After a fair amount of work and parts sourcing, my KG86 Look TVT in `86 La Vie Claire colours is now finished!
Frame was a new old stock april `86 made KG86 in lacquered carbon, sprayed silver with pearlescent lacquer to give the blue tinge in the light - the Purist Police can look away now as I couldn`t quite cover the whole frame up as the carbon layup was just too pretty to paint, so I had a section of the downtube faded from silver to clear around where the front deralieur clamps on - discreet but worth doing.
Parts are the period c-record campagnolo groupset, cobalto brakes, delta levers, cinelli bar and stem had to swop out the campag aero seatpost for a campag super long non aero as i just could not fit comfortably without showing more post. Wheels are nos 28 spoke Ambrosio Metamophosis rims freshly threaded onto record hubs (thanks to Rustie for insisting on me grabbing the rims when they came up on ebay - they are epic) shod with the usual continental giro tubs. Weight complete with Look Pedals is 8.95 kilo which is respectable.
How does it ride? Had it out 3 times so far, pretty darned awesome on the road. Average speed on a 1 hour strava timed lumpy ride (around 400 meters climbing) is 31.5 kph on a lone rider ride (compared with 33 kph on a Dogma, 31.5 on a Pantani Bianchi and 29.5 on a US Postal Trek) - would be at least 1kph faster once I`m used to the downtube shifters - still have to think far too much about the shifting - might have to go for an indexed shifter rather than friction. This would be one heck of a bike with a nine speed record titanium set up form the late 90`s on it.... Climbing is good but need to get the gear selection right early on in the climb, but descending is exceptional - the KG86 in this settup will go downhill quicker and easier than my Dogma which is quite a feet.... and there`s no creaking and the frame hasn`t exploded or colapsed.... full La Vie Claire kit to match of course....
1 very bad thing - Benotto Bar Tape - why dis such a cr*p shiney, slippy non cushioned bar tape ever become the choice for pro racers around the world - might as well smear the ally bars in lard....
Still working on the next project - `53 Italian Torpado Gran Sport pro racer......
Frame was a new old stock april `86 made KG86 in lacquered carbon, sprayed silver with pearlescent lacquer to give the blue tinge in the light - the Purist Police can look away now as I couldn`t quite cover the whole frame up as the carbon layup was just too pretty to paint, so I had a section of the downtube faded from silver to clear around where the front deralieur clamps on - discreet but worth doing.
Parts are the period c-record campagnolo groupset, cobalto brakes, delta levers, cinelli bar and stem had to swop out the campag aero seatpost for a campag super long non aero as i just could not fit comfortably without showing more post. Wheels are nos 28 spoke Ambrosio Metamophosis rims freshly threaded onto record hubs (thanks to Rustie for insisting on me grabbing the rims when they came up on ebay - they are epic) shod with the usual continental giro tubs. Weight complete with Look Pedals is 8.95 kilo which is respectable.
How does it ride? Had it out 3 times so far, pretty darned awesome on the road. Average speed on a 1 hour strava timed lumpy ride (around 400 meters climbing) is 31.5 kph on a lone rider ride (compared with 33 kph on a Dogma, 31.5 on a Pantani Bianchi and 29.5 on a US Postal Trek) - would be at least 1kph faster once I`m used to the downtube shifters - still have to think far too much about the shifting - might have to go for an indexed shifter rather than friction. This would be one heck of a bike with a nine speed record titanium set up form the late 90`s on it.... Climbing is good but need to get the gear selection right early on in the climb, but descending is exceptional - the KG86 in this settup will go downhill quicker and easier than my Dogma which is quite a feet.... and there`s no creaking and the frame hasn`t exploded or colapsed.... full La Vie Claire kit to match of course....
1 very bad thing - Benotto Bar Tape - why dis such a cr*p shiney, slippy non cushioned bar tape ever become the choice for pro racers around the world - might as well smear the ally bars in lard....
Still working on the next project - `53 Italian Torpado Gran Sport pro racer......