Main Frame Respray

They say all the work is in the preparation, and they're not wrong, while last week I managed to sand the paint off the tubes with an electrical sander, this weekend I was left with the task of hand sanding all the joints. Being a vintage frame, all the joints are not butt welded like a modern frame, they have intricate lugs that hold the tubes which are then brazed into place.

Anyhow, 4 hours or sanding got me to the point where I could spray the first coat of primer...

On Sunday I wet sanded the primer very lightly to ensure it was smooth and applied a second coat. While that was drying, I got to work on the brake callipers. The ones that came with the bike will work with more standard 700c road rims, so these just needed some cleaning up. You can see how a bit of elbow grease and Autosol did the trick with a before and after shot...

I have a load of odds and ends on delivery, handle bar tape, brake cable inner and outers and brake cable cutters. Still to source the wheels and a saddle. So far the project has cost £159, but it's been great fun...

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Where It Starts

During this period of lock-down, I felt I wanted a hands on project to keep me busy. So following my cycling hobby, I decided to have a go at building a single speed bike from an old frame and second hand parts from the internet. The initial purchase came from ebay of a 1975 Carlton Circuit bike frame and forks, £45 (inc delivery), but it comes with brakes and handle bars, the crank didn't survive being taken apart.. They were the photos from the ebay listing

Starting to take shape

One week after the clear coat was applied, I can start to put the bike back together....well with the bits that I have, even if they are temporarily off of one of my other bikes. The forks, brake callipers and modified original handlebars all went back on nicely, but when I started to size up the outer brake cables, it was clear that the cyclocross levers were not going to work. I bit of polishing on the original Weinmann levers and I actually think these look so much better. Still a list of thing to source, but starting to look really good...

And the bike is done...

The last few weeks have been a waiting game, the last few items ordered online have taken their time to arrive, the last being the brake cable end stops. So while I had everything else together, I had no way of using the brakes. Now that it's all together and the first shake down ride complete, I am very pleased with this project. What do you think? It's been a great project to do over the past three months, i've learnt a lot: Stripping the bike down and removing the paint took longer than I had imagined You use a lot more paint that you think, in fact I would say that I could have done more coats of paint, or been better at those that I applied Finding the right bottom bracket axle, front chainring combination is hard, in fact, I am not entirely satisfied with what I ended up with, but it works The single speed conversion hub is a genius pice of kit! Cyclecross in-line brake levers are no good if you want to have a front and bac...

Bicycle Restorations

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