bykemike 

First afternoon of "work" on the new to me Vintage bike. I expect my Gruppo will be here later today or tomorrow afternoon, I ended up buying a one owner 1984-85 italian road bike complete. From the pictures it looks like a 100% good deal, he is bringing it to my shop and we will go from there. It is all campy C Record with braze on downtube shifters and a braze on FD. It is a ready to ride complete bicycle ,I never heard of the frame and it isn't as nice as what I just bought. But this is a good way to do it.

I can ride it around the parking lot to check the brakes and shifters , there are no shipping costs, and I may keep the wheels. I will sell the frame for certain and get back whatever it sells for to pay park of the parts bill.

Today I was just making sure the seat tube was clean and clear, (It is) and set up a dummy post at my height, put a rear wheel in place to see what I can run for tires (it may be able to swing 28's, that is a 25 on there)

Some pictures, just messing around so forgive the quality.

I added a quick pic of a Klein Rascal that may be the next project and the red bike that was last months project

bykemike 

Just continuing with the mock up part of this program..front fork set in place, no headset yet, wheel in the fork, a set of Sram Red brakes, (my favorite, by a large margin, the lightest production brake I've been told) a stem I may use. It appears I will be able to run 28 tires on F and R with no issues but I always have to make sure. I may end up going with my first thought, a Campy single speed crank up front with a 5 or 6 speed in the rear, a single downtube shifter. I love bikes when they are as simple as possible. Ok, I will say I love my BMC with it's 5 batteries, power meter, HRM etc..but thats different.

smd4

You and me both. That’ll be a beautiful bike!

bykemike 

Got my parts donor bike Sunday afternoon, ran it by my shop just to set it in a stand and poke around on it a bit. 3 hours later I'm looking at a bare frame and a bench with a bunch of plastic bags of parts. Everything just came apart pretty easily, so I have a mix of C record parts and Athena parts, most in pretty good shape, a nice Cinelli stem and bar combo with a set of levers that can be aero or not, hoods and levers in great condition, nice set of down tube shifters, great rear derailleur, braze on front derailleur, a pair of Campy aero seatposts, wheels, I won't use, maybe keep the low flange hubs, a bottom bracket in pretty good shape but I may go newer and lighter , good crank, one bad heel rub. The Athena brakes are nice, need acorn nuts replaced. Nice Campy headset which had just been serviced, came right out and installed on my new bike easily.

All in all a good deal, I'll list the frame of the donor bike in CV later this week, an early 80's 54cm Miele Road issue. sell the Athena brakes, going to stick with Sram Reds, picked up a nicer set of wheels on eBay with a 7 speed and 126 spacing (I wanted to stay with 126 and not spread the frame)

Just before I left today it was sitting on its own wheels, lots of stuff to do yet this week though. Pictures sometime tomorrow, I have to work a bit to make up for the spending part of this !

bykemike 

Sitting on it's wheels, but new wheels are coming in a few days as well as an NOS freewheel. Crank should be here Tuesday, I have a chain on the shelf. Gotta do a bar wrap and get that little piece of rear DR cable., that is on its way.

It's going to be a single speed front crank, I found a true Campy Pista crank, real nice condition, almost new. On my normal SS bike (I have 2 right now) I spin a 48/18 just doing Fl riding. I'm going to start with a 45T . I'm hoping that lands me right about in the middle of the freewheel most of the time.

mhespenheide 

Interesting to see the SRAM Red brakes on there. Although they're not "new", they're some of the best-looking modern(ish) brakes out there.

bykemike 

Thanks for that! I have three other rim brake bikes and all have Sram Red brakes on them, they are supposed to be one of the lightest production rim brakes out there and it is easier to find them now that rim brakes are disappearing as disks brakes move in.

They do look real nice and are wonderfully engineered, I have a set of Sram levers on there as well, I'm not so wild about that but when comparing the Sram levers with the Campys there is a real substantial feel to the Srams the older Campys lack and I am not having much luck finding aero hoods for the Campys right now.

bykemike 

Rode our local bike lane for 15 miles this afternoon (maiden voyage) took a few pics I'll post tomorrow. Took a different route than expected. I couldn't get a good chainline using the campy pista single crank I had set up for this bike but using parts on hand I have it set up and riding well with a Campy double crank, front derailleur, downtube shifters installed and working flawlessly (the indexed side kept me going for a while). I have done a number of bikes over the years so I nailed my personal settings well enough that I droppd it on the trail and rode away. I took the multitool out of my pocket to adjust the stem a bit but other than that it was a trouble free initial ride.

I still don't have the bars wrapped yet but I'll get that tomorrow most likely. A very sweet bike it seems, I felt right at home on it. New wheels show up next week but I believe I'll have a set built for it after I polish a set of Campy hubs. It would be nice to find some decals for this bike but I don't expect I can ,not a mainstream brand.

bykemike 

A few pictures from the maiden voyage, I was so happy with it I did it again this morning, I made it 20 miles before my bottom bracket started coming loose, the drive side lockring had not been tightened enough.

SwimmerMike 

Nice job. It turned out great.

bykemike 

Thanks Mike. Still have a new set of wheels to put on. I got the bars wrapped this morning, serviced the bottom bracket at the same time so it doesn't fall apart again

mhespenheide 

If that's where you want the tops of the handlebars and the brake levers, you might well want to switch to a more modern handlebar.

smd4

A dazzling looking bike, but the bar and saddle positions would kill me!

bykemike 

That was pre wrap, the bars have been rolled forward a little, levers sitting about the same and the stem dropped a bit.
But, best of all, it fits me real good, oh yeah changed seat as well, the one in the pictures was on my BMC when I bought it and it never felt right, I keep it around though.

Manny66 

Nice looking bike , The modern SRAM brakes look period correct. Have you checked out the availability of frame decals ? Its a rare one for sure.

bykemike 

Who do I go to for bike decals? I've seen an Australian business that offers a lot, I was thinking a bit more local possibly.

joelzieve

Nice looking frame!

bykemike 

I have found three examples around, this is one:

Steel Vintage Bikes - Borgognoni Borg a. Classic Road Bike 1980s (steel-vintage.com)

I located a real nice Cinelli stem and bars that may be more correct than the bars I am using right now (off one of my Wabi's)

Does this stuff ever end? I hope not actually. I sent a request to an Aussi company that does period correct decals, I hope to hear back in a day or so.

smd4

I’ve been upgrading my Cinelli for decades. I love it. There’s always something to improve.

bykemike 

Back out on the trail, newish wheels, hubs skewers, tires, and bars wrapped. This is growing on me!

bykemike 

Putting on some miles and, of course , making changes. New wheels with Phil hubs, new freewheel 13-28 and it shifts right up/down with zero issues.
I spooned on a set of Gatorskins, 28's if you can believe it, plenty of clearance with one issue, I have to drop a few pounds out of the rear when I pull the wheel to clear the seat tube.

I am just racking up some miles and enjoying it.

jdawginsc 

I think most of us have a bike or two where we have to de-air to repair...

Raya2

such a good looking bicycle , really enjoying seeing the frame progress into a beautiful ride

repechage

is not that maintenance?

georges1

Nice bike and nice build