Another couple of themed projects are coming up, this time in honor of the Giro d'Italia, which is in progress right now. The first is a 53cm Tommasini Super Prestige SLX bicycle from the late-1980s. It is pretty much ready-to-ride as-is, with just a bit of tuning/clean-up required. I'm not a big fan of the triple chainring arrangement, but the bike came equipped with an excellent Campagnolo Veloce 3x10 group. The gearing would provide fantastic climbing range!
I would probably swap out the components for a bit more era-appropriate Chorus or Athena 8-speed double group, but if you'd be interested in the Tommasini with its current setup, I'd take $150 off my planned build budget and sell it for $800. Drop me a note before I get started with this bike in a week or so!
A more contemporary Italian bike came to me via an acquaintance who inherited from his grandmother She must have been a really cool lady to have picked up a 2008 Wilier-Triestina full carbon Le Roi from that year's Lampre pro team! Although she obviously sunk some serious change into purchasing this frame, she did a rather low-budget build with some bottom end Shimano parts and relatively inexpensive accessories.
Using the team sponsor logos on the chainstays as a guide, I'm going to assemble a bike closer to that of the team's specs. I have a fantastic Campagnolo Chorus carbon groupset (Super Record would be ridiculously expensive) and have selected a Ritchey seatpost, stem and handlebars, plus a Selle Italia saddle.
Other than an update on my current projects, I wanted to share some tips when trying to solve minor shifting bugs. If you've made all the usual adjustments with the upper and lower limiting screws and used the barrel adjuster to tweak the cable tension, but still have some clickety shifting, take a look at the alignment of the derailleur and derailleur hanger. We all have accidents or just do something stupid like leaning the bike unstably - often the derailleur takes the hit when the bike goes to ground and can end up being bent. Take a look from behind the rear wheel and see if the derailleur cage is obviously pitched in towards the wheel. Sometimes the derailleur is beyond a simple bend back into shape, and it may not shift correctly after you do so, anyway. Replacement of the part may be the only solution.
If you do have a bolt-on derailleur hanger, I suggest trying a few simple steps that I have found to be quite useful in smoothing out the shifting. First remove the derailleur, and often you don't even have to disconnect the cables. Just drop the chain off the inside of the chainrings to remove the tension on the derailleur, and after unscrewing it, you can just let the part droop on the chain while you work on the hanger.
Occasionally the derailleur hanger itself is bent out of alignment. Of course, the hanger could have been knocked vertically, horizontally or both, so it needs to be checked.
There is a tool, called a derailleur adjustment gauge (photo below), made by Park Tool and other companies (less expensive, but just as effective) that you can screw into the rear derailleur mounting hole and use to check that the hanger is parallel to your rear wheel. Unless you work on bikes as much as I do, there probably isn't much sense in making that purchase; maybe just have your local shop take a quick look at it. This gauge will also only solve your problem if you have a steel-framed bike, as you cannot bend the hanger in place on an aluminum (metal is too brittle) or carbon frame. You DEFINITELY don't want to bend a hanger that is bolted onto the frame, as you can easily snap off the whole assembly and ruin your frame!
There is a tool, called a derailleur adjustment gauge (photo below), made by Park Tool and other companies (less expensive, but just as effective) that you can screw into the rear derailleur mounting hole and use to check that the hanger is parallel to your rear wheel. Unless you work on bikes as much as I do, there probably isn't much sense in making that purchase; maybe just have your local shop take a quick look at it. This gauge will also only solve your problem if you have a steel-framed bike, as you cannot bend the hanger in place on an aluminum (metal is too brittle) or carbon frame. You DEFINITELY don't want to bend a hanger that is bolted onto the frame, as you can easily snap off the whole assembly and ruin your frame!
Now you will be able to unscrew the derailleur hanger and remove it. Sometimes the hanger becomes just a little loose, and grit can get in between it and the frame. It doesn't take a whole lot to knock the part out of alignment. Now completely clean the hanger and the mounting area on the frame, screw the hanger back in (not too tightly, so you don't strip the little bolts) and reattach your derailleur.
It is amazing how many times this has worked for me! Unfortunately, I have often wasted time with other procedures that get me nowhere, before falling back on the simple cleaning of the hanger mounting area.
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