Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Hey, plans change!

   It’s a theme this week: no matter what your original intentions, circumstances arise that will require you to be flexible if you want to succeed.

   During yet another riveting Paris-Roubaix, Peter Sagan ditched his usual strategy of hanging in among the leaders in hopes of beating them in a final sprint. Sagan has learned from recent races that his rivals will lean on his strength and willingness to cover breaks, in hope that he will eventually wear down and allow them to claim victory. Although a three-in-a-row World Champion can hardly be guilty of not winning “big races”, victory in many of the single-day Classics and Monument events has eluded Peter precisely because the competition consistently follows his wheel to a point of frustration.
   In this year’s “Hell of the North” Sagan was determined to force the action from farther out. With 54 kilometers of the race’s 260-km remaining, the main group of protagonists had slowed after reeling in repeated attacks by last year’s winner Greg van Avermaet and several members of the dominant Quick Step team. During this lull in the action, Sagan accelerated hard and got a gap. His rivals looked at each other, hoping that someone would cover the move and also probably thinking it was a bit too far out for the Slovak star to be able to hold off the couple dozen strong riders still in the lead pack.
   When Sagan caught the remnants of the breakaway that had been out there on its own for about 165 kilometers, only AG2R’s Sylvan Dillier was able to still hang with him. The World Champion powered on in front, probably thinking the Swiss rider wouldn’t have much left, and Sagan even surged a couple times in an attempt to shake free of his companion and finish off the remaining 20 kilometers into Roubaix alone. Again, Sagan made a strategy switch as Dillier showed incredible tenacity and then even a willingness to share the work of holding off the hard-charging pack.
   However, they both had to know a sprint among the two was practically a foregone conclusion, and Dillier admitted afterward that Sagan’s presence was like “an angel and a devil in the same person. An angel because he worked with me very well; a devil, because if you go with him in a man-to-man sprint for the finish line, he's hard to beat." In this case, considering the incredible effort Dillier had made the whole day, impossible would have been a better word!


   I have been encouraged by some recent sales and other progress with my builds, as I finally found an appropriate bottom bracket for the Gios, although I’m now awaiting delivery of the part. I did start some basic assembly of the headset, stem and bars, and I also mounted the brake calipers. When I decided to slip on the wheels, I unfortunately found that one of the tubular tires had a bulge coming out of its dried-up sidewall. It’s a shame, since these nice Vittoria tires didn’t even have any visible wear on the treads.
   I don’t really want to deal with the cost of buying new tubular tires and the mess of cleaning the rims and gluing on the tires, especially when I’m not even sure that someone would want the tubulars if they intend to ride the bike. Instead, I decided to purchase some vintage wheels with Nisi clincher rims and Super Record hubs, and I will sell the tubular set as-is, since they might appeal to someone who just wants wheels for some build that is intended for display only...or they might have more enthusiasm for the handiwork of changing the tires!

   My intention to complete the Vitus 979 with a Shimano 600 group was altered by a gentleman name Arol, who was looking for a French bicycle and came up with my Peugeot during an online search. Through a couple phone conversations and email exchanges, we discussed several options for building up the bike with French parts, possibly Simplex, Huret, or some combination of the two, along with a Philippe and/or Pivo cockpit.
   After admitting my apprehension about finding the necessary parts from its long-defunct component line (other than WHEELS, that is), we decided to attempt another Mavic build. Strangely enough, a nearly complete group became available on eBay, although it had some time trial bike-specific alterations. With the wonderful 651 “starfish” crankset, 840/810 derailleurs and 451 brakes, the group seemed a great starting point for our build.


   The to-be-remedied TT modifications involved a huge 56-tooth outer chainring on the crankset and a set of 650c wheels! The set also had a rare set of Sachs 8-speed “ergo” shifters mounted on a set of black-painted ITM (ITalManubri) handlebars that were totally mismatched with the polished aluminum Mavic 365 stem!
   Included were a few other interesting bits we might use, like the 330 seatpost and early Mavic pedals, and some we definitely won’t, like the 305 headset and the cables/housings/cable stops. It’s always a good idea to replace that final group of items, and Arol is going with downtube shifters anyway.
   One component with which we intend to make a budget compromise is the brake levers, as the last attempt to find the Mavic parts for a Vitus 992 required four months and quite a large hunk of cash! Mavic’s 451 brakeset was almost an exact copy of the BRS 500 set made by Dia-Compe, so we are going to do a discount substitution with the levers. I proposed, if possible, I could even rub off the Dia-Compe branding on the face of the lever to further conceal its true I.D.

