 |  | | | |  | |  |  | Royal Asport Professional Super Corsa |  | |  |  | |
 Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 10:18 pm |
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| Robert Lewis |
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| Joined: 22 Jan 2008 |
| Posts: 9 |
| Location: Sherman, Texas |
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The best deal I ever got! Found This Royal Asport Professional Super Corsa at the Good Will for $5.00 and all it needs is tires and tlc, its riding on old Continental 700's and all Campy parts but the brakes which are Mafac and the rims which are Mavic ma2's. tell me what you think. |
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Love to ride, Ride to live. Nothing better than riding a well tune bike and listening to the Crusaders, love that jazz. |
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| | | | | | | | | Good Karma! | | | | | |
| Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 10:49 pm |
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| smilingroadrunner |
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| Joined: 10 Aug 2007 |
| Posts: 278 |
| Location: Salina, Ks. |
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Wow what a deal--better yet that it appears generally to have been well cared for ---even if it was in disuse. Spiff 'er up and Smile all the while!!
In the right place at the right time.
Enjoy.
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C.A.
Salina, Ks. |
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| | | | | | | | | Thanks smilingroadrunner. | | | | | |
| Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 10:58 pm |
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| Robert Lewis |
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| Joined: 22 Jan 2008 |
| Posts: 9 |
| Location: Sherman, Texas |
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I hope to create me a work space like the garage shrines that I have seen on the other post.  |
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Love to ride, Ride to live. Nothing better than riding a well tune bike and listening to the Crusaders, love that jazz. |
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| | | | | | | | | WOW! | | | | | |
| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:39 am |
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| verktyg |
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| Joined: 14 Jan 2007 |
| Posts: 2814 |
| Location: SF Bay Area |
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IT'S A PIECE A JUNK! I'LL TAKE IT OFF YER HANDS FER A HUNDRED BUCKS!
WOW! 
I understand that Royal Asport was a small French bike manufacturer that was taken over by Gitane sometime in the late 1960s. For whatever reason, in the early 1970s Mel Pinto imported some Gitanes with Royal Asport decals.
Most Royal Asports were lower end Gitane Gran Sport (bolt on wheels, cheaper brakes and derailleurs etc.) or Gran Sport DeLuxe models. We saw a few of these pass through our shop in the early 70s but most Royal Asports were probably sold back east.
This is the third Royal Asport Super Corsa that I've seen pictures of in the past 6 months. I never knew that they were made in the better models.
Judging from the brazed on metal caps on the top of the seatstays and the brazed on rear brake cable hanger, this is probably a 1970-72 bike. It looks completely original except for the 3ttt stem, Mafac full rubber brake lever hoods and clinchers.
Super Corsa bikes came with sewups, a Pivo stem and Mafac brakes. Campy brakes were supposed to be available as a special order option for an additional $100. They were very hard to come by in the early 70s. All the Gitanes that I saw with Campy brakes were installed by the owners or bike shops.
Someone installed the Mafac full rubber hoods and a nice forged 3ttt stem. It looks to be about 60-70cm long. I have one of these on my touring bike. These Gitanes were all metric sized so if you need a longer stem you'll have to find one that has a 21.9mm or 22.0mm diameter quill.
You can find metric stems on eBay from time to time. Also Rivendell has some nice forged Nitto stems:
http://www.rivbike.com/products/list/handlebars_stems_and_tape?page=2#product=16-182
The original Pivo alloy bars worked fine for casual riding but were not very strong and tended to sag or even break with hard use. They were 25mm at the center where they mount in the stem. I cant tell from the picture whether the bars were updated or not. That 3ttt stem takes a 26mm diameter bar.
If the bike still has a 25mm bar and you get a new stem buy some new bars that are the proper size to match the stem. Also if that 3ttt stem has been clamped down on a 25mm bar DON'T try to spread it to fit a new larger diameter bar.
I had a nice internally reinforced 25mm alloy bars that I'd been using in a Cinelli stem since 1975. The early Cinelli stems were made fit their bars which were 26.4mm in diameter. Back in the day, Cinelli and 3ttt stems and bars were very hard to find, especially metric stems for French bikes.
Not knowing any better when I put the bars together I tightened the Cinelli stem clamp down to fit the 25mm bars. We did it all of the time at our shop. Occasionally the clamp bolt would break from over tightening so we'd use a shim cut out of an aluminum beer can. No one knew any better. 
I used that bar and stem for over thirty years in 3-4 different bikes. They ended up on one of my bikes that I didn't ride very much. Last fall I figured out why i didn't ride it - the bars were too narrow.
I decided to change to some 44cm wide 26.4mm Cinelli bars. When I tried to spread the clamp to the proper size - TINK! I'd never seen one of the older Cinelli (or 3ttt) stems break before but the whole front of the bar clamp broke off.
Those tires look like they're Continental Gran Prix tires. If the tread and casings are still good (no separation or bare frayed threads) then I'd keep riding them. They were VERY expensive and they last a long time. Mavic MA2 rims were some of the best ever made and still in demand.
The bearing may need to be repacked but I wouldn't trust 35 year old bike this nice to any hammer mechanic.
This bike is probably too big or small for you (It's just my size  ) so just send it to me freight collect and I know just what to do to get it spic and span. 
Chas. |
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