I picked the bike up on Tuesday, and had a family matter to attend to this week, so I hadn’t done proper research since getting it. I did some reading today and saw that 6spd freewheels were only just being introduced around the time this bike came out, so I’ll leave it at 120 w/ a 5spd. As one poster mentioned, I do have a Trek 710 spread to 130 to fulfill more modern desires.
It came to me by way of a family friend of my girlfriend’s and I was clear about its worth. The owner is happy that it is being looked after and restored. It may be slightly small for me, but we’ll find out. We were actually also offered dinner when we went to pick it up, talk about a deal!
Serial number is 2199, which after checking online, seems to make it a ‘73. The Nuovo Record RD has a 72 Pat. as well, and the Strada crank arms have a 3 inside a diamond which I also found correspond to ‘73.
The front rim is certainly not original. There’s residue from the sticker that looks like an oval, so maybe a Weinmann or Rigida? All of the spokes also appear to be double butted. The rims also both seem to have a bit of wear so I’m wondering if new rims make sense, along with new tubulars. Im very open to recommendations as both are beyond my knowledge. I measured about 35-38mm of clearance between the chainstays, which has me thinking a 25mm tire would be a good bet.
I got some cleaning done on the frame this afternoon, then our friend came over to watch the Mexico GP. I’ll clean parts after work during the week. Gearing-wise, the 14-24 freewheel intimidates me. I’ll hold off on changing the freewheel or chainrings (there was a box of spare parts which included an extra 52t chainring as well as a 57t ring!) until the bike is up and running again tho. I plan to do red newbaums tape and white Campagnolo toe straps (but am again open to suggestions). The shield hoods seem more common on eBay but I’d definitely prefer to find some globe ones if I could. Seems like more hunting will be in order.
