when my little girl was born, i found plenty of reasons not to ride. she's 3 now.. maybe i can finish this before she turns 4.
so here goes:
so.. i have a few old bikes:
i also have other framesets not pictured, but those are to be sold/gifted/stashed.
the plan is to consolidate a bit. ideally, i want an errands bike and a latte bike. oh, and maybe a cyclocross/dirt roader.
errands: ride to the shops for bread and milk - something i can ride/park in the rain and not get emotional about. i'm thinking velo-orange style here
latte: something for myself, and others, to admire. you know the type. polish, clean, wax, detail? sure! ride? not so much..
i really want to keep the blue and white superlite and build it up as a period (c.1989) road bike. when i was a kid in high school, this was the coolest bike i knew of - i didn't know much about bikes.
if i build this up it will have better than standard components, but i won't be getting too particular or weenie about it.
7speed dura ace derailleurs and shift levers, a polished 105 crankset, some 6500 brake levers and silver velocity aeroheads. coffee time!
the '89 europa is fairly generic, and certainly needs repainting. no eyelets for fenders, so this one will either be singlespeed, or.. or, something else. i really don't know what to do with this one yet.. maybe a bit of a vintage look? must also try 35c tyres for brake bridge/fork clearance. potential cx machine awaits.
the '92 lemond. this is the nicest frame i currently have. this one should get a nice paintjob and a campy drivetrain. keep saving. i have those blue ambrosio excellence wheels on daytona hubs doing nothing.. latte bike in the making.
the '94 cfr1 has full 6400 ultegra groupset, with some deepv's on 6500 ultegra hubs. i've considered making this single-speed and putting the 600 gear on something else, like the europa. i like the drivetrain, but i think once i've built up the dura-ace drivetrain, it might not be so nice. i should just sell it. $400 ono
the last one is another repco, a '94 olympic 14. tig welded cromo main tubes. pretty average frame, but it fits nicely. also has eyelets. maybe this is my errands bike. not perfect (it's not even lugged, man), but adequate. currently fitted out with a mish-mash of gear. deep v's, shimano drivetrain, campy brakeset.
now, where to start?
here:
^when i bought it
^shortly after
^with 35c cx wheels
^today (actually imagine 3 yrs of dust on it)
munga, welcome to your new errands bike project!
the first thing to lock in is the bars. to me, bars determine the whole feel of the bike. it is currently fitted with cinelli 66-40 drop bars with campag victory/triomph brake levers. until i lock in bars, i can't really decide on controls either (sti, downtube, aero, non-aero, barcons, thumbies) all these choices.. while i think about bars, what can i lock in?
BRAKES: no canti bosses, so centrepull, single- or dual-pivot brakes are required. dual-pivot, thanks. i'll be carrying gear on the bike, so brakes need to be as good as they can be.
i have some silver shimano rsx dual-pivot brakes - a polish and some new pads and they'll be perfect for the job.
GEARING: 7 speed cassette with 13-15-17-19-21-23-26 sprockets, and 39-53 chainrings gives me roughly 40 gear inches to 110 gear inches. surely that's enough. if not, a 36-50 compact crankset will work nicely with that cassette too.
WHEELSET: eventually, i can see myself fitting a dynamo hub, but for now, it will run its current wheelset - silver velocity deep v rims with 105 hubs.
Stay tuned for more
