The SunXCD 120mm rear cassette hub has opened up a world of possibilities for restoring older bikes. Frames up until the 80's had a rear OLN (over lock nut) dimension of 120mm to allow for a 5 speed screw-on freewheel hub or a Sturmey Archer hub gear.
Of course you can still buy SA hub gears for 120mm OLN drop outs, but if you want to retain derailleurs on your vintage racing bike, then you have a very limited choice of hubs for screw-on freewheels and an even smaller choice of good quality freewheel blocks.
Now SunXCD have introduced a 120mm OLN version of their beautiful large flange hubs, we can get modern reliability with an older frameset.
But what will we do for a cassette? Well you can de-populate a 7 speed cassette to 5 or 6 speed, but to be honest the 7 speed cassettes available are mainly of the cheap and nasty variety.
Our solution is for a 7 speed cassette, using a depopulated Sun Race 10 speed cassette. This is a high quality product with loose sprockets and anodised alloy spacers. You need to lose 3 sprockets and add a spacer and you have a perfect fit.
This conversion to my beloved 1951 Raleigh Lenton has been done using parts from this store.
- SunXCD 120mm OLN hub
- Sun Race 12-32t 10 speed cassette
- SunXCD Rear Derailleur
- Sun Race 10 speed chain
Well the repainted forks arrived and also the Kool Stop Salmon brake pads finally came from the USA for the MAFAC original shoes. A perfect fit and should give much better power than the hard black originals.
They are easy enough to slide in by squeezing the shoes/pads in a vice. They look just the ticket - a bit of a colour clash with the frame though.
There are just a couple of component choices to make: the pedals. I am going to try and find some vintage Campagnolo road pedals. If not MKS Sylvan are a very close match and the bar tape. Tempted to fit Velo Orange honey leather to match the saddle, but I don't recall seeing leather tape back in the '60's. Anyway just popped on some Cinelli Cork Ribbon whilst I test the bike.
So here is the (nearly) finished bike. So guess what it weighs (without pedals)?
The parts used are as follows:
Hubs: Campagonolo Record High Flange
Rims: Velo Orange Paris-Brest- Paris 700C
Spokes: Sapim Race Double Butted
Tyres: Grand Bois Cerf Blue
Freewheel: N.O.S. Regina 6 speed
Derailleurs: Campagnolo Nuovo Record
Shifters: Campagnolo Nuovo Record Bar-End Shifters
Gear Cable Housing: Nissen Cable Corp. Spiral Wound
Cranks: Velo Orange 50.4mm BCD 165mm crank length
Chain Rings: Spécialités T.A. Cyclotouriste Rings
Bottom Bracket: Velo Orange Grand Cru Bottom Bracket
Brakes: MAFAC Racer
Brake Levers: Dia Compe 202
Brake Cable Outer: Nissen Cable Corp
Saddle: Brooks B17
Seat Post: Velo Orange Grand Cru Long Set Back
Handlebars: Vintage Maes Bend
Handlebar Tape: Cinelli Cork Ribbon
Handlebar Stem: Nitto Technomic
Headset: Campagnolo Reccord
Bell: Velo Orange Temple Bell Brass
To enter our competition for an Eroica related prize, enter your estimate of the weight of the bike as photographed and enter it in the comments below. We will not be publishing entries until the prize is won.
Brakes are just as important as gearing on a ride like Eroica. Can a vintage bike be made to stop like a modern one?
The wheels are now built. The hubs are Campagnolo Record High Flange. They came from a bereavement sale as a complete set of wheels with (rusty) chrome-plated spokes, tied and soldered and sprint rims fitted with reasonably good tubular tyres. I didn't want the rims/tyres so I put them on eBay. The tyres went for a reasonable price, but the rims went for 99p - the buyer didn't want to pay for postage, so he collected them, when I was out. He put exactly 99p in loose change through the letterbox in a used paper bag!
I had originally built them with Rigida Chrina rims, but I wanted period-looking shiny alloy rims, so they had to go. I am not putting the old rims on eBay though :-) Anyway the new wheels look lovely:
The bearings were super smooth. These hubs have the old-school oiling hole which the previous owner did not neglect. I stripped and cleaned the bearings and they were perfect. The tyres are the light, flexible and fast Grand Bois Cerf. Tyre selection for the event, will be discussed in a future post.
