A work in progress, part 1

Its almost like as soon as I finish up one bike I find another that fills a completely different area to work on.

All 5 of you who follow my blog will recall the light blue Schwinn Continental I retro-modded into something of a gravel bike earlier this month. It's continued to be a fun ride and good reminder of the work I put into my first Continental.

This new bike is something different: A 1984 Fuji Touring Series V.

 Photo courtesy of Classic Fuji.com

In it's day it was Fuji's top of the line touring bike, relaxed riding position, long chain stays, multiple spots for water bottles, fender/rack mounts and higher level SunTour components (Hooray for SunTour!). As they say in the business,  SO that's the good.

The downside to this frame, is it was missing a fair amount of parts and so far is probably the most in-depth overhaul and scratching together compatible parts on a non-existent budget.

What it came with: 56cm Frame (my size!) and fork, Nitto olympiade aluminum drop bars wrapped in red cloth tape and Technomic stem, Sugino AT triple crank and 50/45/28 chain rings, Dia Compe Gran Compe cantilever brakes, Avocet Touring II saddle.

Nitto bars wrapped in cloth tape, very 1980s!

 

Sugino AT 50/45/28 triple, this crank set the bolt pattern standard for triple cranks for a long time (110/74 BCD)

 

Some things this bike was missing: Brakes hoods, levers and cable housing (as might be obvious in the pictures), shifters of any type (original equipment was SunTour bar-ends), mismatched wheels; one aluminum rim 27" laced to Sunshine Gyromaster hub in front (also original equipment) and a Specilized high spoke count double sided hub with a 700c rim in back (no idea what or where this came from), a rear derailleur (originally equipped with the now rare and expensive SunTour LeTech touring derailleur) and a chain.

Overall though, by stripping some unused bikes and assembling parts I had laying around I thought this would be a quick build. Stay tuned for part 2.

It's been a long, long time....

It's been a while since I posted anything, integrating Google blogger into facebook/instagram posts automatically is not seamless. That and aside from commuting a bunch and riding the same trails it was starting to just be the same pictures over and over again. Which was getting boring even for me.

Some new things though, finally finished the 1973 Continental. Cleaned and re-packed all the bearings, new cables and brake pads, and threw on the Saturne HC19 rims I had laying around with the Panaracer Gravelking SK 700x35cm wheels.

This has turned out to a pleasantly fun bike set-up, stripped off the kickstand, aluminum rims, no water bottle cage, or rear rack keeps the weight down. It's a size smaller than the 1975 Continental I commute on, so it's feels a little "tighter" and like a race bike to me.

I am super impressed so far with the Gravelking SK tires, for a semi-knobbed (that's the SK...) they're still pretty quiet on the road or pavement, can feel the resistance compared to the slicks I run on my other bikes, but off road is where they really shine. Transition from trail to grass or gravel you don't notice a loss in traction, just a slight additional effort. The current set up is with some Bontrager tubes pumped to 55psi in front and 60psi in back.  I found a 3.75 gravel trail near my house that has lots of turns and when I first took this bike out to ride it was relatively wet from rain, so it made for a fun and technical ride. Looking forward to exploring more with this bike in the future. For any older or retro bike build I can only recommend the tan walls, I was leaning towards solid black but Jimmy at Oswego Cyclery convinced me otherwise, glad I listened.

I had decided to build this bike up in anticipation of riding the Rough Road 100 next April. Why use a 40 year old steel antique?
1) I'm crazy and a glutton for punishment
2) Bragging rights, sure you can do a 65 mile gravel ride on a modern Aluminum frame, with tubeless tires, and modern shift system and drive train. But lets face it, I'm not going to place in the top 100 regardless of what I ride so to just finish on this bike would be sweet and a testament to perseverance.
3) It's a sweet blue color.

We'll see what the future brings if I have a chance to get some major miles on this or any bike for that matter. I also recently picked up a 1984 Fuji Touring Series V that needs some work but which has the prospect of being an excellent replacement for a both Schwinns. The '75 was really always supposed to be a short term bike to see if I actually enjoyed it cycling before investing in something else.