Flandria Frustration, Coppi Color

   It has been a little while since my last post, mainly because I had made very little progress on any projects, but I also wanted to avoid using this blog to vent (all of) my frustrations. Recently I’ve had a few potential bike transactions go up in smoke, even after multiple encouraging email exchanges and phone conversations, and even had one hopeful buyer visit and test ride – this last dude had a strange idea of bargaining! I had also been let down by a couple of organized rides and was beginning to remember why I had spent time riding by myself all of these years.

   Anyhow, I had also been facing a bunch of issues with the Flandria Randonneur bicycle, and although they have all been fairly small and inexpensive fixes, the problems have been annoying just the same. The bike had been poorly packaged and arrived with some scratches on the frame that were obviously caused by the axles when the wheels shifted in the box. I also discovered the mounting bracket for the front derailleur was cracked. The seller gave me a partial refund to cover the damage and replacement of the part.

   I mentioned that I was swapping out the Simplex and Sakae-Ringyo components with a Shimano “Arabesque” groupset. I really liked the look of the scrollwork on the rear derailleur and shift levers, seen in the photos below. The second shot also shows the nice painted/pin striped lugs on the Flandria frame, and you can see the cool drilled out crankset in the project recap photos later in this blog entry.

   The Simplex rear derailleur has a built-in hanger (see first photo below, circled in red), so I had to purchase a part that was compatible with the Shimano derailleur (second photo).

   When I attempted to hook up the cables and housing to the front derailleur, I realized the Simplex part had the back-end cable stop built into its mounting bracket. There was only a braze-on front end cable stop on the frame (see photo below, circled in red), and nowhere to go with the other end of the housing. I ordered a clamp-on cable stop (second photo below) for the seat tube, and I’ll have to include a photo of that when I get the front derailleur rigged up.

   The left side dropout had been crushed closed slightly, but because this is a steel frame, I was able to pry it back into its correct position without much trouble. Additional rear end adjustment had to be made when I realized the rear spacing for this “oldie” was 120 millimeters, instead of the 126 found with most of the vintage machines on which I’ve worked.

   I wanted to go to a 7-speed set-up, so I cold set the rear stays, using techniques similar to THESE included in one of RJ The Bike Guy’s YouTube videos. He has posted all kinds of interesting “How To” clips, many using inexpensive but highly-effective tools.  

   The vintage wingnuts used to secure the wheels were also a bit quirky, as they had to be attached before the rear derailleur, since there wasn’t enough clearance between it and the top pivot of the derailleur. I will have to make sure to carry the correct hex wrench in case of a rear flat!

   Speaking of which, I was all set to take photos the morning after I finished up the bike, only to find the rear tube had exploded overnight. I couldn’t find any obvious reason – I had re-used the original tube when mounting the new tires, and maybe the old rubber just gave out under the high pressure (105 PSI for these Panaracer tires).

   After a tube change, I snapped some photos to recap the project:

   Despite sending out questions to multiple custom painters and companies that do chrome work, I received disappointingly few responses to questions about my Coppi bicycle project, and I was also discouraged by the prices quoted. I think three times what I paid for the complete bike is a little ridiculous! I decided to attempt a spray-on product by Dupli-Color, as I had some luck with something similar years ago during a Motobécane repaint job.

   I started off by masking the dropouts on the frame and fork, since they were the few spots where the chrome was in good condition. Plus, I never understand the point of painting the dropouts, since removing/mounting the wheels always causes chipping in this area anyway. I also masked the fork crown race area and covered the bottom bracket and seat post holes.

   I followed all the directions closely, starting with an adhesion-promoting clear primer then their Metalcast ground coat, which effectively covered up the imperfections in the metal surface. I then applied the yellow color coat and finished up with a couple layers of high gloss clear. Unfortunately, the products created more of a sparkly finish than a chrome-like shine. I’m definitely not about to go back, re-strip the frame and start over with something else. It’s attractive enough, and I can live with it – especially with saving about 600 bucks!

   After a few weeks letting the paint cure in order to eliminate all of the outgassing, I’ll proceed with application of the vintage decals and be done with it. Well, except for actually putting the bicycle together again!