   The Peugeot might also see some changes, as another potential customer contacted me about the possibilities of converting the bike to a compact crankset setup. He was interested in more relaxed gearing, and I did a little research into vintage cranksets with 110 mm BCD (bolt circle diameter, if you’ve never heard of the term) on which to fit modern 50- and 34-tooth chainrings - turns out Sugino made a couple different versions.
   Luckily the Simplex rear derailleur currently on the PX 10/E accepts up to 30-tooth cogs, but I think it would be a good idea to go with a seven-speed freewheel with a maximum 28t to ensure smooth operation and reduce the slack in the chain that the derailleur will have to take up when in the smaller ring/smaller cog positions. My wife has a 34/34 operation on her vintage Cilo because faces some nasty hills on her commute to and from work. Her bike doesn’t even have a long cage derailleur, so we should be okay with our rather tame 34/28 proposition!

We’ll see where this all leads...



Tuesday, April 3, 2018

(Not So) Suddenly Saronni


Saronni winning the 1983 editon of Milan-San Remo
aboard his iconic red Colnago
   During the early coverage of Vincenzo Nibali’s thrilling victory in the Milan-San Remo race a few weeks ago, the commentators were naming a few favorites (none of which were Nibali!), including current, three-in-a-row World Champion Peter Sagan. Mentioned was the fact that if “Peter the Great” won, it would be the first time that “La Primavera” was claimed by a cyclist wearing the rainbow-striped jersey since Italian legend Giuseppe Saronni did so in 1983.
   Regular readers will be familiar with “Beppe” Saronni, as he has been a feature a couple of times in this blog. The wine red (now known as “Saronni red”) Colnago Super bicycle, like the one ridden by the Italian champion during his years with the Del Tongo team, became a hugely popular model in the Colnago catalog. In fact, many modern models of Colnago bicycles have been given the same paint and decal treatment as the Saronni Super.
   One of my earliest bicycle build projects was a Colnago Nuovo Mexico with this famous paint/decal design, and although the shade of red is a bit brighter, my own Colnago Master X-Light has a very similar look to this classic bicycle. It was a no-brainer for me to make an offer on a very affordable Colnago that was badged up as a Saronni bicycle.


   The Beppe portrait head tube decal on this bike reminds me of the decal set I put on the Fausto Coppi bicycle that was recently completed.


   This Saronni bicycle has a somewhat blasphemous build up with Shimano 105 and 600 components, although that is a bit of an advantage for me, as I am putting 600 on the Vitus 979 project and can swap some parts. I will be putting appropriate Italian parts on the Colnago, as I have a Campagnolo Athena group set aside that will do nicely.

   Not too much to report on the other builds, as I’m still held up on the bottom bracket search for the Tommasini, although delivery has been made on some of the parts that need polishing, and I have spent a bit of time on that chore. In the meantime, I did come up with an amazingly inexpensive find of a C-Record rear derailleur on an overseas site called...wait a second, I’m not telling ANYONE about this parts resource! The derailleur had a minor flaw on the unique lower pulley cowling that I should be able to smooth out (again) with some polishing.
   I also managed to have some good eBay timing on a newly-listed and reasonably-priced set of Campagnolo delta brakes with a Buy It Now option! With these money-saving deals, I'm even more excited about our earlier compromises to keep within the budget.

   The Bottecchia is nearly ready, as far as collecting all of the parts, but the frame needs a bit of touch-up around some sweat-caused rust/paint bubbling spots near the headtube. I’ve had some luck with a product called Metal Rescue, which is a gel you apply to the rust areas and cover with plastic wrap to keep the chemical from drying out. The key to Metal Rescue is that is doesn’t affect the surrounding paint, just exposes the bare metal from the rusted areas.
   I’ll have to use some of my paint matching abilities to come up with the correct shade of purple to cover those spots, but they are mostly under the top tube, away from direct sight line, so that will help.

   A shop priority, before eventually starting the assembly of Brendan’s bikes, was to finish off as many of the backed-up projects as I could. I had several partially-completed bicycles hanging in the rafters with bits and pieces lined up neatly on my large work table, but with new parts coming in nearly every day for the Tommasini and Bottecchia, space was becoming tight.
   There have been some timing issues, waiting on a few things coming from overseas, but the Vitus can be quickly wrapped up with a couple of parts from the soon-to-arrive Saronni. The Scanini bicycle, however, had its final touches applied yesterday and was rolled out for some photos:






   Paris-Roubaix is this Sunday, and, with four-time winner Roger de Vlaeminck in mind, I’m really hoping to have my version of his Gios-Torino bicycle ready for assembly later this week – again, an elusive Campagnolo bottom bracket holding up completion. Argh...