Archive for the ‘Bike Repairs’ Category

Our friend Ricardo brought this Masi Gran Criterium in a little while ago and it had a thrashed seat lug and seat tube. He wanted to convert it into a commuter and I was very willing to help. Having already replaced the seat tube on this frame and built a new fork for it, I didn’t see it as being sacrilege to do this conversion. Ricardo is going to be getting groceries and running errands on this bike with great style. The silvery metallic purple has an almost micro-suede look to it that just makes you want to reach out and touch it. And the super thin clearcoat really shows the definition of the lug lines and file marks from its original builder.

 
 
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In other news, we’ve been painting…A LOT. I will resume with the frame building very soon as we don’t want our wait list for frames to get out of hand. Here are some shots of a recently completed Royal H mixte — a very lovely bicycle. More paint work to follow suit.

 
 

Lastly, the weather in many parts of the country has been crappy and cold this winter. It has been taking its toll on my morale and my commuting bike. Salty roads and metal don’t work so well together (see pic of my Phil Wood bottom bracket). Just a quick reminder to take care of your bikes in this season. We don’t want you to get any seized seatposts or stuck bottom brackets. Take ‘em apart when you can to make sure everything is all right in there. Grease your posts and BB threads. Spray some frame saver in there as well if you can get the whole bike apart. Your bike will thank you many years from now by not rusting away.

 

It seems like I’ve been building some taller bikes as of late. This cyclocross bike is 67cm and looks incredible! The light blue with white panel paint scheme is gorgeous. And the dark blue painted on logos and bands look sharp. If there’s anyone who needs a custom frame it’s someone who can’t get something off the shelf at their local bike shop. Everyone should be able to enjoy cycling no matter what their size is. These bigger bikes are fun to build because of the design challenges that arise. Head tube angle, seat tube angle, bottom bracket drop, seat stay length, and chain stay length are all crucial as bikes go larger than 64cm. Restrictions in tubing lengths from manufacturers poses the largest problem which is overcome by using straight gauge chromoly or custom drawn tubes. So check these shots of Matt’s frame and fork out and contact us if you need a bigger bike built.

 
 
 
 
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In other news, Dan Langlois’ cross bike was in for a repair and got a new paint job while it was here. It’s like a brand new bike again except now it matches his other one.

 

I also recently uploaded some riding footage from 2007 for Dan to see that was shot for a video that didn’t use all of it. Might as well share it with the rest of you too. Here I am riding my Circle A flatland frame.

Brian Chapman – Riding 2007 from Brian Chapman on Vimeo.

I’ll give you the background to this restoration as accurately as I can. In 1966, Dave bought a new, white, 24″ Schwinn Paramount (serial P605). It was gorgeous and he rode it very little because it didn’t really fit him. I blame the bike shop salesperson for that. Soon after the purchase, the bike was put into storage and didn’t see the light of day for 40+ years. In January of this year, our shop acquired an orange 22″ Schwinn Paramount (serial p631) from our friend Bob. Dave came to our shop with hopes of altering his original frame but then saw the orange Paramount that was his size. It was decided that the orange frame and fork would be restored to be the white Paramount that would fit him like a glove. Some changes needed to be made though: the frame needed chromed head lugs, the seat stay bridge needed to be moved for 700c medium reach brakes, the fork also had to be filled and redrilled for 700c medium reach brakes, and water bottle bosses needed to be added. So after many weeks of waiting for the chrome plater, I was recently able to complete this frame. Special thanks to Bob for aligning the planets for Dave and to Peter Weigle (who recently did a similar restoration/renovation) for tips on lug lining and antiquing the clearcoat. I have another one coming up as well so check back here soon (see the blue Paramount in the last pic).

 
 
 
 
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I was also busy in the shop doing other repaints and repairs including a dropout replacement on a carbon, aluminum and steel Lemond Zurich. Not the easiest of replacements but the operation was a success.

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The other paint jobs being done here include a Bianchi touring repaint. Let me just say that I have a love for brown bikes. So what about a bike with three different earthy shades? Well, the bike is almost organic at that point. Here’s Deb’s Bianchi, re-aligned and repainted.

 
 
 
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And finally I did a repaint on a D’Arienzo/Basso. I am told that Basso built the bikes for D’arienzo (which would explain the Basso pantograph on the bottom bracket). So we went with some Basso decals on Armando’s pursuit bike. Armando was the lucky winner of the Circle A paint job raffle prize at last year’s bike swap at Providence Bicycle. I also did some carving and added stainless faces to the dropouts that another builder had replaced. Here’s the finished product.

 
 
 
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Still in the hopper is Ralph’s 953 frame and Matt’s single speed. Materials have been shipped and I’ll be trading in the paint gun for a torch and file for awhile. In some sadder news, I recently dropped my Canon digital SLR and broke my favorite lens. Hopefully I can get a new lens before my next blog post. You’ll want to see these next few bikes.

But to end on a happier note, Nathan got his stolen bike back! Props to Andy for spotting it and taking action.

