My partner in all things, Theresa, has been riding a Raleigh Alyeska touring bike for the last decade or so. While it is a great bike, it is a touring bike and relatively heavy. So, when we ride together I often feel that I am cheating by zipping around on one of my nimbler machines. And, the Alyeska’s top tube is just a bit shorter than she prefers, so I decided to build up this Raleigh Gran Sport, which has a longer top tube, into a lighter weight iteration of its original self.
The early 60’s version of the Gran Sport was something of a sought after machine, with Sheldon Brown describing his lust for its Campagnolo components, even though at this time the frame was built with standard tubing. This model, which I have dated to approximately 1976, is built with Reynolds 531 tubing for both the frame and fork, and it sports a Carlton logo as well. However, some of its original components left something to be desired, such as the low end plastic Simplex derailleurs and shifters.
I admit to a great fondness for this beautiful sky blue color scheme. It is reminiscent of my 1976 Centurion Pro Tour. With the white accents, I decided it was really necessary to use white cable housing. I set up the drivetrain using Suntour components. I had a NOS Suntour V-GT rear derailleur that I mated to a single bar end shifter. I used a vintage Sugino crank with an SR drilled 42 tooth ring. The freewheel is an early index version 6 speed 14/30 Shimano. Index freewheels actually work better with friction shifters than non-index versions.
I wanted to keep this bike very light and simple, so there is no front derailleur or extra shifter. To add to its elegance and feathery weight, I decided to use my treasured Campagnolo/Mavic wheelset. This was one of the first sets I built, using smooth as butter vintage Campy hubs laced to new Mavic Open Pro 36 hole rims. That meant a conversion to 700c, from the bike’s original 27 inch wheel diameter – not a problem at all.
The blue color in the Mavic logo nicely accents the sky blue frame. For the riding position, Theresa expressed a preference to be more stretched out as well as upright enough to make city riding safe and enjoyable. I was thinking of using these big ol’ Soma bars, but I knew I would need a pretty long reach for the stem. I found this Nitto stem with a whopping 130 mm of reach, but it had to be shipped from Japan!
I also ordered this very pretty Cardiff saddle, a brand which I have come to love (one is installed on my Meral), and I will be curious to see how she likes this compared to the Brooks on her current bike. I used Mafac Racer centerpull brakes, and installed a small TA randonneur rack to mount to the front calipers. Probably we will add a minimalist rear rack at some point, as well as some fenders. These 35 mm Panaracer Paselas will be perfect for the kind of riding we do. One of the very nice features on this frame is the elegant cable stop for the rear brake.
I found some light blue cloth bar tape from Velox that matches the frame perfectly. To keep with the vintage appearance I used Velo Orange’s City brake levers. Now this nice old Raleigh has a new look and a new lease on life. I am looking forward to Theresa’s first test ride!
I’ve been riding my “new” 1980 Meral 650b for over a year now. Only recently has it become my bike of first choice, however. As with any bike, and especially with a frame-up build combined with a wheel size conversion (700c to 650b), there were a number of challenges and some disappointments. Here is an overview of the results:
Frame and Fork:
My favorite aspect of this bike is its beauty and the build quality of the frame and fork. It’s just an absolutely gorgeous, well put together bike. The Reynolds 531 tubing feels great and is not punishing, as can happen with stiff aluminum frames (especially smaller frames). I love the chrome accents and chrome fork, and the lovely sloping fork crown.
The deep purple color is eye catching and I like the gold lettering of the Meral logos, which goes with the gold-lined chrome lugs.
The frame geometry is suited for my riding preferences – with a steep seat tube and head tube angle. It has more stand over height than I really need, and if the frame were taller I would not have had to use a Nitto Technomic stem to get the bars at the height that feels good (slightly higher than the saddle height.) But, it wasn’t custom built for me, after all, so I’m not complaining.
Tires, Wheels, and Handling:
The Panaracer Col de la Vie 650b tires were extremely disappointing – to the point that I actually stopped riding this bike while I figured out what to do. They produced a lot of tire noise, and the deep treads picked up rocks like a vacuum cleaner, then spit them into the aluminum fenders, for an even greater cacophony. The tires felt squishy and ponderous no matter what pressures I tried, and made climbing feel like I was riding through quicksand. On descents, the bike was noticeably slower than ALL my other bikes, causing me to conclude that the tires had an enormous amount of rolling resistance. Since the tires come so highly recommended, I delayed changing them out while I tried out other theories to explain the bike’s slowness. Were the wheel hubs improperly adjusted? Was the freehub bad? No, and no.
In fact, I am really happy with this Velocity Synergy 650b wheelset. The hubs were adjusted perfectly right out of the box and are very smooth. I did have to make a small truing adjustment to the front wheel, and that was all. I ordered this 32 hole set from Rivendell and I think they were well worth the price (about $400 for the pair).
