Il Gruppo Progetto: Serotta Colorado AL
The Velominatus’ machine is their own manifestation of personal taste and demonstration of adherence to The Rules. We each, in our own way, meticulously maintain our bicycles and adorn them with the essential, yet minimal, accoutrement. Yes, we must Obey the Rules pertaining to bar tape, tyre selection, saddle choice, stem height, color matching and so on. But within those parameters there lies flexibility and choice.
Furthermore, this site is a refuge we turn to for brotherhood, community, and belonging. However, cyberspace is a vacuum in that we apply and practice our craft apart from one another, spread to all corners of the globe. With this in mind, I offer an experiment, Il Gruppo Progetto, inspired by Brett’s Il Progetto: Bosomworth. The intent, dare I say charge, of Il Gruppo Progetto, is for our community of Velominati to come together in designing my new build project, a Serotta Colorado AL.
I picked up the Serotta frame and fork recently to further my adherence, em, obsession over Rule #12. Although not a top shelf Serotta (think of it as Maker’s Mark as opposed to The Glenlivet), it is a platform worthy of respect, care, and craftsmanship. As fall arrived I found my foul weather steed in need of replacement and the Serotta was the perfect combination of material, style, and economics. My mind was flooded with ideas of how I might build her up. Then I thought of all of you, your experience, ideas, and of course, passion.
So as fellow Velominati, I humbly ask of your counsel for this build. The basic platform is as follows:
- Serotta Colorado AL frame and Kinesis aluminum fork
- Shimano Ultegra 6600 and 6500 mixed group set (6500 cranks – octolink) 10 sp
- Shimano SPD SL pedals
- Bontrager XXX Lite wheelset
As you can see from the list above this worthy steed is in need of much more. Bars, stem, bar tape, saddle, seat post, possibly a fork, tires, chain, headset, and cables. Please keep in mind the following:
- I do have budget constraints.
- This bike should be capable of riding many miles on gravel as well as tarmac.
- My plan is for this bike to be utilitarian in nature. Performance, knock-about, foul weather, durability, weight, aesthetics, tradition, period (mid 90’s to 2004 or so)
So there you have it. My proposition is for us to come together in a modicum of further connection than what cyberspace allows. My hope is that the finished build will be a tangible symbol of our collective wisdom and a reminder to me of what we, the Velominati represent, as I ride this bike.
Thanks in advance for playing.
@roadslave
You don’t need to be right – just don’t be in doubt. Haven’t seen the photo but just tell them it is the Aubisque. The Tour went there in 07. Those arty fvckers won’t know any better.
@roadslave
No need to go into the psychic red zone here. Your team will deploy its maniacal attention to detail and knowledge of cycling history to delivery you mechanical-free to the line.
@Brett
Remember your own sins before you start chucking rocks, Mr Roubaix with the disco bunny bar tape and (eugggrh…HTFU) zertz.
@roadslave
Looks to me like it’s The Galibier, which, given that it’s 2007 was Stage nine, won by Mauricio Soler with Rasjuicin’ in Yellow. It screams Galibier at me, in any case. Anyone think it’s the l’Iserand?
Yeah, yeah… I’ve repented. Roubaix, as you well know, is sold; much like you sold the sweet 853 Condor with Chorus and bought a plastic bike with (eugggrh) Ultegra!
@frank
@roadslave
I’m leaning more towards l’Iseran, with more switchbacks near the top than the Galibier, from what I can glean from a search of images. But I’m probably waaay off… Oli, this is right up your alley!
@frank
Methinks you might have got it in one. The peak looks about right, and some of the scenes of the mountain in this video seems to corroborate. Maybe L’Iseran, but I’d put my money on le Galibier (that should be a rule, incidentally: that all French, Spanish, and Italian iconic mountains should maintain the pronoun of their language of origin). It’s a pretty interesting picture, but I’m not quite sure what makes it worth six figures; does it come with Soler’s bike and a Barloworld team car? Even then, it seems as though it would be several dozens of thousands of dollars overpriced. But that’s why I’m not in the art world…
Incidentally, and à propos of nothing (and wildly off-topic), is Soler the tallest dotty jumper winner in Tour history? (I know: let me google that for you).
@roadslave
I thought for some reason this was the Restefond, but it wasn’t in the 2007 race.
