Friday, April 1, 2016

Flying Dutch - Batavus Champion late 80s



This is a story about famous Dutch race bicycle from the end of 80s. Holland is also known as the Land of Bicycles.



there are three pictures where you can see how it looked when we bought it. Badly damaged paintwork, lot of surface rust, wheels in a bad shape, rusty brakes, broken saddle - complete mess :-)


But we were ready to move up to a higher level of creativity and our one month trip was started...
 Brake calipers before and after polishing
a paint job was finished and it started to be shiny again
Missing "Exage" hand livers joined to the groupset
covering a saddle with dark red leather
leather handwork on the brake levers
 



and finally!!! Our new Champ!













Saturday, December 12, 2015

The forgotten ace - Raleigh "Record Ace Moderne"


Back in 1989, in one of the first bicycle factories in the world, Nottingham, England. Skilled craftsmen, inspired by the idea to attract customers by offering them a high quality product, they made this road runner - Raleigh "Record Ace Moderne".

At a time when this factory was producing the bikes specially for Tour de France and Giro di Italia races, this "flag ship" model appeared. It had Reynolds 653 tubing and elliptical "Biopace" chainweel.

...

A quarter of a century later, we accidentally ran into it. It was almost ruined. Many hours have passed from the moment when all seemed hopeless till the elation that I have felt on the first test ride - it was worth it, this bike has pushed the limits!


- I feel bad when I remember the yellow-blue, hand painted frame :-(
- who else has ever seen a bicycle with the seat :-)
- in order to see what the original color was and how seriously it was damaged by corrosion, we had to peel off most of its paint
- this is what left from the original sticker - it shows this is the Reynolds 653 tubing
- the front sprocket and pedals after two days of sanding polishing
- the frame after sandblasting
- the frame after painting and lacquering :-)


...

- in the meantime, we purchased the following parts: racing white SMANIA seat, new cables, new chain, white Fizik Performance handlebar tape and Continental Ultra Race tires

...

- and here's how it all turns out :-)








- and in some different ambience...