While I pondered what to do about the tires, I also had to contend with a problem that I had never experienced before to this degree: fork shimmy! The bike shimmied from the get-go, at high speeds and slow, and would get worse if I rode with just a single bag in back instead of two. So, I did a lot of reading about fork shimmy and found that it is as mysterious as “planing”, “q-factor” and bottom bracket drop in terms of facts vs. mythology. For instance, Jobst Brandt has a pretty scientific explanation of fork shimmy. Here is a quote from his treatise on the matter:
“Shimmy is not related to frame alignment or loose bearings, as is often claimed. Shimmy results from dynamics of front wheel rotation, mass of the handlebars, elasticity of the frame, and where the rider contacts the bicycle. Both perfectly aligned bicycles and ones with wheels out of plane to one another shimmy nearly equally well. It is as likely with properly adjusted bearings as loose ones. The idea that shimmy is caused by loose head bearings or frame misalignment seems to have established currency by repetition, although there is no evidence to link these defects with shimmy.”
He goes on to state that shimmy is caused by the gyroscopic forces of the front wheel, which combined with the tilt of the steering axis, exerts force on the top tube and downtube, causing them to oscillate. While absorbing this explanation, I read a number of other explanations, but none seemed as true to my mind as this. Based on that, I concluded that I definitely needed to replace the Panaracer tires because I felt they were contributing to, if not causing, the shimmy problem, with their deep tread pattern.
I finally broke down and ordered these Compass Loup Loup Pass 650b tires. I ordered the regular model, not the super-light. Conclusion: what took me so long! These are the best tires I have ever ridden, ever. They are comfortable, fast, quiet, and seem to help spur me up hills. I have ridden them on gravel, pavement, and over some bad and deep potholes. They are fabulous! Now, when I take the Meral out for a spin I find that I end up riding far longer than planned. They have restored my enjoyment of riding, and have really been the turning point in making this bike my favorite. And, I have absolutely no more fork shimmy, at any speed. So, I guess we can add tire tread depth and design as a possible contributor to fork shimmy – let the mythology continue!
Drivetrain:
The vintage TA triple crankset had a massive wobble so I had to disassemble it, place each chainring between two planks, and smash the hell out of them in my vise. It took enormous force to get them straightened, but now they are fine. The rings are 48/40/28. For this kind of bike, I really need some smaller rings up front, plus I prefer to have a 10 tooth difference between the big and middle rings. Rather than replace the TA rings, I decided to change the cassette. First of all, I had to accept the fact that I could not use an 8 speed cassette on this drive train – the Ultegra front derailleur could not handle it. Instead, I put in a spacer and ended up with this 14-32 7 speed cassette after trying 3 other cassettes that had higher gearing. I decided to stick with the Ultegra derailleur, though, because after doing much research I realized that it can be very difficult to find any front derailleur that will work with a TA crankset, due to its narrow tread. So, if it works, don’t fix it. The bike is geared a bit lower than my other bikes as it is a bit heavier, and I ended up replacing the SLX rear derailleur with the Deore pictured above which seems to work better with the larger cassette cogs. I am using my Shimano bar end shifters in friction mode and the shifting is fast and precise, with very little trimming needed. One of my favorite pieces on the bike is this modified Huret downtube clamp which can accept Shimano shifter pods – it looks great and the pods mounted precisely.
Braking System:
I used vintage Mafac Raid brakes to accomplish the conversion to 650b. This set was in nice shape and included all the mounting hardware. Because I was working with what was originally a sport touring bike, made long after these Mafac’s were manufactured, I had to make some modifications to the hardware to make things work. For the Mafac rear fender mount, I had to reverse the piece, tap out the other side, and mount it backwards in order to make it work with the brake bridge on this bike. I also “smooshed” the brake hanger and installed a longer seat post bolt to get the hanger to work with this bike. The brake arms are very long, as you can see, and naturally have a lot more flex due to the long reach. My Kool Stop replacement pads squealed like crazy for the first month or so of riding, and then finally everything settled down and braking is silent. However, the front brakes have a squishy feel, which is consistent with my experience with Mafac’s on other bikes I have ridden and restored. But, they get the job done, and that’s what matters. I am using Shimano aero levers, which fit comfortably in my hands – I use these for all my bikes with road bars.
Saddle, Rack, Bags, and Fenders:
The Cardiff saddle, a brand I haven’t tried before, turned out to be a real hit. It is breaking in nicely. It has longer seat rails than a Brooks, and a slightly different shape that seems to work well for me. The saddle is big enough to provide a number of different seating positions depending on where my hands are on the bars. In short, I will probably not go back to riding Brooks saddles as I find the Cardiff far more comfortable (comfort being a relative term when speaking of bike saddles…). And, it’s a pretty handsome saddle that goes perfectly with my plum-colored leather mud flap.
