- 2 days ago
After some time, road bikes may look a little worse for wear and the value in them may be hard to see, however, by following some simple techniques, they can restored to their former glory. In this video, Sam Gupta saves a Trek 1.2 road bike and goes through the entire process of restoring the frame and then building it back up to once again to be fully useable.
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00:00I saved this road bike from the bin and I'm going to restore it to its former glory. Now it does
00:06need quite a lot of work to get it right but I have a good feeling that it will actually shape
00:12up pretty well. I don't have too much information on what this bike is but I believe that this is a
00:18Trek 1.2 from the late noughties, maybe 2009, maybe 2011. But before any components can be attached
00:29to this bike I need to make sure that this frame is safe straight and solid and not to mention
00:37this headset definitely needs replacing. So my first port of call was to go and see the legends
00:45over at Velo Atelier and most importantly that man being Lee Prescott and that's because I wanted him
00:52to take a look at the frame and make sure that the frame was actually safe and to ensure that it
00:58hadn't been in a crash. So the very first thing that we did was that he got his frame alignment
01:03tool out and then checked to see if everything was straight. Now you do this both sides to make sure
01:09that essentially the seat stays haven't been hit and that the frame itself hasn't been in an impact
01:16and then you compare it to the other side and make sure that they line up and happily Lee said that
01:21actually this was within a millimeter of perfection and something that he would be happy to see come off
01:27one of his jigs. He also went to the trouble of checking the dropout alignment as well to make
01:32sure they were straight and as you can see they too were also dead on. Now that we worked out the frame
01:38itself was actually in really good shape we then cracked on with changing the bottom bracket. Now I
01:43have no idea how many miles this bottom bracket had done in fact it did actually feel pretty smooth
01:48but my thinking was if I'm going to be building this thing up I think it would be really good to start it
01:52from fresh. So we pulled out the old one and as you can see it all needed a bit of a cleanup so our
01:58first job was to clean those threads and make sure that there was nothing in there. We also then decided
02:04that we'd face the bottom bracket shell again to make sure that when we fitted a new bottom bracket
02:09it was going to be mating perfectly to the surface of the frame and going in completely flush. When it
02:16comes to facing a frame you tend to go at it one side at a time and in this instance it gave a really good
02:22finish to actually remove all of the paint that was still sat on the frame from when it came out of
02:27the factory. Then once we removed all of that paint you could see a perfectly finished metal surface which
02:33is eventually what the new bottom bracket will set against and of course once you've done one side you
02:39then move on to doing the next side and oh there was so much paint that came off of this frame but it
02:45resulted in a really really good finish. Once the shell itself was prepared it was then ready to
02:53actually put some grease in there ready for the new bottom bracket and Lee being ever the professional
02:59made sure that everything was fully clean and then injected the grease into the shell and then wiped it
03:04around to ensure an even coverage and then he screwed in both of the cups before finally getting the tool on
03:10it to tighten up correctly and then there we have it we have a fully faced bottom bracket shell with a
03:16brand new bottom bracket in. Lee also actually had the forethought to have a look at the seat tube which
03:23is something that i hadn't really thought of but i'm really glad that he did because it was actually
03:27very gritty inside so he cleaned off the seat post and then he got his drill with an attachment and then
03:34cleaned out the inside of the frame before re-greasing the seat post and then sliding it back inside the frame
03:40next up it was the headset and when i tell you that this headset caused some issues that is
03:47really really an understatement i mean to quote lee he was saying that this is one of the worst headsets
03:52that he's had in a very long time those cups i think might have been in there since the bike left the
04:00factory because the galvanic corrosion holding those cups in place was really really strong the bottom cup
04:07wasn't as bad as the top because the top cup really took a lot of time to knock it out of place
04:15we did have to use a blow torch in the end just to warm up the metal just so that you can kind of
04:20create that space but finally finally we did get both cups out and then we could crack on with getting
