Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

8Track
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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 8Track » Tue Dec 02, 2014 8:01 am

I have corresponded with Greg and sent him scans of my original set of decals. Will be interesting to see what he comes up with.

8Track
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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 8Track » Thu Dec 11, 2014 1:35 pm

Greg has made new decals for me and they are on their way! Also received my white Selle Italia seat today along with a white Cateye wireless computer.

Man this bike is gonna look great when finished.

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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 8Track » Tue Sep 18, 2018 11:16 am

Hey all,

Reviving this thread some 4 years later! After pulling everything together and getting ready to do my restoration, life got in the way again. The bike went back in the shed and the parts on the shelf. That is until recently.

I met a guy in my bowling league who is a well experienced bike mechanic. I asked him if he would be happy to take on the rebuild of my Elan and he has agreed. Work is progressing and the job is nearly finished.

But we've run into a snag. The Suntour GPX calipers I purchased to replace the old Suntour Blaze are too short! Who would have thought the sizes would be different?

Does anyone know if there was more than one size available, and if not, is there any way to make them fit?

Thanks,

Mark

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10speedsemiracer
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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 10speedsemiracer » Tue Sep 18, 2018 2:10 pm

8Track wrote:Hey all,

Reviving this thread some 4 years later! After pulling everything together and getting ready to do my restoration, life got in the way again. The bike went back in the shed and the parts on the shelf. That is until recently.

I met a guy in my bowling league who is a well experienced bike mechanic. I asked him if he would be happy to take on the rebuild of my Elan and he has agreed. Work is progressing and the job is nearly finished.

But we've run into a snag. The Suntour GPX calipers I purchased to replace the old Suntour Blaze are too short! Who would have thought the sizes would be different?

Does anyone know if there was more than one size available, and if not, is there any way to make them fit?

Thanks,

Mark
Nice bike, my favourite era as well..
Unfortunately, I've had this problem once before as well (a while ago). The difference between what was on there (Edge ?) and the GPX was only 2-3mm. After finding that GPX calipers only came in 39-49mm reach, I got the rotary tool out and very very carefully created a 51mm reach GPX caliper. Short of finding and buying a set of long reach Superbe Pro calipers (57mm), this was the only solution I could find.

While I'm here, I'm just going to mention that AccuShift is really sensitive to the cable housing to the rear derailleur being just right, just in case you're having shifting issues.
Campagnolo for show, SunTour for go

8Track
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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 8Track » Tue Sep 18, 2018 3:43 pm

Thanks so much for the positive words about my bike. What exactly did you do to increase the GPX reach?

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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 10speedsemiracer » Tue Sep 18, 2018 4:19 pm

Elongated the caliper mounting bolt slot by 2mm using a grinding stone in a Dremel. Luckily the attachment I had was almost exactly the same inside diameter as the slot. Was a bit nerve-wracking actually...took about 4 times longer than I imagined. Yours will depend on how much more reach you need for your frame-rim. I have since done this surgery on other, lesser calipers.
Campagnolo for show, SunTour for go

8Track
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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 8Track » Tue Sep 18, 2018 4:43 pm

Awesome! Thanks fro the tip. No problems in use after the modification?

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singlespeedscott
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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby singlespeedscott » Tue Sep 18, 2018 4:53 pm

These are not the NOS calipers I sold a few years ago? Personally I would sell them on before butchering them and source the proper calipers with the correct reach.
Image

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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 10speedsemiracer » Tue Sep 18, 2018 5:05 pm

8Track wrote:Awesome! Thanks fro the tip. No problems in use after the modification?
No problems at all, but do a whole heap of measuring first and minimize how much material gets taken out of the caliper arm. Is it only a matter of 2-3mm in your case ?

Anything more than that and I'd suggest different calipers..
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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 8Track » Tue Sep 18, 2018 5:15 pm

Hi Scott, Yes these are the ones I bought from you. As I've invested in a full GPX groupset, I don't really want to run a different set of calipers.

So I'm open to all manner of suggestions. How about if I had an adapter bracket made up? One end bolts to the bike, the other to the caliper? That might fix it.

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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 8Track » Tue Sep 18, 2018 5:37 pm


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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 8Track » Tue Sep 18, 2018 6:03 pm

Image

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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 8Track » Tue Sep 18, 2018 6:09 pm

Image

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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 8Track » Tue Sep 18, 2018 6:11 pm

Man! How do people post images here now? The Photobucket linking doesn't work anymore and neither does the [img] code.

Picture of caliper issue in the posts above!

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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 10speedsemiracer » Tue Sep 18, 2018 6:32 pm

Yeah that's a much bigger reach issue than I envisaged....way beyond moddling the calipers

Think you may need the long reach Superbe units.
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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 8Track » Tue Sep 18, 2018 6:53 pm

Thanks. So weird how the Blaze ones fit but these don't. Marketed side by side at the same time!

