Milestones........

I've been in cycling a long time. 20 yrs of serious riding this year. I started on a lugged steel mtb with no suspension fork and suntour topmount index shifters.... My first time around, I got to be a pretty good mtb racer, and a reasonably good time trialist on the road.

I loved the sport and then walked away. Married life, new job, etc all got in the way. Many of us have gone through that.

When I got back on the bike seriously again 4 years ago, I went back to the group ride at my old shop. When I left the ride, I was leading the A group. When I came back, I could barely ride half the distance the A group rode, and at half the speed.......

This year, I've finally begun finishing with the A group again. Not every time, but many times. And last night, I hit a milestone of sorts in finishing the ride at 20.8mph average. I know that won't even get me through a cat5 race, but it was a great feeling. I hung with the fast guys on our group ride and felt great afterward. In spite of being dropped on a climb or two, I managed to ride myself back on to the group each time.

Last night was a great ride!

Bottom Brackets and the Wonders of the Internet......

So, the only part missing from my group on my Super Record group was the bottom bracket. I've been watching Ebay to see what pops up, but the prices for a Super Record BB are pretty high.

I remembered that I grew up working with the local Campag dealer when I was a shop mechanic. He had closed his shop by then, but during the 80's and the Lemond era, he was the go to guy in my town for anything Italian. I called him to see if he had a BB, and after looking in his parts bin, he found one. He provided 3/16 bearings in the original Campag grease for the set as well. Perfect!

Well, not quite perfect. I installed the BB and there was absolutely no way it was going to be adjusted correctly. When the BB was tightened appropriately, it looked like it would fit a 64mm BB shell instead of the 70 that any Italian threaded bike would.

Enter http://www.velobase.com/ What do I find there, but the different BB's Campag sold over time, plus the bearing size used by each. Turns out many of them used 1/4" bearings instead of 3/16. That made for quite an easy fix. Now I just have to go find some 1/4 bearings.....

More Vintage Colnago Work.... and Quality

This Saronni Colnago is my first true Italian bike. I owned a Bianchi as my first road bike, but that little beauty was actually built in Taiwan....... My new/old Colnago was definitely built by someone name like Giacomo or Giuseppe and it looks like it was. The brazing is perfect. The lugs are thin at the edges, but the edges are square and sharp.

The same thoughts apply to the Campagnolo Super Record Grouppo. I've owned Suntour, Shimano and Sram. All good products, but truly nothing compares to the quality of these Campagnolo parts. Everything is easy do disassemble, but strong and solid while assembled. The quality of the castings is absolutely flawless. There is also something about the design that portrays more art than engineering. The curves are not only functional, but beautiful at the same time.

To say I'm impressed with this bike so far is a pretty gross understatement.

As for progress on the bike, I have gotten some touchup paint which is a pretty close match to the red. I used it to touch up every nick in the frame. More to keep rust at bay than to make it look perfect. I also did the same with the frame transfers. I also pulled out some House Of Kolor paint and began painting in the cutouts in the fork crown. With those details cleaned up, it looks really nice.

I'll do the same tomorrow with cutouts in the frame lugs.

As for componentry, I pulled apart the front brake completely. After disassembly, I polished every part of chrome and alu and reassembled with fresh grease (very light film). The rebuilt caliper is definitely a thing of beauty!

Vintage Colnago Super

Months ago, I noticed a lonely red bike in a friends bike shop. I quickly recognized it as a mid-eighties Colnago but my friend was not selling. Unfortunately, his shop was not long lived, and he later moved on to work in another shop.


Sunday we met for a mtb ride at the local trail and I saw the frame in the back of his station wagon. I made a ridiculous(low) offer and amazingly he accepted.

Later that evening, I got a txt from him that he had a '74 Super Record group he was willing to sell. Another offer and he accepted again. The group is only missing the bottom bracket, freewheel and the top nut for the headset.

Searching the net and this forum for the past few days appears to say that the bike is an early/mid eighties Colnago Super. Pantographed chainstays, spool chainstay bridge, clover in the bottom bracket. Chainstays are chromed, but the headtube lugs are not.

Paint and decals are in good enough shape that I'm not going to paint it for now.

I have a few appropriate cockpit parts like a SanMarco saddle, campag post and proper 3ttt stem.

First Cyclocross Race Of 2011

So today, I raced in the Tour De Cross Race 1 2011.

It was a really fun race, and a big improvement over their races last year. More entrants, and a significantly better course. While the course was/is not my kind of course, it was an excellent 'cross course. They extended it to .9miles and reduced the number of barriers a bit.

I was still in the back half of the field, but we had a good time. More of my Journeymen team showed up as well as a few other clubs.

The other cool thing about the race is that it was the first race for my ridin' buddy Jacob. He's been riding MTB with us for a couple years now and has improved significantly in that time. He's wanted to do a race all that time, and this was his first. As the winner, Brad, stated 'he picked a damn tough race as his first bicycle race. Good job Jacob!

My 2010 Season Summary

So 3 years ago, I wanted to get back on the bike for some fitness. I needed to lose 60lbs+ and did all of that.

Then I decided to hit a race or two last year.... Oh boy....

So here is the rundown:

Tour de Cross 1 - Third
Tour de Cross 2 - Third
Tour de Cross 3 - Fourth
Tour de Cross 4 - Fourth
Tour De Wolf - Bottom half of 150 people.....
Syllamo's Revenge - Cut at the halfway point (25 of 50miles)
Legend of Stanky Creek - 2nd in Age Group, Top 5 in Beginner
6 Hours of Herb Parsons - 8th in Team (great partner, Ken Graham)
Cyclocrunk 1 - Middle of 80 or so riders
Cyclocrunk 2 - DNF
Cyclocrunk 3 - Middle of 80 or so riders
SpookyCross 1 - 4th from last
SpookyCross 2 - 6th from last
OutDoors Inc CX Champs - 2nd in age group, 5th in Masters
Cross The Way - 5th from last

Looking back on these, there is a pattern for me. Faster smoother courses are definitely more my forte. The OICX race and Herbs were probably my best performances of the year, (along with Stanky). Those courses are generally faster and smoother though still technical. They also did not have much in the way of hills.

The courses I did really poorly on had either significant hills or a lot of extreme speed changes....

So for the MTB this year, I'm going with Disc brakes, and I've got a goal of losing more weight to help with the climbs. Those two things should be good.

2010 was an agressive year for me. Much more agressive than I anticipated, but it was fun!

15 races in 2010 - How many in 2011

Cross The Way #4

So Amy and I headed to Nashville for the weekend. We shopped all day, ate dinner at Pucketts and saw some great live music.

The next morning, we awoke to 14 degree weather and snow blowing everywhere.

The race was in Galatin, north of Nashvegas and was out on Lock 4 state park. I raced there years ago on a mountainbike and did really well there. Unfortunately, things have changed..... LOL

The race itself was out on the peninsula which makes up Lock 4. Amazingly enough the actual peninsula is really hilly. The course itself was up and down the ridge that makes the peninsula, and had a bunch of seriously off camber hills and turns to take. Amazingly I made it through all of them even though I did not get to pre-ride the course.

Unfortunately toward the end, I was really draggin.... Wrong dinner the night before, tired and too doggone cold!!! Top that off with the fact that it was not my kind of course, and it made for a rough race. At the end, I noticed that my rear wheel was really dragging. It was completely clogged with frozen mud and leaves and the rear wheel was not really turning at all.

I had a great time and will go do this race again, but I'll be better prepared next time too!!!