Over the last few days I’ve done a little more tinkering. The shifters and band were removed cleaned and fitted back on.
A few dirty jobs followed, the chain was cleaned, as expected it’s not the original Suntour but it cleaned up well enough. The chainset was removed, split and cleaned, one of the chainring bolts wasn’t biting enough so I swapped the lot out for some clean Sakae stamped bolts I had laying around. The bottom bracket was next, nice clean bearings and races emerged from the generous volume of gunk, the cups and locking ring came up lovely too. All back on the bike now with the correct caps fitted.
I had a nice Sugino seat binder rattling around in a glass pot so I swapped it with the one on the bike, there was nothing wrong with it but I thought why not. While I was at it the post was slid out, cleaned a little, greased and refitted.
Next up will be the pedals, brakes and wheels. The pedals and brakes don’t need much more than a clean but the wheels need a bit more love. The freewheel needs a full strip, clean and rebuild (if I’m lucky), I think it’s just gummed up but let’s wait and see. I quite enjoy working on these though, so I’m looking forward to it. The usual work on the hubs and rims is required, they spin nice, quiet and smoothly, they are just caked up with old grease. A pair of Nornandy luxe Competition hub decals have been ordered. The front is missing, I’ll try to keep the original rear in place. I guess I’ll have to rub the spokes down the best I can and live with the result.
I unearthed a clean pair of Sakae toe clips a while back in a box of spares in the garage. If the fitment is right I’ll marry these up to the SR pedals, probably with brown Christophe straps to match the Velox cloth tape that I already have.
She’s coming together!