Category Archives: Bicycle restoration

Garage Sale Find

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I am always skeptical when friends call or text to tell me about a bicycle they discovered at a yard sale.  They assume that because the bike in question looks old (i.e., decrepit, cheap, and utterly worthless), that I might be interested.  But today, my friend Linda alerted me to a box of bike parts at her neighborhood garage sale.  The photo she texted revealed some Campagnolo cranks, but I couldn’t make out the other items.  $40 for all – she said. “Okay I’ll take it”, not knowing what the box contained.

I shouldn’t be too harsh on my various friends’ enthusiasm.  In fact, it is very difficult for a lay person to distinguish between that which is excellent and good and that which should never have been manufactured, the latter of which exists in ubiquity.

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Campagnolo Record high flange hubset – with rare 120 mm spacing on the rear hub – smooth as butter.

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Campagnolo Record front hub – will need some work as the hub doesn’t turn smoothly, but the hub shell is a work of art.

So, discovering that the box contained three Campagnolo Record hubs was a real delight, especially given that the rear high flange hub has 120mm rear spacing, which is now very difficult to find.  Since vintage bicycles have narrower drop out spacing than modern bikes, the rear hub made the whole deal worthwhile, regardless of what else the mystery box contained.

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Various OEM Freewheel removal tools – Campagnolo, Suntour, Atom, Shimano

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Handtools – Campagnolo and Mafac.

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Spoke wrenches.

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Park Chain Tool

Digging further into the box, I pulled out these wonderful old tools, including some freewheel removal tools that I didn’t already have on hand, plus some great Mafac wrenches.  And, it’s always nice to have an extra Park chain tool.

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Campagnolo Record square taper crankset.

The Campagnolo Record square taper crankset, which served as the lure for my purchase, is pretty scuffed up.  The drive side crank arm shows a lot of scratches and wear.  However, the 53/42 rings look like there is still some life left in them, so I may be able to salvage the crankset.  I’ll know more once I clean it up.

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Time Titan Magnesium pedals.

These old clipless racing pedals are dated, so it is doubtful that this item has any value.  However, they are VERY lightweight and I can see why these pedals were at one time popular with the racing crowd.  If anyone reading this wants them, let me know and I’ll ship them to you, for just the cost of shipping.

So, yes, sometimes there are garage sale finds.  Unfortunately, they are all too rare.

Quando/Quanta Hubs Long Term Update

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Quando/Quanta hubs

Last week, while getting ready to climb a steep section of my route home, I vigorously shifted into my lowest gear while riding my 1987 Panasonic MC 7500 winter bike.  That resulted in my chain over-shifting and falling into the spokes.  Uh oh!  It took about 15 minutes for me to dislodge the chain and ride home, after turning the bike upside down for diagnosis and repair.  I had to remove my Paul’s chain keeper in order move the chain, as it had gotten wedged between the chain keeper and chain ring.  Still, I wasn’t worried because I stopped the bike the minute this occurred, and didn’t expect that I had done much damage.

I had built this wheelset about a year and a half ago using Quando cartridge bearing hubs, laced to SunRims CR18 rims. For the few weeks preceding this mishap, I had been hearing a clunking noise in the rear of the bike, occurring while pedaling and coasting, but louder when riding at speed.  It took a while for me to clue in to what the noise might mean.  At first, I thought it was the saddle rails or seat post, because I only heard it when working hard at accelerating. But then I began hearing it while coasting.  Then I thought it was the replacement freewheel I was using – perhaps the freewheel cover plate was coming loose and the body was clunking around.  Bicycle noises can be maddening to diagnose!

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Spoke damage.

When I finally had time to get the bike into the shop stand, I was saddened to see that the chain had damaged all the drive side spokes in my little mishap.  Doh!  Good thing I checked.  So, I proceeded to disassemble the wheel, all the while wondering whether I had the right length replacement spokes (that’s why you always buy extras…), and questioning whether I was up to a wheel building experience on this nice sunny afternoon.

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Once I had the spokes out, which I removed very slowly and methodically (spokes under tension are dangerous projectiles), I examined the hub body.  It looked pretty good.  Okay, let’s build the wheel again with some new spokes.  Fortunately, I had 9 spokes on hand of the exact length needed.  In a sort of thoughtless way I began turning the hub axle, perhaps in an attempt to delay the inevitable.  That’s when I heard a strange grinding/clicking sound.  I held the hub close to my ears to listen further.  Finally, the sound stopped, but was replaced by a very tight spot when turning the axle of the hub.  Very tight.  Not normal!  The source of the clunking was now illuminated.  But, what to do?

I could attempt to diagnose the cartridge bearings, or I could try to find the right rear hub with 126mm rear spacing (mission impossible?).  The latter turned out to be the best course of action.  Velo Orange sells a 126mm rear hub with freewheel threads and 36 holes – just what I needed.  Mission accomplished.

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Meanwhile, I removed the dust covers on the Quando hubs.  Perhaps with this winter’s especially rainy and muddy rides, bad stuff had made its way into the cartridge bearings and could be simply cleaned out.

