The Revolving Door of Bikes

   It is really strange how both the sales of my bicycles and the accumulation of new projects always come in bunches. I only wish I that I could figure out why it happens, as it definitely isn’t a seasonal thing, and it doesn’t seem to matter if they are vintage or modern machines.

   There can be a lull in activity over a few weeks, with perhaps only an occasional question asked about the bikes I have in stock, then all of a sudden two or three are out the door in a matter of days. Similarly, there will be a period during my eBay/craigslist searches when nothing is particularly jumping out at me, and then all of a sudden, some interesting frames and inexpensive components will become available all at once!

  

   It rarely happens, but this time around, the patterns occurred to my advantage, in that I had funds accumulated from recent sales, which expanded my budget a bit when desirable products became available. Usually I end up having to choose between purchases and hope the other is still available later. Sometimes I luck out and a price will drop by the time I get back for that second look, but more often than not, I just miss out.

   One of my “second look” projects is a Vitus 992 frame – yes, another Vitus – that is identical to the one currently in my collection, although this one is 53 cm. This version from a seller in Augne, France, will need a little touch-up to the paint in areas and also a new set of decals. I had received a bunch of compliments on my bike, and I thought it would be fun to give this one a more complete Mavic component treatment than mine. It will be a bit more expensive, but the rare parts will be quite an attraction.

   I had bought a couple of reasonably-priced Mavic derailleurs as extras during parts searches for the previous Vitus builds, and I found a stem/handlebar combo that didn’t have an outrageous price tag. I also came across a really nice vintage Mavic wheelset, but I think that the brakes, levers and crankset are going to require some patience. Many of the purchases will take a while to get here from overseas anyway, so it’s not like I’m in a hurry.

   The rest of my acquisitions are Italian, including a Colnago Master X-Light that was part of an NYC “Colnago swap” that I undertook last Wednesday. I arranged to meet two very nice gentlemen, one in Brooklyn who had paid for the Colnago Mexico a couple of weeks ago and was trying to arrange pick-up around a busy schedule, and the other was selling the MX-L in the Bronx.

   I got a great deal on the MX-L, as the seller dropped $300 on the total price, since we could avoid shipping and the eBay fees if I paid cash on site. I put in a quick call to the fellow in Brooklyn to let him know I would be willing to stop by first with his Colnago, and he even offered to pay my tolls to get there!

   Things would have been perfect had it not been for he ungodly traffic. I had no idea there was a Yankees game, and I’m suspecting some other road mishap was a contributing factor, but what should have been an easy(ish) 45-minute trip up I-278, turned into 2½ hours! It wasn’t like I had any options to exit the highway, as most of the time I was trapped on bridges with nowhere to go. Luckily the seller and I were in constant contact, and he was very understanding of the situation.

   I’m not exactly sure which way I’ll be proceeding with this bike, as it is pretty much ready-to-ride (except for tires/tubes), with an excellent Campagnolo Record Titanium 9-speed group already installed. However, I had contact with a prospective buyer who may want a more modern carbon 10- or even 11-speed group swapped in.

   Another Colnago, which is a little bit of a mystery, is on its way from Texas. This beautiful aluminum frameset with Italian colors has an identical paint scheme to the pricey “Extreme Power” carbon frames the company released in 2008. So, I definitely know the year, I just can’t find anything on the specific model name. In many cases, I have seen companies like Pinarello and Specialized put out aluminum replicas of their top carbon bikes, and I’m assuming this is something similar.

   My plan on this build will be dependent on which direction I end up going with the Master X-Light bike, using whichever groupset is “left over”, but it will definitely not be a second-rate machine in any case!

   Yet another Italian frame is coming from Bologna, Italy, and this one, a mid-1980s Battalglin (baht-tahl-YEEN) has an interesting little backstory. 

   The downtube sticker shows the bike was originally purchased in Verona, from a shop owned by Luciano Conati, a former pro racer who won a stage of the 1976 Giro d’Italia and also rode in that year’s Tour de France for his SCIC team. I was excited to find out that originally his squad rode Colnago bicycles! Unfortunately, Luciano died in February of last year and his shop closed, but I found some classic photos of him on CyclingArchives.com.

More to come, of course...

Gee Vee Ay

   Greg Van Avermaet – that is the only name that matters so far this cycling season. Of the eight single-day races the Olympic champion has entered, he has won four and finished second twice. I don’t think I need to say too much more about those stats, except that these were major races, the Classics, where ALL the heavy-hitters show up. And don’t say, “What about the Grand Tour riders like Froome, Contador and Quintana?”, because they would have absolutely NO SHOT competing on the type of courses faced in Northern France and Belgium. That is why they don’t bother even showing up. Wussies!

   Kidding of course, but I’m simply expressing my preference for the spring races, and I still appreciate the “mountain goats” that blast up the Alps and Pyrenees at speeds most folks would be happy maintaining on a flat road. I just like the idea that in the Classics, it’s all on the line for one day - no consideration of time gaps at the finish and how much you might be able to recover in the upcoming days. If you don’t win on that one day, you go home with nothing...well, except with some over-valued UCI points, but that’s a whole other can of worms.

   Two things really surprised me about Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix, the first being how calm the racing was compared to past years. I’m sure the cyclists themselves would argue that point, but as a viewer, the event just didn’t have the chaotic crashes and panicky chases that usually dominate the action. Granted, Van Avermaet himself had a dicey moment early on after a spill, but he received a spare bike and kept it together as he made his way back up to the lead group reasonably quickly.

   Perhaps things may have been different had either of the attacks from World Champ Peter Sagan had stuck. Unfortunately, the Slovak star had a mechanical problem during one and a flat tire in the other, which ruined his big chance(s).

Stybar and Sagan lead the peloton through the Arenberg Trench.

