Hartford Cycle

There’s a hilarious video on Youtube demonstrating Dia-Compe’s official method for bar wrapping with wing shifters. Basically, “just keep going”.

These shifter mounts are far too bulky for that, so it’s a hard stop and restart.

Vintage Suntour downtube cable stops, just because.

CTB is a real good thing because this bike is heavy. Although a lot of said weight is in the wheels:

Double-walled 27-inch rims mounted with 27×1 3/8 tires. Heavy, but comfy.

Modern front derailleurs aren’t really designed for the “half-step” gearing this bike came with. The 46T middle ring has been swapped out for HB-03’s original 42T small ring.

These wide-stanced canti brakes are the first cantilevers I’ve used that can stop as viciously as V-brakes (but with better modulation). I now understand people calling canti brakes the best rim brakes.

I’m not sure what Ben Lawee spec’d that makes the Gran Turismo different from its cousin Miyata 610, but Univega didn’t put out garbage. Certainly nothing so unworthy it should be left outside and have paint drizzled on it.

This one’s back on the road.

The Great Component Scrubbing:

• 

• 

• 

HB-04-the-painted:

• 

• 

• 

HB-04-the-built:

No play-by-play like with HB-03, I’m afraid. The headset and bottom bracket bearings were replaced, but unlike Buff’s curiously pristine bottom bracket, 04’s was seriously crudded and still has a bit of play with the new bearings. I’ve come to like these adjustable cone-and-cup bottom brackets, but if I have to replace both the cups and spindle, a cartridge one would probably make more sense.

A portrait of the bicycle as a young build: (painted) fork, unpainted frame, uncleaned “original” components:

The new members of the family:

Classic-styled Nitto bars and an NOS SR stem are closer to what would have been (factory) original equipment on this bike. The Tektros, interrupt levers, and (flat bar) Suntour Power Control shifters are most definitely not.

“Bending aluminum” and “destructively editing vintage Suntour parts” are activities I usually put in a similar category to kicking dogs and stealing candy from small children. But I convinced myself that these shifters would never find a better home than on what should be this blog’s trademark build, so bent and ground they were to fit the fatter drop handlebars.

Finally, the “randonneur” I had in mind when I first started building bikes: A mid-80s Univega Gran Turismo. Like everything I’ve worked on thus far, this was procured in not-really-ridable condition. It’s done time out in the elements and house paint was even allowed to drip all over it.

• 

• 

• 

The wheels and saddle (reupholstered) were redirected to Sen. Buff. HB-04’s handlebars, stem, and front mech are all non-original, and the non-vintage-looking (but original) cranks mean its look can lean a little more modern.

If there was a “feature problem” for this build, it was paint. There were bare patches that required it, but inevitably things escalated until every little knick was filled in. The color match isn’t perfect, but the worst part was having the masked and scraped decal patching run when the clear coat was applied.

And, of course, the previously mentioned chainstay guard, rebuilt with a D-ring and JBWeld:

• 

• 

• 

If something can break the original welded metal, it follows that something can break the JBWeld version. But after taking it out for rides, I don’t think that “something” is chain slap.