- 22 hours ago
Road bikes can have a hard life and in this video Sam Gupta decides to give his boss' bike some much needed TLC after it had sat neglected for quite some time. Sam strips the bike down, cleans it up, gives it a full inspection and service and then surprises his boss at the end of the video with the finished build. Let us know if you think Sam did a good job!
This video was created in partnership with Zefal and Hunt Bike Wheels.
This video was created in partnership with Zefal and Hunt Bike Wheels.
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00:009.6 kilos. This is the Cycling Weekly Megabase and this is where we keep all of the bikes and
00:07products that we get sent in for testing. However, there are a few personal bikes here as well,
00:13one of which is actually my boss's bike. He owns a Varenzi Kilmerston and it's fair to say that
00:20this bike has not seen much love and is in dire need of some TLC. So I'm going to steal it,
00:27I'm going to get it into the workshop and I'm going to give it a new lease of life.
00:38Well, first things first, we need to get this bike stripped down and now that the sun is out and
00:42shining and it is warm, I don't see any need for these mud guards. So we're going to whip those off,
00:47we're going to get the wheels off, we're going to get everything off that we're going to be replacing
00:51and we'll go from there and we'll see what we're left with.
00:57Oh, that is grimy. Wowee. Right, that's mud guards off and I've got to say there is a lot of built up
01:11crud underneath there in the frame. We're going to get the chain off next and then it will be time
01:16to give this bike a deep clean.
01:24Now, to help me out with this bike restoration, Zeefowl have stepped in with a bunch of their
01:29products and to help clean the bike, I've got their bike shampoo. So I've just filled up their
01:33bottle with 700ml of water and I'm going to squeeze in this bag of kind of like jelly, but then we're
01:41going to use that as the bike shampoo and get this thing looking beautiful. Now this is a whole litre
01:47of bike shampoo and we've still got two more, so we should be pretty sorted for bike cleaning around
01:52here for quite a while. Let's go get this bike cleaned.
02:01Oh yeah.
02:11Right, the bike is now clean, it's back inside. I really do want to pay some attention to the paintwork
02:16because some of it's looking quite dull, but first I need to get it really dry. So I've got the compressor,
02:21so let's get this thing dry.
02:39Now, as I said, when I cleaned this bike, I could see a lot of like marring under the paintwork
02:44and white paint really isn't good for it because it holds so many of the stains.
02:49So I've got some paint restorer here, so I'm going to work quite methodically from top to bottom,
02:54just taking my time to see how much of a shine we can bring back.
03:07Now, after about 30 or 40 minutes of polishing, I think we're finally there. The bike is looking
03:12better. It's subtle, but it is better. One thing I did also notice was that the rear mech was a bit
03:18loose because the mech hanger bolts, they were rattling around. So tighten those up. So now when
03:24I come to index the gears, that should be running a whole lot smoother. The next job though, is we need
03:29to get some wheels in this bike. Now, the old wheels, they were good, but I think we can do a bit
03:34better. And happily, I have had a delivery from Hunt who have come in to save the day. Hunt are actually one of
03:41the very few brands now that still make decent quality alloy rim brake wheels. So these ones here
03:49are the four season aero wheels. I think they're going to be better performing than what was on there
03:55previously. So we'll get a new cassette on there, new ties, and then we'll get them fitted.
04:01Here we go. Envelope full of parts and accessories. New skewers in here, which is going to be really good
04:07because the old ones certainly weren't quite right. In fact, I think the rear wheel was a turbo trainer
04:12skewer. So I'm glad to see the back of that. But here we go. Here are the wheels. Oh, lovely.
04:19Good stuff. Yeah, these, these will be bang on.
04:38So ties are done. We've got some shroud tires on there. Now though, it's time to fit the cassette.
04:44So we'll get this unboxed. We'll get it on. Should be pretty smooth sailing. And then we'll get these
04:49wheels into the bike and continue with the build.
04:57There we go. That's looking good. Let's get this nipped up with the free wheel tool.
05:04Oh, beautiful. Look at that. Nice.
05:08Right. The wheels are in. I also reattached the brake calipers and re-centered and readjusted the brake
05:15pads. The brake pads themselves actually have quite a lot of life left in them. So there's no need to
05:21change those. And now that they're realigned, the brakes are feeling really strong. So next job
05:30is to get the chainset sorted. Now, the chain rings are actually quite worn out. So we've got a couple of
05:35replacements, which we're going to get onto the chainset. We'll get that refitted. Then we can get
05:39the chain on and then index the gears. And then actually we're quite close to the home straight at
05:44that point.
05:51The bolts are off. The chain rings, they are looking very worn, especially the inner chain ring. Those
05:57teeth are looking very shark teeth like, very pointy. So I'm glad we've got to these now. Happily,
06:04I've got some new ones. So we'll get these unboxed. We'll get them fitted and we should be looking a
06:09whole lot better. In fact, I think this chain set is going to look much smarter because these new
06:14chain rings are completely black. So should be a nice visual upgrade too.
06:18Right. Chain set is back together. So we're going to get this back into the frame. Nice and easy. The
06:37bottom bracket is actually feeling really smooth. So there's not much we need to do there. So we'll pop
06:42this crank on back on. With this going on, it means that now we can go ahead with the chain,
06:50surprisingly, maybe unsurprisingly, but the cables themselves are looking really, really good.
