Bike Restoration Project - Before

Some eagle-eyed readers have commented that I have referred to a new bicycle in a couple of my posts. I'm finally ready to unveil my project. I bought a vintage bicycle about a month ago from a local seller. The components have a dating stamp on them that indicates that they were manufactured in 1973 so I'm guessing the bicycle was assembled in 1974.

The bike was hand-made and wasn't constructed by a major manufacturer. After weeks of reasearch, I've determined that it is very probably an Andy Gilmour racing bicycle. Andy has been building bicycle frames since the early 70's. I've been in contact with Andy via email and he says that while he can't be 100% certain, that it definitely looks like one of his early builds.

The bike is built in the classic lugged steel construction style using lightweight columbus steel tubing. The original owner of the bicycle went out of their way to outfit the bike with top of line lightweight components and parts and build the best bicycle they could. The components are the highly desirable Camagnolo Nuovo Record group and all the bolts were replaced with lightweight aluminum alloy ones to further reduce the weight.

While it was fortunate that the original owner took such great care to assemble the bicycle, the second owner wasn't as kind to the bicycle although it was obviously a "rider" instead of a "show-er" for him. There was a significant rust issue, the bike was filthy and it would definitely require a new paint job.

Here are the obligatory before photos.















As I bought it

Note the padded gel seat and "unique" bar tape. Gah.















Super Record Chainrings

Drill pattern to further reduce weight. Beautiful.




















Hand cut lugs

Pretty.




















Bottom bracket

Hand cut "G" detail.




















Little Rust Problem

The owner lives about 50 yards from the ocean and the bike was stored in a non-airtight storage room and just started rusting away. Rust was my biggest concern but it appeared to be limited to a surface issue.




















Campagnolo Nuovo Record Rear Derailleur

As noted above, the bike was filthy. I spent no less than 6 hours cleaning it before sending it in for repainting.




















"G" Decal

Remnant of a decal that doesn't match any manufacturer I've been able to find. In the future I'm going to have to have it recreated.

I'll let you stew on these and will begin posting some "after" photos in the near future. If all goes well, I'll get this baby back on the road in the next two weeks.

sTorrey Pines Part Deux

Another big ride today. Just a hair under 40 miles. We started out in Carlsbad and rode to Del Mar and back. The B3 group consisted of 6 riders, down from the largish size of 12 from the week before. The groups are starting to even out. I was happy with my decision to stay with this group another week. The members of this group are all pretty strong riders and it seems that we are all getting more confident riding with each other. We had a minimum amount of "inchworm" syndrome this week. Inchworm syndrome is when the length of the pace line contracts and expands as each rider's pace changes. It makes it very hard to stay 12 inches off the back tire of the person you are following in a pace line to be able to draft effectively. Everyone rode a very consistent pace which made it a lot easier. I got some good tips from Coach Jay about how to maintain good drafting distance without braking so much and wasting energy trying to catch up.

We did the Torrey Pine thing again and this time riding through the gnats was terrible. There was no way to get through it without getting some in your mouth or nose. Nasty. Riding up the hill was harder for me this week than it was last week. Probably because I didn't get enough sleep.

I made some nutritional changes this week. One thing I did was use an electrolyte supplement in my water bottles. I drink a lot of water but I seemed to always be dehydrated. I think what was happening is that the electrolytes were being flushed out of my body with all the water I had been drinking and all the sweating. I also remembered some of my marathon training and ate a small salt packet 20 miles into the ride and felt instantly better. I also made sure to bring food this time and experimented with a couple types of energy bars. Overall I felt really good at the end of the day and definitely could have kept going.

The changes I had made to the fit on my bike were all great. No sign of foot numbness or knee trouble. The new pedals worked like a charm and I got a very satisfying click every time I got on the bike.

In other news, check out my kickin' new Captain America bicycle jersey.





Hell yeah...

