(logo whooshing)
- Now what with it being the Giro d'italia
I was having a chat to Si in the office
about how tough the riders were back in the 1920s.
How they battled over mountains
with just two gears on their bikes.
One on either side of a flip-flop hub.
And I said to him,
how 'about I build up a bike
for you to try and do that, too?
And he obviously wasn't listening,
because he somehow agreed to this, well, weird idea of mine.
Either way, today we're going to run through the components
of what I've chosen for him to do this exact feat.
(jazz music)
Now, let's start with the frame of the build,
or the chassis, if you like.
Some of you will remember the Cheap Bike To Super Bike
upgrade and renovation series that I did.
Well, you'll be pleased to know
that for this I headed over to Ebay, too.
So here it is, the Elswick Whirlwind.
Yeah, I know what you're thinking,
it's not a 1920s original, but to be honest,
I set myself a do it as cheap as you can style budget,
so, obviously, an original bike from the 1920s
certainly wasn't going to fit within that.
But this bike, it's not an all-out race machine.
I do estimate it comes from the 1970s,
hence the interesting paint job, to say the least.
But is does have some slack angles on it,
as you can see.
So it is slightly resembling that 1920's bike
that I'm trying to go for here.
Importantly, this frame is actually built from Reynolds 531,
and from memory, more Tour de France's have been won
using the Reynolds 531 tube set than anything else.
So it's certainly reliable,
and, well, it looks the part doesn't it, too?
Why this bike then?
Well, it was fairly local,
and also it's going to be easy to work on,
because I'm going to be stripping it
of virtually all of the parts from it.
The only thing that's going to be remaining,
frame and forks, the head-set,
the bottom bracket and chain-set,
brake calipers, and brake levers.
At least, I hope!
I want it to be modern, yet old.
(jazz music)
So, first up handle bars and stem.
These had to go.
I don't really trust something quite as old as this,
and I wanted it to, well, be a bit of a showpiece, really.
So I contacted the folks at Velo Orange,
over there in the United States,
and they kindly sent me a handle bar and stem.
So these Grand Cru Randonneur style handle bars,
first of all, just look at them.
There's that little rise up there,
either side of the actual central part of the handle bar.
And then we've got 30 millimeters of flare on the drops.
So, all those people out there who believe
that, well, Gravel handlebars are a new innovation,
and all that, they're not.
These have been around for many, many years
these are just a modern day replica of them.
And I think they look great.
We've got kind of a satin finish here
on the bits that are going to be covered up.
Then on the important bits that are going to be revealed,
nice engraving and a polished finish.
Then of course, we've got the stem
to match up perfectly, too.
I absolutely love that,
that is a really nice bit of kit.
And, safety first,
(bell rings)
got a little bell on there, too.
So Si can alert anyone who's getting in his way to, well,
just move over whilst he smashes up those climbs.
(bells rings)
And lastly, well we need to wrap up those bars, don't we?
And, well, there's nothing better than
period-correct handlebar tape.
So I'm not going to give Si the pleasure
of cork handle bar tape, or anything like that.
Instead, I'm going to give him, well,
something quite as nasty and horrible as this.
And it's the cotton handlebar tape.
Essentially, it looks like rim tape,
but you wrap it on your handlebars.
This was used up until, I believe, the early '80s
when the Benotto shiny ribbon took over.
That was just as bad, if not worse,
because when it got wet your hands slipped,
and you would let go of the handlebars.
With this though, its going to offer him
a little bit of grip, I imagine.
(jazz music)
Sticking with the cockpit, then
well, I've decided to upgrade this
quite tired looking seat post with this one.
So a much more classic and classy looking affair.
Well, kind of the same, really,
but just not quite as rusty.
So this one, as you can see, is pretty short
and probably not long enough for Si's legs
or, well, any of the GCN presenters,
to be perfectly honest.
So this clamp here,
that'll easily go on to this one,
and then we're not going to use
this nasty old vinyl saddle,
oh no, no, no.
I want Si to have a little bit of comfort,
so I've treated him, here, to a Brooks saddle.
Check that out, the B17.
An absolute beauty.
They say that these never wear out, they just wear in.
I think really though,
that your bum just gets used to it.
Right, let's talk wheels, then,
because I wanted 700C wheels for this bike,
but it came with 27 inch.
So there's about eight millimeters difference
in the actual total diameter between the two.
Not the end of the world,
but I could run into a few problems
when it comes to building it up,
but we'll tackle that bridge when we come to it.
But still, why did I want 700C wheels?
Well the reason being tire choice.
Tire choice.
Well, you've got way more options with the 700C wheel,
and ultimately, tires can really
transform the feel of a bike.
So, that's why I went for it.
So, alloy wheels, 700C, with a flip-flop dual sided hub
meaning that, well,
you've actually got two different gear choices,
just like riders had back 100 years ago.
In fact, some riders, even back then,
had a very simple derailleur at the back of the bike
and had a free-wheel mechanism
with two sprockets built onto it.
