[Sebastalona]

What a great job Dave, hard to believe it's the same bike from your original shots.

For what it's worth, I think the slightly worn saddle helps retain it's charm of a restored classic if that makes any sense!!??

[IronGiant]

I think I missed the originals, can some kind soul point them out? Thanks.

Good point about the saddle

[Miss Mandy]

Looks great Dave, nice work.

[Sebastalona]

Originally Posted by IronGiant

I think I missed the originals, can some kind soul point them out? Thanks.

Good point about the saddle

Don't know if this link will take you directly there mate, it's page 29 post 851.

The Cycling Thread

EDIT: It does!

[mattrixdesign2]

Wow, some effort, out of interest, what did you pay for all this i.e. bike + getting into the condition it is, and is it now worth anything? Not that this is a valid reason for doing it, I am just intrigued.

Not a "retro bike" fan myself, but I can just imagine people paying well for this sort of stuff.

Well done!

[aVdub]

Looks really good Dave. Good work

[Dave]

Originally Posted by mattrixdesign2

Wow, some effort, out of interest, what did you pay for all this i.e. bike + getting into the condition it is, and is it now worth anything? Not that this is a valid reason for doing it, I am just intrigued.

Not a "retro bike" fan myself, but I can just imagine people paying well for this sort of stuff.

Well done!

The bike was a freebie from a mate's Mother. Her Brother died a number of years ago and my mate's Brother had tried to restore it with zero success.

Imagine my surprised when she offered it to me to try and do up, I thought it was a right POS when I first saw it but a little research revealed it to be an Italian classic.

I've bought in no particular order, 2 tins of paint, 1 tin of lacquer, 1 tin of undercoat, some wet and dry paper, 2 gear cables, 2 brake cables, handlebar tape, a new saddle, 2 new tyres, 1 inner tube, 2 rubber o rings for the brake adjusters, 2 crank dust covers and a set of stickers.

Total comes to about £120ish for that lot and approximately 40 to 50 hours working on it.

As for it's value now it's very difficult to say, in minty mint condition and going by ebay you're probably looking in the region of around £800 but that varies massively and bikes that have had resprays are not very sought after by classic collectors for some reason.

I'd guesstimate that my bike would probably fetch about 4 to 5 hundred quid. Despite being rather old Gios bikes are also very very good and with campagnolo components throughout and the columbus tubing it could give many modern bikes more than a run for their money.

That's the theory anyway, I haven't even rode it yet cos of the rubbish weather.

Here's what it looked like before if anyone missed it, very sorry for itself.

[mattrixdesign2]

Excellent, well like a said, good job.

I will stick with my 2 x 10

I am getting more confident working on bikes now, but stop short of messing with the BB. Just fitted a new 105 groupset to my bike and think I did a good job, even the bar tape looks good, but its the old stuff for practice, need to replace that.

I hope to one day find a kids road bike frame to do up for my son, he has a MTB, but I thought it would be nice to put a custom built road bike together from various parts. I will keep any eye out for something special.

[dds14]

just found this thread - well impressive job doing that bike up

one question - i'm not particularly confident with tools etc but have always done the basics on my road bike (second hand Carrera originally from Halfords) but am getting a bit more confident and want to know whether things like changing the chain is the kind of thing I can do at home or is it best to be sure and get it done at the bike shop?

Have read loads of guides on the net and You Tube but still don't have the confidence to try - my main worry is that I do 25 miles to work and back most days and a breakdown wouldn't be a good idea!

[Dave]

Originally Posted by dds14

just found this thread - well impressive job doing that bike up

one question - i'm not particularly confident with tools etc but have always done the basics on my road bike (second hand Carrera originally from Halfords) but am getting a bit more confident and want to know whether things like changing the chain is the kind of thing I can do at home or is it best to be sure and get it done at the bike shop?