Spin Class

Today was the first Spin class session with the Team. The original training schedule showed us starting last week but it was an error. It was actually lucky for me that it was canceled because I didn't realize that I needed a spin trainer to do the class. You see, this class is different that gym spin classes because you get to use your own bike. You also get to have class in a parking lot outside of a bike store. Having to buy the trainer was an unexpected expense but I was able to find a really nice condition used one off of craigslist for under $100. Take a look:















No batteries required. It is a fluid resistance trainer and is set up so that your back tire gets viced into place and you rear wheel travels on a roller. The fluid inside the radiator looking gizmo provides the resistance. The fins dissipate the heat that is generated from your work out. The wire off the edge clips onto your bike and allows you to further adjust the rolling resistance. Not pictured is a plastic block for your front tire so that your bike is level while you train.

Class consisted of about 70-80 people, with three different teams training there. The store, Hi-Tech Bikes appears to be a real hub for biking in the SD area and they are very TnT friendly.

Training on your own bike is definitely a much different feel than on a standard gym bikes. First of all, the bike is already fitted for you. Second of all, the shifting is a lot more controlled as you have real gears to go through rather than turning a resistance knob. Thirdly, you are able to work on your balance and bike handling coordination.

We did several different training exercises, paying close attention to cadence. Cadence is the speed at which you turn your cranks and is measured in revolutions per minute. I don't claim to fully understand the concept yet, but it appears that you want to maintain a consistent cadence when cycling for optimum performance. You shift up and down depending on terrain features such as hills. You want to get into a nice steady pace for maximum efficiency. We start at 65 RPM and sped up by 5 rpm every couple of minutes until we got the heart really pumping at 95 RPM. I didn't have a device to actually measure my cadence so I had to just watch my neighbors legs closely and tried to match their speed. It appears that I need to buy more gear.

We also did another exercise, ILT (individual leg training). When you first learned to ride a bike, you probably didn't have clip-in pedals. Consequently, when you pedaled, you got you power during the down stroke. With clip-in pedals, you are actually able to generate power during the upstoke. The upstroke uses the quads while the downstroke uses the hamstrings. The exercise trains you to use the quads for pedaling.

Next was 3-3-3's. Pick pretty hard gear and pedal. It should be enough resistance so that you can comfortably still chat with your neighbor. Do that for 3 minutes. Then shift to the next higher gear. You can still talk to your neighbor but its pretty hard, maybe a few words. 3 more minutes and then shift up again. At this point, you're lucky if you can grunt. This one is tough.

The last one we did was a standing hill climb. This was a brutal 8-minute exercise. My foot was still pretty sore for the half from hell on Sunday and I was only able to stand for a couple of minutes at a time. Even without the injury, I don't think I could have gone much longer than 3-4 minutes.

Great work out.

My own personal bike to work day

I was dying to ride my new bike. The weather has been lousy and my schedule way to full to allow it but I set a goal to ride my bike to work today. I work half days on Fridays and it is casual dress day as well so I thought it was a perfect time to do it. It had been raining and the forecast called for raing. Keeping hope alive, I prepped all my gear the night before in hopes of getting an early start if the skies were clear. I set the alarm for 5:30 am and rushed to look out the front door. Clear enough. Suited up in my skin-tight padded bike shorts, dorky looking helmet, sleek new biking gloves and long-sleeve biking jersey and headed out the door.

I had planned my route the night before from a bike transit map I ordered. There are several obstacles to traverse on my way to the office including getting across Mission Valley with Interstate 8 smack in the way. The route I chose took me about a 2-miles east out of my way to be able to get to a road with a bike lane that got me across the Valley. The trip was pretty dodgy in parts when my bike lane suddenly disappeared when a car lane merged in from the right and I ended up in no man's land. Not great when you are speeding down a steep hill going 25 mph. I was very careful and just stopped when I need to until I got a clear path. Overall the trip was 9-miles each way and took me 45-minutes. A very reasonable commute that I will definitely repeat.

Training Log (September 24 - 30)

Monday: Balboa Park. Did the big Laurel Drive hill today. Wore the new Superfeet inserts during training. They took a little getting used to but they felt fine at the end of the walk. I'm having a slight nagging knee problem and a bit of soreness in my left achilles tendon. I think it was a consequence of walking the 14-miles in my new shoes with insufficient arch support. Something to keep an eye on.

