Drillium Dude 

I saw that pic when I did a search for Pascal Simon the other day and wondered the same thing. And it very well may be the same bike.

DD

El Chaba

That could very easily be it….They just didn’t get that many bikes back then. I think the general rule was that they got a new bike at training camp that they left with the team and that was the primary race bike. They then took their bike from the previous year back home as their training bike. That bike did double duty as their race spare for early season races. Sometime during the classics and early stage races, the better riders getting a lot of racing got a second bike which was also in time for the Vuelta ( in May then) and possibly Giro. The riders riding the Tour then got a new bike as their primary then….Sometimes it might be a “ light” bike. I think with 753, yours could very easily be a Tour bike.

Drillium Dude 

Time for my final submission, and fittingly it's the last bike I acquired: a 1981 Bianchi Super Leggera. A few years ago, while deciding which bikes to cull from the herd, I came to the conclusion I was pretty much happy with what I had - with one exception: for a long time I'd considered a late 70s or early 80s top-of-the-line Bianchi in Celeste to be my grail bike, and I was prepared to expand my collection by one if/when the right example ever presented itself.

In the late summer of 2019, the following bike showed up on my local CL. Hadn't looked around on CL for a long time, but for whatever reason, something compelled me to do some looking that day. I found this, but wasn't sure what it was from the one grainy photo (shot from the NDS, naturally), so of course I asked for and got some advice from the members here. Based on that advice, I spent a long, hot day driving over, picking it up, and driving back home - arriving back at my place around midnight due to unforeseen car issues which necessitated a tow when within shouting distance of home! Seriously, the day of purchase really was a story in itself...

I gave it a deep cleaning (which included popping my stuck seatpost cherry), swapped out the Modolo Professional brakeset for Campy Record, and added a Record BB to replace the Phil unit which wasn't staying put as it should. I sold the uber-light Vittoria pedals and Phil Wood hubs on Ebay, passed the Modolos and Brooks saddle to a friend, and swapped out the Cinelli bar/stem combo with a 3ttt combo I'd had sitting around for years (I swear I bought them to have them on hand just in case I ever found the right Bianchi one day). I figure after my initial 1k outlay, the proceeds from the sale of the parts - and the fact I had the other stuff waiting in the parts bin, plus a plug n' play clincher wheelset - meant that the bicycle you see below ended up costing me about $470. Not too shabby for a grail bike

Common factor between my earliest acquisition (the Colnago Mexico) and my most recent (this one): they're the only two of my bikes sporting chrome head lugs.

Original CL ad photo:



Today:



DD

Drillium Dude 

Thanks to everyone for posting all these beautiful, sleek racing machines; y'all did this thread proud

DD

jet sanchEz

A lucky Craigslist find, one of Olaf Ludwig's rigs from the '95 season

Andy Antipas 

early 80's Doug Fattic weight weenie build

1992 Serotta Colorado 2

1977 Davidson Custom

1976 Teledyne Titan

jamesdak 

Here's another one I moved on last year with some regrets. It was a mystery "Ribble" bike when I found it locally. Eventually got confirmation that is was a Martelly built bike from 1985 but never did figure out how it wound up with the green paint job and such. Columbus SL tubing for the frame. It evolved over the years with me too.


How I found it locally.

Upgraded wheels/tires and saddle

Still making changes, saddle, bartape, bottle cage.

Getting serious now with some carbon tubular wheels.

Dry flaking Ribble decals removed, STi shifters, cables/housings

New seatpost, stem, handlebars and bar tape. This is pretty much how it was when sold. Totally forgot to give the new owner the custom Martelly decals Velocal made for me. 19 lbs 13 ozs in this shot.

rccardr 

88 Bottecchia Team Record. Arrived with an unusual assortment of late 80's Campagnolo components- Delta brakes. CdA RD, Record crank and levers. Wound up replacing all of that with DA and a compact crank.
Racy geometry but really a very comfy all day rider.