Fixing 50 bikes, 34, Fiorelli 27" to 700c conversion

As traded. The back brake was originally missing and I put on in place for this photo. A genuine bitsa as I found it, with a steel crank on one side, aluminium the other, a steel 700c alu front wheel and 27" steel back.

Close up.

Derailleur swap, long cage (on bike) replaced short cage tourney.

Fixed up. This was taken on the night Melbourne's lockdown 6 was finally over. Test ride was to get the beers shown in the pic at our very local brewpub . And I cooked dinner on a barbecue, the full extent of post lockdown celebrations.

Hi

This bike was left abandoned on the east end of our street where I've found and taken in one or two others. As traded it was a bitsa with a mix of steel and aluminium parts and 2 different wheel sizes. The front wheel was the current very popular 700c size, and I had a spare 700c back wheel and tyre, so I decided to go with all 700c alu wheels for the fixed up version. That meant bending the back forks apart, and I managed this fine by hand. The frame's relatively weak compared to the 20" front forks I sometimes bend.

Along with the alu back wheel, I added a long cage derailleur, and a 52 / 40 alu right crank. The front wheel ended up being out of true. I had fixed this a bit before abandoning it - Suzie gave me a few 700c wheels and I ended up using one of them. For the first few times I pumped up the front tire, it didn't stay on, and then came the fitting of brakes and gearchange tuning. The chain rubs against the frame on the 11t gear and I've fixed that just by tuning the gears so it only gets to the 2nd highest 12t gear when changing up. That is heaps high enough.

So the bike went well on the test ride to a pub for takeaway beers at the end of one of our lockdowns. I like the way it looks, sort of retro-cyclocross. I'm not sure this would be a Wecycle customer (refugee) bike, but it could easily sell for $100 or so.

Regards

Steve Nurse