Joes brakes (warning - purple content) and salsa orange bars

After joining the retrobike parent club 4 weeks ago (suggest retrobike babygros for next merchandise item ...) I haven't had much time to ride, but in between nappy changes I have been able to sort out these 'Joes brakes'. Bought off a member here a while ago they were originally anodised a dark blue and were a set of 4 of the shorter arm rears. These would have been fine but better yet I managed to obtain a spare set of front arms from another member to make a front and rear specific set.
First job was to disassemble, press out the brass bushings and remove the anodising with some caustic then polish with wet and dry until my fingers ached.


Sent off to the anodisers with a seatbolt as a colour match, came back looking great - I think the colour is spot on.


Re-installed the brass bushings, cleaned up all the hardware and fiddled with millions of little parts until they fitted back together. Discovered that the stainless steel inserts which slide over the brake posts and around which the brass bushings pivot were a bit chewed up from someone removing them with a pair of pliers or mole grips - cue a lot more wet and dry action until they were smooth again.


Finally fitted to my Orange to up the purple count a little bit more. Trick anodised brakes were one of the parts I always lusted after BITD but at £100 an end could never afford so I'm pretty chuffed to finally get these.




One of my other jobs was to polish up a set of Salsa moto-ace flat bars. I struggle to go back to 23" bars so these 25" ones feel great and polished up with a couple of spare orange decals on there I think they look pretty good even if they're not period correct.

That's a really top notch job :shock: :shock:

Who did you use for the anodizing? Have heard horrible stories about things disintegrating when dipped :shock: so knowing of a good anodizer would be ace

I used Mansfield anodisers as previously recommended on here. I've used them twice and they've been very helpful both times - However they were initially reluctant to do a small batch such as this, I think they may have been inundated with 'hobbyists' like us taking up too much of there time - quite understandably they first quoted a minium order of £60. After a little chat they agreed to do the work for less - But I think I'd be pushing my luck if I tried them again. Next time I will either get a bigger order myself or try andf get a group order on the forum large enough to make it worthwhile.

Hi Steve, hows life?

Very impressive job fella, inspires me to pick up some less than perfect parts for a change and make them like new again!

top job mate

Hi fella, doing great cheers, although very tired and riding is non-existant currently due to above nappy filling machine.
To be honest if I can't ride then fettling is the next best thing so I don't mind a bit of a restore job, its rewarding when it turns out right.

Fantastic job on the brakes they look great and a good shade of 3DV (ideas forming in my head...... )

Neill

so no-one likes my bars then lol!
and yeah they came out a good shade, if I'd have known I would have had my tired looking grafton cranks re-done and also maybe a purple pace crown if I could get my hands on a spare one...

Wow, I wish I'd known you had the dark blue ones - I'd have swapped a NIP rear and a almost new front !

Congrats on the new addition as well, it means you have even more justification to buy bikes now

I like the bars and would look pretty cool on my clockwork, where did you get the bars etc....

Thanks gazz, bars are salsa moto-ace with 11 degree bend. I removed the black anodising with caustic (couldn't find any silver ones), fitted a pair of lock-on grips and an old stem to protect areas I wanted to stay bead-blasted then got to work polishing with 600/800/1200 wet and dry. Finished off with a couple of spare Orange decals I had from Gil.