06:57The condition of them is fantastic. There's no corrosion. They look pretty new actually. So what
07:02I'm going to do is I'm going to leave those because I think they've got plenty of life left in them.
07:06So it does mean that I can get straight on with indexing, which will be really good. So yeah,
07:10not many jobs left now.
07:24Right. That chain has gone on. It's looking pretty good, but now we need to index it. So
07:28I need to grab a screwdriver.
07:45The gears now are running beautifully smoothly, which is fantastic news. The next thing though,
07:50I really want to address is this saddle. I know that this saddle is not right for my boss and he
07:55needs something with a bit more of a cutout, a bit more support and, you know, some wider wings.
07:59So I've got this one here, which I'm going to get fitted, which should again, just make this bike a
08:04little bit better to ride.
08:22So we've got a couple of bottle cages from Z-Fowl, super lightweight. And we've also got some Z-Fowl bottles,
08:28which we can treat my boss to, which will be good.
08:44Right. Bottle cages are on. Bottles are in. We're going to take the bike out of the stand now
08:49because we need to do kind of some final touches. I want to get the saddle bag on and fill that up with
08:56some goodies. I also need to sort out these handle bars and then put on some new bar tape as well.
09:02So there's still a few little bits to go, but I will say it's looking pretty good so far.
09:26I've never seen bar tape come off in so many chunks. This is ridiculous.
09:37Now, while this bike doesn't have any disc brakes, Z-Fowl's disc brake cleaner
09:42is actually going to be perfect for getting rid of some of this
09:45salty gluey residue that lives underneath this bar tape. So we're going to give these bars a really
09:51good cleanup before we get the fresh stuff put on, but I must say that bar tape was no good.
10:04Right. The bars are now looking much cleaner. I'm going to get some new tape on. I'm not the best
10:10at wrapping bar tape, so I'm going to take it slowly. I'll take my time and hopefully we can do a decent
10:17job on this one. But yeah, wish me luck.
10:38Well, there we go. The bar tape's on. The bike is looking good. We've got the saddle bag with some bits
10:45in. I've got some lube for Rob as well, some Z-Fowl lube that he can use over summer. But I want to make
10:50sure he's looked after in winter as well. And Z-Fowl do actually make lights. So I'm going to give him
10:55a front light, 800 lumens, rechargeable, waterproof, and also a rear light as well, which is going to
11:02attach to the seat post nice and easily. So this bike is going to be totally sorted.
11:16So it's been a few days now since I worked on your bike, Rob. Everyone, this is Rob. This is the
11:21person whose bike I have been working on. But tell us about the condition of the bike when you left it
11:28here. Not good. I mean, it's a 14-year-old bike that hasn't really been loved. I used it for commuting
11:34for a long time. Didn't look after it. I'm terrible at bike maintenance anyway. I've broken bits on it.
11:39I fixed them badly. The drive chain in particular, if I remember, was in really bad state. Greasy,
11:45muddy. I hadn't cleaned it, which a lot of people would be very angry about. And also during lockdown,
11:50I used it for a turbo trainer bike, basically a smart trainer bike. So I sweated all over it. And
11:57again, I wasn't very good at cleaning it. So yeah, I feel a bit bad about it really. So I'm looking
12:04forward to seeing what you've done. Okay. I'm not expecting miracles, but I'm also expecting miracles.
12:13So it's looking a bit better, I'd say. Yeah. Yes, it is. It is the same bike, but it does look,
12:21it actually looks really good. Really good. So starting from top to bottom, new bar tape.
12:28To be honest, I'm really happy because all the logos line up. That's arguably one of the best
12:33wrap jobs I've ever done. We've got the ZFAL F800 front light up there. So that's 800 lumens to keep
12:39you illuminated on the roads. A new pro logo saddle. I tee cut the entire frame. So it's definitely looking a
12:46little bit shinier. We've got a couple of ZFAL bottles in their ZFAL bottle cages. New chain
12:52rings, small and large. So you shouldn't be slipping any gears. I will say your old ones were very worn
12:59out. A new chain, of course, new cassette, same ratio, which actually quite hard to find, but I
13:06managed it. New Hunt wheels. These are the four season aero wheels. Of course, rim brake. Hunt, one of the
13:13very few brands that still make decent alloy rim brake wheels. New tyres. These are from Schwab.
13:20These are their 365 tyres. So should work well kind of 365 days of the year. And of course, at the rear,
13:27we've got a new rear light. This is the R150 ZFAL rear light. And in the saddle bag, there's a few
13:32little goodies. So we've got some ZFAL tyre levers in there and we've also got a CO2 inflator. So should you
13:41get a puncture, you'll be able to fix it. Marvellous. It still looks quite, it's quite pretty. Yeah.
13:47You've taken off the mud guards. I have taken off the mud guards. I mean, it is summer now, so I just
13:51don't think you need them. Exactly. And actually, it looks, it's the first time, it's the first time
13:56it has been naked. Yeah. So yeah, it looks great. Good stuff. Well, there we have it. I want to say a big
14:03thank you to ZFAL and Hunt for making this video possible, but let me know down below,
14:08what would you have done differently?
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