Now that I can focus some deductive skills on the task (and see the photo) a few facts are immediately apparent:
(1) it’s a high, high climb in the Alps. It’s more desolate, like the Alps, not the Pyrennees.
(2) It’s a col, by the way the road dissapears over the ridge. Not a climb up a mountain to a ski station, like Alpe d’Huez. This rules out Tignes on Stage 8.
(3) Switchbacks. Neither the Colombiere nor the Roselend have a bunch of switchbacks right near the top. The Iseran has a couple, but not a lot.
Frank is right, it’s the Galibier.
@Nate, @Steampunk
I’m pretty sure it is; all the little trails that cross are a big giveaway that it’s the Galibier as well. In fact, they do a mountain bike race on those.
Brett, your link doesn’t work, but I think that’s the shifty developer’s shoddy coding’s fault, not yours. I’ll work on that.
I am anxious for Oli to chime in! In fact I believe that Bugno ran into a spectator in ’93 on one of those turns near the top, riding a bike that very nearly resembles Oli’s TSX.
@roadslave
Regardless of the mountain, I get a huge climbone staring at that picture. Not a $100k climbone though.
@roadslave
Is it not the DESCENT of the Galibier on the south side?? Note that the road appears to go over the ridge with a right hander at the top – suggesting that the photographer is most likely above the cafe at the top of the Lautaret? Also, there seem to be more turns than the approach from Valloire has.
If confirmed, this will give you the pleasure of being able to face the “smirks of this group of intellectual arty mother fuckers” with confirmation of the idiot nature of the artist who couldn’t even identify which way the bikes were going.
Thanks, Chaps. You all rock. V grateful (appropriate or inappropriate use of V?) Shared your views in sanitised form… first time my wife has ever laughed out loud at anything to do with cycling at a) the sheer deductive analysis and attention to detail of you lot (I even got away with an ‘I told you so’) and b) Steampunk’s comment: “Incidentally, and à propos of nothing (and wildly off-topic), is Soler the tallest dotty jumper winner in Tour history? (I know: let me google that for you)”
… whilst she thinks we are all mad, the good news is that she now knows I’m not alone in my insanity. Who knew – building bridges between her world and mine though an arty photo of the TdF would lead to a detente about TFB*?
Again, many thanks.
*That fucking bike
may I suggest Turbo II saddle, black, and given its a great US brand how about some Ritchey bars and stem…wold somehow fit the build with the wheels.
BTW currently de-anodising, polishing and building up a 84 Centurion.
Good luck!
@roadslave
I don’t know if I’m depressed or gratified that wives other than my own think I’m nuts…
@Brett
Hey man, all input solicited has been well within the rules and I need new jockey wheels. Sure I could go with stock ones but why not go sealed for the rain bike.
@all
Final answer:
Fizik all black antares
Fizik microtex black tape
Cinelli 101 stem – silver
Cinelli campione del mundo bars – silver
IRD techno glide headset – silver
wippermann connex chain
black anodized sealed bearing jockey wheels
generic carbon fiber seat post I had in my shop
Just gonna slide some jagwire or shimano cable through the gore housing. It’s really the only way I can support my local little limited shop.
And, I removed the decals from the bonti rims. Much sharper look and it’ll be our dirty little secret.
I’ll go with the gp 4-seasons but am having trouble deciding betwixed 25’s and 28’s. The 28’s will smooth out the ride more and be better for gravelling but the 25’s will roll nicer on the tarmac. Hmmm.
Thanks for all the input. I’ll post pics in a week or two when all arrives and I have time to build it up.
@George
I was wondering about that myself, but the cars are definitely headed up and going in the wrong direction if that’s the case. I just checked the profile, and they definitely rode from St Michel de Maurienne, so it’s got to be the climb.
Unless the photog is sufficiently twattish that it’s not the TDF at all but the Dauphine or some shit.
@Collin
CLIMBONE. I’ll have time this weekend to add some stuff to the Lexi. You better fucking believe that’s going in there. Strong work.
@ all… having checked route on Google Maps and Google Earth… I reckon he’s doctored the photo…. the top half of photo is Galibier from the South Side (the riders are going up it!), but there aren’t enough hairpins… so the bottom half is a different climb (or different part of the climb)…. cheating bastard photographer. If so, which is the bottom half from? (the road does appear to disappear in the photo about half way up)
@frank
I couldn’t see enough detail in the pop-up, but as a spectator you would drive there in such a way that you’d be pointing uphill. I have had time now to study it properly and I would bet that it’s the descent.
