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

Spent obscene time today looking for a vintage ferrule. Sometimes, just any old ferrule won't do. I really need to organise my ferrules better.

At least I'm progressing with organising loose ball bearings which seem to be all over the place. I'm thinking a Cherry jam jar for the left pedal and a Peach jam jar for the right pedal when I finally get round to sorting them out.

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🛠️ Oh Bugger. 😠

Note to self #1: leave dirt on vintage things and pretend everything is just fine underneath it.
Note to self #2: when you see an hair-line crack don't investigate further. Quickly move on to something else.
Note to self #3: don't dissemble parts where there is no replacement available. Check Ebay first before wrenching.

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The Huret TdF 50T steel outer has cleaned up really well, but absolutely nothing seems compatible with it. The broken 47T aluminium inner has strange threaded bosses that also act like spacers. Not sure I could and really want to bodge it all back into position - it all sprung out like in the picture.

Time for some wine I think.
 
🛠️ Experiments into 116 BCD 🤓

Nurse Ratched is on the verge of a nervous breakdown and close to confiscating the bike. She says it's taking forever and is still an un-rideable load of old junk. With a broken original chain ring, impossible to find a replacement and utterly depressed about the Simplex offerings, I'm running with a modified old plan to get going with what I have.

St Sheldon doesn't delve too much into the old 3 arm 116mm BCD (or more commonly known here as 100mm center-to-center). The 116mm BCD seems like it was a good standard for several decades. Sensible 36T smallest chain ring too 👍 . The nightmare though is the chainring bolt diameters and fixings are not totally the same across brands, material and time. Sometimes it's the crank arm threaded, sometimes it's the chainring threaded, sometime neither threaded 😕

One old plan was to use a Stronglight Touring Sport crankset in the long-term. I've got a couple of rings to try but no crankarms :rolleyes: I've also tried an old Solida crankset but it's a pretty low grade wide ratio set-up and didn't tickle my inner bike snob.

Today's asylum adventure: modifying what I think is a 60s / 70s Stronglight 42T chainring (pre drillium fashion) and putting it on the steel Stronglight Competition cranks; worked slow with hand tools to just make a sufficient 9mm recess in the chainring.

Et voila! Hoping it will run straight / true enough and allow me to test out some gearing ratios.

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🛠️ Simplex Shifter

Just a little session cleaning up the only Bowden cable shifter on the bike. The Simplex is for once a simple a thing, the cable needed to be punched out though. The nipple is the old French standard like Huret - replacements are still available or new cables can be fitted with a bit of filing. This one doesn't have the wing nut option, nor the indexing option when I think of it. 😜

1683646397586.png


@WhtANightmare - your Huret will be rather similar on the inside once you take off the smaller outer front derailleur lever.
 
Woz said:
🛠️ Oh Bugger. 😠

Note to self #1: leave dirt on vintage things and pretend everything is just fine underneath it.
Note to self #2: when you see an hair-line crack don't investigate further. Quickly move on to something else.
Note to self #3: don't dissemble parts where there is no replacement available. Check Ebay first before wrenching.

View attachment 736913

The Huret TdF 50T steel outer has cleaned up really well, but absolutely nothing seems compatible with it. The broken 47T aluminium inner has strange threaded bosses that also act like spacers. Not sure I could and really want to bodge it all back into position - it all sprung out like in the picture.

Time for some wine I think.
Click to expand...
Could always v both sides and have it welded, filed and polished flush if you want to use it 👍
 
Woz said:
🛠️ Simplex Shifter

Just a little session cleaning up the only Bowden cable shifter on the bike. The Simplex is for once a simple a thing, the cable needed to be punched out though. The nipple is the old French standard like Huret - replacements are still available or new cables can be fitted with a bit of filing. This one doesn't have the wing nut option, nor the indexing option when I think of it. 😜

View attachment 738451


@WhtANightmare - your Huret will be rather similar on the inside once you take off the smaller outer front derailleur lever.
Click to expand...
Cheers @Woz super useful 😊
 
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