Vintage Labadie Cyclocross build

Well, attached below is my most recently finished bike......

I picked up this Vintage Labadie Cyclocross frame. Has 126 rear spacing, so I'm guessing its a late 80's, early 90's frameset.

When the frame arrived, the headtube and bb had not been faced, and none of the threads had been chased.... Getting the bb threads cleaned turned out to be a bit of work, as only one shop in town had taps for the job. They did it for a nominal fee though. I faced everything myself.

I built the bike with a wheelset from an early 90's bike I had in the attic. I shod them with Continental Speed King tires.

Stem is a vintage 3T, headset is a vintage Tange. Handlebars are new Kore's and bar tape is new Bontrager (gotta be comfortable right?)

Stopping is from mid-90's Shimano Cantis.

Drivetrain is a mid-90's Shimano 6400 crankset (175mm) with a single 39 tooth straight cut chainring. I was able to file the chainring bolts very slightly and have them work fine. Ti Onza pedals help the interface.

A modern cheapo singlespeed kit finished it out and gets it down the road.

It rides very nicely and I look forward to taking it out for a practice ride tomorrow!

Very nice indeed

Labadie

That is ace. The frame looks immaculate.

very cool ride!!

whats the ratio? Also r u racing it, or just cruising/comuting on it?

Thanks ya'll. This is my first real cross bike and I'm very happy with it. I converted a few road bikes years ago to race cross on, but now that I've got this one, I know they were no where near right.....

I've got a 39 tooth ring on the front with an 18 tooth cog on the back. I also have a 16 and a 20 tooth for the rear. I believe I will likely end up going to the 20 tooth rear.

I raced last Tuesday night, but did not have this one done yet so I rode my Ritchey with skinnies on it. I'll race the rest of the season on this one, and then bum around on it all winter....

supercool, very retro

very nice.. where did you get the frame?

Frame and fork came from a dealer in Santa Barbara CA. The proprietor travels Europe and buys out old stock for his shop. He specializes in steel frame, toe strap era bikes. I found it listed on Ebay and picked it up for nothing....

Dream JOB!!... looks great,... im searching for something like that..

That frame is too nice to not do a full period restoration on....

But then it'd be a wall hanger not a rider. So I understand your choice.