My bet rests on:
1. The photographer is obviously a total felchbucket.
2. While the above has managed to miss out the col itself in his photo, the last bit of road we’re seeing must be leading to the col. The col turns to the left on the climb. This must be the south side.
3. I have been on google earth and managed to correlate the turns with the photo pretty well from the south, but not the north.
4. Also I managed to identify the car parking area which is almost the focus of the photo – middle right hand side with a patch of dirt. I certainly don’t remember any car parking or flat enough area on the north side once the hairpins start.
5. Shadow analysis. Hard to see but what shadows the cars do cast go uphill.
The only doubt I have is caused by the sponsor’s “archway” over the road where all those cars are parked. I would have thought you’d only get those on the climb.
Whatever it is, there are plenty of awesome cycling-related photos – and that’s not one.
@Marko
Mate, nice final spec… you nailed it.
@George
By god you are right about this being the south side. The mini-switchback just before the summit is a dead giveaway.
Also, there appears to be a peleton followed by the team car caravan in the lower right corner, just abeam of the gentleman’s elbow. The riders are tightly bunched, not strung out as on a descent. Thus the group are on their way up. In which case it can’t be the 2007 Tour for the reasons others have noted and the photog is, dare we say, a COTHO.
@Nate, @George, @Brett
Yeah, cheers – well done. The riders are going up for sure (I looked at the higher-res original Roadslave sent me) and as pointed out, the riders are going up, there are team cars there, etc. Also, I am 100% it’s at the top where Bugno wheel bashed a spectator for stepping in his path and after further investigation that is most certainly on the South side.
The photog is a sniveling carbon dispensary who doesn’t know his ass from his elbow. What fuck knuckle. 100K for a photo that the “artist” doesn’t even fucking know what it is.
Please give me back a world where a top-end bike costs less than a car, where we had frames built in the country where they were designed, and photographers either sat on the back of a moto or fucked off and left us alone.
@frank
I might also point out that this is the better side to climb it from; the Telegraph really breaks your rhythm if you come from the other side.
@frank
Frank,
“the Telegraph really breaks your rhythm if you come from the other side.”
Not for me it doesn’t. What breaks my rhythm is the monstrous size of the fucking mountain.
@George
You have to find the correct rhythm. On a beast such as this, it’s typically, “ow, ow, ow, ow”* at approximately 60-80 beats per minute.
NOTE: On a V harnessing day, ow == yes. However, if I had written, “yes, yes, yes, yes” above, people would not have been thinking about riding things other than bikes.
another step closer.
Nice. Much as I like Brett’s Bosomworth (I’ve a restored SLX built by Eddy Bosomworth in around ’89) I would prefer it with Record alloy cranks. I built a few different iterations on mine, and settled on chorus carbon 10s, with a Record alloy crank, Ti Chorus post and stainless cages.
It’s been nigh on impossible sourcing nice 40 or 42cm classic silver bars and a 110mm quill (or 120mm) that’s not exorbitant…
I’ve got a ’91 Gazelle Champion du Mondial AA Special that’s a similar blue / chrome scheme to the Serotta – I’ll try find a picture.
Yeah I’d buy that bike back in a flash if it was for sale. Lets not trample all over the plastic ultegra bike though, at least till one day before I’ve had it for 2 years and I go from full replacement insurance to depreciated rates…
@Brett
This could be the post troll of the year but it was Centaur, not chorus. And I weep for that bike on a daily basis. I will be prompted to defend my current plastic Ultegra bike though, if only for the fact that its what you do with it, not what it’s made out of, that really counts.
F#%*ken wheels on that thing were worth more than I ended up selling it for. To me anyways.
@Marko
Just saw a ’97 Serotta Colorado frame on e-bay for a reasonable price ( red, with a Kinesis carbon fork) and wondered how you’ve gotten on with this build, now 2 years on. Did it meet your expectations?
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@Dolfsmomb
This sounds great! I will rub some in to Mrs Deakus tonight and see if she squeals…failing that your spam has gone bad and you should move along….there is nothing to see here for you!