BUILDING THE DUMP FOUND LEGNANO

I decided, at the onset of the rebuild, that I would not waste any unnecessary money, on the green Legnano.  I only wanted to try riding the bicycle, not add it to my collection, which was at an unmanageable size already.  With that in mind, I went to the Old Shed to see what I could salvage to complete the build.

When ever one rebuilds an old bicycle, certain things must almost always be purchased to complete the job.  At a minimum, brake and transmission cables, including casings, coupled with brake pads lead the way.  I decided to go with used cables and pads, if I could find ones that would do the job, be period correct, and impart a reasonable degree of safety.  Thanks to an abundance of components collected, over the years, everything I needed was on hand.

With the frame set stripped of all components, except for the front forks, I measured everything up, to satisfy myself that the frame was not bent.  There was a bit of tweaking needed, to set the rear drop spacing, followed by centering the drops to the center line of the frame set.  This sort of repair is not uncommon, as many vintage frames suffer different sorts of abuse, in their quarter, to half century, of use.  With the frame set's structural integrity restored, attention was turned to the wheels.

Wheels, on any old road bike, are usually an issue, particularly the entry level models, which were often not ridden by enthusiasts.  Asked to do an incredibly difficult job, and with little mechanical attention, wheels often reach The Old Shed, with plenty of hop and wobble.  It was hardly a surprise that the ones on the Legnano needed some attention.  Fortunately, there were no flat spots to deal with and truing was not a difficult chore, once the task presented itself.

I start, any wheel refurbishment, by lubricating the spoke nipples with WD-40 penetrating oil.  This helps to make it possible to thread/unthread, and minimize any spoke wind up, when tightening or loosening.  If even one spoke nipple remains seized, it is quite likely that the wheel cannot be trued up.  Generally, the WD-40 will be applied the day before I intend to rebuild the wheels.

The first item to attend to is the wheel hubs themselves.  They must be cleaned and inspected, for pitting or wear.  Fortunately the Legnano'' hubs and bearings were in excellent condition, though the grease had dried considerably, suggesting to me, once again, that the Legnano had seen little use.  With the hubs rebuilt and the nipples lubricated, it became a simple chore to true the wheels.  Once trued, I selected a used set of tires, and a couple of repaired inner tubes, which were quickly installed, completing the wheel build.

The head set and bottom bracket received the disassemble, inspect and lubricate treatment also and that was all that was needed.  They were in similar "as found" conditions with the wheel hubs, little used and in excellent condition.  And, that state of repair applied to the derailleurs and brake set as well.

The Universal brakes had suffered a bit of oxidation, but nothing that could not be easily cleaned off, with a soft brass brush and a spot of cleaning wax.  A bit of effort at machine polishing and the brakes would have looked very good.  As it was, cosmetic issues were of minimal importance, so little effort was invested to shine any of the components up.  Clean, lubricated and working, was the only focus.  Actually, there was a fourth - safety.  The bicycle must also test safe to use.

The handlebars and brake levers were left untouched.  No attempt was made to change their appearance and no mechanical attention was required.  The cloth bar tape, though shabby and completely faded, at best, was left exactly as found.  The tatty appearance, looked to belong with the badly faded paint and art work.

I had managed to save the crank set cotter pins, which negated the need for new ones and the hassle of filing them, to fit, while keeping the cranks in-line with each other.  The steel cranks and rings were simple to reinstall and looked pretty good, even thought I did not spend all that much time trying to improve their appearance.  The abundance of oil, covering the entire drive train, had proved to be a bonus, by preventing almost all oxidation.  Even the rear derailleur cleaned up very nicely, and with little effort.

The pedals were not disassembled.  WD-40 was dribbled into the mounting end bearing and allowed to work its way through until the pedals would spin freely.  Though it is best to take the pedals apart for complete rebuild, this soak and spin treatment works surprisingly well.

With these simple tasks out of the way, the entire frame and fork set was cleaned with a quality cleaning wax in preparation for assembly.

Putting a bicycle together, is a fairly straight forward task, that requires little time and such was the case with the Legnano.  In less than two hours, everything had been fitted to the Legnano and adjusted to work the way intended.  The old Italian bicycle was ready to go.  And go it did... 

NEXT - RIDING THE DUMP LEGNANO