Old carbon

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Old carbon

Postby Lots of steel bikes » Thu Jan 18, 2018 9:59 pm

Thought I’d post a few pics of my carbon fibre bikes.
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GaryF
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Re: Old carbon

Postby GaryF » Fri Jan 19, 2018 12:29 am

Wow! What an impressive collection of Carbon bikes. Didn't Giant make a big impression on the bike scene back when they first hit our shores! I think they changed the way we thought about bikes with their reasonable prices and their high technology.

I think Shimano components really suit a carbon frame and yours look to be kitted out in some very high level Shimano. Beautiful bikes.

I have always admired Look bikes and always wanted one but never had one. Your yellow framed Look must be a highly desired bike now. Pretty iconic.

My favourite is your Kestrel though. I remember seeing them in magazined and could never get over their flowing lines and style. I can't remember ever seeing a Kestrel 'in the flesh' though.

Confession time: I have never ridden a carbon framed bike. Not because I have anything against them - the opportunity has never presented itself.

Do you have a favourite?

zedries
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Re: Old carbon

Postby zedries » Fri Jan 19, 2018 12:34 am

Oh that Kestrel.. yummy.

Almost bought an older kestrel TT bike for races just recently but I didn't love the colouring... Yours is the business.

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10speedsemiracer
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Re: Old carbon

Postby 10speedsemiracer » Fri Jan 19, 2018 1:18 am

I do love a Cadex...nice bikes
Campagnolo for show, SunTour for go

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uart
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Re: Old carbon

Postby uart » Fri Jan 19, 2018 7:26 am

All very nice lots_of, but something about that purple Giant really catches my eye. Really classic lines. :)

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find_bruce
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Re: Old carbon

Postby find_bruce » Fri Jan 19, 2018 7:28 am

For someone who has lots of steel bikes, you have a nice collection of carbon

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baabaa
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Re: Old carbon

Postby baabaa » Fri Jan 19, 2018 1:34 pm

Nice, so all the seatposts and the stems are alloy? Guess the bars are the same. Any chance you could note out the forks breed, type and rack then how each bike "feels" when out for a ride.

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Re: Old carbon

Postby Lots of steel bikes » Fri Jan 19, 2018 9:05 pm

baabaa wrote:Nice, so all the seatposts and the stems are alloy? Guess the bars are the same. Any chance you could note out the forks breed, type and rack then how each bike "feels" when out for a ride.
Yes, seatposts, stems and bars are all aluminium.
As for describing ‘feel’ I’m inadequate in that area. I came into cycling pretty late in life, have never raced, don’t have the power output to talk about flex and am a terrible descender so difficult to talk about handling. Very few of my bikes are a perfect fit. I usually have a long seatpost with a short stem (long legs short torso). So I feel that the bikes handling will be well off what the designer anticipated with the geometry of the bike. My observation is that the characteristics of a bike changes greatly depending upon the wheels, the tyres and tyre pressure. I enjoy riding all of my bikes but obviously the most enjoyable are the ones that fit me the best.
GaryF - from a looks point of view my favourite of the carbons is the Kestrel teamed with the Dura Ace 7400 group. The Look is the closest to best fit so is my favourite to ride.

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P!N20
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Re: Old carbon

Postby P!N20 » Fri Jan 19, 2018 10:08 pm

I've been dreading the day carbon fibre made it into the retro section (hi Quang) :D

That Look though...

Uncle Just
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Re: Old carbon

Postby Uncle Just » Sat Jan 20, 2018 9:05 am

^ +1

I agree on the Look. Despite the "squared off" lugged construction it's the pick of the lot. I remember something about the Kestrel in Bicycle Guide many years back and iirc it was the must have bike for triathletes apparently.

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baabaa
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Re: Old carbon

Postby baabaa » Sat Jan 20, 2018 9:52 am

Thanks Losb, yes I agree the wheel-set makes a huge difference with these types of bike. I was just trying to recall the specs on that lot as would see them out and about with the local lot that would ride this type of frame for tri. The one bike did it all, training work during the week and then swap out the wheels to singles and race on the weekends. Being tall (need 60cm and plus frame-sets) I never found a carbon bike in that size I could test ride and feel comfortable on, guess as they were such big$$ then they imported only what would sell quickly and any thing my size was a special order. (During the most of the 90s my office in the Sydney cbd was opposite Clarence Street Cycles so I was a seen as a Type A tyre-kicker.)

lunar_c
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Re: Old carbon

Postby lunar_c » Fri Feb 02, 2018 11:36 am

There’s my old Kestrel!

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GaryF
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Re: Old carbon

Postby GaryF » Fri Feb 02, 2018 1:35 pm

I just had to re-open your thread to have another sneaky look at your LOOK.
Last edited by GaryF on Fri Feb 02, 2018 6:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Lots of steel bikes
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Re: Old carbon

Postby Lots of steel bikes » Fri Feb 02, 2018 2:53 pm

lunar_c wrote:There’s my old Kestrel!
... and I still haven’t put on a shorter stem or replaced the bar tape.

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Re: Old carbon

Postby lunar_c » Sat Feb 03, 2018 12:56 pm

All in good time!

It’d look the business with a cinelli 1A on it.

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Re: Old carbon

Postby Lots of steel bikes » Sun May 20, 2018 11:26 am

Added another to the collection.
Merida Extreme 907 from 1997.
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10speedsemiracer
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Re: Old carbon

Postby 10speedsemiracer » Sun May 20, 2018 4:03 pm

Lots of steel bikes wrote:Added another to the collection.
Merida Extreme 907 from 1997.
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Very tasty.
Campagnolo for show, SunTour for go

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Re: Old carbon

Postby Lots of steel bikes » Mon May 21, 2018 10:11 am

Found this great video.


