You may remember that his business with Victus Sports, which makes custom baseball bats for Major League Baseball, completely exploded, and Bruce could no longer take on any outside work. I honestly couldn't have been happier for the guy, as his work was consistently showcased by many of the Phillies and other top-flight players like Aaron Judge, Fernando Tatis, Jr. and George Springer. I just wish I could have found someone else out there so inexpensive (Bruce SPOILED me!) and talented.
Just for fun, at the end of this blog entry, I thought I'd include a showcase a few projects Bruce and I did together over the years.
Despite my best attempts, I found working with rattle cans wasn't always so simple, especially when you don't have optimal conditions in which to work. With the long-delayed Battaglin Speed CE (Cobbles Edition) frame, I found myself frustrated by the "orange peel" effect of a bumpy finished surface when temperature, humiditiy and uneven surfaces conspired to leave me with anything but the smooth coat I desired and needed on which to apply decals. Longer and longer I kept putting off sessions of wet sanding - honestly the most unpleasant of bicycle maintenance tasks seems more fun to me!
Well, I'm pushing myself to really get to it this spring, and although my struggles some with lingering lung congestion didn't really make me feel up to putting on a mask and/or sessions of rigorous sanding, I did take apart the blue Ciocc that needed a session of wire brush work to remove surface rust. To make it easier, I put a wire wheel in a drill, and it worked out really well. I'll be spreading on a layer of Metal Rescue gel to completely clear the frame of any issues.
The chrome on the fork blades is beyond a reasonable return to shininess, so I will match up the blue paint on the rest of the frame and give those a coat - the crown looks pretty good, so I'm thinking of masking that out. I'll reapply the smaller Ciocc decals to the back of the seat stays and on the non-drive chainstay.
The other day I was in a discussion with a visitor about the projects I decide to take on. I was talking about being careful about bicycles I've found that, despite being in fantastic condition, just don't have that wide appeal to the casual bicyclist. Sure, most know the Colnago, Pinarello and Eddy Merckx brands, but I don't come up with those very frequently at an inexpensive price. I seem to have the most luck with secondary brands that have a good reputation among those who have just a bit more knowledge about the sport and its history.
I've done well with marques like Vitus, Wilier, Basso and Battaglin, which may not have the worldwide name, but have the reputation to make them an attractive purchase. Alternatively, I know enough about those bicycle companies and pros that have ridden their products to provide an interesting tale or two that might push a prospective buyer "over the top" towards a purchase.
In that vein, I've found a mid-1970s Flandria frame, badged up for one of the stars of that era, Freddy Maertens. Flandria bicycles started with the Claeys brothers at the turn of the 20th century, and the Flandria-sponsored teams from 1957-75 were some of the most successful in the history of pro cycling. Although young stars like Eddy Merckx, Sean Kelly, Herman van Springel and Walter Godefroot all moved onto other teams and greater success, legends like Eddy Maertens, Joseph Plankaert, Rik van Looy and Joop Zoetemelk won nearly every event on the pro calendar, and in van Looy's case some of these races multiple times! Maertens himself was one of the best sprinters in the world, taking victories in many Belgian classics and an amazing 36 Grand Tour stages during his career. He was the overall victor during the 1977 Vuelta a Espana and claimed both the 1976 and 1981 World Championships.
I'm planning to do something slightly different with this project, taking cues from a video I've seen on Alex Stieda's 7-Eleven team bicycle, on which the Canadian star (the first North American to ever wear the yellow jersey) performed a bit of a retro-mod build. I will be using primarily Campagnolo components instead with my down-tube shifter drivetrain, but I do really like those cool TRP brake levers and will definitely be snagging a pair of those for inclusion!
Elsewhere in "shop window", I've had the Vicini listed as-built without much interest, so I am going to re-equip the bike with modern components, in an attempt to make its rideability more of an attraction to potention buyers. I also haven't had too many nibbles on the Lazzaretti, so I've decided to purchase some throwback decals (but in white, instead of black shown below) and redo its aesthetic.
I also met a gentleman in North Jersey that was thinning out his collection and offered up this fantastic Colnago Nuovo Mexico. I have plenty of Campagnolo parts around here to make this a wonderful project, but what was really interesting is that the guy's research into his frame had me correcting the identification of one of my earliest projects. I have subsequently gone back and fixed all my past blog entries to reflect that the bike I thought was a Nuovo Mexico was actually a Colnago Super "Profil". In my mind, this was actually better news, because it turns out the iconic bicycle Giuseppe Saronni rode to victory at the 1982 Worlds was also a misidentified Super!
As shown below, there were some outstanding overall paint jobs that Bruce had done for me, but two smaller jobs particularly stood out. One involved the matching of a pearlescent antique white on a early-1980s Ciocc Mockba '80 bicycle that had its top tube very badly chipped. An early-1980s Pinarello Gran Turismo looked as though the red paint had worn or faded around its lugs, exposing the metallic paint below. It almost appeared as though a gold pinstripe had been applied. It was a gorgeous patina effect that Bruce mimicked perfectly on parts of the bike that had bubbled/rusted and had to be stripped of paint. Both these jobs could not really be appreciated in photos, but in-person they appeared magical, especially when you knew the original condition.
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| A 1992 Pinarello Asolo that once belonged to me |
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| A return-to-glory for my in-law Todd's Ciocc World 77 |
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| A much more impressive look to this late-1990s Merckx Alu Team frameset |
