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
00:26it,
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
00:47off,
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.
01:03Oh, that is grimy. Wowee.
01:08Right, that's my guards off and I've got to say there is a lot of built up crud underneath there
01:12in the frame. We're going to get the chain off next and then it will be time to give this
01:17bike a deep clean.
01:24Now, to help me out with this bike restoration, ZFAL have stepped in with a bunch of their products
01:30and to help clean the bike, I've got their bike shampoo. So I've just filled up their bottle with
01:34700ml of water and I'm going to squeeze in this bag of kind of like jelly, but then we're going
01:41to use that
01:41as the bike shampoo and get this thing looking beautiful. Now, this is a whole litre of bike
01:47shampoo and we've still got two more so we should be pretty sorted for bike cleaning around here for
01:52quite 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
02:21compressor,
02:21so let's get this thing dry.
02:39Now, as I said, when I clean this bike, I could see a lot of like marring under the paintwork
02:44and white
02:45paint really isn't good for it because it holds so many of the stains. So I've got some paint restorer
02:51here. So I'm going to work quite methodically from top to bottom, just taking my time to
02:55see 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
03:18bit loose
03:19because the mech hanger bolts, they were rattling around. So tighten those up. So now,
03:24when I come to index the gears, that should be running a whole lot smoother. The next job though,
03:29is we need to get some wheels in this bike. Now, the old wheels, they were good, but I think
03:34we can
03:34do a bit better. And happily, I have had a delivery from Hunt who have come in to save the
03:39day.
03:40Hunt are actually one of the very few brands now that still make decent quality alloy rim brake
03:47wheels. So these ones here are the four season aero wheels. I think they're going to be better
03:53performing than what was on there previously. So we'll get a new cassette on there, new ties,
03:59and then we'll get them fitted. Here we go. Envelope full of parts and accessories, new skewers in here,
04:06which is going to be really good because the old ones certainly weren't quite right. In fact,
04:10I think the rear wheel was a turbo trainer skewer. So I'm glad to see the back of that,
04:15but here we go. Here are the wheels. Oh, lovely. Good stuff. Yeah, these, these will be bang on.
04:39So, tyres are done. We've got some shroud tyres 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. There we go. That's looking good. Let's get this
04:59nipped up with the free wheel tool. Oh, beautiful. Look at that. Nice. Right, the wheels are in. I also
05:11reattached the brake calipers and re-centred and re-adjusted the brake pads. The brake pads themselves
05:17actually have quite a lot of life left in them, so there's no need to change those, and now that
05:23they're re-aligned, the brakes are feeling really strong. So, next job is to get the chainset sorted.
05:31Now, the chain rings are actually quite worn out, so we've got a couple of replacements which we're
05:36going to get onto the chainset. We'll get that refitted, then we can get the chain on and then
05:41index the gears, and then actually we're quite close to the home straight at that point.
05:51The bolts are off. The chain rings, they are looking very worn, especially the inner chain ring.
05:57Those teeth are looking very shark teeth-like, very pointy, so I'm glad we've got to these now.
06:03Happily, I've got some new ones, so we'll get these unboxed, we'll get them fitted, and we should be
06:09looking a whole lot better. In fact, I think this chainset is going to look much smarter,
06:13because these new chain rings are completely black, so it should be a nice visual upgrade too.
06:30Right, chainset is back together, so we're going to get this back into the frame,
06:36nice and easy. The bottom bracket's actually feeling really smooth, so there's not much we need to do
06:40there, so we'll pop this crank on back on.
06:46With this going on, it means that now we can go ahead with the chain, surprisingly, maybe unsurprisingly,
06:53but the cables themselves are looking really, really good. The condition of them is fantastic,
06:59there's no corrosion, they look pretty new actually, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to leave those,
07:03because I think they've got plenty of life left in them, so it does mean that I can get straight
07:07on with indexing, which will be really good, so yeah, not many jobs left now.
07:24Right, that chain's gone on, it's looking pretty good, but now we need to index it, so I need to
07:29grab a screwdriver.
