Ready To Roll

This evening I put the finishing touches on the Motobécane Mirage restoration. I began by cutting the housings for the brake and derailleur cables. I saved and labeled the old sections of housing so that I could easily cut each new piece to size and install them in the correct spots. Routing the brake cables was a bit tricky because I replaced the old brake levers that had the cables coming out of the top of the hoods with modern levers that route the cables under the handlebar tape. I hated having all those cables in my face.

The front derailleur is a bit bizarre in that you pull back the lefthand lever to switch down to the smaller chainring, as opposed to the traditional pull and shift to the big ring. It appears to operate as a top pull derailleur like you can find on some mountain bikes, except the cable routing is from the bottom, so there really is no alternative but to operate in the reverse. Sacré bleu!

I had actually adjusted both derailleurs yesterday morning so that all I had to do was route cables and tighten them down. The cables will stretch after a few long rides, so I know I'm in for some future tweaking.

Next came setting up the brakes, which often makes you wish you had a third hand, particularly when you're dealing with the center-pull variety of brakes that are on the Mirage. Carrick actually came up with the idea to use a small clamp to hold the calipers together as you pull the cable and tighten it. I found if you clamp down onto the rims and tighten the cable, when you squeeze the brakes very tightly, the new cable usually stretches to just about the right position.

The last two steps were wrapping the handlebars and installing the cycle computer components. A mechanic friend gave me the advice to always wrap the bars from the bottom of the bars and go over the top towards you as you work up to the stem. Wrapping this direction will actually have your grip tightening the tape while you ride, an obvious advantage to keeping your bar work in place.

I purchased a couple extra sensors and transmitters so that I could install them on each of my different bikes and just swap out the display/monitor (whatever you want to call it) when I change machines. I have the numbers for the different wheel circumferences handy in order to get the correct milage for the respective bicycles.

Tomorrow I plan on taking my first real spin on the Mirage, after some seat height adjustments, etc. This brings my repaint project to a close, but I hope to check in occasionally with updates on cycling trips and, of course, tales from the repair shop.