# Back to the drawing board



## bulldog1935 (Apr 25, 2018)

Or in this case, the old TurboTrainer that's my favorite build stand.

Knocked out a quick 25 mi on the greenway yesterday morning on my International.
But with 3 miles to go, anticipating a shift on a grade, my drivetrain locked up.  The RD spring was gone, and the chain sagging a foot.  I put the chain on big-big so I could move forward and not have to cut the chain (I had tools to do that, but didn't want to), and managed to creep the last 3 miles.
My beautiful NOS Cyclone GT





But wait a minute, I've had this RD on two bikes now, and it has at least 25,000 mi on it.
It's been through a wreck.
Sure enough, when I took it apart, found the spring broke right where it pins in the derailleur body




No luck finding the part.
If you shop for Cyclone GT on ebay, prices are outrageous - there's a guy wanting $225.
However, if you check the short cage Cyclones, asking prices are on earth. I made an offer and got a NOS for $50.
My plan is to take apart the new Cyclone body, service everything, and reinstall the long cage.
So I'll have a new RD with new spring and jockey wheels.
While the bike's down, I have some more chores - gum brake hoods need replacing, and I have a NOS Weinmann front brake to replace the old blue-label one that came from my Grand Prix, so we'll get all new cables here, too.



Waiting on the new RD to take apart, but can work on the other stuff...
and btw, found a good YouTube for taking apart SunTour RD


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## bulldog1935 (Apr 26, 2018)

Here's why I was replacing the brake hoods.
These were spares I bought on ebay way back when the price was right, but they were particularly thin and translucent.
The originals were dry and cracking to nothing, the then-7-year leather bar wrap was aged, stretched and loose, and these came out of spares and went on (the Grand Prix) with the new leather.
The cockpit got moved intact to the International.
This photo was taken about a year ago, and the worn corner has been getting worse.



Pretty sure I threw these Campy repros in with an order from Boulder Cycles.
But really nice hoods, and something like $25 instead of the crazy prices they're asking for OS stuff


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## djpubba (Apr 26, 2018)

Do you have a link to buy those repro campy hoods?


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## bulldog1935 (Apr 26, 2018)

djpubba said:


> Do you have a link to buy those repro campy hoods?



http://boulderbicycle.bike/Brake-St...ric-gum-hood-pair-for-campy-nr-sr-levers.html
these are the right size and the right price, but don't think they have the mark on them - again, I bought mine last year or earlier - stuff I know I'm going to eventually use, I buy it when I find it.
They have some Modolo 919s.in bronze and gray.
Yellow Jersey is a good contact, also, but your best bet is to call them - they don't keep their website updated.

here's these at Modern Bike - Rustines - you know they'll be good
https://www.modernbike.com/product-2126242459

higher priced on ebay - these have the mark
https://www.ebay.com/p/Campagnolo-Brake-Hoods-NUOVO-Super-Record-Brown/1331864097 
but that looks like a good deal compared to the same thing at Bicycle Classics
http://00eda5d.netsolhost.com/brakes.html


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## bulldog1935 (Apr 27, 2018)

We were talking about fenders on Tad's Umberto Dei thread, so I brought you back here, to my thread about my International


GiovanniLiCalsi said:


> I still own my 1971 Raleigh International.
> Love the way they ride.
> I bought it when it was new.
> I installed, when purchased, a Cinelli fork, stem and handlebars.
> ...



The International is a timeless bike.  It's the last perfect English Club Racer, in the tradition of the Lentons.
One bike you could live on during the week, swap your wheelset, remove your plastic Bluemels, and be a competitive racer on the weekend, or add a front load and take off on a weekend club tour - even haul your grocery errand
Our different takes on the same bike show just how versatile it is.
For me, I'd never change the low-trail Reynolds fork - the International was the only high-grade Raleigh with a low-trail fork - in fact, the only other bike then in the Raleigh line with low-trail fork was the Grand Prix (though the light International frame is not a rear-load touring bike like the Grand Prix).




The English Club Racer was the Union Jack answer to the French Randonneur (Herse and Singer), and the International frame compares to the very best French bikes.
Mine is set up with what I need to live with the bike in the Texas Hill Country - go anywhere, climb the steepest divide with load.
With your setup, you should be looking for a Brooks Pro saddle (Swallow, or Swift)  - B17 is the wrong saddle for a drop-bar racing bike.


 

 





Properly set up, CP brakes have all the stopping power of the very best cantis, though good cantis always win on modulation.



it took them all of 12 years trying alternate mechanisms, but Campy finally introduced their Copy of the SunTour Cyclone RD in 1988 with the Chorus, joining every other RD line in copying the 1964 SunTour patent.



The reason I decided to replaced my dead Cyclone in kind rather than hunting down a post-C-Record Campy long cage (Euclid) was the Cyclone does the same job with short cable pull, letting me use my same shifters.


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Apr 27, 2018)




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## bulldog1935 (Apr 27, 2018)

correct on the lugs, but of course my chromed fork crown is Vagner No 12





oh, and that Raleigh ad was aimed at parents - what they wanted their kids to look like in college, as opposed to what they actually looked like


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Apr 27, 2018)

I used these Campionato del Mondo sewups on my Iternational and never got a flat. They were indestructible. Very minimal rolling resistance, with 120psi.