04:29that head tube faced as with the bottom bracket shell it was very much a case of removing a lot
04:35of the factory paint just to expose that nice clean metal surface underneath now the really good thing
04:41about doing a head tube is that you not only surface the actual tops of the tubes but you also do the
04:47inside of it as well so it just ensures that when you put some new cups in you've got a brand new surface
04:54on every single level after that the frame was done and it was over to me to complete the rest of
04:59the build so we'd had a new bottom bracket shell in we checked that the frame hadn't been in a crash
05:05and was all still fully aligned and we had a perfectly prepared head tube so my first port of
05:10call when we got back to our own workshop was actually to give the frame a bit of a clean because
05:14it hadn't been cleaned since i retrieved it from the bin now that the frame had a whole lot less dirt on it
05:20the first job that i needed to do was fit that new headset now take this as a word of warning this is
05:25by no means a how-to on how to fit a headset because i really did break quite a lot of rules
05:33but of course the first thing that i did was grease up the cups and also put some grease on the inside
05:38of the head tube as you can see the tool that i'm using isn't actually a headset press this is actually
05:45a pretty rudimental park tool bottom bracket press ideally with a headset press you'd have
05:50some alignment tools which means that the headset cups go into the frame completely straight so
05:56obviously when i did this job i was having to pay incredibly close attention to ensure that those
06:02cups were going into the frame straight and weren't at an angle happily after quite a few attempts i did
06:09manage to get them in and they did go in straight which was great but of course this was by no means
06:15the correct way to do the job and you should definitely always be using the right tools for
06:20the job once i'd done that bottom cup i then moved on to doing the top cup in that very same dodgy
06:28process and of course i guess the only good thing that i did do was making sure that all of the logos
06:34were lined up on the head tube itself but i mean arguably that's a very small detail after that i wanted
06:39to prepare the fork so i grabbed some isopropyl alcohol and then cleaned it all off from all of
06:44the old grease and debris i then added a little bit of grease to the bottom of the crown and then
06:50also the bearings that were going to be sitting within those headset cups once all the bearings were
06:56in place it then did give me the opportunity to see how it was going to fit with the stem and also see
07:01how much excess steerer tube i had from there i then just marked out how much i could lose and then started
07:08to cut off the uh the excess steerer tube basically the main reason i did this is because quite frankly
07:15i just didn't need the excess so there was no real need to keep it and plus personally i just think that
07:21it looks a little bit better rather than having a bit of a chimney on top of your stem of course once
07:27that bit of steerer was removed i had the job of just cleaning up the cup and removing all of the burrs
07:33um it was quite an easy job to do um but there's one extra part that i then had to do was also fit
07:39a brand new star nut to the steerer tube itself and then i could do a little test fit with the stem
07:45and it all lined up perfectly from there it was very much a case of just getting everything bolted
07:50onto the frame so that included popping in the bars and yes i have decided to go with some straight bars
07:56just to make it more of a hybrid run around town kind of bike that was then followed by the brake
08:02levers the gear shifter because i'm going to be running a 1x11 setup on here and then i also bolted
08:08on the saddle and the rear derailleur next up was fitting both of the brake calipers and then i also
08:14followed that with the chain set as well so again just needed to lube that up a little bit with a bit
08:18of grease and spread that over the spindle uh before then yeah sliding it into place through that
08:23brand new bottom bracket um talking up the bolts and then making sure to remember to put that little
08:29plastic clip down on the non-drive side crank again to match with the hybrid nature of this bike which
08:36i don't know if it will stay like this forever but for the time being i thought actually putting
08:40some flat pedals on here does make quite a lot of sense just so you can hop on and off quite easily
08:45i then popped in some wheels now these wheels actually came from my winter bike which to be honest
08:50has kind of ended up on the wall um because these wheels just haven't really been being used so i
08:55thought let's utilize these um because quite frankly they weren't doing anything else it was at this
09:00point that i decided let's start cabling up so i did the front brake first followed by the rear shifter
