Maxipedia
Retro Guru
Hello dear friends on Retrobike!
My name is Maximilian and I am from Romania. I haven't introduced myself properly but that is still to come...
This is my first thread. Generally I don't have many problems in finding information online, but for this one I require your help, since this is a forum where obviously many knowledgeable people hang around, so here it goes:
I recently bought this Legnano MTB, which had a triple-triangle style frame, like a GT copy. I got it for ca. 10 EUR from one of the shops which I visit on a regular basis and where they restore bikes that they get cheap from Western Europe.
The bike was in their yard all summer long, it didn't have any wheels, was put upside down, but I could easily identify an XT headset, front derailleur and rear U-brake. Its condition was awful. The guys at the shop took the cranks and BB off for me and I got the rest. The only thing I could find only, looking for "Legnano MTB" on Google was the following link:
http://www.subito.it/biciclette/legnano ... 095578.htm
As a nice coincidence, it seems to be the exact model of bike, as the spec and the colorway are the same. I've been told that the BB shell has Italian thread, which makes sense, after you look into Legnano's heritage. It also had XT M730 brakes and cranks that took me about 1 hour to clean properly. Chainrings were Biopace and completely gone, but the U-brake seems fine and the front derailleur also looks better after another hour of cleaning. Fork is also okay. Unfortunately it has a shitty seatpost that is stuck and I will have to see if my friends at the other shop can take it out. Nice bits were the thumb shifters and the XT brakelevers which were harmed by the sun in their colors' intensity but are okay mechanically.
My first and most important question is if any f you has a clue about these bikes and goes to our Italian friends in the first place. It is clear that this is no 1994 bike, as that ad tries to tell, but then what year is it. I really have no clue about M730 XT and how to judge the year of the bike according to that. Of course I looked up mombat.com, but I still don't know what year my groupset is from. My best guess is that the bike is an '89.
My second question is whether I should keep the original colorway of this bike. It has a lot of wounds, but I kinda like beaters and rats, so this is no problem.
This will be my fathers' bike that he will use to go to his physiotherapy sessions. Right now he's riding my GT Moto cruiser (I will talk about that bike in another thread) and I want to transfer the components on that bike to this one and turn that into a cool clunker. The thing is, the bike will be parked outside and tied to a fence with a lock. If I keep it ugly as it is with all the bruises from now, not so many people will notice it. If I respray it nicely (actually powdercoating), that it risks getting more (unwanted) attention. So what would you do? Keep it a rat, or give it a makeover for a deserving dad?
I would keep frame, fork, headset, stem and handlebar original and throw another seatpost in. Other components would be:
- Shimano Nexus rear 7-speed hub with grip shifter and integrated cantilever brake lever
- high flange nutted 36H front hub (from my A'Ha)
- black Sun Ditch Witch & CR18 rims in 36H plus DT spokes
- some street tires (slicks)
- Sugino crankset with one chainring
- some new Italian thread BB
- some Shimano UG50 chain
- original rear U-brake
- Exage front brake (I guess V-brake pads can be fitted, right?)
- some cantilever brake lever
- some saddle
- some grips
- new cables and housings
The color I want to powdercoat it in would be gray, to keep it as underrated as possible.
I would appreciate your comments on this. I will post images of it as soon as possible. I am still cleaning it, as it has been outside for at least half a year and has a hardened mixture of grease and mud in the BB area and it's tough as concrete and I don't have the nerves for it this weekend.
Thank you in advance,
Mx
My name is Maximilian and I am from Romania. I haven't introduced myself properly but that is still to come...
This is my first thread. Generally I don't have many problems in finding information online, but for this one I require your help, since this is a forum where obviously many knowledgeable people hang around, so here it goes:
I recently bought this Legnano MTB, which had a triple-triangle style frame, like a GT copy. I got it for ca. 10 EUR from one of the shops which I visit on a regular basis and where they restore bikes that they get cheap from Western Europe.
The bike was in their yard all summer long, it didn't have any wheels, was put upside down, but I could easily identify an XT headset, front derailleur and rear U-brake. Its condition was awful. The guys at the shop took the cranks and BB off for me and I got the rest. The only thing I could find only, looking for "Legnano MTB" on Google was the following link:
http://www.subito.it/biciclette/legnano ... 095578.htm
As a nice coincidence, it seems to be the exact model of bike, as the spec and the colorway are the same. I've been told that the BB shell has Italian thread, which makes sense, after you look into Legnano's heritage. It also had XT M730 brakes and cranks that took me about 1 hour to clean properly. Chainrings were Biopace and completely gone, but the U-brake seems fine and the front derailleur also looks better after another hour of cleaning. Fork is also okay. Unfortunately it has a shitty seatpost that is stuck and I will have to see if my friends at the other shop can take it out. Nice bits were the thumb shifters and the XT brakelevers which were harmed by the sun in their colors' intensity but are okay mechanically.
My first and most important question is if any f you has a clue about these bikes and goes to our Italian friends in the first place. It is clear that this is no 1994 bike, as that ad tries to tell, but then what year is it. I really have no clue about M730 XT and how to judge the year of the bike according to that. Of course I looked up mombat.com, but I still don't know what year my groupset is from. My best guess is that the bike is an '89.
My second question is whether I should keep the original colorway of this bike. It has a lot of wounds, but I kinda like beaters and rats, so this is no problem.
This will be my fathers' bike that he will use to go to his physiotherapy sessions. Right now he's riding my GT Moto cruiser (I will talk about that bike in another thread) and I want to transfer the components on that bike to this one and turn that into a cool clunker. The thing is, the bike will be parked outside and tied to a fence with a lock. If I keep it ugly as it is with all the bruises from now, not so many people will notice it. If I respray it nicely (actually powdercoating), that it risks getting more (unwanted) attention. So what would you do? Keep it a rat, or give it a makeover for a deserving dad?
I would keep frame, fork, headset, stem and handlebar original and throw another seatpost in. Other components would be:
- Shimano Nexus rear 7-speed hub with grip shifter and integrated cantilever brake lever
- high flange nutted 36H front hub (from my A'Ha)
- black Sun Ditch Witch & CR18 rims in 36H plus DT spokes
- some street tires (slicks)
- Sugino crankset with one chainring
- some new Italian thread BB
- some Shimano UG50 chain
- original rear U-brake
- Exage front brake (I guess V-brake pads can be fitted, right?)
- some cantilever brake lever
- some saddle
- some grips
- new cables and housings
The color I want to powdercoat it in would be gray, to keep it as underrated as possible.
I would appreciate your comments on this. I will post images of it as soon as possible. I am still cleaning it, as it has been outside for at least half a year and has a hardened mixture of grease and mud in the BB area and it's tough as concrete and I don't have the nerves for it this weekend.
Thank you in advance,
Mx
