OK, so I've been wanting and needing a new bike. The Peugeot is having issues, and just isnt very fun to ride. Too slow, too heavy. Too... French. So, I bought a sweetness vintage Atala italian steel frame on the eBay. Size 59cm, Columbus SL steel tubing, Dura-Ace headset and bottom bracket. Perfect.
The frame finally arrived today. I won the auction 2 weeks ago and have been waiting very impatiently ever since. I experienced a range of emotions during the wait, from anger at the seller and at Brown, to boredom and hoplessness, to nail-biting room-pacing nervious anticipation of its imminent arrival. It arrived about 5 oclock today, and I immediately started building it up with the Ultegra crankset and a cheapo seatpost that I also won offa da eBay. Hey, I had to do something to make a few weeks pass quicker, and what better way than to buy more goodies.
I used the track wheelset off of my Peugeot and put on my shiny new track handlebars. It went together smoothly. All I need now are some new chainring bolts, which I will be buying first thing in the morning. Oh, and probably a brake too.
Its looking pretty sweet. The frame weighs about as much as my Serotta, probably because it uses a very similar steel tubing. Its no lightweight, but it is way lighter than the Peugeot, which weighed about a million pounds. I'd really like to treat it to some period-correct Campagnolo parts, but I have discovered that they are really expensive. I figured that I could continue to spec it with high-end Shimano parts for about half the cost. All I need now is a shiny Dura Ace or Ultegra seatpost and front brake.
The only thing holding it back from being duper-light is the wheelset, but I am willing to make that sacrifice. I would feel very nervous about riding the streets with a lightweight wheelset.
Cant freaking wait to ride it! Edit: I just took it around the block while I was waiting for the pictures to upload. Whooo Hoooo! This thing is gonna be FUN!!
4 comments:
wes says "oh wow! Cool! He's already got that thing up and going"
shae says "ooooh PRETTY!!"
Hehe, thanks guys! I can't wait for it to stop raining so I can ride it...
Sweet Ride! But what's with the japanese components on an Italian steel frameset????
Hmm, good question lastminer. I've thought long and hard about it, and heres my answer!
I don't feel bad about riding the crap out of the Japanese junk. A scratch, who cares? A ding, who cares, its all replaceable. If it had Campagnolo on it I would baby it too much. I would feel bad about every little ding or scratch. Shimmy is cheap and expendable, like latex gloves in the doctors office. Well...
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