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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 10speedsemiracer » Tue Sep 18, 2018 7:05 pm

Could take the opportunity to fit some modern dual-pivot calipers. Dia Compe make some 57-75mm calipers (sort of appropriate, Dia Compe made lots of calipers under licence for SunTour)

Image

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/57-75mm-Dro ... 1548226375
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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby find_bruce » Tue Sep 18, 2018 7:45 pm

Give photobucket the flick.

With imugur, right click on the image & copy the image location, so that

Code: Select all

[img]https://i.imgur.com/OdLx1FS.jpg[/img]
gives you
Image

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singlespeedscott
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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby singlespeedscott » Wed Sep 19, 2018 2:52 pm

Looking at the shortfall in reach I am thinking your frame was originally intended for 27" rims, even though they fitted 700c when you picked it up.

Your frame looks about the same vintage as a couple of my own Leisure Cycles manufactured frames using the same tubing and lugs. All mine required 57mm reach calipers.

Looking at you photos I think the GPX caliper might work on the front but on the rear you may have to give the original Blaze caliper a cleanup.
Image

adsjax
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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby adsjax » Wed Sep 19, 2018 5:55 pm

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=aica ... hp8wboKY4M:

These should work but are $20 for two.
Looks like you will need cartridge brake shoes aswell though

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singlespeedscott
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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby singlespeedscott » Wed Sep 19, 2018 7:54 pm

adsjax wrote:https://www.google.com.au/search?q=aica ... hp8wboKY4M:

These should work but are $20 for two.
Looks like you will need cartridge brake shoes aswell though
Never seen those before. Looks like a great idea.
Image

8Track
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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 8Track » Wed Sep 19, 2018 10:11 pm

adsjax wrote:https://www.google.com.au/search?q=aica ... hp8wboKY4M:

These should work but are $20 for two.
Looks like you will need cartridge brake shoes aswell though
Thanks! Looks like a good idea. What are cartridge brake shoes (sorry I'm not well versed in this) ?

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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby singlespeedscott » Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:57 am

Cartridge shoes allow you to easily replace worn brake pads and I find the help to stiffen the brake pad up which improves braking performance.

The best ones are salmon coloured ones by Koolstop.
Image

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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby ironhanglider » Thu Sep 20, 2018 7:24 am

Another (slightly old fashioned) solutionis a drop-bolt.

Cheers,

Cameron

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Re: Restoration of my 1989 Pulteney St Cycles Elan

Postby 8Track » Thu Sep 20, 2018 11:14 pm

ironhanglider wrote:Another (slightly old fashioned) solutionis a drop-bolt.

Cheers,

Cameron
DING DING DING! I think we have a winner! This looks like the most elegant solution to my problem with the brakes. I'll definitely be grabbing one of these so I can fit those beautiful GPX calipers.

I'm really pleased to announce the build is finished. Pete, of Hey Bikes has completed the work and I took delivery this afternoon. I can't say how stoked I am with the finished result. The bike looks pretty much like the day I bought it, only better, and the attention to detail is superb.

Pete has done an awesome job with the wheels. They've been rebuilt with stainless spokes using the GPX hubs. They roll so wonderfully and there isn't any observable run-out at all. And the Schwalbe gumwalls look perfect for the era!

Little touches really stand out. For example the cable sheaths were originally clear, and Pete has sourced some new sheaths that are also clear. However, he's gone one step beyond and used Schwalbe inner tubes because they have clear valve caps which match the aesthetic of the cables. It might not sound like much, but little things like that really set the bike off.

Pete worked hard on my old Christophe toeclips. All the rust has been removed and they now present wonderfully. They fitted the GPX pedals perfectly and he's also fitted new white leathers.

The Selle Italia white handle bar tape matches the white Selle Italia Turbo seat perfectly with its black finishing tape and endcaps complimenting the black Turbo logo on the seat.

The GPX groupset looks wicked on this bike. The blue/grey colour really contrasts with the mint green of the frame. I can't wait to remove the Blaze calipers, grab a dropbolt and get those GPX ones on board to complete the look.

Finally the decals from Cyclemondo went on without a hitch and again look superb on the frame!

I'm so happy! I feel like I've gone back in time to 1989 when I first purchased the bike new! Its just stunning and I can't stop admiring it!

So a massive thanks to the guys on this forum who've assisted with recommendations and parts for the build, and a huge thanks to Pete at Hey Bikes for turning my dreams into reality.

Now the bike's age has been turned back 29 years, I need to do the same with my body! This bike is all the motivation I need. Hoping to turn cycling into a regular activity and lose 20kgs over the next 2 years.

Photos to come tomorrow!

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