09:05now eagle eye viewers amongst you might have noticed that i've made a bit of a mistake so drop it in the
09:10comments if you can see what i've done at this point it was then very much a case of just threading the
09:15cable through the frame popping it through the rear derailleur um and i'd already set the limit screws
09:21um so the derailleur was itself in shape um it was now just a case of getting the cable tension correct
09:27one of the few things that i did spend money on was a brand new 11 speed chain um of course you
09:33don't really want to be using second hand old chains um but that also meant that i had to measure
09:37the chain as well now i tend to go for the method of getting the chain on both of the biggest
09:43sprockets and then adding three links um i've always found that that's worked for me
09:48and in this case it worked once again i then pop the quick link in and then i just needed to snap
09:53it into place which is pretty easy to do next up i just wanted to go through and make sure that
09:58everything was kind of aligned so i worked on the compression of the stem to make sure there was no
10:04play in the headset and then i worked on the angle of the brake levers now you will notice that the
10:09rear brake has not been cabled up and as any good home mechanic will know you often end up not having
10:15all of the parts right when you need them so i needed to go and get myself a new rear brake cable
10:20so i could complete the job on the following day which is why now you can see that the lighting's
10:25changed and yes i have come back on another day to finish the job once i had all of the parts that i
10:30needed so i got myself a brand new rear inner cable and some outers and then once they were all cut
10:36to size i then threaded that through the frame and got them all lined up now that those brakes
10:42were cabled up i could go about the job of making sure that the pads were aligned and were feeling
10:46nice and grippy finally i could get towards some of the finishing touches like fitting the grips so
10:53again use the little bit of isopropyl alcohol just to make them slide on nice and easily because again
10:57of course that fluid will essentially evaporate off and then they'll be on there nice and solid but
11:03again viewers can you spot the mistake that i made so eagle eye viewers amongst you will have noticed
11:11that i put the shifter on the wrong side of the brake lever so what i did is i quickly slid off the grip
11:18and then moved the shifter to the other side of the brake lever and then everything basically fell into
11:23place so there we have it that is pretty much my bin bike to now salvaged hybrid bike i'm really excited to
11:31start riding this thing and seeing how it performs out on the road i did give it a little spin around
11:35the car park and it does feel really nippy the stem might be ever so slightly too long for me i think
11:42maybe i could do with one which is about 10 or 20 mil shorter what this project really allowed me to do
11:46was to save a lot of the components that i'd kind of had built up and were kicking about there are only a
11:52few things that i had to buy from you those being the headset the bottom bracket the chain those brake
12:00levers and the handlebars everything else i either already owned or i was able to get for an amazing
12:06price from facebook marketplace i think in total i don't think i spent more than 100 pounds on this
12:12build so i'm really happy with the amount of money that essentially i've been able to spend to save this
12:18bike one thing that did really surprise me was just how light the bike was despite not using any
12:23real high-end components apart from maybe that ultegra rear mech everything was pretty basic and the
12:29weight of the bike came in at just 7.8 kilos now that has got me thinking that actually i could probably
12:37save quite a lot of weight off of this build so i'm gonna have a little hunt around for some maybe
12:42some carbon tubular wheels and perhaps maybe some carbon finishing kit if i can find anything for
12:49a really good price to be honest i'm really happy that i've been able to create this bike and save
12:54this bike and i think it just shows how easy and pretty accessible it is to do sure you might need
13:00a mechanic to help you out with some of the more complex jobs like fitting a bottom bracket or a headset
13:06but i think a lot of the other things especially on these older frames cabling things up it's really easy
13:11to learn how to do and there's so many resources online that allow you to learn how to do these
13:17things with some fairly basic tools so let me know what you think of this build down in the comments below
13:22if you enjoyed the video then please do drop it a like subscribe to the channel for more content and
13:27i will see you again very soon
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