I have been dealing with such a consistent stream of tune-up and light repair work that I haven't had much opportunity to work on any of those build projects I introduced last week. I really wouldn't have a lot to write about either, as not much of this day-to-day tinkering has been particularly intriguing.
A family friend, who is getting back into cycling, recently bought a Georgena Terry bicycle, which is a VERY interesting machine. It will eventually be a bit of a vintage-to-modern operation, as far as the shifting components are involved. I've starting looking into parts a bit, but I will get more into talking about these female-specifically-built bicycles in a later post.
Speaking of women's bikes, this gentleman brought in a step-through early-'70s Schwinn 10-speed that he felt he had gotten a great deal on. Well, the $30 he spent would have seemed a lot better had the bike been in functioning condition - and really, the problem in this case was just a rear derailleur cable broken off at the stem-mounted levers.
Now, I respect early Chicago-made Schwinn bicycles, especially the classy cruisers, the ones with the swept-back bars, fenders and simulated gas tanks. Those are especially attractive machines loaded with nostalgia. This Schwinn Varsity, which weighed a metric ton, had none of that charm, and the paint/decals weren't in great enough shape to make up for it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, though, and the bike got the attention of this gentleman for some reason.
During this period of production, the Varsity was also unfortunately equipped with the Shimano Positron II shifting system, a complete failure. Instead of repeating a lot of information about this, I'll encourage you to read about it at the Disraeli Gears website.
I found out this system must even be unpopular with vintage Schwinn fans, as I had to turn to Germany to even find one source for the correct length of the unique, barrel-ended, piano-wire-like replacement cable. The poor fellow who brought the bike to me was discouraged by the extra $30 he might have to put into the bike repair and told me to forget about it.
The money he'd receive dropping this bike off at a scrap metal dealer wouldn't even make him feel much better about his bad purchase!
I did have the opportunity to finish Vishesh's Museeuw MFC 3.0, which was a fairly simple procedure. In hindsight, I probably should have sought someone more experienced to press fit the Campagnolo cups into the bottom bracket, but I took my time and didn't force anything. I used a threaded rod with a nut and large fender washers on each end, and I slowly tightened in the cups one at a time, carefully making sure to keep them aligned properly as I gradually turned the wrench.
The cables were easy to route through the tubes, as the frameset came with temporary plastic sleeves installed, with plenty of extra length from port to port. There were also removable covers on the ports to aid routing during future cable changes without the plastic sleeves in place.
A couple of days ago I invited my friend Dan to join me for a trip to Jersey City to deliver the bike. Our plan was to take our own bikes along and do some riding around central New Jersey on the way home. Vishesh was very patient while we made some small adjustments for his personal fit on the bike, but I could tell he was anxious to take a test ride.
He was a bit of a rookie with Campagnolo equipment, so a short shifting lesson was required before he set off for a lap around his apartment building. Although I couldn't see the smile through his COVID safety mask when he returned, the excitement in his voice when he thanked us many times for making the trip more than made up for it.
Before we left, Vishesh admitted that there were going to be some questions when it turned to maintenance, etc., and asked if he could keep in touch. "Absolutely," I answered. "Everyone knows who to count on for enthusiastic conversation about bikes!
Later Dan and I did a very enjoyable 50-mile route from Ringoes, east to the Delaware and Raritan Canal, which we followed south to Princeton. We continued down to Lawrenceville before looping back through Pennington and west around Hopewell Township back to our starting point. We had been having a string of some very hot days, so we were pretty thankful to have an overcast afternoon, which kept the temperature down nicely.
We really appreciated the break the clouds had been giving us during the last half hour of our ride, when the skies started to clear, and the sun really started beating on us. We were going through the remainder of our respective water bottles very quickly at that point and were happy to reach my van, where we had coolers with iced beverages waiting.
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