Rescue Roadie... Worth a bit of love?

cameron_15

Eats Squid
Whilst walking home from placement last week I noticed a tired looking bike surrounded by garbage dumped in a car parking lot. On quick glance I noticed some mavic rims and shimano bits and pieces but decided to keep walking. After pondering what might happen to the bike I decided to give it another look and noticed splashing's of Shimano 600 gear, which I vaguley remembered as being somewhat valuable in the vintage bike world.

Some quick googling reveals the bike is a 1998 or so model Wheeler 7100T with Shimano Ultegra 6500 and Shimano 600 running gear. For a 20 year old bike it doesn't appear to have seen much use, although it has certainly succumbed to some damage from the coastal air. Anything steel has rusted, the tyres, whilst modern Conti's that are barely worn, are cracked and the cables have perished. Aside from that, the rim braking surfaces are good and all bearings are smooth with no play.

My original plan was to just get it ride-able and use it as my beach/pub bike, however I'm beginning to wonder if it's a little too nice for that and whether it warrants some more love. Does this thing have any value? Will anyone be offended if I throw out some of the parts, like the old Profile Tri Bars?

I'll fix it up over the coming weeks/months and if nothing, it'll be fun to work on a bike again :)

 

Attachments

Slowman

Likes Dirt
Nothing remarkable about that old heavy Wheeler frame. I'd say it's perfect pub bike material.
 

Mr Crudley

Glock in your sock
Agreed, remove the tri-geek bars to save yourself from ridicule from the rest of the world.

Go and ride it like you stole it.
 

safreek

*******
Keep the tri bars, you will look super cool, I thought I was back in the day.
Probs more cars on the road now though, so you will be trading manoeuvering ability for speed.
Just the way it should look
 

cameron_15

Eats Squid
Haha Tri Bars are getting removed for sure! Just wanted to make sure I wasn't disposing of some Iconic piece of Tri history. They're Hideous!

I'll bring it back to life with the finest components from China.
 

cameron_15

Eats Squid
I've taken all the junk off of it now and am just waiting for the new bits to show up.

For now I'm just going to change the cables, chain, grip tape, saddle and tubes. If I decide I like the bike I may continue and replace some of the rusty bits like the skewers and make it a touch nicer.

Tracking down replacement hoods for the 6500 series shifters is looking impossible or prohibitively expensive. The only option I can see is to buy a set of shifter and poach them, which is ridiculous as the shifters are worth quite a bit due to their vintage.
 

mtb101

Likes Bikes and Dirt
keep it as it is and go out hunting down roadie mamils on pinarellos, colnagos, anything carbon will do for the shock value as you go past them.
 

cameron_15

Eats Squid
Finished up another round of exams so had a bit of time to take it apart today. The paint is very brittle and a good scrubbing flaked quite a bit off. While it's all apart I'm tempted to strip the rest of the paint and leave it raw or repaint it. I'm not concerned with how it turns out and it'll be fun to have a crack as a learning experience.

20180908_143608.jpg
20180908_143640.jpg
 

Mr Crudley

Glock in your sock
Have a crack at restoring it. You sure will learn a lot and it is the only way.

Going naked alloy would be nice buffed and polished up.

Sent from my F5121 using Tapatalk
 
Top