Bits and Pieces

   I would like to apologize for not really having a unifying theme in this week’s blog, but a lot has been going on the past couple of weeks, and I’ll try to devote a little time to all of the news.

   First off, this Saturday is the fourth annual Cycle Tech Turkey Trek, leaving at 9:00 from the Betzwood Park trailhead of the Schuylkill River Trail. We’ll be doing a 40(ish)-mile round trip into Philadelphia and back, hoping to take in sites like the Manayunk Bridge (Cynwyd Heritage Trail) Philadelphia Art Museum and the Schuylkill Banks Boardwalk, but sometimes city events will cause a detour or two.

   A nice-sized crew has already committed to the event. We won’t be crushing the pace, maybe 15 mph or so, if the forecasted wind allows it, but this is a social event, and we certainly don’t intend to drop anyone. Feel free to join us – just be sure to dress warmly!

   Last week I completed a bit of touch-up to the Merckx Corsa, and below are some photos. If anyone interested would prefer a vintage 8-speed setup, instead of the current modern components, let me know, and we can work something out.

   A couple weekends ago I attended the Philadelphia Bike Expo and saw some tremendous bicycles – too many to mention really, but I thought the Wilier-Triestina Cento10 Pro was a standout, with its cromovelato-esque paint job:

It's all about the gioiello ramato (copper jewel) finish!

   The real highlight of the Expo for me was the opportunity to speak with legendary framebuilder Richard Sachs. I think the reason he took the time to speak with me was probably because I didn’t just ask another cycling question. Having a graphic arts background, I was interested to know who had designed his head badge (compare it to his original version below).

   He told me that an old girlfriend had actually came up with it back in the ‘80s, when there were no computers with art programs. She did everything with paper cutouts, just messing around with some different shapes. He liked this version at the time because it suggested motion and reminded him of the Descente sportswear logo that was very popular in cycling at the time.

   The funny thing was that it was much later that he even realized the design incorporated his initials! A wonderful feature of this shape is that it can be inverted to create a pattern that Richard often uses to decorate his frames.

   The next day I was off to Brooklyn to meet someone I had spoken to on the phone about my Vitus 979 bicycles. Chris generously offered to pay for gas and tolls, and asked me to bring along both the purple and red bikes so that he could decide which he wanted after checking them out in person.

   Turns out he is a bit of a collector and told me about some of his other machines, which included a couple other Vitus bikes. He was just a few years younger than me, and we shared similar stories about our formative years as cycling fans.

   Chris was very generous in his comments about my work, and I could tell he was struggling to decide which of the two bicycles to keep. “You know, Glen, I think I’m just going to have to take them BOTH!” It felt pretty good to come home with a fat wallet and only one of the three bikes I had left home with that morning.

   The other bike was my Cannondale, and I had a really nice ride out from my friend Taylor’s townhouse on Quincy Street in Brooklyn, across the Manhattan Bridge for a couple laps of Central Park. The return leg of the ride went down the Hudson River Greenway and crossed back over the Brooklyn Bridge instead, which was a BIG mistake with all the clueless tourists clogging the bike lane with their photo ops.

   After fighting my way through the crowd, I enjoyed the bike lane down Brooklyn Boulevard. The temps were in that crisp-not-cold zone I love, so I decided to explore a bit. I rode down to the neighborhood of Cobble Hill then cut across on back streets to Prospect Heights (pretty sure I was on Bergen Street most of the way). Anyhow, it got really cloudy, and with the sun low in the sky at that point, around 5:00, dusk seemed to be closing in.

   I didn't want to mess around when I ended up intersecting Bedford Avenue and wanted to double-check that I was turning the right direction. There was a girl with headphones on, crossing the street, and I asked if she knew which way was Quincy. Her reply was "Quincy, Massachusetts?" I can't image how far she thought I intended to ride!

   Still tinkering with my own Vitus, I was able to find a vintage Sugino RT compact crankset that has a look more appropriate with the rest of the Mavic components than the modern FSA parts I had previous on the bike. The Sugino crankset was originally a triple, so I simply substituted shorter chainring bolts and found the 50- and 34- tooth chainrings to finish the job.

   I also removed the Italian 3t stem and bars (saved for near-future use!) that were on the bike when I bought it. I swapped in a Mavic stem, but I don't like the shape of the company's handlebars, which have a long forward reach to the curve. I just can't find a place to put the levers where they are comfortably in reach when riding on the hoods and in proper vertical position for squeezing the levers from the drops, while still maintaining the correct forward rotation of the bars.

   I went a completely different direction, as a bit of an experiment, and installed a set of Kestrel carbon handlebars. I thought it would be nice to cut a bit of weight from the bike, and they blend right in with the black bar tape, anyway!

The (hopefully) finished product

   I thought I’d spare you the blog title of Vitus Vision 3, but I have one more round from the French brand, as I received another visit from my “student” Jordan, who had a red 979 that he wanted to build up. He had quite a project in store, as he also brought along a very nice Bottecchia and a Look 231 that he wished to disassemble, with the intent to use some of the combined parts on the Vitus.

   Just like our previous “Bicycle University” session, we had a lot of fun and got a lot done as an effective team. We had some great conversation going, not only about bikes and racing but also about the NYC music scene, as we are both punk rock fans.

   It was a bit of a coincidence that, after posting the photo of the “Merckx Garage” in my last blog post, that my pal Brendan sent me a photo of his brother Aidan’s garage, which, in addition to the Vitus 992 I had built for him, had a Tommasini, Colnago and Look 595 hanging inside. I had replied that he shouldn’t tempt me with photos of Look bicycles, as I had been trying to keep from purchasing one in my (fruitless?) pursuit not to become a collector.

   Well, the Look 231 frameset Jordan brought along was gorgeous! It is gold (despite the more yellowish hue that shows up in the photo below) with the unpainted carbon sections in between having the appearance of fish scales when light reflects off the frame. I have plans in the works for this bike already!

   Speaking of Brendan, when I was finally able to deliver his Sean Kelly Vitus, he gave me another project bike that is a bit different, an Atala Grand Prix with a “townie” setup. One of my first restoration projects, was an Atala Aelle Victory, and I once owned a Cromor Triomphe, which I eventually sold to a friend in Philadelphia.

   This bike is going to require some polishing to its chrome lugs and some touch-up to the black paint, which will be simple enough. The bike has some really interesting parts, including a mystery crankset that doesn’t even have a manufacturer listed in the original catalog, found online! The Grand Prix is equipped with a Campagnolo Valentino front derailleur that is push-rod activated, instead of having the common parallelogram construction. Strangely, the matching rear derailleur has the incorrect routing of the chain through the pulleys, but it still functions! I’ll correct that anyway.

   The bike has a set of wheels built around Campagnolo Nuovo Tipo high-flange hubs, and according to the catalog, Fiamme rims, though they are unmarked. Unfortunately, the bike has Shimano brake levers, but I’ll let that slide, as finding Campagnolo levers for a flat bar configuration will be difficult and pricey.

   Finally, I was able to find a set of Mavic Cosmic Carbone wheels to complete the Wilier-Triestina Cofidis team bike. I contacted my prospective buyer in South Carolina before the purchase, since the wheels were expensive enough to put this venture beyond the proposed budget. I wanted to get the okay to proceed with plans to stick as close to team specs as possible. That project should come to a quick close when the wheels arrive, as the bike has otherwise been complete and hanging in my rafters for weeks!

As always, I’ll keep you informed on my progress.