Many moons ago, when Renaissance Bicycles was not much more than a glimmer in our wishful eye, we were the fortunate recipient of an unusual vintage French Velosolex:

Late 1970's Velosolex

Vintage. French. Rare. A late 1970's custom built 531 steel road bike with a Huret drivetrain.

7 Photos

Not long after listing the bike for sale, it was snapped up by a bike shop in California.  Normally, that is where the story ends.

However, much to our delight, we recently received a photo of the bike from it’s latest owner:

It’s safe to say that this bike has been reborn with a new attitude.  In fact, apart from the decals, you might think these were two different bikes.  Now, before you go all retrogrouchy about the provenance of the original bike … there is a story:

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We encourage and appreciate our customers and friends emailing us their technical questions about “renaissancing” their vintage bikes. Whether it is for an early 1960′s race bike, or a mid 1980′s off-roader, we are happy to provide our expertise.

But … there is a downside. We do our best to give thorough thoughtful answers, often providing links and relevant options. But, as our workday becomes more and more consumed by the Daily Business of Renaissance Bicycles, our efforts to answer these sometimes fall short. We simply don’t have the time to give a worthwhile answer, and too often these questions are relegated to the back-burner.

However, we suspect there are enough interested “renaissancers” out there to provide a proper community. Hence, we have created the “Renaissanced” Bicycle Google Group. This group is not intended for just our customers, but rather for anyone interested in reviving a classic bike with modern components. In other words, it is a place for comradery, assistance, and a shared interest in reviving classic bicycles. Likewise, it is not intended or restricted to one type / category / model of bicycle — everyone and everything is welcome.

So … without further fanfare, please join us online at the “Renaissance” Bicycle Group; bring your questions, your expertise, and your commentary.  We’d love to have you.

For quite a while now, we’ve been dreaming and scheming a design for our own “house” brand. We are not exactly sure where this is eventually lead (it may just die a quite death) but we thought it worthwhile enough to share:

If you take a look at the bikes we sell, you will conclude two things about our preferences:

1. A proclivity for classic lugged steel, traditional sized tubing, and “balanced” proportions.
2. Bikes with versatility are good.  Wide tires, fenders, racks, etc. are a positive things for non-competitive riders.

So naturally, these design elements are reflected in our little sketchbook:

And yes, these are a rough draft of the same bike.  We envision a do-all style cyclocross bike that can “Race on Sunday, Commute on Monday.”

But the other thing that cannot be conveyed in these unpolished drafts is the way we would like to go about building the bike.  In fact, anyone can produce concept drawings like these via BikeCAD (and please don’t hold us to any of the details, these are simply drafts), but what separates this bike from other worthwhile offerings is:

• High quality lugged steel — something of the Reynolds 853 or Columbus variety.
• A line of standard frame sizes. Custom options available upon request.
• Pricing that falls in the $1250 – $1500 range for frame + fork.
• Made right here in the U.S. of A. by a handful of selected craftsman.
• Reasonable production turn-around times. Ideally a month or less.

Basically, we are thinking of offering a sub $1500, standard frame sized, lugged steel, made in America ‘cross bike that can be used for commuting and light touring.  And although that sounds like somewhat of a stretch, no one (and let us know if we’re wrong) is doing it right now.  As per usual Renaissance Bicycles is looking to fill a niche in the Market.

But regardless of our day-dreaming, the real question is: Do you think people will be interested?

Well … it was such a shame to get to get our vintage Stumpjumper dirty, that we had to just keep on riding it through the muck, the mud, and the rain. But now that we’ve gotten over the “new car smell”, we can get down to the real reason for this whole process … enjoying a unique mountain bike.

Renaissanced 1983 Stumpjumper

Our Vintage Stumpy hits the trails. Like we said, we build unique bikes that are meant to be enjoyed. No trailer queens here!

