Mama mia!

   Lately some of the complications of Italian bicycle builders have been driving me a bit crazy, and I’ll get to that in a minute, but one Italian who has done nothing but impress me is current Tour de France leader Vincenzo Nibali. His performance was amazing when the race crossed some of the same nasty cobbled sections of Paris-Roubaix (that’s him in the Yellow-ish Jersey, behind a teammate in the photo below), and he finished second at the end of a stage in which the “experts” said a lightweight climber could never excel. Regular readers will not be surprised to hear that I was not terribly disappointed when Chris Froome and Alberto Contador dropped out due to crashes, but Nibali looks so strong, I wonder if either of the former champions could match him anyway!

   I’ve written previously about some of the counter-intuitive designs Campagnolo has used over the years, such as the bottom bracket threading that can actually unscrew itself as you pedal. I discovered some new quirky features during a recent plan I developed to swap parts between FIVE bicycles currently in my shop. This wacky, but well-thought-out, scheme mainly came about in an effort to save money, but will also spare me from having to search for additional parts and reduce the time necessary to resell those not used. I definitely do not want my basement to turn into a component warehouse! Here is the plan outlined according to order of bicycle purchase: 

   Bike #1: My Pinarello FP2 was initially the object of some good-natured ridicule from my sister-in-law’s husband Todd, because he knew my affinity for (almost) everything Italian and couldn’t believe I purchased a high-quality Pinarello carbon fiber bike equipped with anything but Campagnolo! Its Shimano Ultegra group made the bike fit my budget at the time, but it was something I knew had to be changed somewhere down the line.

   Bike #2: When I started the Pinarello Prince restoration this winter, I knew there was a risk that someone looking for a lightweight racing bike would want to spend their money on something new, instead of a refurbished composite frame. However, this bike was too beautiful for me to just let sit around in someone’s garage, and to borrow from an over-used phrase by American Pickers’ Mike Wolfe, “I’m a Pinarello guy!”

   My intent was to have fun with this project by building up a light, modern machine, and if I ended up with minimal interest (which has unfortunately happened), I could always switch out the expensive Campagnolo carbon fiber gruppo with the Shimano Ultegra parts on my FP2 and “ease the pain” by creating a super bike for myself! In the back of my mind I had an alternative owner lined up for the Prince - my brother Craig, who has a Flyers fan’s affinity for orange and black. Colors aside, whether the Prince is Shimano or Campagnolo equipped, this bike blows away what he is riding these days, so I knew he’d be happy with either option.

   Bike #3: The long-term Pinarello Treviso project is coming closer to completion now that I have the last couple of needed parts in my hands, particularly the appropriate fork. That part will have to be stripped of its original paint before I am able to send it out to be painted.

   Bike #4: I am a bit surprised that collecting the components for the Pantani Bianchi has progressed so quickly. I found a very reasonably priced Campagnolo Record 9 speed gruppo on eBay, and although there were some minor issues with what I received, the seller was a very friendly person and responded kindly with a nice refund and included an additional “Campy” bottom bracket with which I will be able to offset some of my costs nicely through resale!

   Since the shiny chrome Shimano Ultegra parts from the Bianchi were in such good condition, I am going to use most of them on the Prince when I swap in its Campagnolo carbon setup. In the meantime, I found a substitute for the expensive Pantani stem, and all I needed was a set of wheels, which may have fallen into my lap with…

   Bike #5: I found a surprisingly affordable complete Pinarello Treviso (yeah, I know, another one?) on eBay, sold by someone who didn’t really know what a jewel they had in their hands. The bike was completely outfitted in Campagnolo Super Record, and the relative small amount I spent to buy it made it a perfect donor for the missing fork and metal head tube badge for my Treviso project. The frame was a bit more recent vintage than mine, and by leaving on the headset and bottom bracket, I should be able to find a home for it rather easily. I fully expect that by parting out the Super Record group for resale, I should completely reclaim the money I spent, if not make a little profit.

   The clincher (pun?) in this purchase was the Gipiemme Torelli wheelset, which is a pretty close replica of the rare and expensive Campagnolo Shamal (compare photos below) that Marco Pantani had on his Bianchi in the early 2000s. The really goofy part of the Shamal story is that it came stock with a now-obsolete 8 speed hub, which the Mercatone Uno team mechanics swapped out for a 9 speed version for their riders. Good luck finding those wheels! Actually a set were on eBay a couple of weeks ago, at around $800 when I stopped watching the auction – that’s not going to happen.

   The Italian’s strike again! The problem lies in Campagnolo’s effort to make only their parts work together and force buyer loyalty. They updated to a nine speed system by changing the shape of the freehub (see photos below) and cogs so that they weren’t compatible with other systems on the market, including their own older versions! Even if I could find an affordable 8 speed Shamal wheelset, the freehub change had to be dealt with somehow.

   Normally free hubs can be changed, but of course this one can’t because the dimensions are different. I read on a couple of forums some solutions that involved buying an additional hub to use as a donor for parts and filing down the individual pawls. Pawls are the spring-loaded, wedged-shaped pieces that create the ratcheting effect in the freehub to allow a cyclist to coast and also lock into the wheel when applying pedal power. This solution sounded complicated and costly (a throwaway Campagnolo part?) if I got it wrong, or if I decided to turn the work over to more capable hands.

   I then struck upon an idea that since both the 8 and 9 speed freehubs are the same length and the spacing between the cogs is what allows a different number of them to fit onto the hub, that if I insert an extra eight speed cog and swap in nine speed spacers, I might come up with the necessary cassette width. My eight speed cassette is 13-26t, meaning it has a count of 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23 and 26 teeth on the individual cogs. I found someone selling individual eight speed cogs, and bought one with 16 teeth to insert in the obvious appropriate spot. I then bought a set of nine speed spacers manufactured by Miche, which are Campagnolo compatible, but FAR less expensive than the original.

   I am amazed that there have been no references to this solution, or anything approaching it, in the various forum threads I’ve seen regarding Campagnolo 8 speed hub conversion. This $65 answer to a problem that could cost multiple hundreds of dollars to remedy seems too good to be true, but faced with few alternatives, it is certainly worth a shot! 

   I have quite a bit of work ahead of me, and I’ll keep you updated as I go, including details of yet ANOTHER Campagnolo complication!  A lesser problem has been maintenance of the separate “build budgets”, what I use to determine the final value of the bicycles. Since I’m interchanging parts between projects and deducting funds from reselling parts, my head has been spinning a bit to figure out from which of the four lists the dollar amounts should be removed or added!