No Carbon here!

Finally it is assembled, not quite ready for action yet as the gears need a bit of fine tuning, but I still present to you Vicky the vitus God bless her and all who ride her.

time really for a bit of reflection, overall I feel I have built an authentic late 1980's early 1990's road bike, it has campagnolo which I have previously never used, and it does have a bit of italian flair in as much  as things may change/ work if it feels like it. The frame is a bit big for me, but now I am getting old  and the belly is getting bigger, reaching the drops will be a challenge the differences in height should allow for a comfortable ride, one day I will for sure curse fitting Tubs and not clinchers but for now I can't wait to ride and sprint for that 30 MPH sign on the dual carriage way trying to emulate the great Sean Kelly.

It is taking a long time

Apologies for the lack of blogging, hope these pictures make up for that. Well after trying to upload them I discover my laptop has wiped them off the memory card!!!!
The Modolo brake levers have a nice little flare which your ring finger can rest on if you want to feather the brakes, the calipers took some refurbishment, plus trying to get them to fit due to different length special nuts ( allen key fitting) was a challenge.
Gear Levers are on, in the end I opted for authenticity over practicality, stii levers would be lovely and I know they are a far better set up, but they just would not be right on this build

And then there is the bottle cage, in the bike shop I spotted something that said Duaralium, that will do for me! and there it was a bottle cage that looked old school, weighed less than a feather and added some coolness to the bike, almost makes up for not fitting sti levers???!!!

Vive La France!

Progress is being made stronglight headset with sealed bearings is in, chainset is on too. A neat feature with this campy one is the fixing bolts also act as extractor bolts due to a retaining ring. Front mech was all cleaned up and looks quite smart. The rear mech was a bit of a puzzle, on more modern mechs the frame fixing bolt incorporates a spring to allow it to rotate, also there is a cable adjuster. On this late 80's gem neither are fitted which adds to the simplicity.
Now the french do have a bit of flair, the brake levers are not the ones shown but Modolo aero levers these have a neat roller for the cable to run in, and then we have the wheels. they deserve a blog of their own!

I've been shopping

And this is what I have come back with,
Pair of look pedals £5 they are the basic model and don't have any spring tension adjustment but as a means of getting me riding again they will be absolutely fine once cleaned.
Campag Triomphe rear mech £9 from the photo you can hopefully see that I have cleaned and polished it and re greased the jockey wheels. The only thing missing is the cable adjuster.
Next is the seat post, £15 matey who I bought the frame from offered me this one at a knocked down rate because he scratched the top of the vitus frame, doh!!! Cleaned and polished, the saddle was a bit of extravagance because it cost £29, but it weighs 180g is made from carbon fiber and Titanium and I love it!

Finally we have some ergo cinelli bars, £5. I wanted bars with a clamp diameter of 26mm to fit the old quill stem and recesses for the brake cables. Aero brake levers were starting to make an appearance in the late 1980's so I have the option. a little bit of elbow grease will see them cleaned and ready for some new tape. ergo bars seem obvious now, but for some reason manufacturers persisted on making bars with curves which never fitted your hand. Can't wait to try these out.

Let us begin

To begin a project you usually need some money, well it normally comes when you need it. Some kind sole gave me a lawn mower which was better than mine, so I sold mine for £85. Next we needed to rummage through the loft to find more items for sale, quite a few mountain bike components, a few household bits and the odd motorcycle part. This generated another £74 which made a total of £159.

Lets go shopping!

Being a retro build, I joined a forum called Retrobike, posted an wanted add for a frame and this is what came up, a late 1980's vitus Duralinox 979 riden by all the great riders like Sean Kelly and the brothers Paddon. It is very light aided by a couple of scratches on the top tube. For something nearly 25 years old it is in great condition.

He's at it again!

With middle age upon us and a dose of glandular fever to cheer you up, thoughts turn to interesting things. No not women but bikes! Occasionally women on bikes!

So what is it going to be? a retro rebuild this time something of the era when I began racing, the late 1980's/ 90's was a bit of an experimental time for bike racing with clipless pedals aero bars and low profile bikes and I would like to incorporate a little of that in the build.

We need criteria, so it will be

1)Light weight

2) Have a sprinkling of campagnolo components because we couldn't afford them at the time!

3) Make we go weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ziperdeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee dooooooooooooooo daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrr when I ride it.

Inspiration would have to come from the likes of Malcom Eliot, Greg Lemond and Sean Kelly who all pioneered novel components on their machines

Let the creating commence

Made it!

Finally finished Freda the fixie, and I have to say I am very pleased with the result. Challenges to overcome were to make a bolt to mount the front brake, a headset spacer and fitting the mudguards.

Still pondering over the gearing current set up is 38 - 16 as the rear wheel is pulled right back in the frame there is no more chain adjustment so I am thinking to fit a 17T sprocket on to lower the gearing and give a little chain adjustment.

Now all that remains is to start my next project, a Amaco road bike endorsed by Tony Doyle circa 1987 the year when I first started racing happy days!