For my rear rack, I had wanted to use the Velo-Orange constructeur rack. It is very pretty and mounts to the rear fenders, which makes the rack sit down nice and low – ideal for carrying weight in the back. At the time I was building up the bike, that rack was out of stock, so I decided to try out the Electra Ticino rear rack instead. While the rack itself is not ugly, per se, it sits up very high, has unadjustable stays, and is very heavy. I sanded the stays to allow for greater adjustment so that I could level the rack (photo above is before I had done this), so that helped a bit. The Ticino panniers are nice bags, but are also very heavy and suffer from being oddly shaped. Nonetheless I have continued to use them and they have held up well.
Here is the bike now, after all these mods, and after a year of riding. It’s a very striking bike, and now a very comfortable bike after tweaking the components and upgrading the tires. Today, I meant to go out on just a short ride, but ended up two towns away! This bike has finally exceeded my expectations.
My Meral 650b conversion is now complete. In twoprevious posts, I shared the process of converting this 700c sport touring frame to 650b. The bike and I have taken a short test ride, and it is going to be my ride tomorrow for a more complete test of its road-worthiness. Today’s test ride revealed that I needed to ditch the vintage Mafac brake levers. They were not effective at stopping the bike when braking from the hoods, and the levers stick out so far from the bodies that I could barely reach them when braking from the drops. The Mafac Raid brakes had a tremendous amount of flex, and I also had some squealing while braking – partly caused by the flex of the brakes arms. I was disappointed because I liked the look of the cables sprouting from the non-aero levers (Campy levers shown in this photo)- but function over form must rule when it comes to safety. I installed Shimano aero levers (perfectly sized for smaller hands), tightened the brakes arms on the Mafac Raid brakes, and that solved the problem, mostly. The orange Kool Stop replacement pads for Mafac brake shoes are also very hard and smooth, and with the super smooth new rims, there is still some squealing under hard braking. I have sanded some material off the pads, but the rims will need to break in as well in order to quiet everything down.
But there were some successes, also. The Velo Orange leather mud-flap looks fabulous and will really help keep the drive train and my feet dry during Portland’s downpours. And, the Cardiff saddle proved to be far more comfortable than any Brooks I have ridden – it is comfortable now and I won’t need to endure the thousand mile break-in torture of a typical Brooks saddle. The copper rails are lovely to my eye, and with the extra long seat rails I was able to get the saddle exactly where I wanted it.
I decided to use Shimano derailleurs for now, and they are working fine. I needed an extra long cage on the rear derailleur in order to handle the 3 chain rings up front – the SLX was sitting in the parts bin but I’ll probably replace it at some point. It’s hard to see the gorgeous chrome dropouts in this photo – but they are beautiful as is everything about this Meral frame. The T.A. triple crankset has 160mm crank arms, which I chose to help deal with the problem of toe overlap common on smaller frames. I like the feel of my cadence on these shorter arms (I usually ride 165mm or 170mm). The outer chainring on the crankset had a serious wobble, so I disassembled the crankset to straighten it out in the vice. When reassembling, I managed to over-torque one the the crank arm bolts even though I was only going up to 70 in lbs. I had to order some new fasteners (you can get some from Velo-Orange, or on E-bay), and I have them torqued very low now until I can get the specs on these small fasteners.
Here is the “smooshed” Mafac brake hanger – working fine – and here are the Ticino bags on the completed bike – they look pretty decent.
Before starting any conversion, it’s important to check the clearances on your frame for: chainstay and fork clearance for the new wheelset, fenders, and clearance and proper chain line for the crankset and BB you are using. Below, my clearances were good, but I had to do a little more work to clean up the fender-line and to level the Ticino rack (whose stays are not adjustable).
How does it ride? As beautifully as it looks – comfortable, yet lightweight (27 lbs as pictured, including the heavy rack and saddle).
Here is the build list:
Frame and fork: 1980 Meral with Reynolds 531 tubing on frame and fork (49 x 51), chrome fork, frame chromed and then painted, lugs, chainstays and dropouts are chrome. Geometry: 74 deg HT, 74 deg ST, fork rake 50 mm (approx). Originally designed as a 700c sport touring bike with eyelets for fenders, but no rack mounts.
Nitto Technomic stem (sanded to French size); Nitto Olympiad bars, Shimano brake levers, Shimano 600 headset (French), cloth bar tape
Shimano bar end shifters in friction mode, Huret modified DT clamp, Shimano Ultegra front derailleur; Shimano SLX rear derailleur; Shimano 8 speed cassette 11/30, TA bottom bracket, TA triple crankset 48/40/28, Sram chain, Lyotard pedals
Cardiff leather saddle with copper rails, Campagnolo seatpost
Mafac Raid brakes, Mafac brake hangers front and rear
Ticino rear rack, Ticino canvass panniers
Hammered aluminum fenders (no brand but never drilled or mounted – an Ebay purchase) – mounted with Velo Orange stays and hardware, Velo Orange “plum” mudflap, Velo Orange constructeur bottle cage
Velocity Synergy 650b wheelset with dishless rear wheel and sport hubs; Panaracer Col de la Vie 38 mm tires.
