Big Time Busy with Bikes

   I really had no intention of purchasing so many frames/bikes at once, it’s just that the great bargains presented to me were too hard to pass up. Then I received some calls from my “regulars”, and my shop started filling up!

   I was intrigued with trying to replicate a cromovelato paint job, but I was thinking yellow instead of the copper color of the Wilier and Faggin bicycles I’d seen. One could refer to this bicycle with the fun-to-say name “Gioiello Giallo” (yellow jewel). I was looking for a vintage frame with poor paint that I could work on slowly over the summer, since I was down to only two bicycles in stock and had cleared out all other projects.

   I found a late 1970s Fausto Coppi bicycle that fit my needs, as the paint was well worn and really not that attractive of a color anyway. I envision updating the parts a bit as well, perhaps putting to use that cool set of Rigida wheels I picked up a few weeks ago. The complete Coppi bicycle went for a very low price, even when including the shipping price from Italy. I’ve already picked up a set of decals to apply when the stripping and painting is complete.

   During my search I also saw a nice Pinarello Veneto frameset going for a low price and kept a watch on that as an alternative, if bids on the Coppi went out of my budget. No one bid on the Pinarello, so I figured that I could snap it up and set it aside for a future build.

   The photos I had seen really made the frame look shabby, but it arrived in surprisingly good shape. I think the paint might just need some automotive rubbing compound to brighten up some areas that have discolored/aged. It will definitely need a new set of decals – of course...it’s a Pinarello!

   Yes, one more surprise surfaced – an early ‘90s Pinarello “Spring” mountain bike. Although the bike has no suspension, I presume the name refers to the coil-type spring and not the season, as I would hope the company would have properly called it La Primavera instead! Again, no one was bidding, and I figured, “Who is going to ever see a Pinarello mountain bike around here on the trails? Why not give it shot?” The small amount of money I had to pay (again, including the shipping from Italy) made it a no-brainer!

   The bike was in good condition overall, but was absolutely filthy! The rims looked as though someone had ridden through the Carrara quarries and let the dust just cake on the rims. I had to soak the rims in four inch segments with a degreaser for 15 minutes and then scrub clean with an old toothbrush. I was rotating, spraying, waiting, brushing and wiping for a couple hours, but came up with fantastic results.

   I have to say that it has amazingly good decals (except on the seatpost) for a Pinarello. The hot pink to dark purple fade paint job had been done over a white coating of primer and looked pretty rough in some areas because of the sharp contrast in colors. The fade effect was going to make touch-up painting impossible, but It was amazing how the bicycle’s looks were transformed with a dab of pink or purple Sharpie marker here and there!

   I found a nice country setting for some pics:

   Other work was coming in steadily as my friend Chris picked up his finished Lemond Alpe d’Huez and exchanged his other bike, a 2010 Jamis Eclipse with a cool retro paint job, for a complete overhaul. My neighbor then sent me some business, as a friend of his had received an old 3-speed cruiser that needed an inspection/tune-up.

   Finally (whew!) I received a call from the man who had purchased the Colnago Nuovo Mexico I had completed in the spring of 2014. Also big fan of Sean Kelly, Brendan had bought a Vitus bicycle and wanted to create his version of the KAS team bicycle the Irish legend had ridden to so many victories. It was such a shame Brendan had missed out on the purchase of my previous Vitus build, since I had used almost exclusively Mavic components, as Kelly certainly would have had on his racing machine – and the parts I used had been in pristine condition!

   Brendan was realistic and knew finding these parts in such condition was going to very difficult and costly, so he had decided to settle (if you could call it that) on Campagnolo Super Record gruppo. He had collected a good portion of the required parts already and stopped over one evening to discuss the project.

   We had an enjoyable time discussing “King Kelly”, and Brendan explained his thoughts on the build. I shared some of my experiences with the Vitus bike and mentioned some issues I knew might come up, such as misalignment of the rear drop-outs, and possible solutions.

   Brendan also dropped off his gorgeous red De Rosa bicycle (my first contact with one), which was equipped with Campagnolo’s legendary delta brakes - some might say “infamous” would be a better word to describe the parts, as they were aesthetically beautiful but were somewhat over-engineered, proved difficult to service and had rather average stopping power. Anyway, he had some downtube shift levers he wanted to swap with the Vitus and a couple other tune-up issues he wanted me to take care of.

   A few days later, when he came to pick up the De Rosa and drop off a just-purchased wheelset for the Vitus, I surprised him a bit with the progress I had made with the decals:

   As you can see, I’ve been quite busy, and will be for quite some time!  All good news.