Early 50s La Gazelle - Eau-de-Nil 🛠️ The Merlot Aftermath 🍷

🛠️ New gash seat-post arrived, but it's out of tolerance at the bottom - wider than the rest :mad:

It's getting serious now, so my French old school mechanics work wear is donned to get filings, oil and grease all over the place. I love these "blouses" as they are called. Original denim. Big pockets on the outside for gauges, tools, paper, pen and glasses to look like you know what you are doing, one hidden pocket on the inside for the Gauloises and a miniature bottle when the bosses back is turned. Mine is a three button version - perfect access to the old "zizi" with no fumbling. PPE was never better.



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Epic day wrenching. Finally sorted out all seat-post and seat cluster issues. I'll award myself 9 / 10 for solving and improving it; it works how it all should now. Lot's of grease, just nipped up to the right amount till it passes a cyclo-cross race bike check. Can undo it and take out without a hammer :)

On the left the new bolt from the doner bike, on the right the old one - clearly showing the result of being hamfisted on lightweight parts.

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Boils my piss this does. There's thread upon thread about getting stuck seat-posts out; in this here asylum, it's been about getting one in....so glad to have closure on this :cool:
 
She rides again!

🛠️ Cabled it up. Worth noting that at least in this period and many French bikes there are no ferrules and cables are thinner. Doesn't appear any difference in brake and gear outer cable diameters. Modern cables just about fit through the brazed on cable guides. All outers were grinded down flat and square at the ends.

Decided to add some brake cable adjusters to the Mafac levers - drilled and tapped them ready for the centre pulls. Then I don't need to mess about with cable adjusters on cable hangers and can at least take care of some brake block wear on the fly.

Here she is. I couldn't resist to have a quick spin up and down the village. Evening was drawing in so not the best picture - all that shinny chrome with the fill in flash 🤗. Still some fettling and some arsing about with the position, but chuffed. One bike officially saved.

1666200960485.png

Burger and beer tonight. The man-cave looks like a bike wrenching armagedón to be honest, you need so many tools with these things.
 
Last edited:
Woz said:
She rides again!

🛠️ Cabled it up. Worth noting that at least in this period and many French bikes there are no ferrules and cables are thinner. Doesn't appear any difference in brake and gear outer cable diameters. Modern cables just about fit through the brazed on cable guides. All outers were grinded down flat and square at the ends.

Decided to add some brake cable adjusters to the Mafac levers - drilled and tapped them ready for the centre pulls. Then I don't need to mess about with cable adjusters on cable hangers and can at least take care of some brake block wear on the fly.

Here she is. I couldn't resist to have a quick spin up and down the village. Evening was drawing in so not the best picture - all that shinny chrome with the fill in flash 🤗. Still some fettling and some arsing about with the position, but chuffed. One bike officially saved.

View attachment 672237

Burger and beer tonight. The man-cave looks like a bike wrenching armagedón to be honest, you need so many tools with these things.
Click to expand...
Looks splendid, very subtle that rear derailleur.
 
Saying big thanks to everyone's advice, support and above all, the very essential good humour. 😄

Going to chill out at the best place on planet earth right now - the Bikewrenchers Inn.

This is not the end of this bike build, but a wonderful end of chapter, ready for another. :cool:
 
Bike fit - 1950s style

Lovely day. Doing a bit of fettling, messing around with my position and calculating what bits and pieces are needed going forward. No serious riding so will not do a ride report. In the 70s / 80s at least, bike fit was about grabbing the seat-post and if you could get your first around it, it was good to go. 50s / 60s are different; the seat-post fashion says it shouldn't be raised that much (thankfully there are enough catalogues and bike racing footage to get a reasonable idea). Taking this into account, it looks about the right size. :)

Not taking into account period bike fit fashion it's dreadful by modern standards.


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With some guesswork on your part, this is what is happening in the old nether region. Picture not to scale, for illustration purposes only.

1666446932294.png

Glad there are no cable guides running on top of the top-tube. ;)
 
Woz said:
Bike fit - 1950s style

Lovely day. Doing a bit of fettling, messing around with my position and calculating what bits and pieces are needed going forward. No serious riding so will not do a ride report. In the 70s / 80s at least, bike fit was about grabbing the seat-post and if you could get your first around it, it was good to go. 50s / 60s are different; the seat-post fashion says it shouldn't be raised that much (thankfully there are enough catalogues and bike racing footage to get a reasonable idea). Taking this into account, it looks about the right size. :)

Not taking into account period bike fit fashion it's dreadful by modern standards.


View attachment 673064

With some guesswork on your part, this is what is happening in the old nether region. Picture not to scale, for illustration purposes only.

View attachment 673066

Glad there are no cable guides running on top of the top-tube. ;)
Click to expand...
You could always pop across the water for a 'SacTuc' on the good old NHS...😵‍💫 Could just be a seasonal problem as things tighten up in the winter..❄️
 
  • Haha
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