Seeing how yesterday was Father's Day, my wife took the little tyke off my hands for a few hours and I was able to get back to work on the Circuit.
Rear wheel - Sante hub laced to Rigida HLC 2000 rim:
Got to work cleaning the rims up of years of grime, brake smeg, and other abuse. I went at it with some rubbing compound and then finished off with a round of Nevr Dull. I can't say the rims look that much better, but at least all the black gook is cleaned off. The hard-anodizing has smeared in a number of places and rubbed right down to the bare aluminum in others.
I also went to work on the spoke nipples. Again, rubbing compound to attack the years of corrosion and finished off with a polishing of Nevr Dull. To my surprise, the cleaning revealed unplated brass nipples. Now, I realize a lot of wheels are built with brass nipples, I've just never seen them on a wheel in their unplated form. Or maybe I polished a bit too hard with the rubbing compound... Heh.
There's still a lot of work left to do cleaning and polishing up the hub and spokes. After that, I'm going to see if an overhaul is in order. Considering some of the other bikes I've worked on of this same vintage, I suspect the old grease in the hubs is all dried out.
Handlebars - Cinelli 1-E:
I unraveled the grungy Cinelli cork tape when I was initially disassembling the bike. The cork came off just fine; the adhesive separated from the backing and stubbornly stuck to the handlebars. No problem. I've had good results with any number of "sticker-remover' type cleaners before. The best one I've used so far is called "De-Solv-It", which is similar to Goo-Gone. Just spray it liberally on the bars, let it work for 15-20 minutes, and wipe all that sticky crud right off. I didn't have any of the De-Solv-It handy this time around, so I rummaged around under the kitchen sink and found some Goo-Gone gel which worked almost as good.
Stem - Cinelli 1-E:
Nice looking Cinelli stem with the Cinelli "C" logo on the left side. Pretty typical of aluminum stems from the 80's - silver, anodized with a satin finish. Not a whole lot to do here except for a quick cleaning and polish with Simichrome. I think I spent most of the time here cleaning up the bolts. Both the bolts for the stem expander and the one for the handlebar have gratuitous amounts of rust and grime in the bolt heads. This has been a royal PITA to clean.
Brake levers and hoods - Shimano Sante:
Guess what? 80's bike, white brake hoods that look like they were excavated from a tar pit. In the past, I've just scrubbed them with a bit of Simple Green and had great results. Yes, it left the hoods tacky. And yes, they looked white until the first time I rode the bike and they became grime magnets again. This time, I just wasn't satisfied with the Simple Green treatment, so I used a bit of the aforementioned Goo Gone sprayed on a toothbrush and gave it another scrubbing. (Note to Self: Please read the warnings on the cleaners you use BEFORE you actually use them. Specifically, the portion about "not safe for rubber".) After the 2nd scrubbing, it still wasn't quite as white as I'd like. I think I'll use a bit of bleach or bleach cleaner next and see what happens. Yes, I'll read the warnings. Maybe.
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