Child’s Coronado half-racer (late 70s / early 80s?)

Once upon a time, this bicycle belonged to my brother in law and was since forgotten over the years.

Now that I rediscovered it hidden under suitcases in the storeroom, and I have a son of my own (though he is a little too young to ride it yet…) I thought it would be nice to restore it, so a new faily generation can enjoy it.

There seems to be very little information about Coronado bicycles on the web, and everything I have seen would indicate that Coronado is a Swiss marque, distributed through the Migros supermarket chain. This would also be supported by the “M” sticker on the downtube.

However, my mother in law is certain they bought it in Milan, which adds a little mystery to the origin of this bike… Anecdotally, I have never seen one in Italy, and have only ever seen other Coronados in Switzerland.

So, if the above is true, and it was distributed through Migros, then it would be classed as a “department store bike” and most would not bother to spend energy in restoring it.

Also, I do wonder whether my son will actually have any interest in riding the bike in future, as it will be 10 years before he will fit on it, by which time he will likely be more interested in something modern, with electronic gears and carbon fibre.

But… as it has a family history, is still a fairly smart looking little bike, and I’m not one to follow common logic, I think there is some merit in reviving it.

There’s a mix of components on the bicycle, though generally quite basic. A French Simplex rear derailleur seems to have been spray painted black along with the rear right dropout and cable housing (a teenag brother in law I suspect). Not sure how to remove that layer of black paint without damaging the blue paint underneath. Maybe a gentle sanding, or “magic” melamine sponge?

Given the braze-ons, I think that it once had a chain guard installed though that has disappeared. Maybe it will pop up somewhere one day (edit: in the 8 years since I wrote this post, it hasn’t turned up 😂)…

There is also a nice dynamo and light which has polished up well, but unfortunately the wire has been pulled out of the light, so I’m not sure it’s possible to get this working again.

Pedals are very basic no-name jobs with reflectors embedded in them. They have enough wear on them to indicate that the bike was used quite a bit, which is nice to see.

The white cable housings contrast smartly with the blue frame and complement the white decals. They are in good shape, no rust, so I will reuse them with new greased inner cables.

The saddle has a tear in it, in an unusual location (on the top, not on the side where they usually wear from leaning on walls), so might need to be replaced. This explains why there was a sticker on it when I found it. Sometimes, just leave those stickes where they are!

The tyres are perished (as expected for 30 year old rubber), but interestingly the inner tubes used a valve system I had never come across before.

Up until now, my only experience was with Schrader or Presta valves, but a little bit of googling taught me the system used in this bike is called a “Dunlop valve“. It consists of a hollow metal tube, similar in diameter to a Schrader valve connected to the inner tube, into which a removable valve core is placed, held in place by a screw cap.

Presumably the advantage of this system is that the valve (which would likely outlive the tube) can be reused, allowing the purchase of the tube only (which presumably cost a bit less?).

I can’t imagine the cost of the valve would materially change the price of the whole inner tube, which might explain why this has been usurped by the Schrader valve… If you know any more as to why this system disappeared, please do share!

The inner tubes with Dunlop valve unfortunately no longer hold air, so these have been replaced by standard modern inner tubes with Schrader valves.

The decals are not in good shape, but the paint is generally sound and a bit of a clean (removing various stickers and tape on the frame) and a quick polish reveals a lively blue metallic paint job which gives the bike a general “sparkle”.

The rims do not have any markings on them (“no-name”…) but are sound and will just need a bit of de-rusting and polishing. Generally the rest of the chrome on the bike is in good condition with only a bit of light rust removal required.

The brake levers are pretty basic Weinmann affairs, but clean up nicely.

One knotty problem was a missing cable-stop on the right lever, without which, the brake cable cannot be connected.

The solution to this problem could probably have been a lot simpler…

Our family recently relocated to Singapore, so the Coronado restoration was put on indefinite standby.

One day, while exploring a new hawker centre (a Singaporean food court) near my office, I came across a bike shop, but not just any bike shop.

This was the type of bike shop which is hidden away in an almost forgotten shopping centre, where everything is dark and the lights are mostly turned off. Where boxes of “stuff” are piled floor to ceiling.

In short, more of a warehouse than a shop, but exactly the sort of place where one might find a weird little object like a cable-stop!

For some unknown reason, while starting the Coronado restoration, I had taken a picture of the cable-stop as a reminder to get a hold of one, some day.

So I downloaded it off my web album, showed it to the guy in the shop. He had contemplated for about 5 seconds, scurried off, rooted around in a few cardboard boxes, and brought me back a couple of cable-stops exactly like the one I was looking for. Total cost c.50 euro cents for two.

So the solution for a Swiss vintage supermarket bicycle restoration problem, came from the other side of the planet, stumbled across after eating a bowl of noodles nearby.

Isn’t serendipity satisfying 😁?

The next problem might be a little more challenging…. The bicycle had a locking system whereby a thick bolt would slide between the spokes to prevent the bicycle from being ridden. The lock no longer works, but unfortunately after years of abandon in a storeroom and being shifted about, the lock has interfered with the wheel sufficiently that a number of the spokes are broken.

To fix this and re-lace the spokes I will need to remove the freewheel/cassette. But, this unfortunately needs a two-pin cassette remover, which I do not have (and before you ask, nor did the warehouse bicycle shop in Singapore… that would have been too easy!).

So next challenge is finding one of those, or fashioning one myself? Then I would have to find replacement spokes of the right size. Or of course I could just get a new rear wheel. But doing things too easily would feel like breaking the rules.

Any thoughts, or suggestions are most welcome!