The Bike Hive

I finally finished the new wheels for my '86 Sagres restoration.  The original wheels will be nearly impossible to find because they were painted to match the dark grey paint on the bike.  In the mean time, I decided to buy a rim that was similar to the original and paint it myself.  In order to make this happen, I had to tape off the sidewalls so they would be silver.  This took some time to get it right but I'm pleased with how they turned out.  The paint isn't a perfect match, but it's very close and they look great! The wheels were built with a basic 14g stainless spoke and a set of used hubs.  Tires are Panaracer Pasela 27 x 1 1/8 - the only true skinwall tires I could find in this size.  Not ideal because they have more tread than the originals, but I didn't want to spend a lot on these wheels since I'm still looking for the original wheelset.  They aren't 100% period-correct parts, but they will make it ridable and a close enough match to ...

I just picked up this 1986 Fuji Sagres to restore.  This has been one of my all time favorite bikes and one I've been searching for a long time.  It's gonna be a long term project since it doesn't have the original gunmetal grey Ukai rims and gunmetal grey handlebar tape.  I'd like to pick up some original 27" SCCR Fuji tires too, but that may be asking a bit much. I'm not sure why I've always like this so much.  Maybe the color, maybe it was a good seller for us at the shop back then.  It would have been the year before I started working at the shop so it could have been old inventory or that we just worked on a few of them the following years.  I remember always wanting one, probably has a lot to do with the color.  It's one of the last to have been made in Japan and features quad-butted Valite tubing.  These were decent riding bikes and reasonably priced at about $325 if I remember correctly. So why the big deal about a mid 80's Fuji? ...

The other day I had the opportunity to overhaul a Cannondale Lefty fork.  I've had mixed luck with these in the past, confounded by Cannondale's lack of instructions, spare parts, and poor customer service.  That notwithstanding, I've been anxious to master these tricky forks.  A quick review of them online returns  mixed  results , but the general consensus is that they work great until it's time for service, but then it's a crapshoot. Let me start by saying that when I say 'poor customer service' , that means that Cannondale's answer to fixing your 5 year old Lefty many times is 'send it back and we'll sell you a new one for $800 (give or take,depending on model). A good deal (maybe) if you have a trashed 12 year old fork that has never been serviced, but not for a 5 year old fork that only needs one new bearing race and some o rings.  I think their people on the inside try hard, but Cannondale doesn't have systems in place to help dealer...