CyclingFool95 

I've gotten motivated to get my old '87 Spummoni Montello back on the road (it's been 20-ish years). It's currently stripped down and cleaned and ready to go back together. I'm not touching the dinged up paint or missing decals but its chrome is gleaming again. Do I build it back up with the silver 1993 Chorus groupo that was on it, or with the new 11-speed black Centaur group I have sitting around? I'm not a purist - I don't really care whether its got vintage parts or new parts, and with a Stronglight Impact 34/50 crankset (which I have sitting around also) and a 13-26 cassette, it's highly usable either way. Just not sure which way it will look better.

My 96 Colnago looks quite nice with black components, but it's in black Art Decor already, and its paint is fairly pristine. Not so with the Montello.

BFisher

Not sure where you want to go performance-wise, but check out this thread if you need inspiration on going modern:
Retro Roadies

Please do share pictures when you get your post count up.
Cheers!

Wildwood 

I ride vintage as vintage (one exception) and newer frames with 'modern' gear.
If stem and post are silver then that's the way I would go.
How many miles on the 1993 Chorus group? (my 9 speed from '98 needs overhaul)

Aesthetics = eye of beholder - the most meaningful eye belongs to the owner.

ridelikeaturtle

I agree, mixing black and silver is a mistake. Especially if you go black, go all the way and black it out.

My personal preference would be for silver. Black is really hard to pull off correctly, it really needs to be perfect to look right.

CyclingFool95 

Given that said Spummoni frame has always had yellow/black bar tape, my aesthetical judgement should be questioned. The 93 group is up there but I actually have a 94 group with just a couple of thousand miles on it. I'd probably use that one.

CyclingFool95 

Here it is in all its grimy glory. The aero bars were a foolish attempt, at what I'm not sure. But, it's sat in my basement looking just as shown for twenty years.

RobbieTunes

I follow no rules in that regard.

If I want to ride it, I build it with ride-friendly components. Or not.

3 different approaches to moving my fat arse across the planet on 2 hoops.
My '85 Pinarello is 2x10 Centaur.
My '85 Merckx is 2x7 Super Record friction.
My '85 Colnago is 2x7 Athena Synchro.

OK, so I like '85

PS: I highly recommend tires. They simply make the ride better.

Welcome "back."

repechage

I would go with a saddle that has more dimension between the rails and the top surface, that seatpost looks above the limit line.

texaspandj

Go with the silver components.
Now that's a Bicycle. It checks all the boxes for me, including size. Looking forward to your finished fine ride.

P!N20

I vote for Chorus, but the correct answer is whatever gets you riding more.

Loose Chain

Or purchase, as possible, a newer seat post that is longer. Many of the old Campy seat posts must have been designed for old school French fit school of thought. I run into the same thing with my Pinarello (SP/SL) in that the seat post is right at the limit line to get my 76cm setting on my 56cm frame.

I also tried some triathlon aero bars and long ago decided they were stupid and that I am faster in the drops.

Mr. 66

My question, should decide to answer, is. "Are you going to be able to handle the saddle to handlebar drop that you were riding 20 years ago?"

Andy_K 

I'm just going to put my '87 Montello here as a reference point.



I ended up deciding the white saddle didn't work. I'm happy with the black components.

Loose Chain

The OPs frame, my guess, a 54cm at best. Mr. Andy, you seem to ride bicycles towards the higher end of your fit range (does that stem flex a lot with it so high?), yours looks like a 56 c/c or even close to a 58, and the OP may have exceeded his on the low end of his fit range. Some people have long arms and need some drop, even a lot of drop.

easyupbug 

With that paint silver. I have a '86 Levi's team frame (w/ scandalous non-Italian Prestige tubing) in red I built with silver mid 90s chorus everything that I tried updating to Athena 11 a couple of years ago. As said above to get it to look right to my eye I ended up blacking every removable part one by one over time on the bike. The end result was not pleasant so it is now sadly a naked frame again waiting for inspiration.

