Re:
My brother came over on Sunday and the last couple of things were finished. The saddle, bar height etc will probably need fine tuning. Think the bar tape is too slippery to have so much of an angle on the bottom of the drops too.
Much prefer my polished bars and stem. Big difference when they're side by side but they are just too narrow and short. So have gone from 90mm 1A/38cm Criterium to 115mm 1A/44cm Giro. Could have stripped the new ones but would have been a bit silly.
The Brooks tape colour looks OK, will look better once it's worn in. It's not as bright as the pics make it seem.
My brother's going to take the Campag pedal over to Harry Rowland and see if he can work out what's wrong.
The Look pedals just didn't suit the bike so we've put on the Grafton Speedtraps which are really for my Adroit.
They're NOS and I polished them up a bit, 2 minute job. They're without the clip in gubbins and we had to file the strap holes ever so slightly to fit in the Binda straps. Think I like them more than the Campags but the Campags will go back on if it ever go back together.
I added the Elk hide shoe protectors before getting the straps. If I'd know I might have bought black but they match the lettering on the straps, so look OK. So if anyone asks it was done on purpose! The clips are Velo Orange, simply down to £10 vs £50+ for Campag.
The Saddle's just a dark enough shade of blue not to look bland. Much lighter and it would have been too close to the frame colour.
We decided to keep the brakes the right way around. The cables do look a bit nicer crossed but it would be the only bike setup like that so thought it best not to. 10 minute job to switch if we change our minds.
Like I said the tyres look huge when you're used to seeing 23's but you soon get used to them. Think it's mainly down to the amount of tan showing, if there was more black it wouldn't be so obvious.
The water bottle's modern and nothing special at all in itself but Roman Hermann kindly sent some when I bought parts from him that went on to the Merlin. He was winning 6 day races in 1981, the year of the groupset, so it sort of has a connection.
It's not been ridden in anger yet but seems nice and stable , angles are 72.5°/74.5°.
Anyway, all in all I think it looks quite smart.
Next will be to do the flat bar, sit up and beg version. Need to decide on bars but think North Road style.
Click for full size on Flickr
Excuse the messy background, couldn't find anywhere nice with the sun where it was.