I bought this bike for $50 back in August. The paint was scratched to hell, and there was some minor surface rust on the frame and fork. Pretty much everything was shot: broken teeth on the chainrings, busted rear derailleur, crummy grip shifters, dry-rotted original spec 38 Special tires, very out of true wheels, ripped up 3” thick saddle etc. Everything grimy.

I stripped the whole thing down and cleaned up the frame, removed rust, and poorly went over some of the scratches with not-quite-matching nail polish. My son helped me which was fun. Don’t look too close.

Rebuilt it with Microshift Sword Black 2×9 drivetrain (170 mm cranks with 46/29 up front, 11-38 in the rear) with the clutched Microshift Sword rear derailleur, new Shimano square taper bottom bracket, DT Swiss R460/Shimano 105 wheels, 38mm Panaracer GravelKing slicks, Tektro RX1 mini-V brakes, Brooks C17 saddle, Salsa Cowbell 46 cm handlebars, Dimension threaded-threadless stem adapter, cheap 80mm stem from Amazon and Shimano pedals I had on hand.

It rides super smooth and handles great. I hate the aesthetics of the stem adapter but it does the job. I’d like eventually replace it with a nice removable faceplate quill.

Enough typing. Just finished my post-lunch coffee and it’s time to ride!

by MurderOfChros

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