1982 Rotary - Complete!

So this was going free at my wife's work and not being one to turn down a free bike I leapt at it.

I'm not up to speed with road bikes spending most my time on the MTB section of RB but there was something nice about the colour and the decals on this and not having any other project on the go thought it would be a good distraction.

As far as I'm aware it's a 1982 Rotary which may have been operated by Peugeot. Other than that I don't know much about it or whether it's a banger or an angel (It doesn't seem anything 'special'). That said, there is some nice chrome on it and I think with some metal polish and new tyres, saddle etc. It'll look really nice.

Originally I had been thinking white tyres (?), white leather bar tape, silver iLinks cables (left over from another build) and perhaps some nice old toe straps and a hip flask holder (hipster). A brooks saddle would look lovely but I think the budget is not quite up to that... White turbo saddle on a road bike - is that a done thing?

Appreciate any thoughts anyone has on this...



You can see in the last image the polished and unpolished part of the rear wheel. The front wheel has an alu rim so I'm guessing this was replaced at some point. The bars also seem to have taken a crash so I think it would be best to replace those.

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Can't gripe at that for a freebie, it look's in good condition. With the alterations you propose it will make a great rider.

I had a Carlton Grand Prix of the same vintage which was very similar in terms of frame material and groupset. It's a low - mid range bike I'd say but don't let that alter your opinion of it - these old 10 speeds can still shift and are really solid, faithful bike's.

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Joe_Rides":11wi97lm said:

Can't gripe at that for a freebie, it look's in good condition. With the alterations you propose it will make a great rider.

I had a Carlton Grand Prix of the same vintage which was very similar in terms of frame material and groupset. It's a low - mid range bike I'd say but don't let that alter your opinion of it - these old 10 speeds can still shift and are really solid, faithful bike's.

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Very nice. I did suddenly wonder if a red/white/blue scheme would be better fitting for the British-French connection (frame being French-made) but I've jumped on my first impulse! Bike is fully stripped down, just need to clean and await new parts - Wiggle have 'misplaced' an order so it'll have to wait until next week :roll:

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So, stripped her right down, less the RH side BB cup (bugger wouldn't shift!), disassembled all parts and left to soak in degreaser and started building her back up. All parts ready to go - white tyres turned up and look surprisingly ok for £20 the pair... time will tell and I harbour no illusion of them staying white longer than 2 minutes...

At rolling chassis stage - there is some grease on her that I wager has been there 35 years (cassette) and though I feel a little responsible to strip her as far back as possible and give her a good clean, I also want to use this as a pootle town bike/country spinner so I guess I'm justifying myself there somehow...

From the cycle sticker on the seat tube it looks to have been sold in Edinburgh by someone, perhaps 'Tobin' or 'Robin' but not quite sure...

Little bit worried at how white she's going to look...!












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So after some time with a combination of 0000 grade steel wool, degreaser and various rags, I've taken the Rotary as far as I wanted to with regards to the refurb.

I'm pretty happy with the results! I am of course going to suffer from the newness of trying to retain the white, which scuffs up so quickly and the tyres have a nice black band around them thanks to the tarmac - I guess that was always going to be an issue but I hope it retains a 'worn-in' as opposed to 'tired' feel.

Some interesting things found along the way:

1. The R/H side pedal had to be drilled to take the toe clip whereas the L/H side was pre-drilled already, and obviously like that originally - this was a little strange.
2. Steel wool cleans up a cassette wonders but the filings in the bearing body are horrible. I realised this one to late and there is a notable crunch here. Sad as it's original and I'm guessing if the bearings don't wear out (steel on steel...?) then the bearing surface will.
3. Boiling your chain cleans 35 year old grease. I considered a steam cleaner and had a look online - various naysayers doomed any attempt to use water on the chain to clean it but after so many years of solidified grease, degreaser had done nothing to shift it and I wasn't going to attempt steel wool after the cassette fandango. So I found a mention on Sheldon Brown about boiling your chain in dishwasher detergent:


You could also boil the chain. It should preferably be a modern 4-unit chain, as Sheldon recommends, so liquids can easily flow through it. Take it off the bicycle, and first clean it in solvent in one of the ways already described, to remove all visible surface dirt. Then coil the chain into a pancake shape so it makes a single layer in the bottom of an old stainless steel or aluminum frying pan. (Don't use a cast-iron skillet: you would remove the layer of hardened oil that keeps it from rusting.) A 6-inch pan is big enough for a typical chain. Pour in a heavy concentration of dishwashing detergent in water, and boil the chain. Boiling will liquefy congealed lubricant and wash it out of the chain. If you're a real fanatic, turn the chain over and do this again with it lying on its other side. Spill the liquid out and repeat with clean rinse water. Spill that out and heat the chain in the bottom of the pan until the water boils out, so the chain doesn't rust. Then relubricate. This is a smelly procedure and you probably want to do it on a hot plate outdoors rather than on your kitchen stove.

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/chains.html (foot of the page)

I didn't have any dishwasher detergent so after boiling the chain in water I would towel dry it and transfer it to a waterbottle of degreaser and give it a good shake. After about 3 or 4 times of boiling it and repeating this process, the grease began to rub off and there was minimal resistance to wiping the chain clean. Following this I popped it in the oven for a good 15 minutes to evaporate any remaining water, removed the chain and lubricated it while it was still hot. No idea how it will fare but it'll be interesting to see - for one thing, the chain links rotate freely as opposed to in clumps.

I gave her a quick spin around the block and aside from getting used to toe clips and down tube shifters, she was a real pleasure and a surprisingly good ratio of gears. Looking forward to a decent weekend jaunt!

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Beautiful transformation! I'm fairly astounded at how you got the transmission so clean.

Will you re-fit the mudguards? I like the look of them, but then they're not for everyone (although practically they are an absolute revelation if you ride in the rain a lot).

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Joe_Rides":3u6tgh29 said:

Beautiful transformation! I'm fairly astounded at how you got the transmission so clean.

Will you re-fit the mudguards? I like the look of them, but then they're not for everyone (although practically they are an absolute revelation if you ride in the rain a lot).

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Thanks! Steel wool was basically my saviour - but it cost me some painful wrists from scrubbing!

Interesting you like the look of the mudguards - initially when I'd taken them off I thought the bike looked less cluttered but really I'd like to refit them - the ones it came with were plasticol coated aluminium and were a little battered so I'd quite like to fit some chrome mudguards when I get some more funds for it. As you say they are absolutely practical. There's nothing quite like a wet face and bum to put a dampener on a ride!