6 Photos

As promised, here is our biased review of the bike:

The Big Picture

From the get-go, we wanted to create something unique.  Certainly, there are better performing mid-level off-the-shelf mountain bikes … but that is like comparing a one-off hot-rod to a Honda Accord.  Anyone can own and drive the sensible car (and most people do), but it takes a little bit of personality to own something special.

And like a hot-rod, this bike took a little getting used to.  Remember, this frame predates a lot of the characteristics of the modern mountain bike … it was based the demands of early mountain bikers, far before Downhill was a verb.  But overall, the bike is responsive, easy to ride — and well — a good mountain bike.

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With Velo Orange introducing an affordable “multi-purpose” 650B oriented frameset called the Polyvalent, we thought it appropriate to see what kinda of “multi” we could make out of it.

Inspiration is often accidental. As we are apt to do, during our weekly survey of the blogosphere, we came across this vintage photo from the Old Spokes Home Blog. That photo, along with the accompanying article on a couple of Scorcher build-ups, was the push we needed in the right direction.

It had been a while since we pondered a Scorcher build-up, but with the “Hot Rod Black” paint on the Polyvalent and the plump 650B tires available, we felt a Retro Dropbar Backroads 650b Fixie Steel Scorcher (did you get all that?) would be perfect.  Plus, we figure sooner or later somebody will have to do it, so it might as well be us.

Anyway, here we go:

Velo Orange Polyvalent Scorcher

A custom build option for Velo Orange Polyvalent ... the off-road fixie retrogrouch special.

Build Details → http://bit.ly/VOScorcher

13 Photos

Many of our regular readers are familiar with our current Murphy’s Law Project, but we wanted to take a few minutes to let everyone know about one of our other unique projects:

Something Wicked This Way Comes is a classic fantasy / horror novel from Ray Bradbury that inspired a whole segment of popular culture, from the self-titled movie to the Stephen King masterpiece Needful Things.  Likewise, we hope that this 1983 Specialized Stumpjumper can be an inspiration to mountain bikers looking for something both vintage and unique.  It’s a little bit classic, a little bit more modern — much like the resto-mods of American car culture.

1983 Specialized Stumpjumper

A vintage Specialized Stumpjumper converted to 650B wheels and a SRAM X.0 1x9 drivetrain.

19 Photos

Basically, this bike serves as a proof of concept.  At the onset, we were looking to incorporate a few unique elements all into one bike:
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This entry is the @#$%* entry of a @#$%* part series (if Murphy’s Law has anything to do with it) on upgrading an old Schwinn Collegiate to a practical and pleasing daily bicycle for transportation.

Well … we just had to go and taunt Murphy, didn’t we? And judging by how long it has been since the last update on this project, you might have guessed as much.  Basically, we set out to do the simple job of removing the old paint on our Schwinn Collegiate … and about 3 weeks later the job is finally done.  Here’s the story of how Murphy finally made a contribution to the project:

On our Renaissanced Bicycles, we always use a professional grade blasting media to strip the old paint and primer before a new paint job.  For a high quality paint job, it is important to start with a blank canvas for a solid primer foundation.  But for this project, we had the bright idea of imitating what a “normal” consumer might use to strip paint — we invested in a few dollars worth of chemical paint stripper.  Since we have used this process before, and had good results, we were confident in our success.  Of course, Murphy had other ideas.

Paint stripper is really nasty stuff.  It doesn’t take a genius to recognize that any chemical strong enough to remove paint is not exactly G-rated.  So we took the necessary safety precautions of moving everything outside, donned the proper chemical protectant garb, re-read the directions (yes, really), acquired the appropriate scraping / adhesive materials, and brought along a bucket of warm soapy water just in case.

After about an hour of vigorous work (and a second dose of the chemical stripper) we realized that this paint and primer meant business.  As we are fond of saying, “They don’t paint ‘em like they use to.”  But never ones to back down from a challenge, we soldiered on …

And finally, after another half-an-hour and no noticeable progress, our common sense caught up with our soldiers.  Apparently, our chemical stripper was no match for the durable paint from the Schwinn factory.  We briefly considered just trying to just remove the paint and not the red primer … but this would leave us with a less-than-satisfactory canvas.

