Bella begets Blue Bella - a tale of two mixtes (Franken content)

[Fredo76]

Last winter, when I wanted a drop-bar, step-through road bike with 'brifters' and clipless pedals, on a budget, I built up a '82 Raleigh Super Record 54 cm mixte frame. I named her Bella, just as my wife named our snaggle-toothed one-eared hound 'Sweetie', to counter his fearsome appearance. Bella won the Frankenbike category in a contest on another forum, and I loved riding her all this year.

Bella is a funky gal, and fit for a Fred, if I do say so myself:

When I found a larger, lighter mixte frame on ebay (searching for '531 mixte' yielded very succinct results), I told my wife I wanted this 60 cm Libertas frame to replace Bella's, for Christmas, and bought it. When it came, I put wheels on it right way for a comparison:

After awhile, I decided not to simply swap frames, but to build up a new, lighter bike, and settled on a name, Blue Bella.

Pretty sly N + 1, huh?

 

[AndyRM]

Lovely pair of bicycles!

 

[Fredo76]

I had experienced a mild speed wobble on Bella, braking on a hill, and felt lucky that it hadn't developed when I was going faster. New, Blue Bella would have a roller-bearing headset to replace the old ball-bearing Stronglight. I ordered a Tange/IRD one, hoping it would fit.

First I had to file down the crown race seat from 26.7 mm to 26.4 mm. No problemo.



Pressing the lower cup in:



The bottom race holds the needle bearings:



Steerer tube goes in here:



Fits perfectly, whaddya know?

 

[All uphill]

Beautiful bikes!

You've done a great job on them.

 

[Fredo76]

Trying to fit a bottom bracket, I ran into some resistance putting in the fixed cup side, so I ordered some chaser taps from Japan, and managed to get the fixed cup side cleaned up. I don't believe this frame was ever built up before, as that revealed the BB needed facing, too.



So, I took it to Beanie's Bike Shop in Los Alamos for more chasing and facing. Ready to go:

 

[Fredo76]

I had already a wider bar and Technomic stem to use, and I also ordered a lighter (295g vs. 485g) SMP Well saddle and a Thompson Elite seatpost. I decided that a Campagnolo Racing triple crank would be a classy-looking way to go, so bought a used one in decent shape:

So, progress!

Now I'm waiting on brifters and derailleurs from MicroNew, and calipers from Tektro, both on the SpeedPak/SlowBoat from China. Kinda wish I could go with matching Campy, but these are 7-speed, 126 mm dropout frames, and I'm also still on a budget.

More to come, hopefully soon enough.

 

[AndyRM]

Out of curiosity, how does it feel to use the drops on a mixed frame?

 

[Fredo76]

Out of curiosity, how does it feel to use the drops on a mixed frame?

No different, to me, than on a regular diamond frame. The 38 cm ones on (red) Bella are a little narrow for my geezer preferences, and the 42 cm Giro D' Italia has a lesser drop than the 38 cm Campion Del Mundo, so better for me with my reduced flexibility. That seat-to-bar drop will still be a challenge for me, for awhile, I suspect.

The advice to clamp the top tube with your knees to cure a speed wobble is useless on a mixte, though.

I dislocated my new artificial hip while mounting my '05 Bonneville to ride to physical therapy. My replacement Suzuki Burgman is a step-through scooter. Hip is fine now, but my step-through preference remains.

 

[AndyRM]

No different, to me, than on a regular diamond frame. The 38 cm ones on (red) Bella are a little narrow for my geezer preferences, and the 42 cm Giro D' Italia has a lesser drop than the 38 cm Campion Del Mundo, so better for me with my reduced flexibility. That seat-to-bar drop will still be a challenge for me, for awhile, I suspect.

The advice to clamp the top tube with your knees to cure a speed wobble is useless on a mixte, though.

I dislocated my new artificial hip while mounting my '05 Bonneville to ride to physical therapy. My replacement Suzuki Burgman is a step-through scooter. Hip is fine now, but my step-through preference remains.

Ta, I didn't think it would be all that different really, just something I've never tried.

 

[Fredo76]

Slow progress - kind of two steps forward, one step back. The 175 mm Campagnolo Racing Triple resulted in toe overlap, but I soon got an email from Velo Orange that their Grand Cru triple cranksets were back in stock, so I bought my first-ever pair of 165 mm cranks. They're beautiful! Very blingy - pics later. They also needed a longer 122.5 mm bottom bracket to get enough small-chainring clearance, and the combination solved the toe-overlap problem neatly.

When I finally put a KMC X9 nine-speed chain on, it became apparent that the MicroNEW rear derailleur was not going to work. It needs a hanger extension to clear the cogs. I have a pair master-link pliers ordered, but I may just break the chain instead of waiting, to put on the Shimano Tourney I ordered previously, just in case. It has a hanger extension built right in, and for $16, less than the cost of a lunch, does a pretty good job, IMO. Another hundred grams, but oh, well.

Got the brakes installed, so I'm ready to tape the bars.

We have another week of icy weather forecast. Good thing I have tunes!

 

[dimrub]

You don't need to break the chain. You can replace the derailleur by removing the plate holding the jockey wheels, which releases the chain. You don't even need to remove two bolts, just one will suffice.

 

[Fredo76]

You don't need to break the chain. You can replace the derailleur by removing the plate holding the jockey wheels, which releases the chain. You don't even need to remove two bolts, just one will suffice.

Thanks. I'll check that out.

Blue Bella weighs 23.6 lbs. right now, so she will come out at about 24 lbs. or so, or 10.9 kg.

 

[Fredo76]

Have been on two rides on her, and there's still some sorting out to do - stop the seat post from slipping down, and get a good triple derailleur up front. Been carrying a water bottle in my pocket because the lines are too sweet to compromise the looks so soon!

24.4 lbs with the rear clincher.

 

[AndyRM]

That's a thing of beauty! I'd not be cluttering it up with bottle cages either.

 

[dimrub]

Been carrying a water bottle in my pocket because the lines are too sweet to compromise the looks so soon!

A possible solution is installing a true to the period bidon, in a beautiful, true to the period cage, something like this: