More Trials...and Errors

   I was finally able to put the finishing touches on the Bianchi Ti Mega Record, but not before a seller tested my patience by sending a mismatched set of cranks. Turns out he had a Chorus crankset also for sale and had mistakenly sent me a non-drive crank arm from that set instead. Luckily, he had not yet shipped my Record counterpart to someone else, so I just had to wait a few days to make the switch.

   Since the chainring side was more of a requirement, as far as assembly, I had the whole bike put together by the time the other crank arrived. It was pretty bleak outside, and a bit colder than most of my prior photo sessions, but I was eager to take some shots:

   The Coppi bicycle is almost complete as well, but unfortunately an experiment with its set-up turned out to be a failure. I had heard that vintage Campagnolo rear derailleurs don’t operate properly with more modern Ergo brake/shift levers. I (temporarily) ignored this, as I have a particular fondness for the Campagnolo Triomphe derailleur, and hoped to achieve a compatible blend with a set of 8-speed Mirage shift levers.

   Well, it turns out the rumors were correct – it doesn’t work. The standard parallelogram design of the vintage derailleur with a single spring-loaded pivot made much longer shifts (more cable was pulled) than that of the modern dropped/slanted parallelogram. I single click of the modern lever would move the chain about 1½ cog spaces with the Triomphe derailleur. I wasn’t too upset with the obvious solution, as the downtube Triomphe shifter assembly is beautiful, particularly now that I have given the parts a good polish:

   Despite my concession to the downtube shifters, this Coppi project was intended to have a more modern turn on a vintage bike, and if nothing else, I preferred to keep the cables out of the rider’s face. I purchased a set of Campagnolo Athena brake levers with aero routing (under the bar tape), and I only need to find a replacement set of hoods to go with them.

   Progress on the Colnago Super has come more quickly than expected, and that project would be finished if I was not waiting on a high-quality Ambrosio/Campagnolo wheelset to be shipped from Italy. I have been spending time in the shop more regularly, now that the temps have dropped to uncomfortable levels and some snow has been falling. I have been rotating bikes through regularly, doing a bit here and there on all the projects hanging in the rafters.

   After about a week of soaking in PB Blaster, I was able to loosen the stem from the Gios-Torino steering tube. However, to achieve the upward and twisting force needed to completely free the part, I had to recruit the more youthful brawn of my brother-in-law Jay. I have an old, cheap wheel that I install in the fork for such operations, and I anchored it down with my feet and knees, while Jay wrestled the handlebars back and forth, up and out...YES!

   I wasn’t convinced this was going work, and unlike when I had problems with the Pinarello Treviso and was able to keep the rare stem by cutting off the cheap fork to remove it, this time I wanted the fancy Gios fork and was thinking I might have to sacrifice the stem. It was a nice enough Cinelli stem though, and I was glad to be able to keep both parts.

   I’m getting a real sense of the challenge I am going to face finding affordable Campagnolo Super Record components, especially the Gios engraved chainring, as many eBay auctions have gone up and out of the reach of my budget over the past couple of weeks. Patience and a little luck will be key!

   With all of the bicycle builds currently in progress, I haven’t been really looking to take on anything new, but I ran across a Pinarello Asolo frameset, totally stripped of paint, for just a couple hundred bucks! I am thinking of a second attempt at the gioiello giallo. I think the finish on the Coppi frameset is attractive, but not quite the cromovelato effect I was going for.

   This is going to be a long-term project, particularly because painting outdoors won’t come until the spring, but I plan to use, instead of the Metalcast sparkly metallic base, the chrome-like paint I had applied to the lugs of the Motobécane frameset a few years ago, then use the yellow Metalcast tint over the top of that. Maybe the Ergo shifters will find a proper use on that bicycle, but we’ll see...