Retro Road Bike Restoration - any idea what it is?

[tomturd]

First off hello, new to the forum. Years ago I used to ride trials, still own a website about it if anyone recognises the name - hello!

I'm cross posting this as you'll probably be more interested here


Anyway, I got this monstrosity off ebay for £20. I have no idea what it is (the auction said 'brookes racing bike', but I don't think brooks (no 'e') make bikes - only saddles?) - in fact I have no idea about road bikes, or bikes before the days of a-head headsets, so its a bit of a learning curve for me

Currently stripping it down, which is a complete arse.. its got some white primer on it which nitromors doesn't touch. It looks like someones tried to strip it before.. so theres patches of this white primer that I'm wet and drying off of it... must have spent a total of around 10hrs on it so far.

New things for it:

* cranks (the extracting thread is ruined on the drive side crank, so not putting that back on)
* inner/outer cables (white)
* headset (the old one is rusty and beyond de-rusting)
* tyres
* downtube shifters - chrome ones instead of black plastic
* paint - very dark pearl blue methinks.

Everything else I'm keeping as it was.

Some (massive) pics (in reverse order..):

If there is any interest I'll keep you updated. I've got as far as ordering all the bits and spraying the forks... but will post another time as its way past bed time now.

 

[barry2017]

Whatever it is, it's ok quality. You'll have a nice bike.

Just as a suggestion, if you get a frame powdercoated, it might work out cheaper than the nitromors you'd have used stripping it down.

And hello.

 

[tomturd]

I did look into powdercoating, but was quoted around £100 which I couldn't justify for a 20 quid bike

But you're right, its taken me a lot of time and effort to get it stripped (still not quite done yet) and the cost is mounting up. I'm guessing around £50 worth of materials by the time it's finished which is way more than I was hoping for.... I also wanted the finish to be metallic/pearlescent which the powdercoaters couldn't do without ordering powder in.

However, I've sprayed the forks a very dark pearl blue and they're looking really good ('specially in the sunlight this morning). Still need to wet and dry them back to a dull finish and laquer them, hopefully they'll look even better after that

Will get some pics up when I get home.

 

[barry2017]

£100! :shock:

They're having a laugh. You can get a frame and forks done for £30 if you phone around.

Maybe for the next one.

On closer inspection, that's a really nice frame you have there. The dropouts make it modernish, and pretty good quality.

 

[tomturd]

£100! :shock:

They're having a laugh. You can get a frame and forks done for £30 if you phone around.

Maybe for the next one.

On closer inspection, that's a really nice frame you have there. The dropouts make it modernish, and pretty good quality.

Yeah it did seem like a lot, not heard it being done for £30 before though! If I knew how much effort it'd be I'd have gone for that instantly

I'll get some closeups of the frame, anybody have any idea of its origin? I guess its a difficult question to ask, it has no distinguishing features

A pic from a few days ago, a bit more of the white paint has gone now.

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[fiks]

Might be a Peugeot, they did some frames with internal lugs. Does the dropouts have "Simplex" on them? The fork crown does look like ones I've seen on a Peugeot.

It looks like a lower range frame to me, a 531 or equivalent frame (without forks) should weigh around 1800-1900g.

 

[tomturd]

I dont think the dropouts say anything to be honest. I also have a sneaking suspicion that the forks aren't the ones that came with the frame. The original 'overpaint' left on the fork steerer looked to be a decent high quality pearly white, but there was nothing like that on the frame. I doubt the frame is that good to be honest. What does 'internal lugs' mean? Its all brazed together, does it mean the tubes fit inside the other ones, rather than butting up to them? Because inside the frame its all smooth.. no protruding tubes.

There were some simplex bits and bobs on there, possibly the shifters on the downtube (aka downtube shifters? (did I mention I know nothing about road bikes?)) and maybe the front mech. I'll take a look when I get back from work

 

[fiks]

Sorry, I think I'm mistaken about the "internal lugs". It seems some Peugeot frames were lugless; and used :

Peugeot's DBS (Direct Brazing System) process, whereby a ring of brazing material was inserted inside the frame tubes, prior to heating. This created a joint with a large internal fillet and a small external fillet.

 

[tomturd]

Sorry, I think I'm mistaken about the "internal lugs". It seems some Peugeot frames were lugless; and used :

Peugeot's DBS (Direct Brazing System) process, whereby a ring of brazing material was inserted inside the frame tubes, prior to heating. This created a joint with a large internal fillet and a small external fillet.

Ah, no worries, the research is appreciated!

It led me to my google result, I'm 99% sure I have a peugeot carbolite 103 something or other. So not a great result there by the looks of it. Still, I'll spray it up and it should turn out looking good

 

[tonyf39]

Could it be a Gitane, certainly has that look about it?