Joel’s Nishiki is fixed, straightened, painted, and ready to go. It came in with a crumpled downtube so I replaced that and did some alterations while the paint was off. That included new rear dropouts, new cable stops, and some fender mounts. Check out the slideshow for the pictures of the process.

  
 
 
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Mike came by to pick up his completed single speed on Saturday. The bike looked amazing with the White Industries ENO crankset and freewheel. The custom stem didn’t look too shabby either. Here’s the finished product.

Our friends Bobby and Dan held an alleycat race on Saturday as well. Congratulations to Eric Pupecki who won it and also to Mike Bike for winning the Circle A paint job (again!) for carrying the most papers. Here’s Mike in his partial Mapei kit. Nice job.

And I still ride my BMX bike from time to time. On Sunday, a bunch of old school riders (i.e. people who’ve been riding since the mid to late 80’s) got together to ride and catch up on each other’s lives. Got a little group photo because it probably won’t happen again for a long time.

Speaking of BMX, this Saturday Vic over at Circuit BMX in Pawtucket is holding a BMX swap (1-5PM), the footdown world championships (5-7PM), and the Kink Safety First video premiere (7PM).

And speaking of bike swaps, Providence Bicycle will be hosting their bike swap/fundraiser for the RI Food Bank on Sunday from 10AM to 3PM. There will be a ton of vendors and a cool raffle which will include a Circle A paint job as a prize. See you there!

Micah came and built up his frame a couple of weeks ago. We spent a small part of a freezing Saturday afternoon putting some nice parts on his beautiful new frame.

Ricardo picked up the 3RENSHO which came out wonderful as well. I was very pleased with the lug matching (thanks in part to Joseph for tracing the old ones for me).

   
  

Joe’s Viking is another inspirational restoration. This was an old one but definitely worth redoing with its Nervex lugs. The seat cluster in particular was my favorite. I like the way the stays clasp the seat lug so much that I ended up using it on Ken’s upcoming single speed. Here are the pictures of the completed bike.

   
  

Sarah’s cyclo-touring machine is ready for her super fancy paint job. I finished it last week but we’re still working out the details of the paint. More to come soon.

 
  

Brian Fu’s frame is complete with the smoothest finish I’ve ever done. Here are some of the pics of the completed project and the slideshow of the whole process. Special thanks to Joseph Ng for volunteering to transport this frame halfway around the globe to Hong Kong!

 
 
 
 

I’m also in the middle of a repair on an old Viking. It has seen its share of repairs already with a downtube replacement and a sloppy conversion to a geared bike. Well, the hanger and brake bridge have been removed and the downtube has been replaced. A replacement fork was built and the Viking transfers are being hunted down. Here are the pics of the bike in progress.

 
 

I’ve also spent a bit of time in the paint booth on a bike for Echelon Cycle Works. This frame is dark green with black panels and little “-dB” logos all over it. Here are the pics of that.

 
 

And in the hopper is a small fillet brazed 650b frame and fork for my friend Michelle. The tube set is in hand and construction begins this week. Stay tuned for more updates.

So a couple of bikes have been in the works at the shop including this Witcomb track frame that was in for a repaint. Here are a couple shots of the lugs, crown, and shell which were the most difficult for me to mask.

 
 
 

That Motobecane that was run over by a car is also ready to go. We’re not doing the paint on it so it’s heading out like this.

 
 

Jack stopped by the shop to show us his built up Green Jake cross bike. Looks pretty sweet if you ask me. The tubes for my frame are already mitered and in the jig. I brazed it together today and will be uploading more pics this weekend. Hopefully much progress is made.

 

And lastly, that flatland frame I built for Henry a while back is assembled and ready to ride. He uploaded some pictures to Global-Flat here.

I’m an idiot for not getting pictures of this bike before I cut it apart. It’s an old Reynolds 531 Motobecane Grand Record that had its back end crushed by a car. We were asked to replace the rear end salvaging the Campagnolo dropouts and reuse the original bridges and seat stay caps. Well, all went well except for the seat stay caps which practically disintegrated when I was pulling them off. So here was my first attempt at doing a wrap around seat stay cap. Looks good to me and after clean-up it’ll look even better.

I took a bunch of pictures of Hannah’s frame and am going to update the gallery momentarily. Here are a couple shots and a slideshow of the build process for anyone interested.

 

Other things going on that are fun are a Ritchey dropout replacement on a Kona. Hooray. I’ll be painting the back end of it tomorrow. I guess that’s it. I should be cutting tubes for Jack’s bike tomorrow. I’ll see how much I can get done. More to come soon.

  

After a couple of weeks of sloth-like working, I’m back for more. The Casati and other various bike repairs are complete and I can finally move on. Here are a couple of shots of the finished down tube replacement. It will not be repainted by us so it goes back to the owner looking pretty raw, but sweet nonetheless.

This repair came into the shop and made me realize that getting doored must be pretty painful. The downtube on this Casati is in the process of being replaced (duh). It’s a damn shame too, that pink was so beautiful. It hurt cutting it out. Note the gap in the head tube miter. Hopefully I’ll get it tighter than what it came in with. Yikes. I’ll post some more pics when the grinding is done and the new tube is in.