As a semi-professional bike blogger and the Previous Crap Take a look at Pilot, I’m within the privileged place of receiving all method of unique bicycles for my delectation:
I’ve actually been having fun with this bike, and I believe Paul takes nice satisfaction in having turned me right into a full-on wool-clad classic Campy-shifting retrogrouch, solely to ship me an over-the-top crabo-tanium STI-equipped wondersled that has me questioning my values and all the pieces I believed I stood for.
Yesterday nonetheless I used to be within the novel place of receiving a traditional bike from another person.
It began final November, and right here’s the grossly oversimplified story: principally somebody emailed me and mentioned, “Would you like my outdated bike?” So I mentioned, “Sure!” Then a while glided by, throughout which I made a decision to do away with a bunch of bikes as a substitute of buying extra. So I emailed him again and mentioned, “I modified my thoughts, no thanks!” And that was that…till final week when he mentioned, “Oops, it’s coming anyway!,” and yesterday it arrived by way of a Bikeflights/UPS collabo.
Please notice that I by no means imply to sound ungrateful, and there are method, method worse issues to have than folks sending you bicycles.
The bike was packed slightly extra…casually than I’m used to, and if I’m to be completely sincere I admit I used to be half-expecting a cat to leap out:
Thankfully there have been no cats inside, or if there have been they hadn’t survived the journey and posed no speedy hazard:
All of that is to say opening a field of newspaper containing a dirty bike was so much completely different from receiving a pristine museum piece from Traditional Cycle, although it’s in all probability fairly near the way in which Paul feels when he receives a motorbike again from me.
And right here’s that bike:
It wants work, but it surely’s acquired superb bones:
Shifters are the pointy-topped Campagnolo Refrain:
Whereas the newer Campagnolo Ergo levers appear like Cthulhu, the older ones look extra like a pleasant elephant:
The hoods are in tatters, however the mechanisms look like practical:
The remainder of the drivetrain is a mixture of Refrain and bits from different teams:
And the gearing is what you’d anticipate from a race bike this period:
Hey, it could appear excessive now, however that 39-tooth small ring is lush in comparison with a 42.
Wheels appear to be true, if dirty:
And whereas the end has its share of chips and scrapes and type of evokes mildew in hew it’s clearly a really effective body:
Right here’s the Columbus sticker for you Tubing Freds:
Insert your princess-and-the-pea, highly-attuned-scranus description of the journey attributes of this specific tubeset right here:
However I do know you’ll anyway.
And no, whereas the bracket and sensor are there, it did not include the Sigma laptop:
Although I ought to in all probability verify to verify it’s not buried beneath that newspaper.
In any case, it’s clearly a undertaking, and one I don’t actually have time for:
Although I’ll find time for it anyway, no less than get it rideable, and see the place issues go from there:
I’ll maintain you posted.
