There's also option 2.5; build or buy a new steel bike.

I bought this Marin Nicasio during COVID and tweaked a couple things on it. Every time I think about getting something more road-oriented or trying to find another full-suspension to bomb the trails on here I hop on the Marin and the desire for anything else just melts away. Depending on how much your time is worth to you, this might also end up being the cheapest route vs. finding a frame, sourcing the right parts you'd want on a custom build and then building + dialing it all in.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1679088552.jpg

For riding a few miles ad day, just use what you have and cobble something together. For the century ride, absolutely look for something more modern, and buy used. Get the right frame size and then have the bike fitted by a bike fitter.

I did just that when I had a similar plan and ended up doing the "Death Ride" in 2018. I bought a top of the line used Colnago C50 with Campagnolo group off CL for not a whole lot of money. I put modern saddle and handlebar at the time I got the bike fitted. I completed the event and had a ton of people comment on the bike. Modern classic. I have been riding mostly MTB since, but it is a great wall ornament in the garage and I can sell it anytime for more than what I paid and put in it.

If the ride is pretty flat, anything 15 years or younger with rim brakes should be pretty affordable. It looks like everyone is getting disc bikes now.

Here my thread. Longest thread I ever started, I think! :) - a lot of good info, you may want to read it. Some of the PPOT biking and exercising legends on there. Including Angela. RIP. :(

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/910181-school-me-road-bikes-11.html

Cheers,

George

finding a modern bike that fits me on the used market is mission impossible

ain't gonna happen

if this vintage build doesn't pan out I'll break open the piggy bank for a new bike

it will have to be at least 62cm

One of my biggest problems now is being unfamiliar with all the new sizes and jargon, I havn't bought a bike in 35 years.

Fortunately I have time and skill. I'm going to sand blast the frame and do the paint myself. I've built wheels a long time ago in my bmx days.

I like the challenge of taking an old steel bike that is ready to be tossed into the scrap bin and turning it into a bike where I can ride comfortably all day.

Keep your eyes and ears open - here's a first gen Roubaix that's a 64 for small money.

Tall bikes come up fairly frequently, and I'd have to think it would be fairly easy to strike up a good deal because there's not a lot of demand for tall bikes.

https://seattle.craigslist.org/est/bik/d/renton-specialized-roubaix-expert/7588068929.html

LA is about as far as I'm willing to go for a bike. But that does look like a good deal.

I see tall bikes all the time. If you are willing to go to LA, I bet you can find something within a month or less. When they do come up, they seem to be discounted. Just like a left-handed firearm. You can also buy at a used bike outlets online. Things have calmed down quite a bit since the height of the pandemic.

I’m just concerned that you will be playing around with building a bike instead of riding. Get something decent you can right now and then you can start playing with classics.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1679098115.jpg

I used these old sew ups for my senior design project and I held onto them. The hubs are Campagnolo. They're still good. The rear has a six gear cassette so that may fit the stays on the Gilmour frame. I'll know next week.

The tire size is going to be important. If I build my own wheels I got a lot of freedom.

building is half the fun but you have a good point. If the build starts dragging on too long I'll find a freakishly tall stem and start training on the cannondale

130 is the typical rear drop out spacing. Older bikes from the 70s and 80s are a tad smaller. Since its steel, it can be cold set. You must have dropout tools to set them and not many new shops know how to do that or have the tool. Old steel frame can typically take up to 10-11 speed. Not sure about Campy hub. I lost touch with Campy stuff. Must run off to dinner, get back to this later this evening

Does anyone know where I can get a fork for a 66 cm frame?

I'm looking but not finding anything. I'm wondering if I'm going to have to resort to modifying a shorter fork for my needs.

Super Record, is top of the line for road racing. I think its just Record now. Not up to date with the latest from Campy. Chorus is their entry level or one level above entry level racing component.

Dura-Ace is top of the line Shimano road group. Ultegra or Shinamo 600 known in the old days was their entry. 105 is the modern day entry race/sports group. They discovered they can make a lot of money offering a water down ultegra or Dura Ace looking group set but built with heavier materials or should I say, no Ti or carbon.

I personally wouldn't get anything less then Ultegra. My first Ultegra group set is on my kid's Trek. 12 speed electronic. Its just sightly heavier then Dura-Ace. It all comes down to weight between the two.

the new comer SRAM is also very good. I have a complete set SRAM Force group set of 10 speed in a box. I had to have 11 speed when it came out. Use it for two seasons. I also have Shinamo 10 speed electronic group sitting in a box. Again, the 11 speed Dura-Ace was a must have when that came out. Now, I am running 12 speed with the 11 spd on the bike hanging from the garage. Yea, I have an illness. If you don't fine anything on ebay, let me know, Its always for sale at a great price since I have no need for them and I am not good at selling old stuff due to people not showing up.

