This was a labour of love. Something that probably isn't worth the value of the cost of the restoration, but something that I wanted to do regardless. My uncle was a keen cyclist in his day and his treasured machine of choice was a Carlton Super Course. He bought this new in '81 and clocked many a happy mile all over the south of Ireland. Between one thing or another life got in the way, cycling became a pastime he had less and less time for, and the bike was put in his shed. He thinks, from memory, that it was last used in '86. Fast forward to 2015 and he offered it to me to see whether I wanted, or even could, do anything with it.
It was in a sorry state given 19 years storage, but everything seemed reasonably solid none the less. A good starting point. I started stripping it down to see what it was like underneath.
With some Autosol and a bit of TLC some of the parts polished up beautifully
50/50 shot with the brakes
With almost everything off the frame I set to work with Nitromors. A bit of a waste of time if I'm honest. I hear they don't make it like they used to. It didn't have much effect. I was still trying to decide on a home-spray vs powdercoat job at that stage.
The next issue that I encountered was that the original 531 fork was bent. I was told this might be so when I got the bike and unfortunately it was. I couldn't find anywhere that would take on a straightening job and stand over their work though so I sourced a cheap chromed fork on eBay to keep things (slowly) moving. I tried for a long time to find a replacement 531 with 205mm plus steerer but I eventually gave up.
Left leg flush with the counter, right leg not. Problem somewhere.
At this stage I decided to go the powdercoat route, the only thing left was what colour. To go with a true to Carlton original restoration in a sort of pearly white - or to go a different route. That's quite a short sentence, short to write and to read. The decision took a long time, and in the end ...
Some hard wearing decals from bicycledecals.net were added
It was time to start the reassembly process! The rear wheel was perfectly fine to reuse after a service. The front unfortunately wasn't as the bearing race on one side was cracked, so that needed to be sorted out. In the end I sourced a period hub on eBay from a seller in Romania and had that laced to the original front rim. The flange height on the new hub was different so I had to use 36 new spokes instead of trying to save the originals.
BB & headset completely stripped, cleaned and ready for use. It was beautiful just to play with and clean these.
To her first ride in 19 years last week. A quick 5km shakedown spin. I've put 150km on it since.
Frame: Carlton Super Course
Brakes: Weinmann 605
Derailleurs: Suntour Cyclone
Seatpost: Deda - the original was too short for my saddle height
Saddle: Charge Spoon
Hoods: Cane Creek replica
Tyres: Michelin Dynamic Classic
Chainset: 53x42
Cassette: 12-21 7-speed
Beautiful to ride, and looking forward to putting many, many more KM on it. Great to reinstate a bike that had been in the family since new to a decent condition again. A restoration that stayed relatively true to the original bike but added some new elements to bring it up to date and make it a useable daily machine, for me, again. The last element of the build is still underway, trying to have the original fork reinstated. I'm getting it over to Mercian Cycles shortly to see if anything can be done with it.
It was in a sorry state given 19 years storage, but everything seemed reasonably solid none the less. A good starting point. I started stripping it down to see what it was like underneath.
With some Autosol and a bit of TLC some of the parts polished up beautifully
50/50 shot with the brakes
With almost everything off the frame I set to work with Nitromors. A bit of a waste of time if I'm honest. I hear they don't make it like they used to. It didn't have much effect. I was still trying to decide on a home-spray vs powdercoat job at that stage.
The next issue that I encountered was that the original 531 fork was bent. I was told this might be so when I got the bike and unfortunately it was. I couldn't find anywhere that would take on a straightening job and stand over their work though so I sourced a cheap chromed fork on eBay to keep things (slowly) moving. I tried for a long time to find a replacement 531 with 205mm plus steerer but I eventually gave up.
Left leg flush with the counter, right leg not. Problem somewhere.
At this stage I decided to go the powdercoat route, the only thing left was what colour. To go with a true to Carlton original restoration in a sort of pearly white - or to go a different route. That's quite a short sentence, short to write and to read. The decision took a long time, and in the end ...
Some hard wearing decals from bicycledecals.net were added
It was time to start the reassembly process! The rear wheel was perfectly fine to reuse after a service. The front unfortunately wasn't as the bearing race on one side was cracked, so that needed to be sorted out. In the end I sourced a period hub on eBay from a seller in Romania and had that laced to the original front rim. The flange height on the new hub was different so I had to use 36 new spokes instead of trying to save the originals.
BB & headset completely stripped, cleaned and ready for use. It was beautiful just to play with and clean these.
To her first ride in 19 years last week. A quick 5km shakedown spin. I've put 150km on it since.
Frame: Carlton Super Course
Brakes: Weinmann 605
Derailleurs: Suntour Cyclone
Seatpost: Deda - the original was too short for my saddle height
Saddle: Charge Spoon
Hoods: Cane Creek replica
Tyres: Michelin Dynamic Classic
Chainset: 53x42
Cassette: 12-21 7-speed
Beautiful to ride, and looking forward to putting many, many more KM on it. Great to reinstate a bike that had been in the family since new to a decent condition again. A restoration that stayed relatively true to the original bike but added some new elements to bring it up to date and make it a useable daily machine, for me, again. The last element of the build is still underway, trying to have the original fork reinstated. I'm getting it over to Mercian Cycles shortly to see if anything can be done with it.