Tuesday: Interval sprints at Lake Miramar again. Nobody's stopwatch was working correctly so these were all untimed. This was the first big workout with the new inserts. It didn't go all that well. The arch support felt fine. No back or leg problems, either. The problem was that I started feeling pain on the landing part of the pad of my left foot. The spot right behind my toes started feeling like it was getting bruised. Not good after just 4-5 miles. The reason may be that the position of my foot is different with the inserts in. Possibly, I'm slanted a little bit forward so a previously "tender" area is getting more direct impact. Another possibility is that I just came down too hard during one of the interval sprints and I bruised the area. Going to have to keep an eye on that.

Wednesday: No time for a real workout today with class and all, so I just took a 10 minute walk.

Thursday: Home late from work, ate something quick and went for an hour walk around the neighborhood. With all this structured training, it's been a long time since I walked the neighborhood which I used to do it at least 3 times a week. Beautiful night and not too many freaks out so it was very nice. I didn't push myself too hard but the pain on the left pad of my foot started to become an issue towards the end of the walk. I'm nervous about using the new shoe inserts on Saturday. I was already going to use Moleskin on the pads of both feet to prevent blisters so this may be just enough padding to deal with this. I'm also thinking that I might have enough shoe room to add a second pair of socks for additional padding. Either way, I'm going to be taking the original shoe inserts along with me in the event the Superfeet inserts are giving me trouble.

Friday: Nothing, rest day.

Saturday: 18-Miles at starting at Hospitality Point. The walk went fairly well although I didn't feel nearly as strong as the last time I did the 18 miles. I've been fighting a cold and felt just a little weak. I tried out the new Superfeet inserts again with a slight twist. I used a double sock on my left foot to see if the extra cushion would help out the pain I've been having. About 5 miles in the pain reappeared. I had planned for this eventuality and replaced the insert on the left shoe with the original shoe insert and was able to complete the mileage with less discomfort. The last few miles were a bit unpleasant as the double-sock made it a pretty tight fit as my feet swelled. More data points to figure out what is going on.

Sunday: Walked about 3+ miles going to breakfast and cruising around the Adams Avenue Street Fair.

Getting Ready

Big day tomorrow. 18-Miles and I have to be in Solana Beach by 6:15am. Bought my train ticket today and started laying out gear.

Checklist:


Adidas Climalite Tee. This is made of a special fabric that wicks the water away from your skin so that it evaporates quickly. It helps keep you from overheating.














New shoes: The aforementioned Asics Gel Nimbus VIII's. Must remember to transfer emergency contact velco thingee from old shoes to new shoes.












New Cool Max Toe Socks. These keep your toes separated so that you don't get blisters between your toes. They are also made of a special material that pulls the sweat away from your feet to keep you cooler and blister-free.










Ultimate Direction "Uno" Water Belt












GU: "Expresso Love" Energy Gel with 2X Caffeine. You eat this gel on the go with a swig of water and you get an immediate burst of energy. I'm going to eat about 4 of them during tomorrows walk.











BlisterShield Foot powder for socks.













Band-Aids for my nipples. Yes, you read that correctly. Not very glamorous but it is very common for men to have to do this as they tend to get rubbed raw by the shirt on such a long session with the constant repetitive motion.







Other stuff:

Baseball Cap
Sunblock
Sunglasses

Back to the Gym

Decided to forgo my weekly Thursday night DeAnza Cove walk. I've had some very mediocre training experiences there over the last month or so. It is too far away from my work so I don't have time to warm up and stretch properly as I get there so late. Went back to the gym today and did 35 minutes on the elliptical and lifted weights for another 1/2 hour. The cross training is good for me. I also noticed today that I have a little soreness in my groin, probably from Tuesday's sprint session so I'm glad I mixed it up today.

Today, I also wore some new running shorts that I bought on Saturday. They are thinner material and are cut a bit shorter than the shorts I usually wear. I didn't have a problem with them on Tuesday 5-miler but I noticed my thighs rubbing together a bit today while on the elliptical. Every little thing like this will be magnified 10-fold on the 18-miler on Saturday so I don't think I'm going to risk it. I've done long mileage in my usual type of shorts so I'm going to stick with them.

Friday's a rest day and time to carb up for Saturday's planned 18-mile walk.