Like a kid at Christmas, that’s how I felt today. There was the opening of some cool presents, one old, some new, all awesome. The Bosomworth finally turned up, and the Chorus gruppo was awaiting it eagerly, like baubles waiting to be added to the old tree every year. I spent the afternoon stripping, cleaning, lubing and polishing. The bike that is. Here’s a bit of a rundown on the progress so far.
She looked a bit sad out of the box, but showed plenty of potential. The paint job is a bit cooler than it looked from the original photo on the interwebs. Without even assembling it as was, I started ripping bits off in a frenzy.
The chrome on the drive side chainstay was a bit worse for wear, but Marjolein came up with a clever solution; use the old chrome bar tape sitting in the drawer to cover it up. I glued on a strip, bound it with 3M, and will unwrap it in a few days.
The rear rim is a Campy Omega, laced to a 105 hub. The front is a Mavic 190FB. They will both be replaced by a set of Chorus hubs which I scored for $60, laced to Open Pros which are damaged. I’ll probably replace them with new OPs, or possibly Stans tubeless rims with the decals removed for stealth (and to keep the weight down.)
The bars are Cinelli Giros, but unfortunately too narrow and scratched up to use. Rachel spotted a set of wider, classic bend alloys in the box of bits under the bench, and they got the nod. A cool looking but heavy 3T stem was replaced with the ITM I bought last week.
I gave the bottom bracket a quick facing before installing the external bearing cups. Well, I got Nath to do it as my heavy-handed mechanical skills lack, well, skill.
Sweet Tange TR dropouts hold the carbon goodness.
Next up I removed the Shimano 600 headset and replaced it with an old Campy unit that Rachel had spotted on her flatmate’s discarded frame. (That’s it in the background, an old Reynolds 531 tubed Hill – from memory – with a fused in Campy seatpost.) Score!
And so ends Phase 1. Wheels are the next step, then cabling and taping. The saddle and post from my Tricross you see here will be replaced too. In the guise above, it weighed 8.2kg (18lb). With a light wheelset, I’m hoping it stays around that or just under. Stay tuned.
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Nice looking! I have a dream to ride L'Eroica in 2013 to commemorate the big 5-0, building up a classic steed will be part of the fun.
@Brett
Campy chorus seatpost - polished silver, a carbon post would be all sorts of wrong. And you're not going to need a long seatpost, given how long that set up looks, and how, well, inflexible (?) you may be...
18lbs...holey shiet. That is amazing for a steel frame. I was assuming you would repaint it but all clean it looks great(if not a little wacky, color-wise). A monster waxing will really help. It will be a fun experience to ride it after riding a carbon bike, it won't go uphill as fast but who cares, it looks great. Ahhh, you've got the 11th gear to help. It's a great blend of old school and new. Good on ya.
Cables, chain, pedals, bar tape, and cages will surely bump this into the expected 21.5-22 lb. range for a bike that size.
@michael
Yep, you're probably right, but I'm just gonna have to remember Eddy and RDV, and give it The V when I ride it.
Ordered up some rims today, not the lightest out there, but got the awesome factor under control: Ambrosio Excellence. With the old school silver/gold lettering. Oh yeah. Also some Elite cages.
My chrome bar tape/chainstay protector job came up mint.
Wow, very nice! I have an old Peugeot I can't seem to bring myself to get rid of, even though it has some mechanical issues will cost a bit to fix because of the parts it needs. Someday I'll fix it, I keep telling myself. Seeing this bike you're putting together makes me really want to do something with it again.
@mcsqueak
Do it! You won't be disappointed.
That is a sweet looking bike, the chainstay cleanup op is mint!
@Brett
Yeah, I really should... it's not the lightest bike, just picking it up I'd put it in the 25-30 lb range, so part of my hesitation is spending money to build up yet another heavy bike. I already have a 34 lb(!) Schwinn from the early 80s that's running pretty well.
18 lbs for your ride is awesome. Even if it gains a few lbs from the new wheels, etc. it'll still be a great ride.
@Brett
I can not believe how well that chainstay turned out. Well done! You'll have to go into some more detail on how that was accomplished. It looked to me like you would need to rechrome or put a monster chainstay protector on there. Well done. Really looking forward to the next posting on this so we can monitor progress!
What a cool project!