They Are Meant To Be Ridden!

   I have learned many hard lessons during an extended period of time that has involved the moving (and/or disposal of possessions) of several different family members. The most important thing I've learned is not to collect more than you need or, at least, use regularly.

   My sister-in-law's husband Todd helped to reinforce this idea when, in the process of their downsizing into a more maintenance-free property, he brought his old Ciocc frameset to me for restoration. The frame had been set aside after decades of neglect, not because he stopped riding - he had just moved onto some more modern, lightweight bicycles.

   He also helped to hammer home the fact that a steel bicycle needs to be well-wiped-down of sweat and grime before set aside in storage. The chrome on the Ciocc's stays and fork is a disaster, and we will now have to have it sandblasted before painting the entire frame. Re-chroming is very costly, and while Todd would love to see his "World '77" frameset restored to its former glory, he decided an "as close as possible" strategy is more realistic.

   I have always told people that I am not a collector of bicycles, and because I ride 4000-5000 miles a year and rotate through the handful of bikes I own, most of them see a good amount of use, and above all, routine maintenance. Right now I have three vintage bikes in my possession, and because they are outfitted in era-appropriate components, they might not have the gearing and efficiency of my modern bikes which get the bulk of attention, and miles in the saddle.

   The Vitus 992 is a special bike to me and would usually be down at the shore. It is stored indoors, but generally, because it is aluminum, would stand up to the salt air better than the other two throwback machines. The Merckx "Criquielion" is my prized show-off bike, and if someone wants to call me a collector because of that one, I'll gladly take the loss on that argument.

   So that left me with the decision to sell the Pinarello Asolo. I took it on a longish "goodbye ride" a few days ago - it performed perfectly and is absolutely beautiful, which further confirmed my decision that it really needs to see regular use.

   Two gentleman contacted me last week about finding larger-sized bicycles, and I was surprised to find a couple options rather quickly. I had turned to my Netherlands connection to see what he had in stock and found an Eddy Merckx Corsa in the paint of the Domex-Weinmann pro team from 1989.

   The mix of Campagnolo components currently installed need to be cleaned up a bit, and to be honest, we'll probably end up swapping many of them anyway. The frame is in really nice shape, though, and lately it has been hard to find bikes of this quality.

   I came up with an incredible find on eBay, in the form of a new-old-stock Ugo Scanini bicycle, painted to honor Eric Vanderaerden. The Belgian great won the Tour de France green jersey in 1986, and also won several Classics, including the '85 Tour of Flanders and '87 Paris-Roubaix.

   The frame doesn't have a fork included, but I had a carbon fork come my way for the Merckx Alu Team frame I'm having repainted, and the original fork from that frame would go nicely with the Scanini. I ended up purchasing a Mavic group a few weeks ago in order to fill some of the missing pieces in the Vitus 979 KAS bike I'm building, and I'm thinking of doing a bit of a modern twist with the Mavic parts left over. If a customer shows some interest, I'd be looking for some input on the project.

   I finally got around to building up the Fondriest X Status frame that I purchased locally this summer. This project certainly wasn't a priority, and there always seemed to be some customer work or a couple of my own random builds pushing it onto the back burner. I've had nearly all the parts, in the form of a Campagnolo Athena 8-speed group, just sitting on a shelf, ready to be assembled.

   Delivery of the seatpost for Terry's Specialized Tricross had been delayed, but I had the bike all ready to go when that part finally arrived.

      I met a gentleman who used to be a frame builder for Reynolds, and he sold me an Olmo Scatto bicycle that is flawless - I can't find a scratch on the frame! The lugged steel frame is made of Dedacciai Zero Uno tubing and features cool signature and logo "pantografia" (engravings) all over! I currently have it listed at a very reasonable price, mainly because it came equipped with lower level Campagnolo Mirage, but if someone wants to upgrade, I'm open for suggestions.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

   

Terrific Temps, Tremendous Trek

    I was out with some of my regular crew a couple Saturdays ago, and they mentioned looking forward to the Tech Turkey Trek. We haven't had any rain-outs in the handful of years we'd been doing this, though we were caught in an unexpected shower the first time out. We have had some cold, windy days, however, and I commented how great it would be if we ran into one of those freakishly warm spells and ended up riding in shorts and short sleeves. Now my friends wish I was a weatherman full-time!
   Temperatures were expected to climb into the lower seventies when an amazing group of twenty-four people lined up at Betzwood Park for our journey down the Schuylkill River Trail into Philadelphia! It was a bit chilly to start, but everyone was shedding layers as the bright sun warm things up nicely. We worked our way through Manayunk and over to West River Drive (MLK, Jr. Blvd.), weaving our way through the heavy weekend trail traffic.

