Spiffing Up the Joint

   It’s funny, now that both of my sons have graduated from the Royersford School for Misfit Boys (our unofficial homeschool title), and I am now headmaster emeritus, I think I’ve been busier this September than any month the last three years. Not that anything I’ve been doing is as important as the education of my children, but I keep imagining how I would get all this stuff done if I was also taking a couple hours out of the day for teaching.

   The month started out rather hectic with my historical society holding a multi-day convention, and since I am the membership secretary and have the contact information at my disposal, it’s logical that I handle registrations for that event. There is really no way around the last-minute rush to gather all of the sign-in materials and create name badges for attendees after the last of the forms are collected from our post office box.

   There were (and still are) a few household projects that needed to be taken care of, none of which were going to be particularly fun in sweltering summer heat, and since the weather has been fantastic lately, I’ve kinda crammed the whole lot into the last couple weeks. Our over-110-year-old house has plenty of things that require the occasional touch-up, so I’ve been putting aside twisting Allen wrenches and screwdrivers in the basement and taken up slinging saws, hammers, sandpaper and paintbrushes outdoors.

   Working in the physical therapy appointments seemed even more important after this type of physical activity. My arthritic neck seems to be responding well, but I also suffer from something called Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (look it up yourself), which causes some numbness in my fingertips. I had been having increased symptoms during longer bike rides, but I now have a regular bunch of exercises that have kept the problems to a relative minimum. Yea! 

   Squeezing in a decent ride at least every other day is important to me, and I have managed to take some time out to work on my various bike projects, in between coats of paint drying or lines of caulk curing, etc. I have re-organized my storage in the basement, so that I can easily access the many bicycles – both my own and the one’s being assembled. While a handful of the Larimer family machines had hung from hooks up in the rafters, I had also leaned bicycles along the walls surrounding the room, which kept them out of the way for the most part, but space became limited after a couple were finished and a few more were partially complete.

   I took everything down and rehung all of the bikes, staggering them logically to save space and keep them all in a “non-contortionist” reach, which also wasn’t the case previously. It has been great to be able to switch bikes on the stand and work on them as parts have been delivered. It’s also nice not to have piles of parts accumulating on the bench downstairs and have multiple bikes at/nearing completion without creating an obstacle course!

   I sanded down the chain stay on the Colnago 1988 XL, which had enough evidence of chain slap to make one think a shotgun had taken target on it. My pal Bruce did an excellent job of matching up the red paint, and he supplied me with a bit of extra in order to touch up some of the smaller nicks here and there. Assembly went without a hitch, except for the right-hand Campagnolo Synchro lever, which required a bit of attention to have its indexed shifting work smoothly. Here are some photos of the bicycle:

   Since I had a decent Shimano 105 group swapped from the Colnago, I was looking for an inexpensive, but unique frameset onto which I could mount the leftover components. During the late 1980’s, many Schwinn dealers felt that the company should add a second brand of higher-end bikes, which was a rapidly growing product category at the time. Late in the decade Schwinn started this by importing from Asia a few bikes called Prologue, and at the same time successfully expanded the use of the PDG (Paramount Design Group) name for parts, accessories and clothing.
   In 1990, Schwinn committed to importing a line of complete bikes, both road an off-road, under the Paramount name, all of which had the “Series” designation. I found this lugged Series 2 frame in beautiful condition, with only some wheel rub on the inside of the chainstay and markings from a dropped chain on the outside. I had some bright red enamel in my paint box, which was a near perfect match for touch-up.

   I’ve started some assembly, but hit a bit of a snag with the headset, which required a thicker spacer. Of course all of the brake cables will be attached to the handlebars, and without a secured headset I will have to hold off on putting together that end of the bike. Planning ahead, I knew that I would have to figure out the internal cable routing through the toptube.
   In the past I’ve used a powerful magnet to guide a cable end through carbon fiber or aluminum frames, but because this frame is steel, I knew that option wasn’t going to be effective. Several attempts from either direction to carefully feed a leftover cable through were ineffective, each time feeling the cable “bottom out” when it missed the opposite exit port and hit the end of the top tube.
   I then hit upon the idea to use a small, lighter powered magnet from a bicycle computer, placed on top of the exit port, hoping to magnetize a small area and draw the cable that direction. Bingo – results! I estimated the needed length of cable housing, with a few extra inches to be safe, slipped it onto my feeder cable and pulled it through the frame. Now all I will have to do, after I eventually mount the handlebars, is hook up the brake cable to the lever and slip it back through the housing to the rear calipers.

   Considering that it was better to finish the projects that needed less work to complete and have them ready for sale, I had put off the two Pinarello projects a bit. Now that the Gran Turismo is in Bruce’s capable hands for some touch-up to the pitted top tube, I will focus on the blue (seems I lately have an overstock of red bicycles) Vuelta frame. I have nearly all of the parts ready for assembly, but the downtube decals definitely need some attention. I’ve read that a solution called MicroSol, used by hobbyists to soften decals and make them more easily conform to molded details on plastic models, will loosen up Pinarello decals for easier removal – most importantly, without damaging the paint!
   I also received a tip that the “shadow” of the decal letters left behind in the clearcoat can be smoothed out by applying a product called Meguiar’s ScratchX, an automotive compound used to rub out small scratches and blemishes. I used a bit to clean up the Giant bicycle I assembled a few weeks ago and was happy with the results, so I’m hoping for similar success on the Pinarello.

   I’m heading down to Richmond this weekend to view the World Championship road race. I’m planning on hanging out on the cobbled climb through Libby Hill Park. There is supposed to be a “Fan Zone” there with a huge video display, so that we won’t miss any of the action when Valverde, Nibali, Sagan, etc. battle for the rainbow jersey! Expect a full report next time.