I inherited (rescued from the bed of my dads dump bound truck) my moms old Centurion Lemans Elite.
A picture of what the bike looked like new (not mine, but exact same color scheme)
The original plan was to build up a track racer to run at the velodrome here in boulder but looking a the geometry and the pile of good original parts I decided to build a "track inspired" cruiser. I stripped the paint down and shot a candy cinnamon with copper pearl over the top of a brilliant white loaded with pearl also. At the last minute, I decided to tape off a Schwinn-ish scallop on the fork which i thought added a nice touch.
Next, I bought a set of Velocity B43 wheels in white and wrapped some 700x28 Vittoria Randoneur around them. All the original aluminum components were dulled out so they went to work with me to be polished up. A 14T track cog and a 16T freelwheel were added along with new 1/8th KMC chain. Getting the length right to accomadate both gears was tricky but fortunately this frame has some horizontal dropouts that are a mile long. A short visit to my parts pile produced a set of fenders from something 27" I think, which are goofy looking when mounted to the frame bosses. However, when mounted on the axles, they sit right on top of the tires and look very smooth in my opinion.
The bearings were stripped, cleaned, and re-packed, then the final assembly began. I had to take the frame down to a LBS to get it fitted with a seatpost, as I didn't know what size it needed, and the collar was out of round making it tough to measure. The saddle I am using is the heavy stock take-off from my Giant OCR road bike and is very comfortable. All that is left is to pick up the seat clamp I ordered to finish mounting it, wrap the bars, then paint the fenders, and run brake cables.
A shot of how it sits at the moment.
A picture of what the bike looked like new (not mine, but exact same color scheme)
The original plan was to build up a track racer to run at the velodrome here in boulder but looking a the geometry and the pile of good original parts I decided to build a "track inspired" cruiser. I stripped the paint down and shot a candy cinnamon with copper pearl over the top of a brilliant white loaded with pearl also. At the last minute, I decided to tape off a Schwinn-ish scallop on the fork which i thought added a nice touch.
Next, I bought a set of Velocity B43 wheels in white and wrapped some 700x28 Vittoria Randoneur around them. All the original aluminum components were dulled out so they went to work with me to be polished up. A 14T track cog and a 16T freelwheel were added along with new 1/8th KMC chain. Getting the length right to accomadate both gears was tricky but fortunately this frame has some horizontal dropouts that are a mile long. A short visit to my parts pile produced a set of fenders from something 27" I think, which are goofy looking when mounted to the frame bosses. However, when mounted on the axles, they sit right on top of the tires and look very smooth in my opinion.
The bearings were stripped, cleaned, and re-packed, then the final assembly began. I had to take the frame down to a LBS to get it fitted with a seatpost, as I didn't know what size it needed, and the collar was out of round making it tough to measure. The saddle I am using is the heavy stock take-off from my Giant OCR road bike and is very comfortable. All that is left is to pick up the seat clamp I ordered to finish mounting it, wrap the bars, then paint the fenders, and run brake cables.
A shot of how it sits at the moment.
