We had a good customer come into the shop at the end of October and brought in a bike that he had bought in Germany in 1962 that needed a lot of love. Now these things are really seen as relics in this part of the world, where everyone is vying for the latest greatest electronic-11speed-carbon-ceramic thingamajigs. But when this came in, I got pretty excited:
So this bike is a Herucles Europa Rad in pretty terrible condition. It took about a month, but we got this customer a true overhaul on the bike. It came in with a few wrong and broken parts, and truly needed a bath. There were even mud daubers in the saddle!
At some point someone had installed a Shimano 3 speed wheel on the bike which obviously didn't match the bright red Sachs Torpedo shifter at all. Both wheels were trashed with rust, broken spokes, torn tires, etc. It took just over a month, but we were able to source the parts to get this bike back into good condition. I donated a Sachs hub from my personal collection for this project, and built it up onto the 26x1&3/8 wheel, as would have likely been original on this bike. Now complete, she rides smoother than some of the new bikes we sell!
The best part about it is when the customer came to pick it up. He was
visibly excited, rode it that night, and came back the next day with
a lot of gratitude. It's weird to think, but if he had brought this bike in to almost any other shop in the area, he would
have been turned down just based on the sourcing of parts for the repair/restoration, not to mention most shops here don't like tackling a older stuff like this. As far as I know, I am the only source in the U.S. for the
old style Fichtel & Sachs indicator toggle chains (and I only have about 10
left) and the rare 10.5mm axle nuts for the Torpedo hubs.
All said & done, the customer paid just over $600 to get this bad boy back into respectable riding shape. Here is a list of what we did:
- Cleaned and polished the frame & fork
- Used chromemax on all chrome parts (rack, lower fork legs, fender struts, crank arms, bell) to remove rust and make them shine!
- Cleaned and regreased the headset bearings and cottered bottom bracket. The previous grease was pretty much solid, and harder to remove than anticipated.
- Reshaped the aluminum chainguard and fenders
- Installed new cotter pins on cranks
- Installed 3 new cables (The Sachs shifting cable was from my personal collection, one I had picked up on eBay for $18 under the Bendix label, which had downright copies of Sachs hubs)
- Installed new X-cut style brake pads
- Installed a new chain
- Installed a new front wheel
- Built & installed a new rear wheel with Sachs Torpedo hub, using gold spoke washers and the best mounting hardware I could muster from my collection
- Installed gum wall style new tires, tubes, and cloth rim tape
- Found & installed a period style bolt for the one missing on the chain guard
- Installed a new leather saddle with springs and a seat clamp that fits the style of the bike
- Installed new rubber grips that are meant too look like cork. They look period.
- Installed a new chrome pump. And although the pump is a little lacking in terms of function when compared to modern mini-pumps, it is one of the small details that makes the build complete.
- Installed a new battery operated bullet LED headlight. Originally it would have had and incandescent one, but powered by a generator. The customer opted to skip the generator as they are costly for what type of light they produce. He can always install one in the future if he gets the hankering to do so.
I need more projects like this! If anyone has something like this needing some love, send her my way!
