Fans of the band Rush will recognise the lyric from the song "Cirmcumstances" and its meaning, "The more that things change, the more they stay the same." This statement is particularly accurate when it comes to the setup on my Vitus 992.
I purchased the bike in December 2016, at which time it was equipped with a Campagnolo Veloce triple groupset. I varied the setup a couple of times, before settling on one with some rare Mavic derailleurs and some early 8-speed Shimano Dura-Ace shifters. This Vitus was primarily the bike I used at the shore, and I realized that I shouldn't really expose these one-of-a-kind (really, I can't find another 845 derailleur listed ANYWHERE) components to the salt air. I noticed the parts that weren't painted or made of aluminum were starting to rust.
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| My Mavic 845 rear derailleur |
I also wanted to get rid of the shift cables that criss-crossed in front of the headtube within my field of vision. Cleaning up the Mavic derailleurs and reselling them seemed to be the smart thing to do. I'm thinking they'll fetch enough money to pay for all the upgrades I want to do. I decided to do a bit of a retro-mod build (much like I did on my Colnago RDV) and purchased a set of new wheels, Mavic Cosmic, to go with the brakes and stem by the same company. I returned to Campagnolo Veloce derailleurs and shifters but now part of a 9-speed compact double drivetrain.
A subtle part of this transformation are the shop decals on the frame from (now closed) Cycles Reboul in Montelimar, France. Because of where they were located on the top tube, the decals were slowly rubbing away. I created a composite image of the artwork by taking photos of the logos on each side of the bike and had the folks at Vinyl Disorder create some replacement decals.
Obviously my preference for Campagnolo parts has not changed, nor have the occasional complications that come with installing them. I purchased the second version of Campagnolo Chorus EPS, their electronic groupset, for the Pinarello FP Quattro I had bought last month. I liked that this set had the internal battery, instead of the unattractive exterior-mounted battery pack that came with the first version of their EPS group.
The battery in this case fit inside the seat tube and ingeniously used the bottle cage mounts to secure the power source in place. This was not the latest wireless type of system, so I had to undertake the somewhat frustrating task of threading the connection within the frame.
At the time of this group's release, Campagnolo sold an installation rod that screwed into the end of the battery, creating an extension that would aid in locating the battery behind the bottle cage mounts. This rod tool was no longer available, and I bet if it was, it would have been very expensive.
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| The threaded hole in the upward-facing battery end |
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| The Campagnolo installation rod being attached |
I took a long wooden dowel and drilled a hole in one end. I then found a long bolt that fit the battery hole threads and sawed off the bolt head. I tightened two nuts against each other onto the bolt, so that I would have something with which to wrench the bolt into the dowel. My homemade tool worked perfectly, and Sue helped to screw in the bottle cage bolts while I held the dowel in the right spot. I had applied some masking tape on the dowel before inserting the battery and tool into the seatpost in oder to give me a reference to the distance to the upper cage bolt.
There were three cords coming from the bottom end of the battery, two for the derailleurs, one for the interface box at the shift levers and one for the charger port. Three out of four were fairly simple, but I couldn't locate the front derailleur cord. I straightened a paper clip, bent a small hook in the end of it and spent about an hour trying to find/fish the stray cord out of the seatpost.
I kept fishing out the other three cables by mistake, not realizing the missing one waa lying straight down alongside the seat tube, right next to the access hole that was provided in the frame. I had been digging around too far into the tube and had been sliding my hook right past it repeatedly. I just happened to be rotating the hook in the other direction while pulling it out and snagged the lost cord by accident!
Everything is now hooked up, but I am awaiting delivery of a protective sleeve that fits over the crankset spindle when it is installed. The sleeve would prevent the wires from making contact with the spindle and being damaged. The bike looks great, and I'm really looking forward to getting it out on the road. Photos of the finished build are in store next time!
One last project worth mentioning is from a return customer who had purchased the Tommasini Sintesi from me earlier this year. Robert has been collecting Campagnolo Nuovo Record parts for the Somec frame he had in his collection. SOMEC (the SOcieta MECchanica) is an underappreciated Italian brand that I became familiar with when I built a beautiful Pieroni model back in 2022.
Robert's frame has obviously had new decals applied and has been repainted (a high-quality job). Because of the lustrous aquamarine paint, he is willing to overlook that the frame has been personalized with "Dick Blanchard' script on the top tube (unfortunately under layers of clear coat).
More to come...