   I think the main reason for the relative quiet is that all of the main favorites spent so much time at the front, and no major splits occurred between them until the decisive moves were made with less than 20 miles left. Sure, there were some breaks in the race, but from riders who weren’t considered big threats for the victory, and the idea of them eventually being caught was never in doubt. Indeed, the race’s average speed of 28 mph (a record over the 160-mile route), contributed to the inability of any break to stay away!

   The other thing that surprised me was that, when Van Avermaet powered away on the notoriously rough cobbles at Carrefour de l'Arbre and only Quick Step’s Zdenek Stybar and Cannondale’s Sebastian Langeveld* could follow, the Eurosport commentators were even considering that anyone but the BMC captain would win. Had they not seen him race the last couple of years? If it is a long, hard race, NO ONE is a better sprinter than Van Avermaet.

   The Olympic road race was considered the hardest ever designed for that competition, and who won? As the five-time winner of the Tour de France’s green jersey as most consistent sprinter,  Peter Sagan would be considered, on paper, a better sprinter, but in a small breakaway group he has been nipped at the line several times during his career by G.V.A., most recently in February’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

   In fact, if a fan hadn’t gotten his jacket tangled in Sagan’s wheel and brought him down directly in front of Van Avermaet, the Belgian may have caught his countryman Philippe Gilbert and won his second career cycling “Monument” within a week!

A POCs upon you and your team for looking that bad!

*By the way has anyone else noticed how the Cannondale team hasn’t won diddly squat since they started wearing those butt-ugly POC helmets? Coincidence? I keep thinking of Billy Crystal’s Fernando Lamas impression, “It’s better to look good than to feel good.” I’d argue they are doing neither!

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   With so many parts having arrived while I was on my southern trip, I have been polishing off a number of my bike projects recently. I’ll lead off with photos of Brendan’s Sean Kelly Sem-France Loire bicycle...

...and now, the long-awaited completion of the Ciocc, which actually had a buyer in Brooklyn lined up weeks before I put on the final touches, so you won’t find it in the For Sale page.

   I’ll sign off with pics of the Cannondale R1000 Optimo, which hasn’t received a lot of mention since I picked up the frame early in March, but it was a fairly simple collect-parts-and-build-type deal... 

Slowly Returning To Form

   I knew it would take a bit of effort to get back into the “wrenching mode” after my long break in the South, but it also seems it will take some time for my body readjust to the local geography, as I had been spoiled by nearly pan flat landscapes on which to ride. My first trip out after my return was on a regular route that featured one long, gradual drag followed by a loop back on paved trails. I felt great and set a P.R. – not that I’m obsessed with that type of thing, but MapMyRide keeps track of such stats, and I just happened to notice. I was feeling pretty confident about my early season conditioning.

   However, I was quick to be reminded of the difference between powering over flat(ish) roads while holding a pace for about an hour and climbing a steep hill at high intensity for a couple of minutes.

   Inspired by the Tour of Flanders, I set out Sunday on what is usually one of my favorite circuits that is crammed with narrow, twisty roads that are constantly going up and down. It also includes a climb I like to call the Muur de Fontaines Jaunes, in reference to the Flemish muur or “wall”, the kind of short/steep climb that is a staple of the Classics races. The second part of the name translates as "Yellow Springs", which is simply the name of the road.

   Sure, this Chester County hill isn’t cobbled or quite as long or steep as the fabled Belgian climbs in Geraardsbergen or Huy, but it does rise 160 feet in about a half mile, which can knock the stuffing out of you when you're not in good shape. Actually, my legs felt really good on the way up, but as I hit the incline at a good tempo and attempted to hold it, I did not like that somewhat panicky feeling of not being able to catch my breath!

   I pulled myself back together and thought I had recovered well enough until the wind picked up and contributed further to my legs feeling rubbery for the rest of the undulating route. My frustration grew as I recalled how comfortably I had handled this ride in the past – I definitely know where to focus my training the next few weeks.

   While I was away, the remaining parts arrived to complete Brendan’s Vitus. There was a small complication with the replacement Mavic 305 headset, in that it was missing one bearing retainer and the crown race (no wonder the seller was so quick to give me a discount), but the old 310 version had identical parts, so I used that one as a “donor”.

   Applying most of the decals was a fairly simple process, except for the large, wrap-around Sem-France Loire pieces. I always draw a light center line with pencil across the front of the clear decal carrier sheet to help aid my eye when positioning the graphics. I will often use painter’s tape and mark center lines, but sometimes parts on the bike, such as downtube shifter mounts or water bottle cage bosses, are a great reference point as well.

   Positioning isn’t necessarily the issue with the large decals – it’s the care needed to make sure air bubbles aren’t trapped underneath. I first center the decal on the tube and press down along the line I had drawn. I then work slowly outwards smoothing down the decal from the middle to the edges with my fingers and move about a half inch at a time around to the back where the two sides will eventually make contact. Because of the small overlap that will occur, it is necessary to remove about an eighth inch of the carrier sheet from one edge before completing the wrap of the opposite side.

   It isn’t often that a job comes out perfectly, since the tubes on vintage bikes will have an occasional nick or imperfection. A bubble can be removed by poking a couple of tiny holes in the area with a needle and pressing the air out.

   I will be done with the build in a couple of days, but here are a couple photos of the finished decal work:

   Shortly before I left for Georgia, the correct front derailleur for the Colnago Mexico arrived in the mail, and I completed its assembly. Unfortunately, the snow and rain we were having didn’t provide ideal outdoor photo conditions, so I had to wait until I returned to take some pics:

I’m beginning to think I had it listed at too low of a price, as I had received a handful of inquiries within a few hours of listing, and the Colnago is already on its way out of my shop!