Italian Bicicletta or French Vélo?

   I have had most of the parts set aside for building the Coppi bicycle, once its paint is finished curing. Because it is an Italian bicycle, it is logical that I will be using Campagnolo and Cinelli components for that machine, but I had planned to also use a set of French-made, deep rim Rigida wheels that had been given to me by a friend over a year ago.

   In the meantime, I was finally able to match some paint for touching up the Look KG 271 and had collected the last couple of necessary components for its completion. I realized this French bike had been matched up with a pair of Italian FIR wheels, and thought it made more sense to match nationalities by swapping the wheelsets between the two projects! The fact that both had 8-speed Campagnolo setups made it simple.

   As parts were coming in for the Look, I had been assembling the bike bit by bit, but with the arrival of a matching Deda Elementi stem to go with the bars I already had on hand (more on that circumstance later), I had planned to wrap up putting the bicycle together this afternoon. Unfortunately, someone had replaced the stem bolt for some reason, and its threading did not match up correctly with the wedge. I found this out when I had attempted to tighten the stem into the steering tube and it wouldn’t budge after only one turn of the Allen wrench.

   If you aren’t familiar with how the quill stem assembly works in vintage, threaded steering tubes, the bolt runs vertically through the stem into the steering tube. One of two methods is used at the end of the stem secure the part within the tube. With the wedge system (left in photo below), the nut is cut diagonally to match the stem and the bolt pulls the nut up to anchor against the stem and the inside of the steerer tube and hold the stem in place. With the expander system (right in photo), the nut is pulled upwards by the bolt causing the sides of the stem, which has slits cut in its sidewall, to spread and press against the inside of the steerer tube to clamp it in place.

   I spent about a half hour trying to work the wedge free of the bolt, but neither tightening or loosening was making much progress. I ended up slipping a hacksaw between the wedge and bottom of the stem and cutting the bolt. I had another stem (again, more on that later) lying around, and substituted in its bolt/wedge combo.

   After setting up the stem at a reasonable height and aligning it with the front wheel, I locked it down and finished installing the brake/shift levers, cables and housing. I moved on to making final adjustments to the brakes, then wrapped the handlebars.

   The previously mentioned parts had conveniently been supplied by an upcoming project, a 1996 Bianchi Ti Mega Record. James at Bikesport had made me aware of this titanium machine, which a customer had left at the shop on consignment. The downtube is aerodynamically shaped, with a cross-section that looks somewhat like an old-time coffin lid! James and I looked over the bike together, and I told him I was definitely interested and would let him know.

   When I returned home, I did a good amount of research before calling back with a conservative offer. Luckily the owner accepted, and I plan on selling the Campagnolo Racing T (triple) components and replacing them with the appropriate Record (hence the bike model name) groupset. I’m also ditching the clunky cockpit for some shiny 3T chrome parts, and I will do some scrubbing on the dingy celeste sidewalls to bring them back to life.

   More to come...