Have read loads of guides on the net and You Tube but still don't have the confidence to try - my main worry is that I do 25 miles to work and back most days and a breakdown wouldn't be a good idea!

I would say that if you are capable of changing a tyre you can change a chain. If you have the tool it takes about 2 minutes.

If you get stuck just ask.

[dds14]

cheers for that - just need to wait for the weather to get a bit better then buy a chain (got a multitool recently which has a chain tool on it) from the shop.

need to give the whole bike a bit of a service - need new brake pads as well so it's the sort of thing to not do in the cold!

[Dave]

Originally Posted by dds14

cheers for that - just need to wait for the weather to get a bit better then buy a chain (got a multitool recently which has a chain tool on it) from the shop.

need to give the whole bike a bit of a service - need new brake pads as well so it's the sort of thing to not do in the cold!

Out of interest what's wrong with your current chain?

[dds14]

It's done about 1000 miles and occasionally skips/fails to sit properly on the front cog.

The last one I left til it got close to going as I didn't realise it needed changing occasionally so was lucky to not kill my gears (according to the net).

Now I've got a tool I'd like to do what is apparently recommended and change the chain to clean it occasionally and switch them over.

Is that a myth then? Should I just keep mine until it gets really knackered and just get a new one?

[Dave]

Originally Posted by dds14

It's done about 1000 miles and occasionally skips/fails to sit properly on the front cog.

The last one I left til it got close to going as I didn't realise it needed changing occasionally so was lucky to not kill my gears (according to the net).

Now I've got a tool I'd like to do what is apparently recommended and change the chain to clean it occasionally and switch them over.

Is that a myth then? Should I just keep mine until it gets really knackered and just get a new one?

Unfortunately there's a tool to check it which means buying one. On top of that if your chain is skipping it probably means you need a new cassette too as they tend to mesh with the chain, using an old cassette and a new chain will destroy both very quickly. The chain ring is normally ok for a lot longer though.

Are you sure it's not the front mech that needs adjusting rather than the chain?

[dds14]

Originally Posted by Dave

Are you sure it's not the front mech that needs adjusting rather than the chain?

Don't know - I'm going to display my ignorance and ask what that is!

The last time I had the chain changed ~ 6 months ago the bloke said the cogs were OK as I'd done it just in time.

It's only an occasional skip which I'm sure is due to a tight link as it gets better when I oil the chain. Though that's probably wrong!

[Dave]

Originally Posted by dds14

Don't know - I'm going to display my ignorance and ask what that is!

The last time I had the chain changed ~ 6 months ago the bloke said the cogs were OK as I'd done it just in time.

It's only an occasional skip which I'm sure is due to a tight link as it gets better when I oil the chain. Though that's probably wrong!

The front mech is the metal bit above the big cog that changes the gear when you move the shifter. If it's poorly adjiusted it can mean your chain will skip from time to time. Does it make a noise like a ticking sort of sound as you turn the pedals?

[dds14]

Occasionally when the chain is on the biggest cog at the back you hear a clicking noise when you pedal - it has been a bit more a pain to shift between the small and big front cogs recently which I'd put down to mud and crap getting in there with the rubbish weather, and I never tend to use the smaller of the two front cogs.

Would it be a matter of undoing the cable holder, giving it a clean and then doing it up? Don't want to damage it...

[Dave]

Originally Posted by dds14

Occasionally when the chain is on the biggest cog at the back you hear a clicking noise when you pedal - it has been a bit more a pain to shift between the small and big front cogs recently which I'd put down to mud and crap getting in there with the rubbish weather, and I never tend to use the smaller of the two front cogs.

Would it be a matter of undoing the cable holder, giving it a clean and then doing it up? Don't want to damage it...

It sounds far more like you need to adjust the front or rear mech than buy a new chain and best of all, it'll cost you bugger all.

There are plenty of video guides on youtube etc, just have a look and try it. It's hard at first but once you've watched a few guides and got a feel for it you'll have no problem at all.

