Road Bikes: April 2010 Archives

This was an unlikely addition to the museum.  This bike is a 2000 (or so, +/-...if you know more about these, I'd love to hear from you!) that arrived set up as a fixed gear bike with a White Industries Eno rear hub, bull horn bars, no crank, no seat, one brake, etc....you get the picture.  Even though I seem to have several Schwinn bikes, I've never thought of myself as a fan particularly.  This frame, however, was particular interesting to me because it is made with Reynolds 853 tubing and uses a carbon fork.  It seemed well worthy of being rebuilt into a geared road bike.  So, after carefully selecting the best cast-off parts from other road cyclists Shimano-compatible upgrades, I put the bike back together with a 53/39-10 speed drivetrain, Ultegra shifters, a Dura Ace rear derailleur, FSA Gossamer crankset, 105 front derailleur, a mystery rear brake caliper along with its original 105 front caliper, a new white saddle and some handlebars harvested from an early 1970s Schwinn Continental (had to have something classic/vintage, right?).  After some tweaking with the stem and bar height, it's come to life as a nice riding, fast, and light road bike.  For now, here are some pictures of how it turned out:

Never having been a huge enthusiast to British machinery it has occurred to me that having an interesting Raleigh road bike in the museum would be nice.  A week does not go by that I don't see a Grand Prix for premium money or some interesting looking Super Course or even, most recently, a very nice looking Gran Course for sale.   Then, this one came along and looked very interesting (on a lot of levels).  The Professional was described as Raleigh's nod to Italian bike design and the construction, group selection (Campagnolo Nuovo Record) and aesthetics reflect this.  Unlike it's Italian counter-parts, it is constructed using Reynolds 531 double butted tubing.  As with most things bicycle, Sheldon Brown compiled some excellent starter resources to learn about these bikes and they can be found here.   I like a good challenge, and contrary to the typical fare of bikes in this condition that float around waiting to be turned into recycled steel, this one looks like it may be worth the effort to bring back to life - and it's exactly my size!  For now, here it is in it's "as rescued" condition.  It appears to be complete less a few cables, hoods, for the brake levers (should it have hoods?), one cable fastener for the brakes and the front derailleur.  So, I guess that means I should add here that I'm looking for an early '70s Campagnolo Nuovo Record front derailleur and possibly some brake hardware for Campagnolo of the same vintage.  The serial number on the bike (stamped on the bottom of the bottom bracket) is F5598 and I am under the impression it is a 1970 model.