Total Eclipse from the start!

OPERATION ECLIPSE

(or just a plain overhaul)
If there is one piece of advice I have to offer to fellow vintage bike chasers, it is this:- Before you rush into stripping, cleaning, repairing, respraying or whatever you want to do, just STOP! I'll say it again, STOP! Stop and take a good look at the bike, ride it, check every single part very carefully and I mean scrutinise every nut and bolton on it. Haste will only mean you may damage or discard parts that may only need a clean to work again. Sure, if a wheel is badly warped with rusty spokes that will be getting the chop but even that may have a great alloy hub that can be salvaged and sold to a wheel builder. Four years ago I stripped a Raleigh Sprint and sold the Weinmann brake callipers only to regret it and have to buy them back again. So if you are serious about repairing vintage machines, keep every thing that works, you never know when you will need it. As far as respraying goes I would say this, first, clean the frame completely and then see if it needs repainting. Some people buy vintage bikes, respray them and sell them as fixes. These guys know what they are after but if you see an old Raleigh and you want to keep it as close to as it was, then don't respray it. It is hard work best left to professionals and then the decals will also be gone forever. Think before you respray!

Now onto the Tsunoda Eclipse. When I saw it I thought I would be up for respraying it, but after cleaning it I just knew it would be wrong and I love the big bold yellow decals. I will treat the rust on the frame but I shall not respray it. The paint is metallic and maybe someday I could get a match done and do a little touch up with a fine brush but for now it is not essential. Fix the most important things first like wheels, transmission and brakes.

The Eclipse was in poor condition when I got it, but the first thing I did was cycle it to see what was going on, or not going on. The gears all worked fine, the brakes were slack but worked. There was a hop from the back wheel and this was caused from the rim being out of true but outwards. I tried to fix it but I couldn't. A brand new 27X1/4 fixed this. The front wheel was fine after a little truing but I but I had to buy two new tires. 

The 27"X1/4 is very comfortable for around town and far more forgiving than a 700X23. It was a joy to be a little carless with these 'fat' tyres and the gumwall is very sexy!!

A Schwalbe on the front wheel that was in good condition and didn't need replacing but it has a wider hole that uses a Schrader valve and it does not bother me at all as it saved me the expense of buying a new wheel. Remember, if it ain't broke don't fix it!  

I didn't like the Sunrace rear derailleur as it was fairly new and pretty flimsy, so I stuck on a Suntour Honor 1100, an early 80s heavy metal workhorse I had in the spare parts dept. I put two new BBB jockey wheels into the cage as the old ones were worn. The BBB comes with a great set up that allows you to tailor the wheels with a good choice of plastic spigots so you can save your old derailleur if you can't find original vintage jockey wheels, plus they are cheap. This old Honor now looks the part. Retro and roadworthy! 

I was lucky enough to find a great set of old levers in excellent condition at the bike shop where I bought the wheel. They seemed unused, the rubber hoods were strong and clean with absolutely no hind of rotting. Banana yellow faux cork tape completed the bars.

Now we're pumping pedals!

Cleaning the beautiful and stylish Shimano Adamas chain rings took a good half hour as the gunk was firmly stuck to it and because you cannot separate the rings and it also has a ring guard all in one, it is best cleaned with a small hard brush using white spirits and WD40. When you extract the crank from the axle the arm comes free from the chainrings. Great idea and meant you could replace the rings if they wore out or got damaged but this particular chainset had a short production life from 1982 to 1983 I have read. I also took the fork from the headset, cleaned the races and lashed in plenty copper grease. Bottom bracket got the same treatment. Oil is not good enough, you need plenty good grease, baby!

Next up was renewing the gears and I found this Regina 14-24 6 Speed block NOS in an old bike shop, it is made in Italy and super slick.

A brand new 'narrow' Z chain was selected as the chain on it was totally clapped out but still worked fine.

 The new transmission! Nice new wheel and tyre, freewheel and chain, early 80s SunTour Honor derailleur, and scrubbed up original Shimano chainwheel. It would be hard to find that chainwheel as NOS but if I ever do...! 

 A closer view of the new Regina, chain and good old-fashioned Suntour Honor. After had all this work finished I took it for a test ride and lo and behold it was silky-smooth with plenty of grunt! This is a very nice bicycle indeed and I intend to use it for daily hops around the place.

The last thing to sort out were the brakes. There was a Weinmann 600 on the front and a Shimano Tourney on the back and I don't really like mixed brakes to be honest, so I managed to assemble a rear Weinmann 730 from a few parts I had lying around so now at least they match. No modern brake blocks here only good old-fashioned chunky ones, they just look right.

 Snazzy electric blue? You got it!

For front and rear Derailleurs too? Yessir!

Finally the brake and gear cables and their outer linings had to be changed and I used Jagwire I bought on eBay for a great price. This stuff is good and costs far more in the shops. I chose blue for the eclipse. The great thing is it comes in a good choice of colours so you not stuck with boring black.

So this is the Eclipse project finished and like I said there is a little bit of rust to be removed and paint to be touched up but for now this is only cosmetic! She rides and handles great around town and the gears are now super-smooth with good torque when you push them hard. 

Hit the road!