   I tried to mingle as much as I could among the group, and a few times I got caught up in conversation and let my normal pace string out the line a bit too much! Some of our participants thankfully stepped up as unofficial co-hosts and helped keep tabs on our group so that no one was dropped. We had a couple mechanical issues that had to be worked around, and our leisurely pace required a few more people with time constraints to make the way back on their own.

   From the Philadelphia Art Museum, we headed up the east side of Lemon Hill on Sedgley Drive and worked our way over the Girard Street bridge to the Centennial District and Fairmount Park. We passed behind Exhibition Hall and stopped at the Japanese House.

   Our friend Steve took a photo of the folks who were sticking out the whole 43-mile route:

 

   We weaved through the Fairmount Horticulture Center grounds and then made the sweeping climb up to Belmont Plateau for a great view of the city.

   A short pedal down Belmont Avenue connected us with Conshohocken Avenue, and we eventually reached the trailhead for the Cynwyd Heritage Trail. Many folks commented on how much they enjoyed the 1.5 mile coast down to the Manayunk Bridge!

   From there our group kind of fell apart, as some people wanted to pick up the pace, some wanted to take photos, and my sister-in-law's husband Todd even wanted to try climbing the famous Manayunk Wall. As long as everyone was accounted for and was fine with heading back on their own, I had no problem with the respective plans of the split group.

   There was still a core group of about a dozen people riding together through Norristown, but even that pack became stretched out as the more fit cyclists drifted away from the leisurely pedalers. Although I would normally be "digging for home" at this point, I was enjoying the conversation with folks I hadn't seen for a while and enjoyed the relaxing pace.

   When we finally returned to Betzwood, I found some of the faster gang enjoying an impromptu post-ride party with some tomato pie. Many folks commented about the Santa Ride just being around the corner, but I can't guarantee the weather for that event, no matter what they think!

   While I have a couple projects lingering because of the need to collect parts, I have few new builds that are already progressing nicely. The first came about when I ended up with some stray Mavic parts - I have a love for these parts and a need to put them on a bike, not just sell them off. Seems another KAS Team/Sean Kelly tribute bike is on the way!

   I have a nearly pristine blue Vitus 979 frame on hand and a set of decals ready to go, while I am on the hunt for the few hard-to-find components to complete assembly. The past Sean Kelly bikes I've built were all done specifically for clients, but this one will be available for general re-sale. It is a 55cm frame, so if you are interested, definitely let me know!

   Another bike on which I'm working is another "return to projects past", as I found another Saeco-Cannondale team bicycle. This one came with really inferior components and really needs to be set up properly. I'm going to do something a bit different with this bike, building it up as if the team still existed in present day. All of the decals for the team's component sponsors are on the stays, and I am going to use modern versions of those parts whenever possible.

      The last project is not quite a tribute bike, but it was inspired by the classy Frenchman Charly Mottet, whom I admired during my early years as a cycling fan. In the early '90s he rode for the R.M.O. (a supplier of temp workers) team that wore distinctive jerseys with slashes of green, blue and red.

   The team was sponsored by Mavic (of course!) and rode Liberia bicycles, a company whose doors unfortunately closed shortly after sponsorship with the team ended. Frankly, the R.M.O. bike's bright green doesn't do anything for me, and I was happy to find a bit earlier Liberia frameset with more subtle styling.

   Although the bike will have Mavic wheels, the last thing I need to do is go hunting for more of those rare parts. Instead, I'm doing a slightly more modern build on this late-'70s frameset, but sticking with French (well...technically, Franco-German) Sachs-Huret parts. The company partnered with Campagnolo to develop the famous Ergo shifters, and when Sachs-Huret released their own "New Success" component group, it included a crankset that was an obvious Chorus copy. It even featured Campagnolo chainrings!

   A bunch of other French parts will be included in the Liberia build, such as a Pivo stem/bar combination, Maillard cogs and Michelin tires. There will be all sorts of mods and tweaks to make this retro-to-(sorta)modern project work, and I will detail them in the upcoming weeks.