I mentioned gearing in the previous post. I wanted low enough gearing for the event and for use in the hilly district where I live. The Nuovo Record was designed for close ratio 5 or 6 speed freewheels and 52/42T chain rings. I have fitted a 14-24T N.O.S. 6 speed Regina freewheel, so I needed to work out what the chain rings could be. I determined by trial and error, that 24 teeth is the maximum practical range of the rear mech will cope with, so a 14 teeth difference at the front is allowable. A compromise is needed, between spinning-out on the flat and hill-climbing ability. I have no objection to freewheeling downhill - it is better than walking up hill! A 46 teeth large chain ring will give gearing of 88 inches. I have high natural cadence, so that should be high enough. A 30 teeth small ring would give a low gear of about 33 inches, which should cope with all but the steepest inclines. The question is whether the Nuovo Record front mech will cope with the 14 teeth difference and a 46 teeth large ring instead of a 52 teeth. I fitted a similar combination to a customer's bike last year and he was delighted. Anyway here is the result.
Not too tight in large/large and only a small amount of slack in small/small. As the small/small combination should never be used in practice, all should be well. The road test will be the proof of the pudding though!
For now, I have used TA Cyclotouriste rings with Velo Orange 165mm 50.4BCD cranks.
Choice of bottom bracket proved problematic. The suggested 118mm bottom bracket caused the large chain ring to rub on the chain on the small/small combination. A 122mm BB did not work either, so a 124mm was needed. Bottom brackets with old frames and chainsets can be a bit of a lottery, so I keep a selection in the workshop to try out, so I can get the best fit. I am guessing this was a problem with the previous build as spacers had been fitted to the bottom bracket.
Next step will to fit the shifters and sort out the brakes.
To Be Continued...
Like thousands of others, I have registered for Eroica Britannia. I think it would be fun to build something especially for the event.
There is a lot of debate at the moment about tyre pressures and the trend for fatter tyres. We all know that with the old 23mm tyres, the advice was to keep them "board hard". In fact when I was time trialling as a youngster, we used to put an extra 10 strokes of the pump in for the event.
But now we are using 25mm tyres and even 28mm for heavier riders, can we lower the pressure and how much? And for those of us who don't ride at all competitively and spend our time riding for pleasure and cycle touring, the advice is to use even wider tyres 35-42mm typically for comfort without sacrificing speed.
It seems that all of the traditional advice has gone out of the window and we are all confused! This is compounded by the research recently published and publicized by Jan Heine et al.
Apparently fatter tyres do not slow you down and neither do under inflated tyres. The rolling resistance of a wider tyre is not any higher than a narrower one, nor is the wind resistance. To compound the confusion, they say neither do mudguards give any appreciable increase in wind resistance.
But what tyres and what pressure? Obviously the lighter the tyre the better, but what really counts is the flexibility of the side wall. A wider heavier tyre with stiff side walls is definitely going to slow you down! The theory (and practice) shows the rolling resistance of the tyre depends on how stiff or flexible the tyre sidewall is. The contact patch of the tyre and road depends on the combined weight of the bike and rider and the tyre pressure. A 200lb load at 100psi is 2 square inches in contact with the road at any time and as each part of the tyre contacts the road the the tyre wall squishes and unsquishes. That is what cause rolling resistance. Now consider this: a wider tyre will have a wider but shorter contact patch, so less of the tyre wall has to compress and de-compress. This means a wider tyre is better. So we are looking for a light flexible wider tyres. Not many manufacturers produce these. Grand Bois and Vittoria are the 2 best known.
But why do thin rock hard tyres just "feel" faster? This is because the buzz and vibration from the road surface feed back to the rider and give greater impression of speed.
So as to pressures- how low can you go? It seems as low as you can without getting pinch punctures, so maybe 60-65psi for most riders on 25mm tyres and a bit lower on gravel surfaces. If you are running 35-42mm tyres on your touring bike, then maybe as low as 35psi, If the road surface is horrible and pot holed then you will have to pump them up a bit to avoid rim damage.
So that's the theory, but in practice? Well I was persuaded to swap the 37mm Schwalbe HS-159's on my Velo Orange Polyvalent for some Grand Bois Hetres at 42mm. I turned up for a club run on the bike and the other riders were joking and commenting on my "balloon tyres". During the ride we went along an unmade road with soft sand and deep puddles. The other guys were swerving and bogging down while I cruised through. Then on the tarmac the low rolling resistance meant that I was hardly pedalling on the flat stretches and rolling away from them down the hills. At the end of the ride all of the questions were about the tyres - how much what sizes. No teasing about balloons. Now I know I was comparing a £50+ tyre with a £7 one, but most of the other guys were on respected mid-priced rubber. I also fitted 32mm Grand Bois Cypres to the new tourer I built for for my son, who jumped off his carbon fibre road bike to try the new bike out. When he came back I asked "how was it?". "Fast" he said.
So I am fully persuaded that wide, light and flexible tyres are the way to go.
Happy Cycling
MIke
Day 2 dawned dry, but the forecast was for "rain later" so we decided to make an early (for us!) start and were away at 8.45am straight after a full English breakfast at the Bull's Head. We were headed for Worcester for our 2nd overnight stop.
