Bike Stuff

In nearly fully restored state (doesn't have the classic pedals on) Classic, steel-frame, Campagnolo gruppo Bianchi Nuovo Racing This is the keeper in my garage. I bought it back in 1982 to replace another 'racing' bike of mine that had been stolen from the house breezeway. At the time, I wasn't fully 'sold' on the Celeste color. I'd wanted the other colorway which was some sort of steel grey. But in hindsight, I am so very glad I did get this one. As my Mom used to joke: "The color grows on you... like mold". Celeste was and is Bianchi's brand color. But it's not as simple as that. First off, in the early 80's they were reportedly about to abandon the color. It wasn't selling well. Probably why this was the only one I could find in the Bay Area at the end of the year. But shortly thereafter, somebody at Bianchi got the idea to make a bit of a joke on themselves and promote the 'funny color' specifically. It took off. Everyb...

This one was a really cool find on Craigslist. A beautiful Italian bike in chromed steel with a Campagnolo Chorus groupset. And in my size! I reached out to the seller for more information and learned he was the original owner who had it built up for him back in 1987 where he then used it to race in triathlons among other things. Guerciotti apparently had an interesting business model in those days of shipping the raw frames to the US distributor 10 Speed Drive who then painted them and sent them to shops. Apparently, it was thought that the paint work being done in Italy didn't match up with the quality of the Imron paintwork that could be done in the US. And I've got to say, it looks great and Imron holds up really well (see my Trek 7000 as well) It was well kept, in basically original condition. It had a minor frame repair due to a crack at the dropout that is effectively invisible (steel is nice that way). One notable modification was an upgrade to an 8-speed cassette up ...

A restomod (restoration and modernization) mashup of a 1990 Ti frame, 2007 Campagnolo carbon/Ti group set, 2015 wheelset, and a few modern parts reassembled in 2023. Like many bike nerds, I've long wanted a titanium-framed bike. It has a reputation for a 'magical' ride feel, is light and just looks super cool. Purchased new, they are really, really  expensive. But, they are also known as 'forever frames' for a reason. Ti has a very high fatigue life and doesn't rust. If the frame was made correctly in the first place, it can last a lifetime. So I started looking for an older Ti frameset to rebuild. After searching for a while, I found a Litespeed (one of the early brands famous for Ti) frame in my size for a good price on eBay. Thanks to a cooperative seller and Litespeed still keeping serial number records, I was able to determine that it was a 1991 (actually built in 1990) model called "Classic Road". The frame had survived 32 years structurally s...

I had a 2019 Salsa Cutthroat with a SRAM Force 1×11 setup that I wanted to get a bit lower gearing for steep hills around here. Not worried about increasing the top end. Didn’t want to replace the rear wheel which has the HG style freehub used for the last 20+ years on 8, 9, and 10 and some 11-speed setups. So, what’s the big deal? Just put a big cassette on. They make plenty of them these days. Well… Kinda. Cassette availability: SRAM’s HG-compatible cassettes stop at 42t. I have that and want at least 50T Hubs: Most large cassettes require an XD driver on the freehub. Some hubs can be changed easily, some maybe, some not. Mine was in the ‘can’t find one’ category Derailleur: The SRAM Force 1 (and most other road derailleurs) isn’t rated for cassette cogs that big. The longer cage varieties like this one can get to 42 but some only to the upper 30s. Also, the derailleur’s total tooth takeup (difference between largest and smallest) gets strained beyond ~37t. 50-11 = 39T to take up...