jamesdak 

Well...or at least better than the quick shots I took this winter. I can't kneel on the repaired knee yet so I'm manually focusing while crouching and swaying on a lot of the shots. And the old Canon was struggling with the reds like usual.

But as I got this one down this morning I was struck again by how beautiful it is. Just needs a proper set of wheels to do it justice. Still holding off on the first ride until I can go all out for at least 5 miles or so.


Not bad for a 40 year old bike!


Had to play around with tires to get semi-decent clearance from the crimped seat tube.


Those stripes and the V in the lug!


Suntour Goodness

Generic Shimano hubs

Was going to add thin yellow stripes to the finishing tape also but the yellow on this bike is more golden than the tape I had.

Generic Shimano hubs

jamesdak 

I love these shifters

Gold bolts are a nice touch

Replaced the original black Suntour chainrings with these silver Dura Ace one.

More Superbe jewelry

This had an early Shimano FD braze-on that required an early Shimano Dura Ace FD for proper fitment. Other FD's would not clear the chainring.

Shiny stem!

Modern concession for looks and performance

Soma bars for the win!

I assume this means the bike is a 1982 model

More of the Superbe bling.

jamesdak 

I love fondling these shifters, is that weird?

Chrome has held up pretty well

Lug detail

BB detail and dang it, need to clean this up some still.

Rear drop out detail

More Superbe bling with a cool dustcap.

Check out that teardrop cutout, cool!

Yep, she's a looker!

The fork is just so sexy

Comfortable bars

jamesdak 

More of the stripes

That fork, wow!

This old frameset transformed into one sweet looking ride!

Lascauxcaveman 

​​​​​​​Boy, howdy!

icemilkcoffee 

Love the air foil shaped fork blades!

jamesdak 

And the new wheels showed up today. Dropped almost 1.5 lbs swapping these on. Same tires and tubes so that gain was the wheels and the Dura Ace UG cassette.

Had some polished Velocity Fusion rims laced up to the 126mm Dura Ace hubset I had. The results are quite beautiful to my eyes. Tomorrow we'll see how they do on the road.


This is the look I wanted for this old beauty.

Rear setup

Front

Machined brake surfaces

This does not capture the almost mirror like finish of the rims.

Another beautiful set of handbuilts done by Peter Chisolm in Colorado.

AdventureManCO 

Wow...that rear tire clearance!

RiddleOfSteel

Totally not drooling.

/looks for Superbe Pro groups again...

jamesdak 

Yeah that baby is tucked in there tight. Probably why this one feels like it's supercharged when you get on it. It is a bit deceptive though as the seat tube is crimped to make room. There's actually around 5-6mm of space between the tire and the frame. Like I can run the head of Q-tip through there without really touching tire or the seat tube. Went with one of the larger 700 x 23 tires with narrow rims to maintain some clearance. 700 x 25 on wide modern rims was just not happening.

smd4

It's great to see a classic road bike set up properly. This could easily be a show bike. Love all the proper cable lengths--no big looping brake cables, fore or aft--just nice, smooth curves. Appropriate-length exposed cables, capped by color-matched caps. All cable adjusters screwed in to start. Color-matched details like the crank bolt dust caps, water bottle bolts and brake cable adjuster rings. All parts tastefully thought through. Putting thought into how the complete bike will look results in a bike as stunning as this. I'm taking away one point for the mis-matched hub QR bolts.

EDIT: I see now you swapped out the matching Dura Ace hubs--point reinstated. Now I want a set of those Velocity Fusion rims.

But the rest of the bike should be "Exhibit A" on how to properly set up a classic road bike.

Props also to the photography and bike pose--valves up, tire labels centered over them; horizontal crank.

Take a well-deserved bow.

jamesdak 

LOL, I found the match for the one Campagnolo skewer but with the wrong end on it. Need to check the other bikes to see if I do have a proper match. I'm also getting ready to look for some kind of highly polished set of skewers that would look right on this. I couldn't find mint Suntour hubs to use for the wheel build that weren't crazy much considering I have the mint Dura Ace one's on hand. Tires mounted easily on the new rims even with the thick classic style rim tape I used on them.

More importantly this one will get it's first full ride on my base daily course today. I've had it out twice or short shake down rides but now it's time to see what this beauty can really do out on the road.

bwilli88 

That is beautiful!

tkamd73 

I think you absolutely nailed that one, love those wheels!
Tim

jamesdak 

Just a slight update.

Put on NOS Suntour chainrings, red anodized steel chainring bolts, and then found the perfect frame pump for this one. A Silca Impero with the Krapf logo in gold on it.

smd4

Nice score on the pump!

jamesdak 

Getting the Krapf ready to take out this morning and I'm struck again by just how gorgeous that bike is. And....for the first time since I got it years and years ago I'm wondering if it's time to finally pass on the Opus III. The ol' Fuji has been my most beautiful classic bike for years but now it seems like the Krapf has replaced it. I probably need to get the Opus out again on a ride so that these evil thoughts will go away.

Rick_D

Fine Krapfwerk there. Handsome sample of yet another brand I was unaware of.

AngryFrankie

Beautiful! Losa built such nice bikes. I've got a Losa Winner that is unfortunately in rough shape. His craftsmanship and the Carlos Dossena paint job make it still a bike worth admiring.