1979 Rondinella

  • Thread starter Deleted member 69416
  • Start date
D

Deleted member 69416

I got this cheap as it has paint issues but it's quality made it too good to pass up .
I bought it off the original owners husband who told me it was built for 26" wheels with canti's . In the later 80's with the disappearance of quality 26" road tyres the bike was changed to 700's and the canti bosses removed . This is the main paint issue .View attachment 800634
I thought , initially , that with such bad scarring and grubby general appearance it would be a no brainer to just have it repainted . It still has definite attractions . However , upon close inspection it's grubby general appearance seems to be due to and accumulation of old and yellowed wax which when scraped off reveals quite vibrant and well preserved paint .
View attachment 800635View attachment 800636 View attachment 800637
I've never tried any kind of serious paint restoration and have sometimes found that resprays can leave the end result a bit soulless .
This is the rabbit hole I now find myself in .
To paint or not to paint , that is the question . Weather it's nobler , in the end , to preserve patina{??} and take aim at a sea of bubbles .......Or just get it painted .
To do it , and the attention put into it's construction justice , it would need wet painting by someone good . It's a straight forward frame built precisely and cleanly and powder coating finishes can be a bit bulky which could hide it's best features
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So for now , until I make up my mind all I can do is a dry build to see what components I might be missing and how best to finish the spec .
I have the wheels and a TA Cyclotouriste chainset . I was going to try using Nuovo Record at the edge of its range . I want to use 32 - 46 t chainrings to a 13-26 freewheel which gives about 33" as the bottom and 93" as the top .
The brakes are tricky as I'd like to use centre pulls but the clearance is pretty close . I have a pair of Mafacs and a single Universal that I'll look at . If they are too long I have some Record calipers that will work .
In the short term {at least} a Nuovo Record pin with a B17 on .
The bars I'm very unsure of but I have a nice Biba stem .........
The shorter reach Weinnman 610 centre pulls could work. The original paint looks great especially if it's going to be a rider 👍
 
:)

I don't know, but thinking a bit more about the period in '79:
- the old UK road roadster 26" would most likely dropped out of favour for a lightweight.
- the old French touring 650B was certainly dropping out of fashion too and scrambling for survival.
- the 26" MTB rim was hardly known.
- the 650A low-profile wheel size is not really there either.

In a way, a shame the original owner removed the cantis but of course it was a different time. I'll edge my bets it was built for 650B but I'm not clever enough to give an idea of what the BB to ground distance should be. Some good tyre choice today for 650B, but the blessed new cool kids on the block want rims for disk brakes. It really does look a bit too tight with 700c and of course a disk brake modification is wrong.

DISC BRAKE.gif

Mafac did spec. braze on positions of canti-studs for various wheel sizes, so if there is any trace it could help.
 
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