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WyvernRH
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Re: Old carbon

Postby WyvernRH » Sat May 26, 2018 12:09 pm

In contrast to all these shiny retro carbon bicycles here is a picture of my recently acquired, somewhat sad looking TREK 2300 Composite (1992 I think?). Had a hard life recently IMHO.
I rescued it from the Uni bike co-op for a small sum. No front derailleur, lots of minor scratches on the paint and it has been by the seaside I would say, the aluminium lugs have some furry surface corrosion at the edges and have lost paint. Furry corrosion on the somewhat battered brifters as well - no idea if they work or not! However it all seems solid and the glue seems to be holding and most of the rest of the parts except the the rear wheel seem original. It must have been someone's pride and joy once.
I am looking forward to getting it back to a rideable state tho I don't think it will ever look pretty as the decorative lacquer coat is lifting off the carbon in places making it patchy and I have no idea how to repair that.

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Richard

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Re: Old carbon

Postby Lots of steel bikes » Sat May 26, 2018 12:13 pm

WyvernRH wrote:In contrast to all these shiny retro carbon bicycles here is a picture of my recently acquired, somewhat sad looking TREK 2300 Composite (1992 I think?). Had a hard life recently IMHO.
I rescued it from the Uni bike co-op for a small sum. No front derailleur, lots of minor scratches on the paint and it has been by the seaside I would say, the aluminium lugs have some furry surface corrosion at the edges and have lost paint. Furry corrosion on the somewhat battered brifters as well - no idea if they work or not! However it all seems solid and the glue seems to be holding and most of the rest of the parts except the the rear wheel seem original. It must have been someone's pride and joy once.
I am looking forward to getting it back to a rideable state tho I don't think it will ever look pretty as the decorative lacquer coat is lifting off the carbon in places making it patchy and I have no idea how to repair that.

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Richard
Nice! I’ve been looking for one of those.

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uart
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Re: Old carbon

Postby uart » Sat May 26, 2018 2:04 pm

WyvernRH wrote:No front derailleur, lots of minor scratches on the paint and it has been by the seaside I would say, the aluminium lugs have some furry surface corrosion at the edges and have lost paint.
Hi Richard. Just a few weeks ago I was over at the bike hub talking with Daniel, and I noticed that bike there. It definitely stood out alongside all the old beaters he has there.

But yeah, those aluminium lugs definitely looked a bit crusty. Sorry, but the big bit of missing paint on the seat tube lug was where I rubbed it with my fingernail, just to see how crusty that it really was. And hmm yes, it was crusty. :)

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WyvernRH
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Re: Old carbon

Postby WyvernRH » Sat May 26, 2018 4:53 pm

uart wrote:
WyvernRH wrote:No front derailleur, lots of minor scratches on the paint and it has been by the seaside I would say, the aluminium lugs have some furry surface corrosion at the edges and have lost paint.
Hi Richard. Just a few weeks ago I was over at the bike hub talking with Daniel, and I noticed that bike there. It definitely stood out alongside all the old beaters he has there.

But yeah, those aluminium lugs definitely looked a bit crusty. Sorry, but the big bit of missing paint on the seat tube lug was where I rubbed it with my fingernail, just to see how crusty that it really was. And hmm yes, it was crusty. :)
That's OK :) the lugs are going to have to be stripped of paint and re-done anyway I reckon. The anodisation on the aluminium seems drastic but it looks worse than it is and those are big solid bits of aluminium not thinwall tubing. I'm a little worried about the large chunk of paint missing from one blade of the front of the fork, possibly an impact mark which will bear watching. I have never been too keen on aluminium forks at the best of times so they might get swapped out for something else when I get around to this one.

Richard

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Re: Old carbon

Postby Lots of steel bikes » Mon Nov 05, 2018 3:06 pm

Found another lugged carbon. Merida Extreme 990. The carbon weave looks great in the sunlight.
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uart
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Re: Old carbon

Postby uart » Tue Nov 06, 2018 1:18 pm

Lots of steel bikes wrote:Found another lugged carbon. Merida Extreme 990. The carbon weave looks great in the sunlight.
What's going on with the seemingly gradual transition from carbon to ??? there LOSBs? Is that just some kind of paint job to hide the abrupt transition or something else. Another member posted a similar looking bike here a while ago and no one could work out (from the pictures) what was going on with the "tube fade". A lot of people thought that the carbon look was just painted on.

http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewt ... n#p1462775

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Re: Old carbon

Postby Lots of steel bikes » Tue Nov 06, 2018 2:43 pm

uart wrote:
Lots of steel bikes wrote:Found another lugged carbon. Merida Extreme 990. The carbon weave looks great in the sunlight.
What's going on with the seemingly gradual transition from carbon to ??? there LOSBs? Is that just some kind of paint job to hide the abrupt transition or something else. Another member posted a similar looking bike here a while ago and no one could work out (from the pictures) what was going on with the "tube fade". A lot of people thought that the carbon look was just painted on.

http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewt ... n#p1462775
These carbon tubed Meridas are very similar to the Giant Cadex. The transition from tube to aluminium lug on the Meridas is more subtle than that of the Cadex models. I assume the Merida lug is chamfered or filled for a smoother transition. The paint fade will be purely for aesthetics in the eye of the paint scheme designer. Early Cadex like the 980 were mainly naked carbon weave.
The Z-plus is an interesting discussion. I’ve never seen a carbon tubed bike with welded joints but the bike owner has to be the best judge as he’s seeing it in the flesh.

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