Time for Plan B:

Not ready to concede defeat, we took the next logical step in a home-remedy.  With our air compressor serving as a the “lungs” of the project, we purchased an inexpensive media blasting attachment.  At about $20, we opted for a smaller media volume, but one that worked within the limits of our air compressor.  The only challenge in the process was locating good blasting media; since we were spraying outside The Shop door, we didn’t want to use the usual suspects of alumium oxide or silica based blasting media.  Like the chemical stripper in the first attempt, they are just bad news and best avoided if possible.  For another $25, we located a 50lb bag of finely ground walnut shells … which is exactly what it sounds like.

Unfortunately, it would have been a better use of our time to just to drop the 50lb. bag of walnut shells on the frame.  Despite the walnut shells hurling out of the blasting gun at a skin blistering 110 PSI, they had no effect on the remaining paint.  No really … no effect at all.  We didn’t even bother to take a picture because it would look just like the one above, only with walnut shells scattered about.

Is there one piece of helpful advice a user might glean from our experience?  Don’t waste your time blasting with walnut shells:  Environmentally friendly — Yes.  Effective — No.

Time for Plan C:

Like many people, before we started this bike business, we were not versed in the power of using soda (also known as sodium bicarbonate) as a blasting media.  To say the least, it is very effective.  In fact, this video from a media blasting supplier gives a pretty good visual demonstration.  Thankfully, clean-up is a warm water solution with a flavorful hint of vinegar.  The results on our frame speak for itself.

The cost of professional soda media blasting is actually pretty reasonable.  For posterity, we called a few local automotive body shops.  Estimates for a service like this ranged from $45 to $85, mostly depending on the amount of blasting media that would be consumed in the stripping process.  In our experience, this additional expense is well worth it.

Basically, we walked away from this segment of the project with two lessons:

• While many home-based solutions are adequate, using a professional for certain tasks is both efficient and less expensive.
• Never taunt Murphy.  After all, he is the one that makes the Law.

Anybody need some finely ground walnut shells?

For the next installment, we’ll offer up a virgin sacrifice to Murphy, and then just hope for the best — The Murphy’s Law Project — Spray Paint, Not Just for Graffiti Anymore

Gone but not forgotten is the 27″ wheel. It was the standard long ago, but now it usually turns-up when you dig your old Peugeot out the back of the garage.

Unfortunately, we do not carry replacement wheels and rims. This is because we encourage our customers to upgrade to new (and more widely accepted) standards, like the 700c wheel or 650B.

However, if you wish to keep your current 27″ wheel setup, then we recommend contacting our friends at Harris Cyclery →

Before upgrading, there are a few considerations:

• Drivetrain Evolution — Most 27″ wheels were mated to 5 or 6 speed freewheels. For modern 700c wheels, expect these to be 8+ speeds … therefore a drivetrain update is probably in order.
• Frame Spacing — Ensure that the rear width of your frame (between the drop outs) and the width of your drivetrain (over the locknuts) match. For the most part, cold setting / re-spacing / frame spacing / whatever you want to call it and dropout alignment is no big deal with the right tools. However, if the difference of your original spacing and target spacing is greater than 10mm, then proceed with caution. This change of spacing is doable, but keep in mind that chainline issues, wheel dishing, and drivetrain gremlins are a greater possibility.
• Brakes — A few issues to consider:

1. Most classic road bikes were built around 27″ wheels. Modern road wheels have adapted the 700c standard. In terms of wheel diameter, the difference is only about 8mm in diameter. However, this sometimes necessitates either a long reach caliper brake, or a “shorty” version of cantilevers.
2. Recessed brake nuts are now the standard. This simply means that the fixing bolt is inside of the brake bridge or steerer fork for a cleaner appearance. However, vintage bikes were often equipped with nutted style brakes. Fortunately, there are a few ways to get around this problem, or you can purchase new brakes equipped with nutted bolts.

