Early 50s La Gazelle - Eau-de-Nil 🛠️ The Merlot Aftermath 🍷

bikemig said:
I have a hard time turning down old French bikes as well. One of the advantages of living in the US, though, is that the odds of finding anything this old and French are not very good. Finding incomplete bikes isn't hard, though. ;)

I do have a 70s era Motobecane Grand Record I've rebuilt and I have a 70s era Mercier 300 that I will rebuild one of these days.
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:D .... yes. Love or hate - more often than not there's a good bit of both with a French bike ;)
 
🛠️ My new favourite tool - the Stronglight cranks are off! 👯‍♀️🥳👯‍♀️

Way back on page 1 I was dreading the cotter-pins. Going back a couple of pages I also struggled with getting cotter-pins out of the Peugeot doner bike. Spent a large part of the afternoon modifying the homemade mechanics U-clamp to be a dedicated cotter-pin press. Some hacksawing, lot's of precision angle-grinder work and drilling eventually got me something good enough to get the chunky beast to just fit the Stronglight DS crank good enough. Also followed @Guinessisgoodforyou suggestion to make a pocket to help sit the cotter-pin sufficiently center. 😗

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The pleasing sound of the "god almighty crack" like @chickendrumsticks called it. Almost crapped myself especially doing the NDS; had moments I thought it was never going to budge! What a massive difference it makes with a press with sufficient leverage rather than hammering away. The cotter-pins even came out fully intact so they were not some soft rubbish. :)

This tool opens a new world in getting real dogs of bikes and being able to work on them. I'm well chuffed 🍻

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Now it's a simple matter to find a Hollowtech II BB with French thread 🤪
 
M_Chavez said:
I always thought you're more of a square taper guy 🤔
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Indeed I am. No outboard bearings on any bike 👍

This will get the square taper treatment - I've got a short list of more modern Stronglight cranks. I say more modern, but they are still obsolete of course 😃 . Bought a VAR crank extractor for French threaded cranks over winter.

🤔 The cotter-pin press does indeed give me a bit of confidence to stay with cotter-pins if need be. Time to procrastinate again 🍷
 
I figure the most satisfying projects are those that give you an excuse to buy a new tool or two. I picked up a cotter press a few years back when I rebuilt a 1960 Olmo Gran Sport. Fortunately the bike was complete when I bought it.
 
bikemig said:
I figure the most satisfying projects are those that give you an excuse to buy a new tool or two. I picked up a cotter press a few years back when I rebuilt a 1960 Olmo Gran Sport. Fortunately the bike was complete when I bought it.
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Cool. It's hard finding cotter presses here - no longer made. There's the VAR #07 which is now rare and costly. There's probably more chance finding one in a mobylette and moped workshop than a bike workshop these days. Odd really considering how many bikes with cotter-pins are still out there.

EDIT: This is it. Note the weight - 2.5 Kg ‼️

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Fully agree.

There are several threads here, and I was looking at a good thread on the French forum (enough pictures if you don't know French): https://forum.tontonvelo.com/viewtopic.php?t=2830 Definitely not for the squirmish looking at what people get up to working on really vintage rusted stuff :eek: Overall conclusion is a press of some sort is the way to go. It's mind boggling the force that could be needed to get these things out. I'm aware of those bikesmith presses in the USA and it's great someone is still making them. :)
 
This is a really brilliant thread. More than any other I've read on this sort of topic it took me right back to the days of my yoof when me and my mates encountered obstinate cotter pins armed only with hammers and optimism. It also takes me back to when I lived in France and wine making and a Mobylette etc, etc. Great days.......
 
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