Retro-modern fusion gravel build madness. The new Superb!

Wassat then?
Plumbing and red wine 😁

I reckon on Mastermind sufficiently tanked up, I would fail all the what not difficult general knowledge stuff and bound back with chosen subject matter to claim an underdog victory. Romance never dies.
 
Order! Order!

@Woz - thank you, that is a very sensible approach. That's exactly what I've done with my last modern gravel build and I very quickly knew it wasn't for me. Never even put the gears on it. The build before that was very different - I've put about 2k miles on it before I thought it might be a fail, and followed up with another 6k before I concluded that I really hate that bike 🤣.

The problem (I blame the French :p ) is that the frame is so "exotique" that getting it built up as anything is quite expensive. French thread BB & Italian (or JIS - did it even exist back in 1950s?) headset alone cost more than I paid for the frame shipped & taxed. Add a 26.0/26.2 seatpost and French quill + 650B wheels and before I even think about the drivetrain, I'm already way too invested into this.
26" wheels won't work as the cantis are placed very high - another couple of mm and they would be too high for 650B! I suspect the bike might work as a 700c conversion.
I can always use the 650B in a 26er frame conversion if this build fails.
Resale value is probably around the going rate for 3.2kg of scrap steel at the moment, unless I find some other schmuck who's crazy enough to build this up. Some minor mods won't hurt.

In regard to internal gears - I'd love to try them, and I have a Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub in the parts box, but it is for a 28h drilling...I couldn't find any reasonably priced rims in rim-brake 650B in 28h. Only found two, both at around £100 price point per rim. Ouch.
I don't know much about ig hubs, and know very little theory about running them without a tensioner. The hub will be used eventually, but for another frame.

Anyway, leaking crapper is fixed, and I even managed to do some work on the frame tonight.
- Rear cold set to 130. Dropouts had to be filed from 9.6mm axle diameter to 10mm. Tried fitting a wheel with a 9sp cassette into the frame and it seems to go in without any drama.
- Front cold set to 100.
- All eyelet mounts were drilled for ~5.2mm holes with no thread, so I figured I might as well run an M6 tap into them while I'm at it.
- I've sawn off the ghastly pump pegs and the old-school dynamo mount. If I'm going to run a dynamo, it will probably be on a dyno-hub, however, I find that batteries & lights are so good these days that a dyno might not be necessary. Still need to tidy up the stubs with a file.
- Laced a pair of 650b rims into novatech hubs.

It looks like the frame can take a 47mm tyre + guards, which would be absolutely fabulous.
Also, while parts of the frame have, indeed, degraded to merde-brown in dark lighting, some sections (that were less exposed to the elements) still show the original paint, which happens to be a stunning blood red metallic, with a silver paint base layer followed with a semi-transparent red.
 
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Pulling bikes from the tip is a peculiar matter here.
Going back a few years, I saw a guy throwing away a sorry-looking kids bike that looked like it was the right size for one of my kids. I was going to suggest that I take it & bring it back to life, but the staff at the tip said that all "donated" bikes go to a local bike charity before rolling the bike away. They couldn't tell me which one 🤔.
I've known two chaps who worked for two different bike charities and when I approached them with a cheeky request to tip me off when they get a cosmetically trashed 531 or SL frameset that I'd be happy to acquire for a small donation, both told me that it is very rare for them to get a decent frameset in, and that almost all of the stuff they receive are BSOs.
Looks like there is a black hole that swallows up bikes on their way from the tip to the bike charities, but it only swallows up the Reynolds and Columbus bikes wearing Campy gear...🤔 It could be, of course, that in the day and age of the internet, such bikes just never make it to the tip first place.
 
Oh wow. All that said above, sometimes WTF jump in. I look at what @Nabeaquam is doing and there is a point where you need to bend yourself to reach the ideal, because what you have in front of you is so incredibly rare.

For sure, this frame as enormous protentional. It was built for Gravel before we even heard of the concept today.
 
Indeed - gravelling before gravel bikes were a thing. And probably ATB'ing before ATBs were a thing.

What Nabeaquam is doing is exceptional! I'm just hacking away to try and get a rideable bike. But I know that if I restored the Liberia to its original form, or bought a full bike and touched it up, I wouldn't ride it. I'm way too sissified by modern (90-early 2000s, before it all went wrong ☺️) bike stuff.

I reckon this hanger (number 12) might do the job with minimal alterations. Unless I'm missing something again, like I did with the previous one.
 
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