When you say sealed the ends of the frame are you speaking of tiny holes about 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch in diameter located in the rear stays by the dropouts facing downward? If so, I would not seal those, those are for letting condensation to have a place to go instead of setting inside the frame trap and then beginning the rust process from the inside. They were placed there by the factory to for another purpose as well and that was to have a place for the pressure that builds up from heating the frame for the brazing to vent out of the frame. Now some people do say to close those small holes off, but leave the larger one in the bottom bracket open, how you can tell if the holes were put there to drain water is if there are two holes and not one, because only one is required to vent the hot gases out, but two is needed to not only vent the hot gases but also to let water out during the bikes life.fluffandstuff wrote: ↑Tue Dec 25, 2018 3:08 amHavent been riding it since I am still figuring out what groupset to put on it. Long story short, turned out swapping between 10 and 11 speed cassettes on my Kickr requires more work than I thought, and the idea of having to constantly swap the cassette between this bike and my 11 speed bikes troubles me.froze wrote:Like others have said I would be concerned about the quality of the chroming process. Even American and Japanese chrome, which was the best in the world, had issues with tarnishing, pitting and rusting, it's difficult to near impossible to find a mint condition chrome finished bike even made back in the 80's not alone prior to that. Even cars that used a heavier chrome plate than bikes do you can't find a good example of original chrome from the 60's unless it was stored in a environmentally controlled environment. Keep in mind when I say rust, I'm not talking about the chrome rusting, chrome doesn't rust, it's the underlying metal that rusts and pushes itself out to the surface where the chrome will bubble and peel due to the rust forcing itself to the outside.
I used Wenol Auto & Motorcycle Polish in the blue tube because it has no abrasives unlike the same stuff in the red tube, on my vintage cars chrome bumpers and it works well, but you have to be diligent with it and apply it once a month if being used outdoors. The non abrasive blue tube polish is critical that you only use a non abrasive product especially on a thinly chromed bike. I don't even use an abrasive car paint wax either on a car or a bike especially. If the chrome gets dirty from riding you should use S100 Polishing Soap before applying the Wenol product, just follow the directions on the can, but this stuff is not be used on painted surfaces, aluminum surfaces or whatever, only chrome, and it is not a protectant that's the job of the Wenol product so you need to do both.
So while a chrome bike is very unique and beautiful there is a lot of work required to keep it that way, if you don't mind the work then your bike will sparkle like crazy for a long time if the Chinese did a good job at the plating process. You should before you even ride it the first time is to put that Wenol stuff on it, if you already rode it then get wash it and polish it right away. Both of those products are on Amazon and neither are expensive, and always follow the directions to the letter.
If your chrome begins to pit down the road simply google how to fix it, but that is a difficult process that often ends in failure. The reason for the pitting is due to the underlying metal rusting and causing the chrome to pit, sort of like a volcano. So hopefully China put the chrome on the metal frame before it started to rust.
Thanks for the tip on the Wenol product and polishing soap, ordered them on Amazon.
Im still waiting for the anti-rust stuff to ship and have sealed the ends on the frame for now.
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If you also have those vent holes on the fork those you can close off because water can't make it into the blades other than through those holes, so the fork blades have an airtight situation, and rust is needs oxygen to work, and those holes would provide the oxygen necessary; the frame on the other hand is not airtight so now you need the holes to drain water out.
I'm not an expert on frame building, maybe someone else can tell you, and me, if I'm correct, but that is my understanding of those holes in the frame.
All you need to do to prevent rust is to spray some Frame Saver or pour some Linseed oil into the frame and coat the inside of the tubings.
As far as components go, depending on how much cash you want to drop on a generic bike, I would keep the budget low because of the lack of resale value, so if it were me I would either go with 105 or Tiagra depending on if you want a 11 speed or 10 speed. The 105 brake calipers are better than the Tiagra due to Tiagra having a one piece brake block which these have a bit more flex and are more difficult to service. While the Tiagra is only a 10 speed rear Tiagra can do triples and the 105 cannot, not sure if you feel you need triples or not but there is that potential to go to triples on the Tiagra. There is only about 330 grams difference between the two groupsets, and there isn't much price difference either. Anyway you need to decide the 10 ve 11 speed thing.