I have to agree with Peter from Australia, ride the Cannondale to get you back on the road. Work on the steel bike, ride it and see how you like it. I know, its the journey and not the destination for you. I really to break it to you, its not the bike, its you that are going to do that 100 mile but with a quality bike, it helps, about 5-10%.

That set of campy hubs, Freewheel or cassette? If cassette, I believe 10 spd can be had with a 10 spd derailleur and shifter to make it work. 10 spd plus is great for those type of long 100 mile rides due to the ability to have wide range of gears. A large 28 tooth cog is golden on a 3000' ball buster climb to the finish and that's after 85 miles.

There are lots of riders and bikes out here in socal. People dump last year's models for the must have newest (I know how they feel). If you see something, I can have a look for you. I know bikes very well.

In today's bike terminology, you need an extra large frame. Show us a pic of the steel frame you bought when it comes in.

I hate to break this to you, but the mid grade wheels sold today are SO MUCH stronger and faster then what you have there. I build my own wheels too 30 years ago. They had to be trued every season now, I ride them and ride them without having to worry about them getting out of wack. I am rough on wheels and am one of those guys that will take the group behind hard over railroad tracks or rough roads. Do you need them for the 100 ride? No, of course not, but they sure are nice to have. Less spoke count, more aero, and light weight with supple ride quality. What's not to like.

no more racing, but intense training ride where the young pups warp their hand around my neck and shake me like a rag doll. I have taken an old steel bike on that ride. It isn't much slower and I finish the ride the same as the plastic bike, feeling like hell each and everytime.:D

I was just thinking about this build I'm doing. Old bikes are one of the few things I enjoy and is still affordable to restore. Lots of old bikes and parts out there. Some cars are just unreal. I look at International Scouts from time to time and can't believe how much people want for them today.

I figured out how to look for forks on ebay. I think I found something that will fit the frame I got coming.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/144955689149?hash=item21c00848bd:g:xRUAAOSwt89jnjl Y

says its for a 9" steering tube.

A vintage steel race bike with is sort of like an old Cadillac and the new graphite bikes are like a new BMW M3. Very different rides but both will get you there.

After the frame arrives I'm going to visit a friend in San Diego who says I can have whatever spare parts he has free. I have another friend in Thousand Oaks who has been riding forever and may have some extra goodies. I'l have to ask him if I get over that far.

:)

those sew ups are from one of these bikes

https://bmxsociety.com/uploads/month...6716024259.jpg

They were used back in 95 when I was in my senior design class at the U. We were building a human powered vehicle. I eventually chopped up the vehicle and threw it in the trash but I held onto the wheels. I don't see any reason why I can't use the hubs now.

Sounds like fun. I enjoy building or working on old bikes too especially bikes from the 80s to mid 2000s just like Pete here.

Like everything old, its a lot of money:rolleyes:. A clean Campy Super Record anything or Dura-Ace of a certain vintage is worth bucks. I had a pair of Binda Extra straps from the 80s in its original bag I found under my parent's house in my box of crap. I heard some guy talking about old straps at the end of the ride and I mention to them I have a set I found. He offered me 100 bucks on the spot. Couple weeks later, I found out they were in the 125-140 dollar range. Not a big deal. I am glad someone will use it. I paid 17 bucks for them. A certain Campy and Dura-Ace parts are like air cool parts. Not cheap but luckily, Campy parts are not needed to get a bike running at top condition and perhaps race with it without issues.

One thing I learn over the years about the old steel bikes. They aren't always straight from being beat around or crashes. That's important on long descents. Check it or its time to make friends with an old shop in AZ that may have a frame table.

The bike market is about to collapse COVID saw a huge demand increase companies overproduced and now can’t get rid of last years inventory. Many companies have laid off employees. You should be able to get a great deal the longer you wait.

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I was in one of these competitions.

people problems, time problems, money problems

still had fun

the sewups I bought were a good choice but if I had to do it over again I would go in a different direction.

Otto, one thing to think about is that bikes have gotten a lot better. Entry level stuff a year or two old is really good. (I'm talking about bike shop bikes, not department store bikes). The last ten years have seen unreal advancements in materials and engineering.

Pro racers have mostly abandoned sew up tires. There's still a few guys that like them, but tire technology has gone off the charts in terms of rolling resistance and comfort, not to mention ease of maintenance. We used to ride on 21 or 23's. Nowadays 25's are too skinny for a lot of riders.
11 speed freewheels are the norm. 12 speed is no longer exotic. Disc brakes work great wet or dry.