Though a wheel upgrade can be a daunting challenge, the continued development of the 700c wheel size proves that there a number of good reasons to move away from the 27″ wheel.

And if you have any general questions about upgrading your wheelset, feel free to contact us with your questions. We are here to help.

This entry is a 3.7 on the Ritcher scale of multipart series (if Murphy’s Law has anything to do with it) on upgrading an old Schwinn Collegiate to a practical and pleasing daily bicycle for transportation.

It never fails to amaze us how quickly a bike can be disassembled.  What probably took meticulous hours to carefully construct (well, if we were building it), is reduced to a heap of parts in around half-an-hour. And in this particular case of working with a 30+ year-old Schwinn, nary a problem … not even a frozen bolt in need of penetrating oil.  Amazingly routine really.  Splendidly simple.

The most significant revelation was that we should nickname all of our projects with some sort of negative connotation. Since The Murphy’s Law Project has been anything but a folly of misfortune, we will hither forth use an ironic naming convention to ward off the evil gremlins that can bog down an otherwise enjoyable project.

A short list of future project names:

• Bad News Bear
• Stepped in It (or Steeped in It)
• Funny Bone
• Blackhawk Down
• Crying Shame
• Lightning Strikes Twice
• What Have I Done to Deserve This?
• Root Canal

And a personal favorite:

• I Was Drunk the Day My Mother Got Out of Prison

Anywho … the only distraction in the whole demolition process was hunting around for the proper kickstand removal tool.   No dice, so we’ll use the ole “cut pipe & clamp” trick.  Otherwise the whole process went off without a hitch.

The good news is: We’ve organized and Ziplocked all of the old parts (not that there was all that much to keep track of, but it nice to have everything in one place.)  The bad news is: We need to move on to the less environmentally friendly segment of this whole rejuventaion process, the “Chemical Peel and Paint” section.

We’ll cover this in our next thrilling installment titled, The Murphy’s Law Project — Part [Clever Title].

This is the 8.7 out of 10.0 installment of a multipart series (if Murphy’s Law has anything to do with it) on upgrading an old Schwinn Collegiate to a practical and pleasing daily bicycle for transportation.

So … we finally got around to taking some pictures of the “mocked-up” bike.  Much to our delight, Ole Murphy is starting to look pretty darn good:

Of course, there are still a few minor (ahem) details that the eagle-eyed reader probably already noticed:

1. We didn’t actually mount the VO fenders just yet.  The hitch is fashioning a bracket for the front fender struts … but the front fork does not have proper fender eyelets (nor does the rear for that matter).
2. The chain and shifter cables are missing.  But since the next step is to disassemble anyway, we eyeballed these items rather than full-on install.
3. The new brake pads are not yet installed.  Yeah, about that …
4. The kickstand magically floats about 2 inches above the floor.  Of course, this is one minor concern in changing to a larger wheel + tire diameter.  This would be the culprit in the serious Gangsta Lean of the parked bike.

While not perfect, we definitely achieved a couple of the design objectives:

• The larger wheels and tires accentuate the rake of the front fork, giving the desired “chopper” look.  Basically, it’s a comfortable and “cruisable” style that sets the bike off from bikes of similar design / decade.
• The Soma Iggy 3-speed wheelset is just the ticket for this project — classic, simple, elegant.
• All of the parts (especially the VO Mod 8 saddle) are of good quality and don’t detract or overstate any particular part of the aesthetics.  The vintage look is retained.
• While the simple black color scheme is good, a monochromatic-ish color would be even better.
• We wouldn’t mind having this bike for ourselves.

At this point, it is pretty tempting just to ride the bike as is.  It has a cool stance and an understated style that makes the bike unique without being gaudy.  More than anything else, this is a good indicator of the bike’s potential.  But alas, we will soldier on … we haven’t even gotten to the “sprucing-up” part of the project yet!

More Photos of the updated Murphy’s Law Project →

What’s next you ask?  How about The Murphy’s Law Project — Part Demolition