I'm considering converting a n original 1962 Condor road racing bike to a 650B so as to lower the standover height and make her ridable as an upright w/ Riv. "priest" bars. HERISY? Opinions?
Not heresy, as the change(s) can be undone, and the bike put back to original. Knock yourself out.
I'm treading closer to the edge with the '54 Algurn. I know the Omnipotent Despot will cordially disapprove, but I've decided to send it it for refurbishment, because the paint is rather tired, it will allow recreation/documentation of the decal set which are unobtainable in the vintage market, and I can add some highlighting of the intricate lugs. Bicycle Specialties in Toronto will probably be doing the work. They do an excellent job recreating decals, as seen on the Praderio they showed at the Cirque this year.
http://www.adventurecorps.com/
If I couldn't get good graphics, I definitely wouldn't touch her. I'm going to recreate the paint scheme as it now appears, just making it shiny and new, and adding some gold or cream lug lining ( and if I really get wild and crazy, some box lining). FYI, the bike now is a faded red/orange, with two cream panels on the seat tube.
Some pics of the bike are here:
The heretical issues are these:
Refinishing a frame that doesn't absolutely demand it (no large blotches of rust anywhere or structural issues).
Adding lug highlights where the original frame had none. (Necessary in my opinion given the current stealthy appearance of the fancy lugs)
Not reusing the original colour, if I could determine it. The paint has faded from red to orange, and I think I'll keep the orange which has grown on me; reminds one of Moltenis and Holdsworths.
Adding brazeons (!?!?) Here's where we really get controversial. The candidates would be a (in order of desire/liklihood) a rear center pull brake stop, a set of water bottle bosses, moving the brake cable stops (currently a split cable housing set up on the bottom of the top tube) and adding a derailleur hanger. All of these have reasons/justifications, of course. The centerpull brake stop will permit getting some effective stoppers on the bike, unlike the current marginal Universal 68 sidepulls. Yes, you can use a seat post binder stop, but I never cared for how these look, the current tidy seat binder doesn't have much room for adding a stop and I always liked brazed on stops ala Raleigh Internationals. The water bottle mounts would avoid having to use either straps on new paint or using a handlebar cage mount which never seem to hold the bottle securely. The current brake cable routing makes it difficult to run the cable as the cable ends up pointing directly at the center line of the seat tube. This will be even tougher with a center pull brake as the cable will have to make a half circle around the seat tube instead of angling off to the side for side pulls. And finally I'm forced to use a derailluer hanger for the rear mech now, as the bike comes with Simplex drops with no hanger, adding weight and complexity.
What would you do? My current inclination is: use the faded color, add lug lining, add the center pull brake bridge, and live with everything else. Certainly no derailleur hanger, that would be total heresy. Brake cable routing, the current set up is annoying but livable, same for the lack of water bottle cage mounts. If I was ordering the frame custom I'd change them, but on an old frame I'd prefer to leave them.
Your comments, discussion and suggestions welcome.
Tom Adams, Shrewsbury NJ
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