1990? Dave Quinn Nordkapp

[sunympholepsy]

As some of you may be aware I was lucky enough to win this beauty (yup,753 tubing and fully loaded with Euclid) on eweBay a while ago. I thought a little update was due. After a couple of failed attempts to collect it, I’ve finally managed to make it to Wales couple of weeks ago, and even though I didn’t have time to ride on the steam train this time, the bike is finally with me.

I am not the best at documenting everything, so the first picture of the whole bike (above) was taken only last week or so when I finally found time to strip it and have a closer look.
First thing I’ve checked when collecting the bike from my mate’s who kindly picked it up from the seller, was the seatpost. I wanted to make sure it was not seized. It was stuck solid! And so I’ve tried to move it by twisting it whilst firmly holding the saddle (definitely not Electa, it’s hideous). Not a chance. It’s not a first stuck seatpost I was dealing with, so I’ve kept my cool and thought I will give it some PlusGas treatment once we’re home. After flipping the frame upside down and spraying a liberal amount of the stuff through the bottle cage bosses on the seat tube I’ve left it for a couple of days for PlusGas to work its magic. A couple of days later I had another go. Using the saddle for leverage again, as I didn’t want to risk damaging the seatpost in the vise. It moved! Or so I thought…


Oops…

 

[27motorhead]

Great to see this surface again! Sorry to hear that the saddle wasn’t an Electa, but instead some gel-filled sofa from the looks of it!

That isn’t too bad a result from the seatpost. You should be able to either get an engineer friend with a lathe to make you a section of post that you can press the Euclid head/clamp into or source a correct DIA post, chop up and bore out or sleeve it to accept the Euclid head.

Looking forward to seeing how this progresses

 

[sunympholepsy]

Not the best start. But I am quite stubborn, and very fortunate to have access to a very very well equipped workshop. I’ll figure it out.
As I am learning how to braze etc. I was given a box of very nice frame blocks some time ago by a friend and sometimes mentor. Now if I can find one matching the diameter of the seatpost…

Almost perfect. Almost
After using an off cut of an old inner tube to compensate for a 0.6 mm difference, it was ready to meet the big girl

 

[sunympholepsy]

And after some gentle persuasion, result

 

[sunympholepsy]

That was good fun, but hopefully things should get a bit smoother from now on.

 

[27motorhead]

I spoke too soon. Now THAT is a result!

 

[Mod-Master]

Yay

Give us some close ups of the crazy levers would you

 

[sunympholepsy]

I spoke too soon. Now THAT is a result!

Thanks man!

Great to see this surface again! Sorry to hear that the saddle wasn’t an Electa, but instead some gel-filled sofa from the looks of it!

That isn’t too bad a result from the seatpost. You should be able to either get an engineer friend with a lathe to make you a section of post that you can press the Euclid head/clamp into or source a correct DIA post, chop up and bore out or sleeve it to accept the Euclid head.

Looking forward to seeing how this progresses

Your idea crossed my mind too, but I just had to try to save the original post.
Luckily it worked a treat!

 

[sunympholepsy]

Yay

Give us some close ups of the crazy levers would you

Not the most photogenic objects those levers. But I will take some photos once I get to clean the groupset.

 

[27motorhead]

Thanks man!

Your idea crossed my mind too, but I just had to try to save the original post.
Luckily it worked a treat!

You’ve done well. I thought it would have been a slide hammer job, or a visit to the seatpost man unless you fabricated your own extractor. The rest should be plain sailing from now on!