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## bulldog1935 (Apr 27, 2018)

I think past and present tense is the key here.  Running tubulars v. the 700c clinchers available today is obstinate.
My wheelset is Phil/Synergy of course clinchers, 126mm OLD, and the rear triangles aligned to fit them - this lets me fit x7 in the rear.
For the longest time, I ran them only on hand-glued Challenge 30mm Strada Bianca - and only ran hand-glued tires on all my bikes.




after trying Compass EL vulcanized clinchers (first vulcanized tire I tried in ten years), these 32mm Stampede Pass are now running on 2 bikes, 38mm Compass Barlow Pass on a 3rd, and will cover me forever  (ok, still running Vittoria hand-glued 27mm on my Moser)


 



I've put plenty of miles on high grade tubulars, and can tell you for fact, after they warm up, you can't tell the best linen-casing modern clinchers from the very best tubular.
Only starting out on a cold morning do you notice a difference between High Grade tubulars and Challenge, Vittoria or Compass clinchers.
I'll argue tires with anybody - I ride 6000 mi/year, and get 400% less flats on my low-pressure fine-casing, thin wall tires than my buddy gets running city tires on all his bikes.
120 psi is self flagellation.
People think tire chatter is fast because it feels ragged edge.
But a soft, fine-casing tire conforming to the pavement is faster, because with that tire chatter, the tire loses momentum every time it leaves the road, and has to catch up when it recontacts the road - proved in roll tests.  If your tire stays on the pavement and doesn't chatter at speed, you're rolling more efficiently and have room to go faster with equivalent energy.
When the kids in the Sunday morning sprint group catch me at the rest stop, I'm occasionally told I need to put air in my tires.
Then there's wear.  Good tires at rated pressure last 600 mi, but the same tire run at Berto chart pressure lasts 2500 mi.






In the 70s, clinchers weren't worth buying.  The Conti Grand Sport was the first acceptable clincher, but only because it was practical.  It wasn't until a dozen years ago that good clinchers began being made the same way good tubulars are made.


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## bulldog1935 (Apr 27, 2018)

hard part is done - hardest thing was getting the Phillips head pin back in place
my new brake cables are due tomorrow - I may ride this thing Sunday



and looking better all the time


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## bulldog1935 (Apr 27, 2018)

GiovanniLiCalsi said:


> I still own my 1971 Raleigh International.
> Love the way they ride.
> I bought it when it was new.
> I installed, when purchased, a Cinelli fork, stem and handlebars.
> ...



Giovanni, I think there was also a tendency in the 70s for all of us to want our bikes to be Italian.
Here's how my Grand Prix came out of the 70s, and stayed this way through the 90s (that's the 90s saddle)




Sugino Mighty Comp (Strada clone) crankset, Narrow freewheel on Zeus/Rigida wheelset, Shimano 600 derailleurs, Splashed with Zeus decorations - enough to make it behave as a different bike from the way it left Cumberland Transit in Nashville (only change when new was a suede Unicanitor saddle).
And we all did it, which is why catalog condition on these bikes is so irrelevant. When we were kids, we put tassels on the grips, a playing card on the spokes, but commuting into campus in college, we wanted to make it efficient and fast.
What's sadder than a mint vintage bike?  Owned but never ridden, lube and tires rotting in place.  

The longer you live with a bike, the more you want it to be comfortable, reliable and practical - Here's how the Grand Prix from college went into the new millennium, many of the parts from the first rebuild, same wheels, same crank (with half step rings and wider freewheel, making it easier to pace with friends on newer bikes), new cockpit.



When I got the Phil/Synergy wheelset, went to the cyclotouriste triple, and when the frame got bent in a wreck, found the International frame and simply moved everything from the 3rd rebuild over, changing a few odds and ends.


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## bulldog1935 (Apr 29, 2018)

racking up miles again...


 
honestly, this repair finished a lot sooner than I expected


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## juvela (Apr 30, 2018)

-----

Ron,

Enjoying very much these detailed posts.  

Thanks for taking the time to do them.

On your Zeus brake levers I wanted to ask what replacement hoods you have found to be a good fit.  Sounds like you are pleased with the Campag replica ones.  Zeus also offered their hoods in an opaque black rubber BITD.  I wonder if they hold up any better than the gum version...

Have quite a few Zeus fittings in me stores.

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## bulldog1935 (Apr 30, 2018)

juvela said:


> -----
> 
> Ron,
> 
> ...



Thanks Roger,
If you've ever messed much with Zeus components, they're reverse-engineered Campy, and the parts are interchangeable.
When my Zeus hubs from 1978 needed cones 10 years ago, used NOS Record cones.



Modolo, Zeus, Campy - any non-aero levers will swap hoods, which makes it easy for the modern aftermarket
But I will add the Campy and of course Zeus originals take to the inline cable adjustment screws better than Modolo - I do have a pair of Modolo 920 stashed, and like the Campy repros better for just this reason


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