07:45The gears now are running beautifully smoothly, which is fantastic news.
07:49The next thing, though, I really want to address is this saddle. I know that this saddle is not right
07:54for my boss, and he needs something with a bit more of a cutout, a bit more support and, you
07:58know,
07:58some wider wings. So I've got this one here, which I'm going to get fitted, which should, again,
08:03just make this bike a little bit better to ride.
08:22So we've got a couple of bottle cages from Z-Fal, super lightweight, and we've also got some Z-Fal
08:27bottles,
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.
08:52I want to get the saddle bag on and fill that up with some goodies.
08:58I also need to sort out these handlebars 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.
09:32I've never seen bar tape come off in so many chunks. This is ridiculous.
09:36Now, while this bike doesn't have any disc brakes, Z-Fal's disc brake cleaner is actually going to be
09:42perfect for getting rid of some of this salty gluey residue that lives underneath this bar tape.
09:49So we're going to give these bars a really good cleanup before we get the fresh stuff put on.
09:53But I must say that bar tape was, was no good.
10:04Right, the bars are now looking much cleaner. I'm going to get some new tape on.
10:09I'm not the best at wrapping bar tape, so I'm going to take it slowly.
10:13I'll take my time and hopefully we can do a decent job on this one.
10:19Yeah, wish me luck.
10:38Well, there we go. The bar tape's on, the bike is looking good.
10:42We've got the saddle bag with some bits in. I've got some lube for Rob as well, some Z-Fal
10:48lube that he
10:49can use over summer, but I want to make sure he's looked after in winter as well. And Z-Fal
10:53do actually
10:54make lights. So I'm going to give him a front light, 800 lumens, rechargeable, waterproof, and also
11:00a rear light as well, which is going to attach to the seat post nice and easily. So this bike
11:05is going
11:06to 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
11:21the person
11:22whose bike I have been working on. But tell us about the condition of the bike when you left it
11:28here.
11:28Not 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.
11:40I 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,
11:51I used it for a turbo trainer bike, basically a smart trainer bike. And so I sweated all over it.
11:57And again, I wasn't very good at cleaning it. So yeah, I feel a bit bad about it really. So
12:03I'm looking forward 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
12:20look,
12:22actually looks really good. Really good. So starting from top to bottom, new bar tape. To be honest,
12:29I'm really happy because all the logos line up. That's arguably one of the best wrap jobs I've ever
12:34done. We've got the ZFAL F800 front light up there. So that's 800 lumens to keep you illuminated on the
12:40roads. A new pro logo saddle. I tee cut the entire frame. So it's definitely looking a little bit shinier.
12:47We've got a couple of ZFAL bottles in their ZFAL bottle cages. New chain rings, small and large. So
12:54you shouldn't be slipping any gears. I will say your old ones were very worn out. A new chain,
13:00of course, new cassette, same ratio, which actually quite hard to find, but I managed it.
13:07New Hunt wheels. These are the four season aero wheels. Of course, rim brake. Hunt, one of the very
13:14few brands that still make decent alloy rim brake wheels. New tires. These are from Schwab. These are
13:20three, six, five tires. So should work well, kind of three, six, five days of the year. And of course,
13:26at the rear, we've got a new rear light. This is the R150 ZFAL rear light. And in the saddle
13:31bag,
13:32there's a few little goodies. So we've got some ZFAL tire levers in there and we've also got a CO2
13:38inflator. So should you get a puncture, you'll be able to fix it. Marvellous. It still looks quite,
13:45it's quite pretty. Yeah. You've taken off the mud guards. I have taken off the mud guards. I mean,
13:50it is summer now, so I just don't think you need them. Exactly. And actually, it looks, it's the
13:55first time, it's the first time it has been naked. Yeah. So yeah, it looks great. Good stuff. Well,
14:01there we have it. I want to say a big thank you to ZFAL and Hunt for making this video
14:05possible,
14:06but let me know down below, what would you have done differently?
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