I had been thwarted in my attempts to find the proper derailleur hanger for the U. Scanini “Vanderaerden” frame, even though I had sent dimensions to two separate suppliers. Whether they really didn’t have anything that matched up, or they just didn’t want to bother going through their stock, I can’t be sure, but both companies advised me to “try contacting the frame manufacturer directly”. I don’t think I’m going to get anywhere that direction, as the Belgian builder has no website, and the Facebook page I found featuring their bikes hasn’t had any activity for over two years!
I decided to go the single-speed route with the bike, using Campagnolo components as the base, since this unique machine still deserves some special treatment. Unfortunately, I found the fork I had in stock had too short of a steerer to fit through the headtube when the headset was installed (this factor is called stack height), so I am ordering another fork with a longer steerer. I also need to get a set of shorter chainring bolts for the single-ring arrangement on the Chorus crankset I had purchased for this project.
Not that I didn’t know there might be complications setting up an older
Liberia frameset with slightly more modern components, it had just been so long
between when I ordered those parts and when they finally arrived, I kind of let
my guard down in the planning department. The Sachs-Huret brakeset that had
been lost in COVID-mail-time limbo showed up at my door, and I thought I would soon be taking photos of that completed assembly.
All was going smoothly, even installation of some new-old-stock cups for
the (now obsolete) French-threaded bottom bracket, until I went to mount the brakes.
I immediately realized the calipers, with their recessed-nut mounts, were not
going to work on this frame, which had holes drilled for old-school nutted calipers.
In the comparison above, you can see the modern calipers on the right
which have a cylindrical nut that will tighten down into the recessed hole in
the fork and brake bridge. The older brake style on the right shows a rear
brake that has concave washers that clamp to each side of the brake bridge and
are tightened with a traditional nut. The mounting to the fork wouldn’t necessarily involve one of those washers – depending on the shape of the fork crown, the nut would just tighten up against the back plate of the crown.
I was able to drill out the hole on the back of the fork with a 5/16” (close
enough to 8 mm) bit and mount that brake, but there isn’t enough room to fit
the drill and bit between the brake bridge and seat post.
My brother-in-law has a good collection of tools and is going to hook me
up with a right-angle drill. We may still need to cut down a drill bit to make
it fit, but we’ll see how that goes. He is also going to bring an adjustable
tapping wrench, because it turns out some older French frames have a derailleur
hanger that is not threaded. Derailleurs made by Simplex and other companies of the time had a mounting post that slid through the hole and were secured on the inside of the hanger with a nut.
I initially looked into having a shop do it, but it cost less to buy myself
the required 10mm x 1 tap and try it myself. If I screw it up, I can always drill
it out and put in one of those “dropout saver”-type threaded inserts
made by Wheels Manufacturing or Problem Solvers.
At least the shift levers for the Cannondale CAA9 arrived in the mail, and
I was able to put that bike together. I was surprised to find on my shelves that I still had some blue cable housing and bar tape that matched up perfectly with the frame’s paint. I’ll say “good-bye” this week with a few photos of the bike:
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