| Re: New (Old) Follis!! (warning: long rambling with rebuilding questionsmixed in)
Luigi de Guzman wrote:
> ...
> It's a Follis. Made in France. Lugged steel, pretty lugs, blue
> paint. A real headbadge. Simplex derailleurs. Stem-shifters.
> Randonneur handlebars (still with the original white plastic bar
> wrap). Mafac Racer centerpull brakes. 700C Mavic clincher rims,
> drilled for Schraeder tubes. And, most importantly for our purposes,
> it's 53 cm center-to-center, with 175mm (cottered) cranks. It's a
> great fit for my younger brother.
This is really cool!
> ...
> It is of course a fixer-upper...
Even better. He gets to "help" you work on it, he learns a bit about
practical work and its benefits, and he takes more responsibility for
the bike.
Suggestion: If you don't already have one, get a good book on bike
repair. (If you get it at the library, he learns yet another valuable
lesson!)
> The front derailleur has somehow snapped off at the clamp, so that
> will have to go. I can't simply swap over the derailleur from my old
> Raleigh, since this is a clamp-on jobbie, and the Raleigh used a
> braze-on front derailleur. Would it be all right if I just removed
> the front derailleur and thus made it, temporarily at least, a
> five-speed bicycle?
Should work, although used front derailleurs should be easy to find.
You could ask at your LBS. Or maybe even visit a local thrift store,
where you can sometimes get an entire bike's supply of "spare parts,"
fully assembled, for about $10.
> I understand the chain line will be rather less
> than ideal, but I want to make this rideable for my brother as soon as
> possible. Should I shorten the chain when I do this?
I doubt it. The rear derailleur will probably handle things fine.
> The chain is
> extremely grotty-looking: should I buy a new one, or attempt to clean
> the present one?
Chains are cheap, but cleaning it is cheaper. As you describe the
mileage, I'd doubt it's worn. I'd probably re-use it unless it gives
problems. (You could measure its wear. See Sheldon Brown's site.)
>
> And the pedals. They're simple rat-trap jobs, with reflectors on both
> sides. I want to fit him with toeclips as soon as he's confident
> enough to wear them. Do I just pry off the reflector on one side of
> the pedal and screw on the toeclips?
Yep. But I'd wait until he's _really_ confident. You can make toe
clips a badge of honor to work towards.
> Since this is a French bike with cottered cranks,
> I'm assuming the pedal threads to be 14mm, and so getting new pedals
> isn't an option (yes, I know Sheldon Brown has Lyotard pedals in that
> threading in stock, but I'm doing this on the super-super cheap, and
> can't afford to buy new pedals!)
Yes, French threading is a limitation. But if the bearings are
accessible, (i.e. anything above galvanized stamped steel pedals)
overhauling pedals is easy, and yet another learning experience. You
probably won't have to do anything but clean and re-lube the bearing
balls and races, and no special tools are needed. You can even do it
with pedals on the bike.
>
> The rear derailleur looks serviceable. It could do with some cleaning
> and lubrication. It seems to be bolted on via an adaptor claw of some
> sort; too soon to tell whether or not this could be replaced with the
> (presumably better, 1985 vintage) Shimano 105 unit from the Raleigh.
If the Simplex rear derailleur isn't a slant-pantograph design (like all
modern derailleurs, copies of SunTour's patent) the Shimano will shift
much better. It's worth the trouble to replace it, IMO. I'm not sure
if a Simplex "adaptor claw" will work with Shimano, but it shouldn't be
hard to find out.
Hmmm. If you've got an ancient bike shop nearby with a packrat owner,
you're going to come to love him!
>
> Short term: New tires, tubes (presta tubes in schraeder drillings
> work, sizewise: do I risk flats from grit getting in though?)
I'm not sure, but I'd ask about those Schrader-to-Presta rubber
bushings. Maybe ten cents each.
> new chain(?),
Maybe not.
> remove broken front derailleur & cable & shifter.
Oh, heck, give him a used front derailleur.
> Clean frame & freewheel.
Yep.
> Fit toeclips.
I'd wait.
>
> Longer term: Replace derailleurs with more useful units, preferrably
> serviceable partsbin stuff. Replace shifters with bar-end shifters
> (frame has no downtube shifter bosses, but has cable guides. With the
> randonneur bars, I assume this was intended for use with barcons).
Barcons are nicer, but stem shifters are quite serviceable. Barcons
could be a birthday present some day.
>
> I'll get photos of the project up in its several stages on the
> Livejournal soon. In the meantime, any help that you all might be
> able to offer is as ever appreciated. Once this is all over, I'll be
> able to take him with me for rides in the country. That would be
> cool.
Congratulations. Excellent project! I think it's really cool that
you're doing this with him.
--
--------------------+
Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
replace with cc.ysu dot edu]
|