[dds14]

Cool - thanks for your help.

Will look it up and see how difficult it seems.

Am still tempted to bottle it and get it in the bike shop to get serviced this time and then do the undoing and adjusting bits in the summer when it's more fun to be outside with dirty hands!

[Dave]

Originally Posted by dds14

Cool - thanks for your help.

Will look it up and see how difficult it seems.

Am still tempted to bottle it and get it in the bike shop to get serviced this time and then do the undoing and adjusting bits in the summer when it's more fun to be outside with dirty hands!

Don't do anything outside, all of the above can be achieved in the living room with an old towel on the floor to save any spillages.

I've just rebuilt a bike from scratch twice in the kitchen, the better half wasn't happy but there's no need to do it outside.

As for the bike shop have a go yourself first, if you don't succeed you can always go to a bike shop anyway. There's very little indeed you can do to a bike that will make it unrepairable at a bike shop.

[Miss Mandy]

I'm hopefully getting this old bike I'm being given in the next few days and I'm going to be working on it in the kitchen. The rest of the family don't know this yet, but by the time they find out, it'll be too late for them to stop me!

From what I've been told it'll need new cables and inner tubes, and its going to need the suspensions checking. The other problem may be that it has grip shifts which I've been told are generally crap.
I'm not sure how well modern bikes far being left out in the elements so I'm not really going to know what I'm dealing with until I get hold of it.

[dds14]

Unfortunately I live in a shared house so doing anything in a communal area is a no no! It's outside or nowhere til I can get my own place!

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Miss Mandy

I'm hopefully getting this old bike I'm being given in the next few days and I'm going to be working on it in the kitchen. The rest of the family don't know this yet, but by the time they find out, it'll be too late for them to stop me!

From what I've been told it'll need new cables and inner tubes, and its going to need the suspensions checking. The other problem may be that it has grip shifts which I've been told are generally crap.
I'm not sure how well modern bikes far being left out in the elements so I'm not really going to know what I'm dealing with until I get hold of it.

Only one way to find out and beggars aren't choosers. I hate grip shifts simply because I like to grip the bars instead of worrying about what gear I've accidentally changed in to after that hard section of trail but for general use they are fine.

Besides which you can always get rid of the grip shifts if it's economical to do so.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by dds14

Unfortunately I live in a shared house so doing anything in a communal area is a no no! It's outside or nowhere til I can get my own place!

I'm sure your housemates have bought back dirtier partners than a bike, I'd just be nonchalant and see what happened. :-)

[Miss Mandy]

Originally Posted by Dave

Besides which you can always get rid of the grip shifts if it's economical to do so.

Would I only have to change the shifters on the handle bars or is there more to it than that? I'd much rather get rid of them if possible, but will have to do some research and look at costs first I think.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Miss Mandy

Would I only have to change the shifters on the handle bars or is there more to it than that? I'd much rather get rid of them if possible, but will have to do some research and look at costs first I think.

I can't say categorically having never owned a bike with grip shifts but I would have thought it was simply a case of removing them from the bars and replacing with proper shifters and grips.

At worst it will be a new set of bars, shifters and grips.

[Miss Mandy]

Thanks Dave, I'll have a look into it over the next couple of days and see what I can figure out.

[IronGiant]

As Dave says, for general use you may get on with them fine, so don't be in too much of a hurry to get rid of them, if they work OK

[MikeCleal]

Originally Posted by Adcook

Just looked it up, is the pro version worth shelling out for?

Sorry for the late reply. Mine's the free one and does the job.

[aVdub]

Originally Posted by Miss Mandy

Would I only have to change the shifters on the handle bars or is there more to it than that? I'd much rather get rid of them if possible, but will have to do some research and look at costs first I think.

They should be clamped on with a 4/5mm allen bolt. Once this is undone the gripshifts will just slide off the bars.
New cable + outer will be needed.

Gear Shifters

Gear Cables