Maintaining the Pace – Or Not :

Ironically, I saw this bike thrown out on the footpath – together with an old iron gate – on my way to work the other afternoon. Making a recyclist’s mental note I returned at midnight after my shift to find it was still there !

pace citation- love the chromed forks – lol

It’s called a Pace “Citation”, but try googling those key words and all sorts of irrelevance comes up. It was sold by Hadley’s Cycles, so someone at the bike shop may remember something of the brand’s history.

a mystery to me …

It’s very neglected but was probably a decent enough bike in its day ..

or magic ?

Originally a 12 speed, the front wheel has a classy Mavic “Module E” 700C alloy rim, albeit in corroded condition, but the rear has been replaced by a heavy steel 27″ Femco.

The chromed fork is heavy-ish and very rusted, and the frame is described as “Cro-moly” but is not particularly light. in weight.

can you see what i mean ? – to be continued

Partly cleaning the rusty fork has given me an idea – it was so evenly rusted that I will keep some of the rust as an alternative coating finish …

There are signs of minor frontal impact damage on the down tube. This frame is a step up from the very basic 10-speeders as it has decent rear dropouts and an independent derailleur hanger. Due to the fairly small frame size and the degree of neglect, this one might be best dismantled for parts. Rust and white paint aren’t such a good look !

after phosphoric acid rust remover and with the rusty apollo II

a couple of head tubes

I was amused by the handlebar which is a steel Hsin Lung, but with a cosmetic alloy sleeve as the visible ( non-bar taped ) section – cute but rather dodgy dressing-up ! Still, and all, alloy components can have a more limited life due to the long term stress cracking that steel doesn’t suffer from.

sadly, i can’t free the pedals

The chain set is a Sakae SX, and would be worth re-using if I could remove the pedals – and that’s not a given, due to the dissimilar metals welding together tightly …oh well – I suppose if it were too easy then people wouldn’t throw their old bikes out !

Derailleurs and downtube levers are Shimano SIS.

dia compe levers and rough vanguard q.r. callipers

Dia-Compe alloy levers usually have the date of manufacture stamped on them, which is a very useful thing. These are from 1989 and the cables exit at the bar – worth re-using also, I think, as they don’t have the typical suicide levers and feel comfortable to the hand’s grip.

The missing bidon cage bolts indicate that the owner probably bought a new bike some time back and left this one to the elements …

Back to project Sportstar :

they came up ok

as found on the sportstar

Above are the callipers from the Malvern Star Sportstar, they are Cherry brand  ( model 730 ? ) – Dia-Compe knock-offs, made in Japan. They look OK and are certainly useable, if not state-of-the-art. They were heavily oxidised with some nuts missing, so a few brake nuts were salvaged from the recyclist’s box of tricks. They should work well fitted back onto “Project Sportstar” with the above Dia-Compe levers….

a box of tricks – every recyclist needs one or more of these !

some more vintage steel bits !

Another plus for them is that they will reach 700C rims if I decide to fit them to the Sportstar frame. It now looks as though I will be replacing most parts on this bike.

A brass wire brush and steel wool on the brake arms worked pretty well to remove the oxidation without too much collateral damage. I replaced the end copper washers, rubbed “dri-lube” on all the mating faces and fitted new pads.

Another little piece in the puzzle done !

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