Belgium Bound

   Recently I’ve found myself a little frustrated to not being able to complete some of my projects, but not for altogether bad reasons, as there have been a few more involved repair/maintenance jobs coming into my shop. However, I have had to reverse the intended order of my projects, as a few parts searches have become annoyingly difficult.

   Weeks ago I had all of the touch-up work done on the Vitus 992 Lotto Team bicycle and was then able to apply the replacement decals (see photo below). I have managed to collect nearly all of the Mavic parts intended for the build, but have struggled to find any reasonably-priced brake levers.

   I evened settled on a bit of a “cheat” by using Simplex SLJ downtube shift levers, only because the Mavic 820 versions were exact replicas of this model, and any Mavic counterparts were listed at brutal prices!

   Unfortunately, the already-extended delivery time of the overseas replacement for the broken derailleur hanger will be doubled because the initial shipment of the part was lost somewhere in transit. The seller seemed unfazed about making another attempt, so we’ll see how that goes. If you remember my first experience with this part, I’m going to have to do some work to make it fit anyway!

   My two current Italian projects have been held up by parts searches as well, but I’m hoping to finally have the correct parts in hand - I just haven’t had the time to try them out. The Basso needed to have a longer spindle for the bottom bracket, and the Battaglin needed a proper Campagnolo headset.

   The project I was able to finish up is the Cannondale Six13, which I think is a beautiful color and is super-lightweight. I had many of the Cannondale parts, such as the seatpost, stem and bars on hand from the failed "Ultimo" bike experiment, and filled in the rest with Shimano 105 and FSA components.

   As my wife and I are both turning 50 this year, we are treating ourselves to a trip to the Benelux region in a couple of weeks. Actually, she is already in Paris, accompanied by her sister and niece, and I am going to fly to Brussels, then take the TGV to Lille to meet up with her.

   We are going to drive around to some cycling landmarks from the Paris-Roubaix race, like the velodrome in the finishing town, and walk a bit of the famous cobbled Arenberg Trench. On the way back towards Brussels, we’ll hit a few Tour of Flanders sites such as the treacherous Koppenberg climb (below) and the race’s museum in Oedenaarde.

   On the 8th I plan on celebrating my birthday by visiting the BMC Concept Store just outside of Ghent and renting a pro bike to ride the famous Muur de Geraardsbergen (think Manayunk Wall, but with cobbles), or Mur de Grammont to the French. I’m hoping to have good enough legs to ride it twice, once for the experience and another with some stops for pics, but we’ll see.

   Along the way to Luxembourg and then back to Amsterdam and Rotterdam, I also plan on visiting the Mur de Huy, the nasty finishing hill for La Flèche-Wallonne, and driving up the ramparts of the Citadel of Namur (photo below), which was the site of a thrilling finish of a stage of the 2015 Tour de France, as well as last season’s Gran Prix de Wallonie.

   Before I leave for the Low Country, I plan to do one or two interesting new rides stateside and will share details about them in my next blog entry.