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No such luck.  The bearing grease (which has been removed in the above photos), was pristine.  Undaunted, I decided to clean the bearings and re-grease them, to see if by some chance that would change the hub’s tight spot (which was illogical of course).

The bearings on these Quando hubs are either bad, or not properly adjusted, or the races and cups in the hubs are damaged.  Cartridge bearings do not work in the same way as cup and cone style bearings.  The latter’s adjustment is achieved by the correct position of the cone against the cup, something most experienced mechanics can do easily.

Cartridge bearings are engineered differently.  The preload adjustment is done by the factory when the bearings are pressed into the hub.  If it is wrong, correcting it can be a problem.  A cartridge bearing hub’s races can also be damaged by improper installation (or removal).

While it may be possible to have these hubs diagnosed and repaired by a mechanic with the right equipment, the cost to do so is not justified here (throwaway technology strikes again).  Now, I will try to look forward to rebuilding the rear wheel with my new VO hub, when it arrives.  The front hub spins just fine and has no issues, for now.  But, given this experience, I will plan to monitor it in the future.

Tina’s Benotto

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While I have known my friend Tina for decades, I didn’t know she was a bike racer back in the day until a few years ago.  Probably all of us have done some interesting things in our youth (some best forgotten), but I was really impressed to discover that Tina owned this beautiful Benotto, which she acquired new back in the 1970’s.  She competed in the races of the time, in her home state of California, on this extraordinary 20 lb full Nuovo Record Campagnolo machine, riding tubular Fiamme rims laced to high flange Campagnolo Nuovo Record hubs.

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When she stopped racing, she swapped out the wheelset for a more useful clincher set with a wider gearing ratio, shown below.  The bike is 100% original, except for the early Terry saddle added later, and these photos show its condition, unrestored, after decades of storage.  Amazingly, it is still lovely and appears easily restorable to its original glory.

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Extra clincher wheelset – Wolber T430 Alpine rims laced to Shimano 105 hubs

Since Tina doesn’t ride this bike any more, she asked me to evaluate it, and to see if any of my readers were interested in buying it from her.  Such a bike, if sold on eBay, would simply be stripped into its separate parts and re-sold at a profit, because it is now true that a complete bike is worth less than the sum of its parts.  But, not for Tina.  She would like the bike to go to someone who will keep it intact and enjoy riding it.  And that’s where I come in.

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I have no prior experience with Benotto’s, so my first task was to determine its provenance and date of manufacture.  The bottom bracket shell shows a 460 serial number.  Unfortunately, I learned that Benotto serial numbers, much like Peugeot’s aren’t really reliable for determining the model year of the frame.  Other clues included the chromed, forged Campagnolo drop-outs, the weight of the machine (20 lbs), the style of the fork and head lugs (chromed lugs, with chromed sloping fork crown), and the appearance of the components. Unfortunately, there are no tubing stickers present on the frame.

At first, I thought this bike dated to the late 1970’s, but Tina wasn’t quite sure in what year she purchased the bike. The above photo shows that the Campagnolo NR rear derailleur has “Patent-73” stamped into its body.

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This derailleur style was later replaced in the late 1970’s.  The presence of cable clamps provides further proof that the bike is earlier than late 1970’s because at that point, all the higher end Benotto’s had brazed on cable guides.  So, it is likely that this is a mid 70’s model.  But what model is it?

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Chromed head lugs with blue accent paint

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Head tube badge in great condition

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Seat tube logo

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Chromed sloping fork crown, blue accent paint, Campagnolo NR headset

Fortunately, I recently discovered some new information on the web that helped in my quest to correctly identify this Benotto. I think it is most likely a Model 2500 or 2000 based on the fact that the seatpost size is 27.2, which means that the tubing used is Columbus SL, a theory further supported by the incredibly light weight of the bike.  Although I haven’t found any catalogs which show this particular bike as configured, the chromed head lugs and fork crown indicate that it was one of the higher end models. Here are photos of the components:

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The frame size is 54 x 54, with a 100 cm wheelbase.  There are single eyelets front and rear.  There are no other braze-ons or bosses.  Components are:  Campagnolo NR:  brake levers, brake hoods, brake calipers, pedals, seatpost, cable clamps and cable guides, headset, bottom bracket, shifters, derailleurs, crank arms and rings, hubs, and quick releases. The shifters and quick releases are color matched with Campagnolo red covers. Other components include 3TTT bars and stem, Christophe toe clips and straps, a  Regina 5 speed freewheel, and of course that beautiful and iconic blue Benotto bar tape.

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There are some condition issues with the bike.  The Benotto logo on the down tube is in bad shape, and there is paint loss around the seatpost clamp. Overall, this bike is in amazing shape for being 4 decades old, and unridden for a couple of those decades.

I welcome any assistance on further identifying Tina’s Benotto.  If you are interested in purchasing it, please contact me – I have included a widget below to allow you to send me a private email.

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