Save or save
I am faced with a decision - should I restore my current Europa road bike to its former glory, or save up and buy a new full-carbon bike?
I really like the old bikes over the new ones, but the drive train of the Europa is so clunky and crunchy. Thing is, I already have a pair of new deep-vs and a suntour superbe pro hub to put on the front.
All I would really need is to clean and repack the bottom bracket, buy a new rear gear cluster, new spokes for the rear wheel (to put the deep-v onto the existing hub), new chain, new crankset and possibly some new brake levers, headset (?) and paintwork. All up it would probably cost about $1000.
Decisions, decisions…
February 6th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Mmmmm….carbon. Mmmm….. so hot right now
February 6th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Of course, I can help here…
There is never an excuse why you shouldn’t tinker with whatever bike you’ve got to make it go as fast as it possibly can. That said, the Europa, while a nice bit of kit, is no limited edition 1960’s Colnago, it’s a Europa, welded up in Kensington, opposite the Doncaster Hotel on Anzac Parade. As a result, it probably doesn’t warrant having $1000 hung off it. For under that amount you might be lucky enough to pick up something like mine second hand which is certainly no artful piece of bike sculpture but is dripping with professional gear and with the right engine, goes like a bat out of hell. (Ahem, come on small men)
Seeing as your commute, routes and other riding habits will soon change, maybe you should re-assess when we have a chance to schedule a critical ‘board meeting’ to talk through all the options.
February 6th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Lock, Dunc, those are both valid options. I’m definitely leaning towards the restore option - plenty of world records were set (and later smashed) using the ‘out-dated’ technology of days gone by.
For example, in the Spring 2006 edition of ride magazine there is a peice on Ron Taylor and Russell Mockridge riding the 1957 Melbourne to Warrnambool scratch race. It’s a 256km mission and they started at a handicap of 66 minutes. While they didn’t manage to catch the leaders before the finish line, they did pass the second scratch group that had started 32 minutes ahead of them (apparently when they passed the group couldn’t stay with them and got dropped). Their time was 6 hours and 6 minutes - 43km/hr for what was essentially a two-man 256km time trial!
Their bikes were 27 inch beasts with Campy Gran Sport. Like you say lock it comes down to the engine…
February 6th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
I say tweak what you have with as little cash as you can and then get yourself a beautiful steel raodie from the monkey, they would be able to custom out a sweet ride exactly the way you want it for not huge dollars. Don’t go carbon, everyone has that shite you are far above that in the class stakes Tom, don’t be a small man
February 6th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Hmmmm, I was just faced with the same decision restore my late 80’s Steel frame italian jobbie or purchase a new steed, in the end the ’shiny thing’ factor won out and I ended up going for a new bike (not a full carbon whatsamajigger but it’s sub 9KG which is good I think?) of course my old bike was wayyyy too big for me resulting in my mileage being limited mostly by my neck pain.
Plus, my knowledge of restoration is small, and I’m lazy when it comes to stuff like that.
FMPOV If you have the motivation and ability to restore your Europa and restored if it would be near as dammit performance, comfort and safety wise to a new bike then yeah, restoration is the way to go (NB I have a secondary motive of wanting to see you blog about it for my own entertainment of course)
Good luck mate (PS, I’m Andys mate, Ben, Hello again)
February 6th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
*cough* (more. important. investments.) *cough*
February 7th, 2007 at 6:43 am
This from Mark E. at JCU, who recently restored a Concorde to near mint condition.
February 7th, 2007 at 7:01 am
Is he sure that’s not just because the stop screws have not been adjusted properly? The chain doesn’t just fal off, it generally needs to be pushed
February 7th, 2007 at 10:31 am
That’s what I was thinking… Unless it falls between the rings??
February 7th, 2007 at 11:32 am
hey Dr.tom congrats on the degree,
$1000 to rebuild the europa! sounds like you want 2/3 a new dura ace groupie! for cheap parts check out http://www.probikekit.com/display.php?cat=Groupsets
As a mech engineering student i would advise you to stick with steel. The advances in non-metalic materials in the last few decades are amazing but are still unpredictable in the real world. Ounce you’ve snaped a carbon frame theres nothing you can do but chuck it in landfill (non-recyclable and non-repairable).
If you snap a steel frame you can just replace the tube (i’m assuming you have a lugged frame) and if you can’t be bothered repairing it at least it’s recyclable. Also, old parts will work perfectly well if a) they arent broken, bent, etc and b) you take the time to adjust the brakes and derailleurs properly. (just because they don’t have ramps on the chain wheels doen’t mean they will slip - I might suggest that the range of motion on the derailleur may be too far or the bb axle is slightly bent)
If you decide on new gear then you might want to keep your old brakes. 700c wheels are slightly smaller than older 27″ wheels and as a result on your older frame with new wheels the new brakes MAY not reach the rim. Older brakes tend to have fairly long arms so can reach with new wheels.
The new campy ultra torque cranks look like a really good design that shouldn’t wear out or break in a very long time. Final point, don’t buy the top of the range parts becuase they’re pretty/the pros use them/they weigh less than air. To get the light weight there are sacrifices the engineers have made that may lead to premature breaking.
Well you probably knew all that already so I’ve just wasted my time,
Tim
February 7th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
No, it’s all good. I have Campy Mirage brakes on the Europa, which features 700c wheels… The bike is great - the only problem being a slightly long head tube.
http://tomandzoe.com/photos/cache/400/general/2006/12/bike.jpg
February 7th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Well from the looks of it all you need to do is get the spokes to lace to the v’s and some new chainrings and cassette/freewheel. Is the rear hub casette or freewheel? I think it might be a bit hard getting a freewheel these days. Unless you don’t like the length of the cranks I wouldn’t get new ones unless you see yourself upgrading your full groupo to 10 speed. Much cheaper to buy all the parts as a group than individually. If all you need is the spokes/chainrings/cassette then it should cost you less than $400, nowhere near $1000. If you haven’t come across this site:http://www.moruyabicycles.com.au/, then have a look for the parts here as they have good prices and free postage (australian too). And if you change your chainrings/cassette/freewheel you MUST get a new chain unless you want parts that wear out in an instant.
February 7th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
cars rule…