(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...