Sadly, I couldn't find one of those,
and I didn't really want to risk one, either,
because the chance of it still working would be quite slim.
So what's Si going to have to do?
Well, he's just going to have to unbolt the wheel
and swap it around if he wants to have an easier gear.
Probably not going to do that very often
'cause it would be quite tiresome, I would imagine.
So, the sprocket size that I'm going to be putting on
to this dual sided flip-flop hub
is going to be a 16 tooth on one side
and an 18 tooth on the other.
And then it's going to be paired up
with this 48 tooth chain ring.
Now, apparently Maurice Garin,
the first winner of the Tour De France back, what, in 1903,
he used a gear that was just two inches smaller than 48/18,
so I reckon that this bike,
when it's had its modern day upgrades,
if you like, is going to be a little bit lighter,
so it shouldn't be a problem for someone like Si
to be able to ride along.
And besides, if he wants to just push on a little bit,
if he's feeling nice and fresh,
he can just take out the wheel, flip it around,
put it in the 16 tooth sprocket,
and have an even bigger gear to be able to play with.
(jazz music)
Now, I gently touched on it, earlier,
and these tires,
they're not really going to be up to the job.
They look very cheap and nasty.
Instead, I've opted for some of these.
Challenge Strada Bianca gum wall tires.
How great do these look?
Now, they come in 30 mil in width,
which is just a touch narrower than
these inch and a quarter ones.
But I reckon this is really going to transform
the feel of the bike.
(sniffing)
They smell great too!
Would do you reckon?
(sniffing)
Take my word for it, they do!
(jazz music)
Like I mentioned at the start,
virtually everything's going to be going from this bike,
including this very tired, saggy old looking chain.
And it's going to be replaced with this.
The piece de la resistance, if you like,
a pink chain.
1/8th of an inch,
absolutely great.
I had to get one long enough to be able to accommodate
the 48 tooth chain ring there,
as well an an 18 tooth sprocket at the back.
But by the time that's fitted,
it's almost going to match!
I do like a pink chain.
Or a white one.
Or a gold one.
(jazz music)
Now, this crank set is one of the old cotter pin style ones.
Some of you out there will know about them.
If you don't,
essentially, the chain set attaches
onto the bottom bracket axle,
and then you use these wedge-shaped like bolts
that then have a nut on the top which you tighten,
and it kind of wedges itself into place.
Now, they wear away
and then they become dangerous,
because everything starts to become very loose on the bike,
and quite frankly,
I'm glad to see the back of cotter pin chain sets,
because they were a pain in the backside.
Another thing, though,
that was a pain in the backside
was toe-clip pedals.
Oh, I remember numb toes from using toe-clip pedals
when I did up the straps nice and tight.
But yeah, Si can live with those
memories of numb toes from now on.
But like I said, the bike has to be period-correct,
and toe clips were actually used from about
1907 up until the early '90s,
and, well, some riders still use then to this day.
And of course this then put me into another troublesome area
trying to find some toe clip cleats
to fit on the bottom of a modern day sole,
because as much as I tried and tried
to get Si to wear some retro shoes,
he wasn't keen on the thought of it.
So I had a look on the depths of the internet,
and I managed actually to find these ones here.
A pair of DHB shoes for Si to use, instead.
A real traditional classic looking shoe.
I didn't have to actually look quite that hard for these,
but they're going to be up to the job,
and they're going to look the part, aren't they?
Let's face it.
But, those toe clip cleats, then,
to fit onto that three-hole sole,
I contacted a company a company called
Yellow Jersey Cycles, in Arlington, in the USA,
and Andrew, who works there, was really kind
and sent me over a pair of these cleats.
I tried to buy them locally,
just nobody had them whatsoever.
So, a big thanks, actually, to Andrew for those.
Just check 'em out!
So they're going to slot into the pedal body
and will give Si that power
that he's going to be craving on this beauty.
(jazz music)
And finally, we need to talk braking, don't we?
And you know what?
I'm not going to change the brake levers,
nor the calipers, unless I really have to,
because I want Si to have
that authentic feeling of, well,
truly terrible brakes.
I just hope there's not too many downhills on his ride,
because I don't want to be using them!
Only joking Si, I'm sure they'll be absolutely fine.
So I have bought some new outer cable
and inner cable.
So I've got Jagwire ones in white.
They're going to stand out beautifully.
And to match up, too, I've got some new cable clips
that I'm going to be using here on the top tubes
to replace these rusty old ones.
They're just going to look a little bit better.
(jazz music)
So there we are, the components and bike
for this kind of 1920s retro feel bike
that someone, sadly Si, has to ride over mountain or two.
Ha-ha!
Rather him than me.
Right, let me know what you think of it
down there in the comments section below,
because next week, we're going to be building this one up.
And I'm so excited about it, as you can probably tell.
Also, why not check out the GCN shop at
shop.globalcyclingnetwork.com
We've got a whole heap of limited range of goodies, too,
including this rather cool sweatshirt.
So head on over there.
And now for two more great videos
how about clicking just down here
and near this manky handlebar tape!
Ew.