Vintage Bike Porn

I originally got this bike in 1976 for about $170.  It was a Jeunet model #630.  I did a bike tour of southern England in 1980 and pretty much wore down the rims with braking, trashed the deraillers, and the bike wasn’t working too well in general.  My college roommate was a bike racer, and in 1982 he had the bike sand blasted and repainted from purple to fire engine red.  He put on new components (Campy Nuovo record) and even wrote to Reynolds and got replacement stickers for the 531 frame.  This past May I got the bike out of mothballs and had it fixed up, having all the bearings repacked and got new wheels with clincher tires ($450 to refurbish!).  I did my first  triathlon with it in August and got a 13-28 Suntour Ultra freewheel (narrow sprockets to convert 10 to 12 speed) to replace the 13-21 that was not good for my old legs on hills.  I also got a new seat.

 A few weeks ago, with my knees screaming, I got a longer seat post, and got my seat where it should be for my leg length.  The bike shop noticed I had the stem too high for safety (1" above the max setting), and when I lowered it, my neck got bad.  I have two herniated discs in my neck and I can’t ride with the higher seat and lower handlebars.  I've ordered a new longer stem that I'll have to sand down from 22.2mm to 22.0mm.  Until I get it I'm stuck on the trainer where I can raise the front wheel.

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