oneclick 

Well it all depends.

On how good the powdercoat is, and how much and where it gets out and in what kind of weather, and how pretty your quickly is.
This has been a regular rider for about 10 years now, there's a little rust on the bottom bracket shell, but that's it.
Maritime climate, when it's misty you can smell the salt in the air.

djimb

It turns out my understanding of translated Italian isn't great. I thought it would be another week, but the frame arrived today! I put some phone camera photos in my albums.

I also got in touch with a local framebuilder regarding reaming the seat tube. She quoted me a price of $50, and she referred me to a local paint shop that specializes in bikes.

Looking at the frame in person, it seems like the rust is primarily surface. There's some corrosion on the brass joints around the braze-ons, and some other general dust/dirt buildup, but on the whole, I think it looks pretty good. I have to stop myself from breaking out the vinegar until I figure out a way to protect the bare steel until I can get it in for paint. Maybe another question for the framebuilder.

I have to say that it's really impressive just how light it is. I haven't had the Centurion apart for a few months, but I feel like this is notably lighter. I'm so excited to get started. Just have to write a couple of emails and wait til payday.

I haven't been able to find any real information about Olmo serial numbers, and from what I've seen, they don't seem to have an indication of manufacture date. I'm going to try to dig into it some more.

icemilkcoffee 

Actually you get a lot less cross chaining rub with the narrow 7 speed cassette, than the wider 8-10 speed cassette. On my bikes with the narrow 7 speed freehubs I basically never needed to trim. Granted I also seldom ride in the extreme cross chained positions.

djimb

that makes sense. Thanks for the input. I always think about it when I get back on the bike after a long break. 2x7 is really fine once I get my rhythm back, and after a few shakedown rides on the Super Le Tour, I'm glad to have indexing.

Last night, I just had to know how it would clean up, so I gave the non-drive side a quick scrub with tinfoil, and it cleaned up pretty well. I'll be two posts away from being able to post photos after this. For now, I'll put the photos in the album.

djimb

Minor progress:
I got the majority of the rust off, but i haven't completely removed it all. I reached out to a paint shop recommended by the frame builder I've been talking with, and they quoted a general price range of $500 - $800. That seems a bit steep, but based on their photos, it looks like the quality of their work is impeccable. Still, it gives me a reason to look more into doing it myself. From what I've read, and what I already understand about painting anything, it's going to be all about multiple light coats with a lot of sanding in between. I've also considered just slapping a clear coat on it while I save up. From what I've read, that quick and dirty solution can last a good year before more rust sets in, and that would allow me to ride it while I save for a pro paint job.

either way, I've got an appointment for the 10th to get the finishing work done. The frame builder said she'd charge $100 to ream the seat and head tubes, chase/clean up the bb threads, and face the head tube and bb sides. Less if any of that had already been done.

Now I'm starting to think about components. I figure it would only make sense to put a full campy groupset on, but i'm far less familiar with campy than i am with shimano, so I'd appreciate some input on tier/generation. From my understanding, they only ever made a couple of indexed downtube shifters, and the indexing wasn't great, so I'm considering brifters for the first time. Of course I'm not opposed to friction shifting either, but I've grown accustomed to the indexing of the shimano 6400 drive train on my Ironman.

Another question I have is about rims: I feel like I see mavic rims on most italian bikes, but years ago i built up a wheel set with nuovo record hubs laced to campy moskva rims and loved them, but I don't feel like I ever see wheelsets with campy rims. Maybe they only made them for a short time and didn't see the return they hoped for? Maybe their offerings were lower quality than similarly priced mavics or whatever? I don't know. Just something else to research.

I'm going to start putting concerted effort into familiarizing myself with campy groups and European rims, but direct experience is invaluable. If you were building up this frame, what would you put on it?

Finally, considering the fact that i need a fork and generally only ever use the front brake, the possibility of a disc setup presents itself. I'll also read up on rim vs disc, as well as steerer tube compatibility of disc forks and classic frames built for 1" steerers, but any input would be welcome. I'm not sure how I feel about managing a hydraulic system, tbh. I imagine maintenance and bleeding is a lot easier than on a car, but the idea of making the switch is still a bit intimidating.

Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

bboy314

Finding a 1” disc fork will be challenging. Though, since it’s a bare frame, you could (*C&V trigger warning!) have a disc mount added to the rear as well, by an experienced builder of course, while you’re at it. It’d be an interesting restomod kind of thing. But personally I’d just stick with a high quality caliper rim brake.

squirtdad

high quality dual pivot with good quality pads will give you super braking (true not as good as disc)..... and look better on that frame.

also there is a reason disc is now all thru axle, there were problems with with wheel retention with standard front dropouts