malcala622

Very close to finishing this pair of his and her Bianchi Nuovo Alloro and Sport SX builds.

Barchettaman

Beautiful, although (to my eyes) the blue bottle cages clash with the Celeste frame colour.

Viperplayer5220

@Lascauxcaveman, Yeah it's definitely a nice light bike for the year! I did more of a budget build with heavier components, so it comes in around 24ish lbs and it's a 62cm frame.

GregU

Yeah, need a darker blue to match the decals.

malcala622

The darker blue on the decals isnt quite blue...its more of a grey...I was aiming more towards matching with the 4 sided shape next to the lettering.

Id put silver or Celeste cages but all my other bikes already have them. Blue is a change of pace

WimVDD

this is a 1989 Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra "team Hitachi" I recently built up with a 10 speed Campa Veloce groupset. When I bought the Veloce (2nd handed), it came without a crankset so I used a Croce d'Aune crankset I had in my spares box.

I actually bought the frame some years ago because I wanted to ride it in the "Gran Fondo Criquilion" as a tribute to Claudy Criquilion who passed away that year. Criquilion lived near the place where I lived as a youngster so he was one of my idols end eighties.

flying_rhino

Please excuse the crappy photos. A blatant hijacking of Cannondale's Black Lightning motif.

RobbieTunes

Any Turbo is a good Turbo. Great build.

RobbieTunes

The Golden Boy 

IMO the blue on the cages and the saddle looks cool with the celeste.

Dfrost 

I really enjoyed my 1992 Klein Performance (long wheelbase production version) over 10 years and 25,000 or so miles including lots of centuries and a double, and two credit card tours of three weeks each in France and Italy. My son is still using and loving it. Great BB stiffness with decent comfort, incredible stability at speed without feeling weird unloaded, amazing welds and paint.

This one looks like it might precede the Performance production years.

malcala622

Thanks...if I didnt personally like it I'd change it but I think it looks nice.

I knew when posting it wasnt going to tickle everyone in a good way. I appreciate everyones opinions and thoughts.

nesteel 

Nice. Glad you kept the chrome fork.

RobbieTunes

Came to me as a frame and fork with the 1984 press-fit BB installed. The seller graciously agreed to find the seat post, and he did, a 25.4 Dura Ace gem.

It was apparent immediately that this was going to be some kind of sh… er, challenge.

1-BB was perhaps a Suntour Superbe Pro, a symmetrical press-fit that was way ahead of it’s time in 1984, but has no replacement now. Luckily, it was smooth. Unluckily, I wanted to go with a touring setup to match the frame, and compact doubles are not exactly competing with each other for square taper dominance. Triples are not exactly competing with each other to run on symmetrical bottom bracket spindles.

2-The calipers needed to be mid-range, and nutted. Ugh.

3-The FD bolted directly into the frame. What? Superbe Pro was the only options, but wait, a touring bike with a full size double? Ugh.

4-A Superbe Pro double crankset fit perfectly. But wait, a touring bike with a 52/42?

5A-The mount for shifters had no square “key” area for any kind of indexed. The space on the shifter mount would not work with almost any friction shifter I tried. What? I want to upgrade this. Perhaps as late as 1989…. No deal.

5B-The cable routing was right into the DT, no inner channel, and out right in front of the BB. Good luck with that.

OK, so I made this bed, time to sleep in it.

Decals, check, by Velocals. Done Deal.

After buying 2 Superbe Pro cranksets (be careful bidding), I abandoned the hope of making one of them a compact. Odd chainring sizing. Go figure why Suntour was left behind. I remembered building a Centurion Lemans RS into a triple tourer, and using a Shimano RSX compact triple crankset, sliding it right onto the symmetrical bottom bracket. OK, hoped I remembered right, ordered an NOS RSX compact triple from Poland. Yup. Whew.

I actually bought the bolt-on Superbe Pro FD. Anyone want one? Once the triple crankset fit, it was time to get a compact triple FD. Shimano made one with a 50T max size and it is identical to the 9-sp Dura Ace triple FD (and cheaper on ebay). The problem was, it was 34.9 and Klein’s 816 Aluminum was neither 31.8 nor 34.9. OK, shims to the rescue. Done.


Shifters. Shimano friction too big. Suntour friction too big. Flat backing plates for some Shimano shifters fit. Problem is, they spin on the mounts. I modified concave backing plates, and they still had too much “play” in them. I fixed that by drilling a hole in each, and in the frame’s mounting tab, and using set screws. No room for error. Epoxy on the plates, threads of the set screws, and we’ll see how it lasts. Running 9sp DA 7700 on the R, 8sp RX100 on the L because of the DA 7700’s L mounting funkiness. I’ll get a 9sp retrofit set of Shimano 6200 shifters done up for 3x9 and use those, eventually.


Cable routing directly under the shifters, into the downtube. Can’t change that. I had to file a wider groove in the shifter bodies to get the cable closer to the routing holes.


Then I had to route the cables. No inner guides. A very small flashlight and a hook made of a paper clip, plus a sacrificial cable, all combined with about 12 hours of time to get a cable in. Then I ran a cable liner over it, and used the liner to hold the cable until the shifters were mounted, cable run, then I pulled the liner out. It was kinked, anyway.

