Tuesday, July 08, 2008

The Roy Thame Masterplan, V1.0

Dan Rosser, whose CBAD makes my own look benign, asked about my plans for the Roy Thame frame.
To the unafflicted this is an ill-advised and frivolous purchase, but while pondering Dan's question I realised that the RT is the ideal recipient for some early 80s Japanese kit I have been hoarding.
Early Suntour Superbe is fairly uncommon nowadays, but I have accumulated a couple of incomplete groupsets.
Sugino Mighty cranks are near enough to be good enough, and I have a hollow SR Royal Extra Super Light stem that is too cool to leave in a box.
Wheels will be Araya 20A clincher rims on small flange Suntour Superbe hubs. Back in the day we used to frown on 20As, but for this project their silver finish and low weight cancel out any concerns about durability.

A black frame with white graphics demands a white saddle, which puts me in the market for Turbo or a Rolls. To offset the monochrome paint, I will fill the flutes in the seatpost and crank spider with red paint, and use red brake cable.

Crankset_______________Sugino Mighty 170mm
Deraillers_______________Suntour Superbe
Shiftlevers______________Suntour Superbe or Simplex Retrofriction
Brakes_________________Suntour Superbe
Brake levers____________Suntour Superbe
Hubs__________________Suntour Superbe 36h
Rims__________________Araya 20A 700c clincher
Seatpost_______________Suntour Superbe
Stem__________________SR Royal Extra Super Light
Handlebars_____________SR Road Champion
Pedals_________________MKS Sylvan or Suntour Superbe Pro

2 comments:

Oli said...

That will be a very cool bike, DB. I always loved the beautiful satin finish of Superbe, so I can't wait to see the pics of the finished machine...

David Benson said...

Hey Oli!
The early Superbe stuff that I have is more shiny than satin, but what the hell...
I'm worried that if I like it, this bike will be another bottomless-pit-for-money weight reduction project.