1979 Urago 531

Finally got round to putting the decals on and going for a brief ride.

mc1.jpg


The down tube decal went on very well and I'm very pleased with it - however I made a complete hash of the seat tube decal so will order another one and do it properly. I really like the way it's come out. The only job left is to put the Urago badge on the head tube.

It was nice on the brief shakedown ride - fits me very well (always a bonus...) and feels light and responsive. The brakes feel strong but need to bed in a bit yet, and the gears work nicely too. Overall, very pleased with it.
 
Very nice indeed, the white saddle and 'bar tape are definitely a top choice. I was going to ask what the little braze-on near the bottom of the seat stay was for but I see the rear mech cable goes through it. It looks like there's another little pip or something at the top of the seat stay too, what's that for?

I see a 531Pro tubing sticker but in 1979 it would have been called 531SL so presumably it had respray at some time. Is the front mech only slightly too big ie: designed for 28.6mm tubing against the metric 28mm seat tube possibly used on your frame?

Mark.
 
Mark - many thanks. The "pip" at the top of the seat stay (sorry for the poor photos) is actually a flayed detail on the stay, shown better here:

P1010705.jpg


Wraparound seat stays were a breveted mark of Urago frames, although I now know that others (including Falcon) also used this design. It's possibly why I was told it was an Urago when I bought it.

The Reynolds sticker states that the frame has been re-enamelled:

P1010704.jpg


The front derailleur was only slightly too big so I think your suggestion about the tube sizes must be right. At any rate, the shim I tried to use wasn't the right thickness so I used a couple of turns of tape instead.
 
Aha! Some nice details on that frame - thanks for the extra photos. The wrap-over looks to be sharp rather than the rounded type used by Carlton or the flat Rourke design so I guess no-one else should really ever use the Urago design.

It's a great looking bike, another "Flandria" themed machine which I'm starting to hanker after.

Mark.
 
Thanks Mark - strangely enough my first thought when I'd got the decals on and stood back to have a look was "Flandria".
 
The down-tube lever (on the right site) for the rear mech is placed a little bit odd to my opinion.
 
dutchie":3nye5np7 said:
The down-tube lever (on the right site) for the rear mech is placed a little bit odd to my opinion.
Click to expand...

It is - the photo was taken when I'd finished the ride, and I hadn't tightened it up enough before setting out, so wriggled it a bit to see how loose it was. I only spotted the angle once I'd taken the photo.
 
I had to shim a mavic front mech on my vitus 979.....

the amount of vitus's (viti?) with mavic groupsets...I would have thought they were made for each other!!!
 
Looks great Rich, let's see if some of this kit makes it way onto a Vitus ;-) never rode one of those concor saddles, so of the era nice :D
 
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