History

I purchased this from Marktplaats for 100€ on 2025-08-30. I got it from a guy named Marcel, who said he lived in Bergen an Zee, but he brought the bike over to Alkmaar where we met. I tried it a bit on the spot, it was good enough, so I paid him and went on with my life. The guy offered to show me another, much older bike, and kept going on about Dutch and Greeks doing good business. He narrated how he had driven a car down to Greece for delivery (Toyota Hilux I think), and he told me I could make money by reselling the bike. Even though I told him I’m not, he seemed convinced I run some kind of bike shop, or similar operation.

The original listing is here. You can see it in the brochure here.

Original state:

After my work:

Bike components

Frame number seems to be: H970614. See this extremely blurry pic. The bike originally sported mostly Ultegras acroos the board, but I fitted it with some aftermarket Dura Aces that I got on marktplaats.

  • Frame size is 56 cm
  • Wheels are unknown shimano ultegra
  • Front tire is Continental Grand Prix 25-622 bought from Marktplaats on 2025-09
  • Front inner tube: Schwalbe SV 15 ultralight
  • Back tire is Continental Grand Prix 5000 25-622 bought new on 2025-10
    • Max pressure is 8.5 bar, 123 psi
  • Back inner tube: Schwalbe SV15 50mm bought and installed on 2025-10
  • Pedal crank is shimano FC-A417 170mm
  • Chain is Shimano CN HG63(super narrow, hyperglide)
  • Front gears are Shimano SG A52-42-30
  • Cassette gears are Shimano CS-HG70-9. They are 9, in a 13-23 config
  • front derraileur is shimano ultegra FD6500
  • Rear derraileurs/shifter is Shimano Dura Ace 7700 9 speed
  • lever are shimano dura ace flight deck triple 7703 (left) 7700 (right)
  • right lever is shimano sora ST-3300
  • saddle post is the original koga one
  • saddle is selle italia boost 145
  • stem is original koga
  • handlebars are unknown, perhaps original koga?
  • brakes are shimano ultegras I installed in 2025-11, pads last replaced with fresh ones on 2025-11

Service history

2025-08-30

First day driving the bike around the city. The bike is fast and in my size. Back shifter is generally okay. One tooth in the smallest (fastest) gear is kinda iffy and gets the chain jumping on it. Front derraileur needs adjustment, it only really worked on the mid gear. After some adjustment of the screws, now it supports 2 :D The brakes were actually left “up” which is why they had an insane travel distance. I managed to put down the front ones, but the back ones need adjustment. I loosened the wheel a bit to try and increase its height, but I failed to change the height. I then also didn’t fully tighten it, so that needs some adjustment.

2025-10-XX

I’ve been servicing the bike for a while now, removing the front fork and handlebars completely, the tape and old brake levers.

2025-11-21

Greasing of the front fork, both top and bottom bearings.

2025-11-28

Installed and routed brake cables, adjusted rim brake placement. Front brake fork screw feels a bit iffy, might need replacing.

2025-11-29

Installed the shifter cables, inner and outer for both derraileurs.

2025-12-03

I’ve spent over 10 hours trying to adjust the front derraileur to be just right (see Shimano RSX front derraileur adjustment), cross-threading one ultegra front derr in the process. Not a great time, I’m starting to suspect something else might be iffy. Cleaning the chain helped slightly.

2025-12-04

I cleaned the bike in the nearby park, mostly degreasing the chain and cleaning the cranks and gears. After finding more failure with getting the front derraileur to shift properly, I decided to retry the ultegra I thought I had cross-threaded as it had much better shape for the big gear (52). It turned out the cross-threading was on the bolt, not the mount! So I successfully installed it and it did great right off the bat. With some minor adjustments I was done. Wiring is still a bit squished from all the mounts and remounts, but overall shifts decently. I had to install a slightly loose piece of outer cable to avoid clipping (and getting caught on) the spring cover.

2025-12-07

I noticed the right ultegra shift lever refused to shift more than three gears, so I decided to open it up and try to fix it. I was unsuccessful, but learned a lot on the way. In the end, I put back the old sora one. I installed the rear derraileur, and it shifts quite well, but there’s usually a jump around 4th-5th gear. I realized the Sora is made for 3x8, not 3x9, and even though the pull ratio is supposed to be the same, it seemed to make a jump after a few gears. I decided to buy some Dura Ace second hand from marktplaats to have consistent levers. 3x9 is kinda hard to find because Shimano moved on to 3x10 fairly fast, and 3x8 or 2x10 are far more common.

https://2wheeltools.com/derailleurs

2025-12-10

I ordered some Dura Ace 3x9 components from marktplaats. I got levers and a rear derraileurs. They were in ok condition, the derraileurs was pretty nice, but one of the levers hood was completely destroyed, so I replaced it with one of my ultegras’ hoods. I installed and connected everything, but the derraileurs was shorter than the ultegra one and the chain was super shaggy on it. I realised I didn’t have a quick link, or a chain extraction tool, so I visited Damsko bike shop. They didn’t have a quick link for my chain for sale, but they had a used one, which the guy sold me for 2.5 Euros. I also asked them to install it (5€), as I didn’t have the tool (and they had it out of stock). Pretty good experience overall. I returned home, replaced a couple cables, recalibrated the derraileurs and brakes and now we are doing great! All that’s remaining now is handlebar tape, installing a bike bell and the speed sensor. lights maybe.

The bike store guy also recommended getting rid of the smaller front gear altogether, and switching to a 2x10 or similar system.

2025-12-12

Finished wrapping the bars and installing small accessories. Bike looks pretty legit! Did an exploratory ride to Bos, overall great and I loved the shifting smoothness. I felt like there was maybe some small noise coming from the front wheel, seemed to sometimes match the bike speed in frequency, but I couldn’t reproduce it when still. Maybe related to some tension in a spoke? I also sometimes have a bit of creaking from the wheel, might wanna tighten some things.