My first century was actually a double; (jyl was a huge motivator) I rode it on a high end steel bike from the '80's and even though it was fun, I would never do it again on that bike - as beautiful as it is to look at, it is just pretty much obsolete.. It would be like using a rotary phone after years of using push button phones. Not to mention, finding matching replacement parts is becoming problematic. (I broke a handlebar once - finding a decent replacement without getting reamed financially required a few weeks of searching)


Having said that, yes to the idea of finding an stem with an extra long quill. Get on your bike sooner rather than later. Start a routine, do some short rides Monday through Friday and then carve out some time for Long Slow Distance rides on Saturday or Sunday. There's a ton of good advice and schedule templates on the google for cyclists getting ready for their first century.

I need to air up mine and take her out.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1679177597.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1679177597.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1679177597.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1679177597.jpg

Tucson built a loop sometime after I had to leave 23 years ago.

https://www.arizonabikerides.com/rides/586/the-loop-bike-ride-tucson/

no cars, just bikes, joggers and people walking.

https://www.tucsonaz.gov/files/bicyc...cs/loopmap.jpg

When I'm done with this vintage build I may start looking for a modern bike. Titanium or graphite.

I've been rolling around some ideas of building a home grown carbon bike. It would be made out of pieces like a steel brazed bike with lugs, but glued together like a composite airplane.

Check out the Vitus Carbone from the 1980's.

Lugged carbon frames still has that real nice riding quality to 'em. My Time is lugged so was my Look. But the latest monocoque carbon frames are amazing. I think finally, engineers are able to dial in that special feel in the past 10 years. Stiff where's needed, compliant where necessary.

I think building a steel frame is hard enough (I don't know how to weld or braze), but a carbon frame must be dead accurate. That's a tough built. If you do, please keep us in the loop. I for one would love to see all the details that goes into doing this. My only experience was help built the solar car's carbon fiber body back in college. This was when carbon was the rage, new material that are just as strong as metal but light as a feather. That was how they sold it to us. I already knew about it from bike frames.

thats sort of a hybrid graphite/aluminum bike

fyi for anyone... Graphite and Carbon Fiber are interchangeable.

Whoever made the Vitus Carbone bought the tubes from one company and probably had a different company die cast or investment cast the lugs in aluminum and then they glued the frame together with an adhesive like Hysol 9394.

Todays bikes use a multi piece aluminum mold that costs (guessing here) a half million or more and I would expect there is a bladder inside when the frame is cured.

a clever guy (gal?) can make a lot of things with composites

I read somewhere that the structure of the DCX single stage to orbit experiment was made out of carbon fiber cloth and room temp cure epoxy. Scaled Composites and Burt Rutan were involved.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-X

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:cool:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1679197751.jpg

The big boys have the bucks. They use CNC machined aluminum molds, 250 F cure prepreg carbon fiber uni directional cloth and they cure the bike in an autoclave at around 100 psi. The parts come out perfect without any voids or air pockets in the laminate and all the extra resin is squeezed out of the part.

If I built a bike in my garage I would have to use soft molds made out of fiberglass or maybe even plastic from a 3D printer. I'll use a woven dry fabric with room temp cure epoxy and I'll use a vacuum bag to compact the parts while the resin cures. My frame would be maybe 25% heavier. I don't have the analysis skills and programs to do a real finite element analysis that a big firm can afford. I would just build a bike and do a destructive test on it.

ugh.. I tried building a bike 20 years ago and wasn't happy with it. Its in a landfill now somewhere in Riverside.

Anyone read Kevin Cameron's column in Cycleworld? He talks about racebikes as being ideas of the guys who built those machines. Every season you get a machine with new ideas and the old machine is unceremoniously dumped in a shredder.

I have to get my Cannondale on the road. I've thought about it today and I'm going to get new tires (if they fit), so go from 23 to 32 and borrow the mountain bike stem from my sisters old race bike. Raise the bars up 2 1/2" and fatter tires may make the bike comfortably enough to start putting on miles. Three months from now I'll have all the cobwebs blown out.

32mm tires? I think that Cannondale will only take up to 25-28 mm tires if you are lucky. Just air the tires up to 85 lbs and it should ride like having a spring under you. You are not even in your mid 50s yet so ride those skinny tires:D This morning, a bunch of strong riders handed me my ass on a 50 mile ride. There were at least 6-7 50 something year old men in there dishing out some of the pain. These guys ride a lot, 150-250 miles a week. I suffered by gluing myself 2" to their wheels from the 57 fwy (turn around point) all the way up to Sierra Marde through the foothills. Since you mentioned Riverside, you must know LA a bit. I was dropped 3 miles to the top near the town of Sierra Marde. We avg. 22 mph coming back up the foothills. If these old farts can dish out good power for 50 miles, you can too. Plus, you are a taller guy, with longer leg muscles. It should take you a couple weeks to get your legs back then work toward 50 miles within the first month should be a piece of cake.