Stem and bars, no problem.

Brake levers, Soma’s with QR buttons. You’ll see why with the calipers.


Calipers. Shimano 600AX have adjustment to go long-reach, mid-reach, short-reach. They are nutted. I’ll use them. Two problems: pads are unobtainium and they don’t stop well at all. I’ll deal with it.


Rack went on fine, saddle from Ukraine went on fine, 6400 headset and the Cinelli controls, no problem at all. Front bag is a little high but works. I’ll need some light panniers.


The bike is 98% ready, a shakedown ride is upcoming. I’ll take it to Wisconsin for the Dairyland Dare and see how that gearing works. I’ve never had a bike geared so low, but I think I can enjoy it. It’s very light for a tourer, right at 22 lbs with the VeloMax Circuit wheels and GP4000SII 700x28’s. Cages are pending (red, both on the DT, one above, one below).

No correct thread here for it, but twice the work, if not triple the work of upgrading to STI’s or Ergos, so those who don’t like it, well, OK.

RiddleOfSteel

A bit of a large update to a more recent member of the fleet, my 1977 Super Le Tour 12.2. Gone are her 10-speed Dura-Ace STIs, long stem, and Brooks saddle, that, while looking killer, were also not comfortable over much of any distance (to stretched out, Brooks not supportive where needed).

The FSA Carbon Team Issue crankset is actually a triple that I had run as a double for a long time. Keen to get it back to triple status--in line with the "super" spirit in Super Le Tour, but not keen on the much-too-wide Q-factor that a triple Octalink BB produced with its 118.5mm spindle length (vs. 109.5mm for doubles), I set about spacing the drive side cup out 2mm in hopes that the small 30T ring would clear. It did! So now to the non-drive side. The cup spun in well enough to support that side of the BB. Good #2. The final issue was the non-drive side crank arm and any interference with the chainstay or, more importantly, the non-drive side BB cup. After mounting and several spins to knock away some of the munged plastic BB cup tool splines that had frayed from careless use by previous owners, the entire crank assembly spun freely and silently. Hooray!

To run a triple front 'ring setup, my Campagnolo Chorus/record/whatever mutt pieces were transplanted onto the frame. Soma Highway One bars off of a longer stem (from a stem conversion) held the Ergos, an Ultegra triple FD carried out front shifting tasks (it can tuck in right to the seat tube if necessary, which it nearly was!), and a Chorus carbon short cage (all I had!) RD took on a 13-29(!) cassette. With the B-tension screw wound out to its max, it handled the large 29T cog without complaint. The Kenda tires are on wider rims, which help, and the whole thing rides and shifts very nicely. TT-style water bottle cages for 1) not messing up the beautiful Schwinn decals I just put on and 2) trolling the modern CF biker people. Fantastic bike!

mapleleafs-13 

There's something odd about seeing the newest current cranks and Rd's on some of the full STI builds. the simplicity of the older cranks weren't so bulky which kept the certain flow to a bike. The newer cranks, like DA or Sram red look like there's so much material on them and IMO mess with the flow of a steel frame. Not trying to offend anyone as i only have STI with all my bikes but the new new grouppo's have cranks that look bulky.

neamatoad

agree entirely. the '15 campagnolo record crank was the last decent looking modern crank.

Dfrost 

That chrome with black components and the white-with black outline decals is looking really good! I like the tiny bit of color from the stripes on the ST, and even the bits of red on the crank arms. I'll never be a fan of modern crank arms, but they seem subdued by all the chrome. Can't wait to see it in person.

RobbieTunes

I like it. Excellent functionality and appearance. All triple cranksets are fairly "busy,"
and that one looks just fine.

himespau 

That's an attractively done build.

himespau 

Those are so much better than many modern ones. Even Campy's modern offerings are not as attractive as those from 10+ years ago.

RobbieTunes

Elegant.

RiddleOfSteel

Thank you! These cranks are from about 2003, and thankfully FSA didn't make their subsequent cranks with wider arms until very recently. Shimano's 7800/6600/5600-era of Hollowtech II cranksets is pretty much where I draw the line with regard to using them on a vintage steel frame. The bright finish plus wider arms/webbed spider enhance their bulky look. Obviously, vintage Cannondales' (ok, and Kleins') thick frame tubes proportion very nicely with pretty much everything, then and now (IMO).

Thank you so much! Triples are indeed fairly "busy" looking, but I think FSA did a great job 14-ish years ago with this--between the carbon arms and the black/silver touches chainrings, it's a good balance.

Thanks!

EnzoRWD

Great results! Where in WI are you? I'm in Milwaukee and will be assembling a vintage Klein, too, soon I hope. The PO luckily ran fishing line back through the frame when he took it apart. Mine is newer and doesn't have those neat (but challenging) aero shifter mounts.

liddokun

I can FINALLY contribute to this thread!! Had a doozy of a time tracking down the lockring for this thing.

1988 Bianchi Strada LX. Frame was stripped and powder coated, new decals from velocals. A hodge podge of campy components, my goal was to keep it all Italian (although the frame itself is of Taiwanese origin I believe).