jamesdak 

I realized I never did "close the loop" on this bike here. I did finally get it pretty much sorted out, still undecided on what final wheels it will wind up with though.

So the story again is this was one of two bikes custom built by David Kirk for a local Utah bike company called Fishlips in the mid 90s. I got it off the shop owner as a frameset this past winter or so. Oh, and supposedly painted at Dave Kindig's custom auto shop in SLC. This I have not confirmed because they didn't answer my email but David Kirk has confirmed making it.

The bike is painted in Gios blue and with some research I was able to find a pretty much perfectly matching fingernail polish to fix the few chips and scratches. I still need to wet sand and blend in the one larger touch up but basically the bike is looking great now. I changed my mind a few times on what groupset to build it with and then finally landed on a mint silver 9 speed Daytona groupset and that's what was used. The finally steps to finish this one were an adventure. The build by my LBS went ok. I turned this one over to them as I had too many projects going. Then I had to search high and low for a nice silver Campagnolo wheelset for this. Found some old semi-aero one's on Ebay for a decent price and ordered them. They arrived seeming to be well packed and in great shape. But during shipment the rear freehub somehow got between two of the front spokes and bent them badly. Off they went for repair and the seller was cool and reimbursed me enough to cover the damage. Once the wheels were fixed I put them on the bike and realized that nothing was shifting. I was like WTH, it worked when I picked it up from the shop??? But I did the handlebar wrap myself and got distracted while doing it and had bartape inside the bottom slot of the levers jamming the mechanism. Fixed that and I still only had half my gears in the back. Realized they hadn't "zeroed" the shifter and that it wasn't noticed when they QC'd the build. A very rare error by my trusted shop, not big deal.

Anyway, got a couple of rides in and then bike was fast but not one of my smoother rides if being honest. Those beefy chainstays he built it with made it carry speed well but you could tell I wasn't riding on smooth pavement. And despite the fast pace the heft of those wheels were noticeable during the whole ride. So about a week or so I got in the lastest set of Campagnolo Zonda C17 wheels I had ordered and I put them on this one despite not being the silver look I was going for. They immediately dropped almost a full two pounds off the bike, man those old wheels were heavy. Got in several rides with the new bike and this one is transformed. So this one is pretty much set for now. I'll keep my eye out for some under 1500g silver wheels but until then I think the Zonda's are staying on it. I am running a FIzik Kurve Snake saddle on it now and then takes some of the edge off this one when ridden on the rough chip seal roads.

And now some pictures, I really need to shoot a full set one day.


How I got it just with some wheels thrown on to move it around.

The first "complete" build using a set of donor wheels since the silver ones were still in shipment.

White cockpit of course

Daytona silver goodness





The final touch

jamesdak 

One of the first rides

With those old silver wheels, this is the look I want

How it's setup now with the Zonda's and Kurve saddle