Retro Bicycle Thread

[Jules]

What a great bike' date=' have you always had the bike or did you buy it recently[/quote']Thanks. Bike was a Junkmail find. Was in crap condition so I had it resprayed by Tokenfreak and bought the stickers from a guy in Australia. The chrome is not in the best shape but i just try and polish it every now and then.Most of the parts on it I got off eBay.

Looks really nice Velo! Speaking of chrome' date=' has anyone here successfully re-chromed old chrome or chromed lugs of steel bikes that weren't already chromed? [/quote'] Getting some stuff done in the next week!! Fork & headtube lugs and chainstays. Will let you know how it goes.

 

 

 

Excellent Delgado! Can you please treat us to before and after pics?

[Minion]

Looks really nice Velo! Speaking of chrome' date=' has anyone here successfully re-chromed old chrome or chromed lugs of steel bikes that weren't already chromed?[/quote']

I've had a fork successfully replated and also had an aluminium stem and ergolevers plated. It cost around R300 for the fork and R400 for the Alu parts.

 

The chroming process is pretty labour intensive and uses some nasty chemicals. For a new (or unplated / unanodised) part the process is roughly:

1. Polish the part - a critical step: any blemishes on the surface will show through the chrome.
   
2. Clean the part - this usually involves dipping in some kind of acid.
   
3. Zinc plate aluminium parts
   
4. Clean
   
5. Nickel plate aluminium parts
   
6. Clean
   
7. Copper plate parts - this provides a base layer and can fill in larger pits.
   
8. Polish the part to a mirror finish.
   
9. Nickel plate the part
   
10. Clean
    
11. Apply a second nickel coat
    
12. Clean
     
    
13. Chrome plate the part.
    

On a new part there are already two polishing steps and four (six for alu) plating steps. To re-chrome parts they need additional steps to chemically strip the old chrome, nickel and copper, leaving the bare steel. For alu parts they may need to chemically strip the anodising off the part.

 

If you're plating parts for the first time, note that the layers of chrome, nickel, copper etc. can be quite thick (they added about 0.125mm in places on my ergo levers). This can cause clearance problems on some parts, especially in holes. I had to grind out all the holes on the levers (chrome plating eats HSS drill bits for breakfast, btw) and also had to grind away the plating at some of the mating surfaces to get everything to fit together again. This will be less of a problem when re-chroming since you'll remove thickness and then add it on again.

 

The thickness also means that if you're plating the lugs on a frame, you will likely have to plate the whole frame (unless you can remove the lugs i.e. completely rebuild the frame). I was told by Johan Bornman that if you  plate just the lugs, it leaves a noticeable step where the chrome transitions to bare steel. In any event, you will need to repaint the frame since the plating chemicals will do nothing good to the paint job.

 

I had my plating done by African Electroplating in Industria West. Their specials department has an excellent reputation in the classic car and bike club communities and their work is top-notch. The guy running the department is called Zain.

 

Finally, it's not that retro, but it is shiny:

More here: https://www.bikehub.co.za/forum_posts.asp?TID=54559&PN=8

[NotSoBigBen]

Are retro MTB's allowed ..... circa 2002 and I've still got it! Not with that stuff on though, specially not those bar ends

 

[Jules]

Edman, thanks for sharing that. Had no idea the process was such a mission!

[javadude]

Edman' date=' thanks for sharing that. Had no idea the process was such a mission!

 

 

 

[/quote']

 

Probably why it costs so much.

[javadude]

Are retro MTB's allowed ..... circa 2002 and I've still got it! Not with that stuff on though' date=' specially not those bar ends [img']https://assets.bikehub.co.za/legacy_images/smilies/smiley9.gif[/img]

 

 

Not sure if 2002 qualifies as retro. Now if you had a Bridgestone MB 0 with the Mavic groupset it would be a different story.

[HeartCoppi]

Edman thanks for that extremely detailed run down. Brilliant! Big ups.

 

I understand there are two kinds of chroming: Thin dense and hard chroming. The first is purely decorative and can be locally applied. The other requires the whole article to be dipped and treated.

From that I think forks are quite easy apart from taking care to seal off the headset thread.

However the lugs I can only imagine being thin dense sprayed.

I assume originals were chromed preassembly and brazing.

 

I also think that forks will always be more prone to deterioration for obvious reasons being close to the abuse of tyre whippings but also the stresses from the base material of the fork in its shock absorbant role thereby stressing the hard less elastic layer that the chrome is.

Thats why lugs are often in better condition in comparison if the fork and stays are pitted or peeled. I am looking at first time execution In MGardens soon. (research behind me) taking in a corrado and bianchi fork soon and will share success/experiences/photos

[HeartCoppi]

BEAUTIFUL LEVERS EDMAN I dig things that aint scratched

 

just wanted to add that I'm in a twist about chroming simply because:

Yes, its very beautiful and distinguishes a bike

But it makes a bike heavy.

spoke to a guy once at a local LBS who was pointing at one of his customers bikes in for a service. This bike the lugs and stays where mint chromed. But it had just been resprayed. That meant that he had to chrome the ENTIRE surface of the frame and then spray.

The bike is estimated to have a  0,4 kg weight increase.

I've stripped a bike a noticed fully chromed stays right up to the seat post lug and into the BB but before paint stripping it was half length sprayed.

So orginal manufacture was to have that piece of tubing chromed before brazing

[HeartCoppi]

Example (kind of)

[HeartCoppi]

Sorry to hijack the thread with so many consecutives

but while searching for this pic of the cinelli above in my bike box I found one of my favorite pieces of bike porn....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[javadude]

From what i've seen with Colnagos is that they are fully nickel plated, and only the exposed areas have a layer of chrome over the nickel. 

[Delgado]

What a great bike' date=' have you always had the bike or did you buy it recently[/quote']Thanks. Bike was a Junkmail find. Was in crap condition so I had it resprayed by Tokenfreak and bought the stickers from a guy in Australia. The chrome is not in the best shape but i just try and polish it every now and then.Most of the parts on it I got off eBay.

Looks really nice Velo! Speaking of chrome' date=' has anyone here successfully re-chromed old chrome or chromed lugs of steel bikes that weren't already chromed? [/quote'] Getting some stuff done in the next week!! Fork & headtube lugs and chainstays. Will let you know how it goes.

 

Excellent Delgado! Can you please treat us to before and after pics?

Will do! The before pics are on page 2 of this thread....the Blue Colnago Mexico.........

[Jules]

I'm in love

[javadude]

Cool bike. Just some useless trivia, Cinelli and Columbus are part of the same company.

[HeartCoppi]

wow   gee whiz

never seen anything like that before.  No lugs. and typical alu fork and crown.

How does he tighten the saddle post?

Whats going on there with the gear cable attachment on the down tube?

It looks like its cut away

Please share where you googled that Waynedude.

 

I've tried google keywords columbus max cinelli   no luck

what did you use?

 

 

 

 

did find an awesome shop for bartape and cables though....!!!

parker-international.co.uk

[HeartCoppi]