A word about navigation. We had bought the cheap, useful but not very durable Sustrans maps and Will had invested in the Ordnance Survey Maps for the areas of the tour, but the turn-by-turn directions from Google Maps (other navigation apps are available) on his iPhone were generally spot-on. I did keep checking the paper maps, as I was a bit doubtful, but Google would have got us there no problem. We have done quite a few Sustrans routes now and there is a tendency for them to take you on wide loops up huge hills to take advantage of a "traffic-free route", or to avoid 1/2 mile of "main road", probably no busier than the road outside your house! So having some old fashioned paper maps helped me to avoid these nonsense detours. On occasion the Google Maps route would take a totally illogical route - for example 9 miles along the A38 rather than a much more direct route along quiet lanes and through pretty villages, but we found that ignoring the directions and taking our preferred route soon caused it to re-route and choose the route we were taking anyway!
After cruising down the hill from our hotel, such a traffic free route was suggested, mainly along the path of the old railway, now occupied by the preserved Severn Valley Steam Railway.
It was a bit "off roady" in places but my 42mm Grand Bois Hetres coped very well and gave me a comfy ride. Will never complained about the 32mm Grand Bois on his bike either, so I guess he found it OK too. Pretty countryside and the Severn Valley Railway chugging back and forth. Shame it was diesel not a steamer.
It was misty and drizzly under the trees, but we didn't really get wet. Anyway it soon cleared into a nice spring day once we back on the tarmac again. We stopped to look at this castle and to take off our waterproof tops. In fact Google played one of its little tricks and we passed the castle twice. Out with the "proper maps" and we were soon stopped in Bewdley for a break at the bakery.
This leg from Bridgnorth to Stourport on Severn was the prettiest part of the trip following close to the river most of the way, then skirting around Kidderminster to Hartlebury -where we ground to a halt. Despite my taking Will's new bike on a shake-down trip earlier in the week, his headset had rattled loose on the bumpy off road section at the beginning of the day. Also the Velo Orange Copenhagen kick stand had come loose. It has to be said that the stand had proved really useful on the tour but now it was loose and catching on the cranks. Neither of us had an 8mm Allen key or a 32mm headset spanner so we couldn't fix it on the road. It was Saturday afternoon and there was no bike shop in Hartlebury. Worcester was the nearest and I was particularly looking forward to the last section of the run into Worcester from Droitwich along the Worcester and Birmingham canal towpath. I have done this trip by boat a few times. Will thought he could nurse the bike the last 10 miles or so with maybe a cable tie or two, but we were worried that by the time we got to Worcester the bike shops would be closed. We were just checking whether there was a Halfords, when the predicted heavy rain started. We were on Station Road in Hartlebury, so the 10 minute train ride into Worcester was a no-brainer and we were soon benefitting from the free loan of tools from the fantastic Worcester Cycle Centre. I have to say Worcester is the most cycle unfriendly city I have ever cycled in. The drivers specialised in close passes and the pedestrians were abusive. I was cycling along a bus lane (it's allowed isn't it?) and an old man shook his walking stick at me and said "you'm not allowed to ride along here!" just five minutes later an old woman shouted from the pavement "you want to watch where you're going!" I am sure that I was. The guy at Worcester Cycle Centre said "all the other bike shops have gone out of business". Can't say I'm surprised. The hotel was a short walk from the city centre and was far from welcoming. Despite emailing ahead and checking there was somewhere to leave our bikes, we were told we could leave them in the garden. This "garden" was full of scrap and broken glass and the only security was a fence that fell down when a bike was leaned against it. There was a very nice brick built garage with a shiny motorbike and a car. I asked could we leave the bikes in the garage and was told "we don't have a garage". The only door to the garage opened into the "garden"... The manager adopted a "selective understanding" communications sometimes used to advantage by non-native English speakers. Will is a very patient and persuasive negotiator and soon our bikes were snug under the stairs. We found a nice restaurant a short walk into the city. The hotel was nicely refurbished inside but the outside looked totally derelict. The breakfast was good too.
The forecast for Day 3 was good so we set off on Route 45 towards Gloucester. The Worcestershire roads were glorious for cycling - flat and quiet and being Sunday morning there were loads of cyclists out enjoying a morning on their bikes. It was a fast ride and soon we found ourselves in Tewksbury, screaming down a steep hill into the town, whereupon the heavens opened. Fortunately we were a few yards from Costa Coffee, so after short coffee break the sun was shining and we were off again on our way to Gloucester. (to be continued).
I have long had a desire to cycle the down the Severn Valley, wending my way through Shropshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire down to the mouth of the mighty river. A few years ago I learned of the Mercian Way - part of the National Cycle Network, which goes from Chester down to Salisbury, which is just a day ride from Poole where I live. So in the depths of winter I hatched a plan with my mate Steve, who is now retired, so has less time on his hands apparently, for a spring tour along this route, starting in Bath, near where Steve's daughter lives and ending up in Chester, where trains are available to take us and our bikes back home.
