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 some wider wings. So I've got
07:59this one here, which I'm going to get fitted, which should again, just make this bike a little bit better
08:05better 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. And, you know,
11:56so I sweated all over it. And again, I wasn't very good at cleaning it. So yeah,
12:01I feel a bit bad about it, really. So I'm looking forward to seeing what you've done.
12:06Okay. 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
12:21actually looks really good. Yeah. Really good. So starting from top to bottom,
12:27new bar tape. To be honest, I'm really happy because all the logos line up. That's arguably
12:33one of the best wrap jobs I've ever done. We've got the ZFAL F800 front light up there. So that's 800
12:38lumens to keep you illuminated on the roads. A new pro logo saddle. I tee cut the entire frame.
12:45So it's definitely looking a little bit shinier. We've got a couple of ZFAL bottles in their ZFAL
12:50bottle cages, new chain rings, small and large. So you shouldn't be slipping any gears. I will say
12:57your old ones were very worn out. A new chain, of course, new cassette, same ratio, which actually
13:04quite hard to find, but I managed it. New Hunt wheels. These are the four season aero wheels,
13:11of course, rim brake. Hunt, one of the very few brands that still make decent alloy rim brake
13:17wheels. New tyres. These are from Schwab. These are their 365 tyres. So should work well kind of
13:23365 days of the year. And of course, at the rear, we've got a new rear light. This is the R150 ZFAL
13:30rear light. And in the saddle bag, there's a few little goodies. So we've got some ZFAL tyre levers in
13:36there. And we've also got a CO2 inflator. So should you get a puncture, you'll be able to fix it.
13:43Marvellous. It still looks quite, it's quite pretty. Yeah. You've taken off the mud guards.
13:48I have taken off the mud guards. I mean, it is summer now, so I just don't think you need them.
13:52Exactly. And actually it looks, it's the first time, it's the first time it has been naked.
13:57Yeah. So yeah, it looks great. Good stuff. Well, there we have it. I want to say a big thank you to ZFAL
14:04and Hunt for making this video possible, but let me know down below, what would you have done differently?
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