not resolvedI've got this old frameset sitting around in the loft...
It's been unused for 6½ years since I slid on a patch of diesel going downhill round the corner on Bank Street. Both mechs were bent out of action (though I've no idea how, as I slid out to the right), the BB and headset went all stiff and clicky and my chin needed a few stitches. Considering the amount of damaged components and that such things might be slightly less likely to happen if I didn't have to take a hand off the bars to change gear I decided not to bother trying to get it fixed and bought my current bike a few months later.
Since being retired, it's been kept out of the rain but not out of the damp or the cold (or out of reach of spiders). The BB, headset and seat pin have remained in place and I only managed to remove the (quilled) handlebars a year or two ago. When in use it was often exposed to the rain, having to be chained up to railings outside lecture theatres for a few years as well as generally pedalled-about for three or four years in Lincolnshire and eleven or twelve years up here. It had had a few dabs of brown Hammerite applied to particularly badly de-painted areas like the chainstay but is otherwise unrepaired since it left the shop sometime early in the 1990s.
Though the headset and BB now spin freely with no grinding or stiffness I'd expect them to need some attention. The BB might have been re-bearinged by the local garage at some point in the first few years after I acquired it. When I tried to replace the brakes I discovered that the rear side of the front fork wasn't wide enough for modern recessed brake bolts, requiring a set of old and waggly huge-looking single-pivot calipers from the back of a cupboard in EBC to have to do for the next few years. I forgot to take my LIDL digital caliper up to the loft so wasn't able (the ladders creak and are right outside the just-put-down-to-sleep wean's room) to measure anything but the approximate width of the BB shell:
When I've finished using it to dish and true my homebuild wheel (the rear dropouts aren't 130mm but had a 130mm hub between them for at least four years), I shall be pondering the following questions, for which any guidance or tips would be gratefully received...
- Despite being 531, is it likely to be made of rust inside?
- Am I likely to be far better off just buying a much newer frameset of similar material but to which modern components will easily fit?
- If the headset is knackered, can new headsets be put on old forks (nice and springy and which have handy lugs for proper mudguards or a front rack)? Will the likely size of the head tube mean I'll be stuck with quills?
- Is the width of the BB suitable for modern sealed-unit replacements?
- Do places which repaint/renovate old frames also do things like drill out brake bosses so that modern dual-pivots can be fitted?
- As I have no BB or headset tools, is it worth (after cleaning it up to not be frowned at too much) handing it in somewhere for these bits to be done by people who a: know what they're doing and b: have the gear to do what they know what to do with with?
Thanks in anticipation...
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