I lived in the Temecula area for 17 years give or take. My jobs were in Escondido, Lake Forrest, Canoga Park and Palm Desert. I mostly drove thru LA back and forth.

Its Sunday and the bike shops are closed and most will be closed tomorrow. I can get that stem though..

Yes, don’t do it. Beats the whole reason for steel.

I keep seeing the thread title and think....

Recycling :D

I'd suggest that with those rims a 25/26mm tire is the widest that will work on it. Anything wider, regardless of whether or not it fits the frame and fork is oakley to roll off the rim when you turn in, especially going fast downhill..... possibly to be avoided.

The rim is likely to be 17mm wide and so check with the tire makers what they reckon. I know my Mavic M40 rims from that era are really not suitable for anything more than 26mm... and the ride on them is better than the 23s but nothing like a 28 or 30mm.

That being said a set of modern rim braked wheels, either alloy or carbon will be wider (19mm) and so suitable for 25 and upwards to at least a 30mm tire. There are a number of (relatively) inexpensive 50mm carbon aero rims that are designed around 28mm tires. Worth it for the additional speed even with an older frame.

I found the aero rims allow a 2-3 km/h average speed increase over a 199 km ride with the same effort.. or maintaining the previous speed with less effort. Much appreciated.

Why? If your reason is to stay original then having a steel fork (there's nothing wrong with a steel fork. I raced and thrashed many) is similar to using 1960s skinny tire/ technology on a 911 for the track instead of using a wider modern tire only the gap isn't that huge. Why do you think a steel fork is never seen on any of the newer frames including steel, stainless, alum, scandium, Ti and so on. One of the reason is weight there are a few other benefits also.

A carbon steer tube (a bonded alum. steer tube is Ok too, I suppose) fork with threadless headset is the way to go on steel bikes, IMO.

I am a huge fan of deep dish wheels. When they were available to the public way back, it was alum. A bike shop owner said, try these, and handed his personal set over to me. I was told I can ride one tooth smaller on the rear cog with them using the same effort. I was in pretty good shape then. rode a lot so I went on my regular route. What a difference. I went back the next day, ordered a set. They make a HUGE difference. I think one mph can be had but the trick is the speed must be over 17 mph or so in order for them to be effective. The modern dish wheels are so light that they beat out any of the old school high spoke count wheels plus the aero benefit, they are superior wheels. Dont forget, they are tough and durable also.

I don't think a carbon fork is available that can fit the vintage bike I'm building but I bet there is one for the Cannondale.

It is impossible to get a 1" threadless carbon fork to begin with, unless its used. A full carbon, not an alum steer tube is even more difficult. Steel may be the next best thing only because there aren't many choices. Being a large size frame makes it more difficult.

Here you go, They are still available. Now, only a headset is needed. https://www.incycle.com/products/ritchey-comp-carbon-fork?variant=39676801613955&currency=USD&utm_mediu m=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_o rganic&utm_campaign=sag_organic

I like the FSA threadless headset. Cheap, and the quality is pretty dang good. No need to buy Campy. I have one on my Ti bike as well as my Conlago.

here's a cheaper one. I have never heard of the companies but I would buy from Performance or well known places for 20 bucks more. That's just me. https://www.starbike.com/en/ritchey-comp-road-carbon-fork-700c-368mm-43mm-100x9mm-qr-rim-brake-matte-carbon-ud/?country=US&currency=USD#135978

One thing about brakes, old school side pull brakes SUCKS but were excellent for their time. If you do get a chance, get the latest gen Ultegra brakes calipers. They stop REALLY well and cheap. I put them on my kids Ridley which he out grew to replace the previous gen. Dura-ace.

https://www.deluxe-bike.com/products/shimano-ultegra-br-r8000-brake-caliper-1-pair?variant=41685487878316&currency=USD&utm_mediu m=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_o rganic&utm_campaign=sag_organic

AGain, they were the cheapest. They normally run about 60-70 bucks per. Depending on the lever, they may not be as effect with the old fashion ones you may have on the bike. We had the last gen Dura-Ace so it work flawlessly.

I felt like I was losing the forgiving benefits of steel when I had a carbon fork on a steel frame. Now I must say that this was on a single speed Surly Mtn bike that I had. It just felt weird like I was taking all the vibes in my hands.