Kommisar89

Good is relative of course. I was 12 in 1974 and had been riding "10 speeds" for maybe 4 years at the time, starting with a small frame kid's size department store bike with 26" wheels and then a larger frame bike with standard 27" wheels a couple of years later. I had my eye on a Raleigh Grand Prix at the LBS that went for $145 in 1974 and I was saving my pennies. Finally the day came and I went down to the bike shop, Gus Betat & Sons. They were the high-end shop in town that sponsored a club and a racing team and advertised that they were the oldest continually operating bike shop in the United States, having started selling bicycles in 1887. Anyway I showed the sales guy the Grand Prix that I wanted. He suggested that I take a look at another bike that he had. A good salesman always tries to up-sell after all. LOL.

The bike shop had three sections: the main show room where the Grand Prix sat, an upstairs section where the mechanics worked, and a back room with all of the high-end racing bikes and gear. It was a long, narrow room with little floor space. There were racks on one side with high-end bikes and frames and glass cases on the other side with all of the shiny racing gear. There were several bikes crammed into a corner with a strange Italian name that I wasn't sure how to pronounce. "B-O-T-T-E-C-C-H-I-A". I'd seen them on the road before. I didn't think I could afford anything in the back room though. But he showed me one that was $175. Unlike the Grand Prix, this bike had chrome lugs, aluminum handlebars, aluminum rims, and Campagnolo components. And it was Italian! I was sold. I paid the man and took it home. My Dad looked at it that evening and said, "What the hell do you need some damned fancy Eye-talian bicycle for? I don't know what's wrong with the bike from Sears." LOL. Well, I loved that bike. It was way cooler than what any of my friends had. I ended up riding it for years until I finally got into an accident with the tow-truck that made a right turn in front of me and took me out.

I've had other, nicer bikes since then of course but I always want to have that old Bottecchia Special back, just for old time's sake. So this project started some 10-12 years ago but got sidetracked and the bike sat in the corner of the workshop for a long time. The idea was to recreate my first good bike - the 1974 Bottecchia Special. The reason for recreating it rather than just buying one is that mine differed in some ways from the typical Special that you see out there or even from the catalog spec. I'm not sure why, maybe Bottecchia changed the spec or maybe the US distributor ordered a special configuration. Who knows? At any rate, in order to recreate it I found a typical Special on eBay and then acquired parts as needed. I came pretty close. The only thing I have not found yet is the crankset. I'll keep looking but so as not to delay the project any further I used a substitute that someone might have bought as an upgrade for a bike like this back then.

I took it for its first ride this morning. It handles great, just like I remember my old one doing. It' relatively light at 25 1/2 pounds. The brakes suck. The original pads are pretty dry rot. I'll need to get some new ones. It also reminded me how terrible the Valentino derailleurs were, Campagnolo or not. LOL. And the front derailleur sure requires a lot of trimming with that really narrow cage. So how does this one differ from the typical Special from the period? The wheels are the biggest difference. Campagnolo high-flange Tipo hubs laced to Fiamme Yellow label clincher aluminum rims. While you did occasionally see Specials with Tipo hubs, they often had other brands and always had steel rims, usually Dolomiti. I built up a set using 700C Fiamme rims rather than the original 27". Next, the crankset. The original crankset, which I could not source, was an Ofmega steel cottered crankset with a 5-arm spider and aluminum chain rings that visually resembled a Nuovo Record of the period. I substituted what appears to be an early Ofmega Forgiato that would have been a nice upgrade. Then there is the minor detail of the recessed allen-head bolt for the stem bolt instead of the more typical standard hex bolt. One thing that I discovered while building this bike is that the frame was designed specifically for the US/Common Wealth market with 27" wheels in mind because the Freni Universal Sport center-pull brake calipers would not reach in the back when I installed the 700C rims. I substituted a Weimann caliper with 75mm reach as I'm pretty sure Universal never made a longer reach caliper like that. Anyway, without further ado, here it is.

Kommisar89

The original crankset would have been this one here:

USAZorro

Very sweet bike.

Paragraphs are your friend.

Kommisar89

Let there be paragraphs!

Lascauxcaveman 

Great story and a really nice build. I'm especially digging the unusual crank; I've never seen one of those before. What's the size of the rings?

Kommisar89

52/42

tyler_fred

The Golden Boy 

Fantastic!!!