CyclingFool95 

The post is an old Campy S-R that was set up for the aero bars - it's right at the line. Normally, the seat is much further back, and the post a little lower. The post came with the bike - the previous owner needed a round bar to get the post much lower. I used to run the bike with a newer Chorus post with the aero shape. I'll be going back to that post once I figure out where it is.

CyclingFool95 

That frame is indeed a 54cm c-t. The geometry is skewed due to the aerobar positioning. While I still ride a fairly aggressive position, this is exaggerated.

CyclingFool95 

That's sharp looking. I've thought about taking the frame down to the chrome but I'm not ready to do that yet. Never liked white saddles. Had a Flite in yellow and black, split lengthwise - thought is looked good on my Litespeed. Not really though. The Litespeed looks good in black too.

CyclingFool95 

Black works here, I think. But, as was mentioned earlier, it had to be everything. Until a few weeks ago, the headset was a silver Delta Stronglight. Even with the chrome it didn't mesh. It needed to be replaced and the black Chris King seemed like the way to go (I've had one on my Litespeed since 95 - never had to touch it).

xiaoman1 

Hi, I would use what you have in order to keep period correct and also save money...mine has the same great patina....loss of decals as well as paint...the faster we ride Pinos the more the patina.
Best and good luck with the build, Ben

trek330

My 87,88 Montello!

CyclingFool95 

Nice. Looks to be a cm bigger than mine.

Cleaned, polished, headset cleaned and relubed, tubes flooded with WD-40, and ready for assembly. The photo cant do it justice but that paint, especially the red, has a beautiful luster to it when its clean.

I learned something interesting today. I wanted to use a quill adapter and modern ahead stem, but it turns out the fork steering tube has SLX spiral ridges in it over the bottom half, and the adapter won't fit all the way down. Since the parts to rebuild this bike are coming off another bike (Pinarello Galileo that's too big for me), the Ergos are already on Deda bars/stem so I'll use the adapter as best it fits and maybe the extra half inch or so of height will work for me. If not I'll go back to the Cinelli ones that were on this bike.

The piece of string is dental floss run through the top tube to allow me to pull the brake cable back through - the Montello does not have an internal guide.

Does anyone have any experience with the replacement decals available on ebay from that Hungarian seller?

Mad Honk 

I have had good results from Greg Softley in Australia for a decal set. He is active on E-Bay. His decals are period correct and go on as water applied or stick on. I do have a concern for those using the decals and that is the clear coating after installation. Greg's decals are ink based and any touching of the decal when clear coating will degrade the decal, and require repaint and re-coating to get it perfect. The install is easy but the clear coating will be hard to get perfect. You have to be very careful to not to over-spray the clear coating with these decals. Otherwise these are great decal sets. Smiles,MH

CyclingFool95 

Just finished building it up this evening. It's amazing how easy it is to dial in Campy 8 speed. It's ready to ride - I'll cap the cable ends after a ride or two to be sure everything is working right.

The stem is a bit higher than I'd like it, but that's the result of the quill adapter bottoming on the spirals in the steerer. If I really don't like it, I'll go back to the Cinelli bars and stem that were on it originally.

Only a couple of minor bits of drama.

The bottom bracket was well stuck in there on the drive side - finally had to rig up a clamp to hold the wrench on the cup and then wallop on the wrench with a rubber mallet until it finally broke free.

Even though I had run a piece of dental floss through the top tube as a guide, when I tried to pull the cable through, it snagged, the floss pulled off, and I was up the creek again. Vacuum didnt work at all - probably a function of having WD-40 coating the inside of the tube. I used the cable to try to push the floss back through, hoping I could snag it through the opening in the top tube. I wasn't really even paying attention to what I was doing, mostly just quietly fuming (or more vocally ranting perhaps), and all of a sudden the cable popped out of the tube where it was supposed to be. Lucky me.

Tips the scales at a less than svelte 23.2 lbs as shown.

P!N20

Do this.

Looking good! So would you call that a chromovelato spumoni?