose the nature and extent of any surface pitting and corrosion. A decision can then be made about re-polishing if deemed necessary. It is surprising how much the brass brush will clean up the alloy, whilst still leaving a sympathetic finish to the metal. Where the corrosion is not too deep it can be polished out after cleaning, using Autosol and a soft cloth. A final clean with a silicone based car polish will give it the final seal as you have in all likelihood removed the original anodised finish. I have tried to show a few before and after photos to illustrate the point. The Maillard small flange hubs are ones I rescued from the scrap bin of a cycle business. 

Remember that you will need to keep an eye on your repolished alloy as it will now be more susceptible to corrosion as the anodised coating has been removed!

Merry Christmas - Joyeaux Noël - Weihnachtsgrüße

I would like to take the opportunity to wish all my readers 'seasons greetings' from this corner of Ireland.  The weather has not been that kind of late with one storm system after another depositing lots of liquid sunshine outside. With the strong winds, the only variation appears to be the 'angle of attack' of the liquid stuff. 2015 has been very wet and I would expect the yearly average to be at least 130% above the statistical mean.

Despite the gloomy weather, things move on apace and 2015 did see one or two highlights for me.  I did manage to get my Goeland Randonneuse out a few times for a run.  I really like the way the bike rides. Frame is 531 tubing and bike came equipped with 650B Michelin 'World Tour' tyres.  They are amber wall tyres and it is over 30 years since my bike was equipped with Michelin 'World Tour' tyres, so the clock has been well and truly wound back.  The Goeland dates from 1960 but the rear derailleur was updated in the 1970s to a Huret 'Duopar' long cage mech.  The only thing I have added to the bike was a Lion Bellworks engraved brass bell.  I really like these and unlike the alloy 'ping' bell that equipped my racing bike in the 1970s, this one has a loud, lingering melodious ring.  Despite it's efficacy for those of normal, unobstructed hearing, the bell's performance is limited, especially where joggers and walkers are concerned, those who are plugged into their personal music player but 'tuned out' of the real world.

A friend completed two restorations over the winter of 2014/15.  The first was a 1938 Saxon Twin Tube.  His reason for wanting another Saxon was the fact his father ran a cycle shop before and after WW2 and was an agent for Saxon.

His second bike was even more personal.  It was a Hill Special from Padiham, Lancashire and was one of four frames his father had bought to sell through the shop in the early 1950s.  The bike was one of these four and had one owner from new.  He was able to buy it back from the owner as he had got too old to ride it. The bike was actually built up by his sister and given the 'once over' quality control check by his father to make sure the bike was up to spec before it left the shop.  Components are original to the bike and have been re-chromed and polished where required.

The staff at the Springhill Cycle Collection have received a new recruit in keeping with the ethos of the collection.  Meg, a rescue dog, has joined the staff in a supervisory role. Apart from watching, to make sure the restorations are up to standard, she has undertaken the onerous task of dealing with the dodgy catering. She has to be let into this role slowly.....

The Titanic Quarter, Belfast

I took advantage of the dry weather to enjoy the dog days of summer on my bike.  Today is the last day of late summer bank holiday weekend and I took the opportunity to ride into Belfast to visit the Titanic Quarter.  Belfast was not as busy as I expected with the cycle paths seeing fewer cyclists and pedestrians than anticipated, compared to last week when the P&O cruise ship 'Arcadia' was in port.  

I used the new pedestrian/cycle bridge at the Lagan weir to cross over the River Lagan onto what was once Queens Quay where the old Belfast & County Down Railway had it's Belfast terminus and Kelly's Coal Merchant had their offices and where coal was unloaded from their fleet of colliers into railway wagons on the quayside.  A lot of old Belfast has been swept away in redevelopment and the Belfast Odyssey Arena and W5 Centre were the first of the new buildings in the area. Residential housing, the Titantic centre, and the new Public Records Office have all been opened in the Quarter, as well as the restored White Star Line SS Nomadic which was built as a tender ship for the RMS Titanic.  

The Quarter is well worth a visit and the excellent Dock Cafe is popular with cyclists as the food and coffee are to be recommended.  The cafe also has a display of memorabilia about the Belfast Port and RMS Titanic.  There is a large public artwork in the communal area outside the cafe featuring RMS Titanic. It is easily reached by bicycle for the visitor to Belfast by using one of the bicycle hire scheme bicycles.