Bici Meravigliose

   I know, it's the final week of the Vuelta a España, so I should be speaking Spanish, but the only Spanish bike I've been in contact with recently was an Orbea e-bike that Sue took a test ride on a couple of weeks ago!

   I am featuring a bunch of marvelous Italian bicycles this time around, including shots of the Bianchi Impulso All-Road. As mentioned last time, I swapped in my Cinelli stem/bars, but I had to buy a new Mavic rear wheel. Apparently the disk wheels I had were a slightly cheaper version, a take-off from a bike shop, which often cuts corners to meet a price point.
   Mavic wheels usually have Q.R. adapters which can be popped out to convert to through-axles, but the rear wheel in this set was a Q,R.-specific hub. You'll see the wheel I purchased to replace it isn't an exact decal match, but it's not driving me crazy...yet.

   My friend Lee took me out on a "break-in" ride, and I stupidly tried to follow at his pace over some particularly challenging terrain. I nearly came to grief on a narrow, downhill ledge of single-track that had eroded off to the left down a steep bank. A light application of the hydraulic brakes, an abrupt flick of the front wheel to the right and a burst of adrenaline had me safely continuing on the trail.

   There is a bit of a Belgian blend with the next Italian bike, as I finished up assembly of the Roger de Vlaeminck Colnago Master. I'm trying to find some bar tape to match the golden yellow, but so far all I've found are brighter shades. White tape was THE standard for pro racers of that era, so it's an acceptable stand-in for now.

   The bright sunlight when I took the photos not only washes out the rainbow striping on the top tube, but it makes the bike just look yellow. The close-up image of the RDV engraving on the seat stays gives a better idea of the interested paint design.

   Of course, the bike that the RDV replaces in my collection, the 2008 Extreme Power, is now For Sale. I swapped in a Campagnolo Chorus 9-speed group and a set of Ambrosio wheels, but otherwise it isn't set up much differently than the way I had been riding it.

   The final set of images are of a 1989 Pinarello Montello that I had snuck onto my For Sale page a few weeks ago, as I was hoping the rather inexpensive buy would be a quick turnaround for me without even having to do any work on it. I ended up putting on new housings and bar tape, plus I did a little conditioning job on the leather Selle San Marco Rolls saddle.

   The frame has a paintjob Pinarello called "Spumoni", which is an Italian layered dessert of different colors/flavors of gelato. The Montello was the company's top-of-the-line frameset model, and the previous owner equipped it with an excellent Campagnolo Chorus 7-speed Sycro group. The indexed downtube shifting works perfectly!

   My rafters are currently full of bicycles, and I'm always looking to move them out to make room for new projects - let's make a deal!