Unfortunately, Steve's daughter moved to London and blew his logistics apart so he reluctantly had to pull out. However, the tour was already planned, so I decided to proceed anyway. My son Will was up for a long weekend, so we decided to alter the plan slightly to start at Shrewsbury and end up at Bristol Parkway station where I could leave my car and Will could get a train back to London.
The weather forecast was far from encouraging, but lodgings were booked and train tickets bought, so we had to pack waterproofs and go anyway. Logistics started a couple of days before, meeting Will at Southampton Parkway rail station to deliver his bike for him to take back to London. I had spent a week or two building Will's touring bike, as previous tours we had done had seen Will turning up on various highly unsuitable machines, ranging from a single speed through to a full carbon road bike. Velo Orange had one Polyvalent frame left and it was in the right size so at last he could have a proper tourer, except that he wanted a Campagnolo Record/Super Record gear set and carbon fibre mudguards, but that can be forgiven.
We met at Shrewsbury station with fully loaded bikes and were on the road by midday. Within 5 miles a suitable pub stop for lunch was encountered and that is where the above photo was taken. the sharp shadows show that the weather forecast had fortunately been incorrect - at least for day 1.
A word about planning. Will hadn't done more than a few miles at a time since our Thames valley tour last year and the awful "spring" weather so far had meant I hadn't done much cycling recently, so we decided a leisurely schedule of about 35 miles per day was planned leaving time for refreshment stops and sightseeing. Unfortunately Day 1 we broke the golden rule of cycle touring of "take it easy on the first day". It was horrendously hilly and we only had a half a day.
Day 1 started with a few traffic free miles along the river and some quiet flattish lanes, which reminded me of my early cycling days along the deserted lanes of rural South Staffordshre - then the long ascent to Little Wenlock (750ft). The signboard for the village said "Just under the Wrekin". Wellington Wrekin is a huge hill that can be seen for many miles. Fortunately there is a pub at the entrance to the village to slake one's thirst after the long climb.
Then the welcome long descent bake down to the River Severn at Ironbridge, where still stands the first iron bridge ever built, back in 1779.
Our scheduled overnight stop was a few miles down river at the pretty riverside town of Bridgnorth, beloved of West Midland day trippers. We couldn't find a hotel in the town so, we found a very hospitable pub 4 miles the other side of town (but still on our planned route), which provided another brutal hill to end our day.
The perennial problem of where to store our bikes overnight was easily solved at the Bull's Head: it is a fisherman's haunt being near the river and they had a secure outbuilding for fishing tackle where we could leave our bikes, as the season had not yet started. They even gave us the key! Food was great but the weather forecast for Day 2 wasn't!
Been very busy with the start of the season, but I spent Wednesday evening working on the Calla. I managed to mount the original chain guard so it doesn't interfere with the operation of modern front mech.
You may remember that the original mech was a "stick shift", so I needed to find a way of mounting a shifter with minimal cabling. I tried a vintage Campag band on mount but it wasn't compatible with the modern shifter, so I found a NOS Shimano band-on shifter on eBay and swapped for the SunXCD ratchet shifter lever to match the rear shifter.
The whole transmission works perfectly now 10 speed x 2 chain rings. Plus retaining the original chainguard, restores the "Calla look"
Just the brakes to cable up now and the handlebars to tape and she will be ready for the road.
Quick update on the Calla. This week I decided to fit the transmission. I dislike cottered chainsets with a vengeance, so I decided to fit the period looking SunXCD cranks with the René Herse style rings. These are ramped and pinned to work properly with 10 speed chains. I chose the same ring sizes as original so I could try and make the beautiful original "stick shift" front derailleur with integral chainguard work. It worked beautifully on the test ride of the unrestored bike.
As mentioned last time a 10 speed rear cassette was fitted to make the bike usable as a laden tourer (the load being mostly me!). This has an 11-34 cluster, so the obvious choice is the SunXCD rear mech.
I have doubts whether the smallest cog will be usable as the chain runs very close to the frame. I will see what I can do with some spacers, which will mean redishing the wheel.
A quick check of the front changer was disappointing as the chain would not shift to the outer ring. There is adjustment on the front mech but not much. I had fitted the "correct" 118mm bottom bracket but obviously this set up requires a much tighter chain line. I did some measurement and there is at least 6mm of clearance between the frame and the cranks/rings, so I am going to try a 113mm Velo Orange French bottom bracket instead.
While digging through the original parts I found the lovely little leather tool bag, which goes very nicely with the Velo Orange leather saddle.
I want to get this bike finished in time for Easter. There is a customer tandem rebuild coming back from the paint shop next week...
