Last year, I came upon a 1986 Cycl-ology catalog from the Cycle Goods Corporation of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their offerings were comprehensive. It's fun to browse through 100+ pages and imagine you could still order up some of the offerings.
Below are an assortment of Park Tools used back when steel was the deal and frame and fork damage could be repaired with some leverage and a gauge. Most of these devices are no longer offered by Park. Anyone want to guess the retail price for a Brooks Pro saddle in 1986?
I recently used a couple of these tools to resurrect an iconic 80s touring bike. Back in July, I purchased a 1982 Trek 720/728 frame on eBay. The paint was great and the seller gave me a discount on the shipping because, despite its collectibility, he had been horribly unsuccessful selling the bike. He had listed it several times with a pretty reasonable Buy-It-Now price.
One look at the frame and you can see why he was having difficultly unloading it. The fork and headtube had been re-contoured with the help of an oak tree. Having access to most of the steel-bending tools featured in that 1985 Cycl-ology catalog, I thought this would be an interesting challenge.
As you can see from the before and after pictures, the effort was successful. Now I've got another project for this winter.
Below are an assortment of Park Tools used back when steel was the deal and frame and fork damage could be repaired with some leverage and a gauge. Most of these devices are no longer offered by Park. Anyone want to guess the retail price for a Brooks Pro saddle in 1986?
I recently used a couple of these tools to resurrect an iconic 80s touring bike. Back in July, I purchased a 1982 Trek 720/728 frame on eBay. The paint was great and the seller gave me a discount on the shipping because, despite its collectibility, he had been horribly unsuccessful selling the bike. He had listed it several times with a pretty reasonable Buy-It-Now price.
One look at the frame and you can see why he was having difficultly unloading it. The fork and headtube had been re-contoured with the help of an oak tree. Having access to most of the steel-bending tools featured in that 1985 Cycl-ology catalog, I thought this would be an interesting challenge.
As you can see from the before and after pictures, the effort was successful. Now I've got another project for this winter.
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The before photo of the 1982 Trek 728 taken from the eBay auction
With a little leverage and a gauge, frame and fork are straight as a fiddle string!
From the 1982 catalog... lengthy chainstays!
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