Giant Cadex 980c - Shimano 105 - Clean up and Tune up

A few months back I picked up a vintage Giant Cadex on my local craigslist with the intention of fixing it up and passing it along to my wife to use.  Unfortunately the 55cm frame was just a little too big for her to ride it comfortably so it sat sad for a while until I found the time to give it an overhaul.  The Cadex is a really nice lugged aluminum carbon fiber frame.

The bike needed work, cables were rusted through and the bars seemed to be wrapped in electrical tape.

Unfortunately I got a little carried away on this one and as such there's not any pics of the work in progress.  I started by completely stripping the frame, cleaning everything, right down to the bolts then re-greasing and building everything back using the good parts.

New cables were required throughout along with a new seat and a desperate need for some decent bar tape.  Thankfully the wheels were reasonably true and the tires fairly recent.  The 105 groupdet was in pretty good shape and was completely reused with the exception of the downtube shifters as I wanted to bring the bike a little more up to date and switch out the down-tube shifters for more modern brifters.  A few hours searching online led me to the following parts.

Shimano Sora 3x7 brifters

Downtube cable stops

The shifters needed a little adjustment with the help of the high/low stops on the front derailleur to only make two shifts rather than three, but the install was painless and there was minimal adjustment required for the shifters to index correctly.

I also added a WTB Speed V saddle from the parts bin and went with my tried and trusted black color bar tape.

The bike scrubbed up really well, and despite being too small for me it zipped around the neighborhood nicely.  It will now go on sale, and once gone I'll be on the lookout for my next project.

Here's a few more pics