Hi all,
So I thought I'd share a little project I've been doing as some of you may like to see it, though it's only half as good as it should be as lost all the 'before' pictures!
Basic story behind this is I went on Holiday to Italy last year, which coincided with the UCI world championships in Tuscany, I was blown away by how many awesome retro Italian bikes I saw, which inspired me to look for some Italian steel of my own when I got home. My budget wasn't amazing as I already had two bikes but thought I'd see what I could find.
Anyway I came across what I thought was an 80's Pinarello, there was a lot of non original parts on it, including bullhorn bars, a white charge saddle, mini brake levers and red walled bontrager tyres, and even from the pics I could tell it wasn't it great condition, but I could see the Campagnolo drivetrain and what looked like a Campag seatpost, so I thought it would be worth a punt.
When I picked it up it was indeed in a sorry state and actually unrideable, problems including a loose headset, stuck seatpost, brakes which barely worked, both wheels out of true and a knackered chain. The reality was the bike was a lot worse than initially thought, however I could still see some potential and after a few hours of wrestling with it I even managed to get the seatpost free! I then continued stripping it down to work out what parts were good and what needed to be done, it was at this stage I decided to try to work out what model of 'Pinarello' it was, after posting on this forum to find out then general verdict was that the bike was not actually a Pinarello at all, despite having the Super Record parts and Campagnolo dropouts, however the view was that whatever make it may be, that the frame was good quality.
This left me with two choices, either to cut my losses and break it for parts, or to continue with my plans anyway. I decided to see how the frame came up and go from there, que many hours of cleaning and polishing using all my experience from my other hobby, cars! Once done I satisfied myself that I could get the bike up to a standard I'd be happy with so decided to continue with the project.
At this point I also decided that real Pinarello or not, it had been a Pinarello by name for a long time, and that this wouldn't change, therefore I'd continue to focus on the Italian theme.
Ultimately the only parts that remain from when I bought it are the frame and fork, crankset, derailleur's, and DT shifters, everything else has been changed, the idea being to make it a bit of a retro modern, keeping all the good things about retro bikes, but upgrading in the areas where large performance gains are to be had, this bike was always going to be built to ride so it had to be capable of working well in the real world. And I'm please to say the result is a stunning bike to ride.
Anyway, this is what I've ended up with!
Full Spec:
Frame
Steel frame/fork of unknown manufacture, Campagnolo dropouts, internal rear brake cable routing, Shimano 600 headset (Shimano branding removed)
Wheels
Mavic Open 4 CD with Campagnolo Veloce hubs and matching wheel skewers, Continental GP4000s tyres
Drivetrain
Campanolo Record cranks with original chainwheels, Campagolo Super Record front and rear derailleur's (rear with original jockey wheels), Malliard rear cassette, Simplex retrofriction shifters, Shimano 520 pedals (Shimano branding removed), KMC chain
Brakes
105 dual pivot calipers (Shimano branding removed), Swisstop Green pads, Campagnolo single speed carbon fibre Record brake levers, Ashima Reaction Plus brake cables
Bars/stem
Cinelli Giro d'Italia 40cm bars and Cinelli 120mm stem, Planet X cotton bar tape
Seatpost/Saddle
Thomson Elite seatpost, Pinarello Catini saddle.
And here it is as it stands now
So I thought I'd share a little project I've been doing as some of you may like to see it, though it's only half as good as it should be as lost all the 'before' pictures!
Basic story behind this is I went on Holiday to Italy last year, which coincided with the UCI world championships in Tuscany, I was blown away by how many awesome retro Italian bikes I saw, which inspired me to look for some Italian steel of my own when I got home. My budget wasn't amazing as I already had two bikes but thought I'd see what I could find.
Anyway I came across what I thought was an 80's Pinarello, there was a lot of non original parts on it, including bullhorn bars, a white charge saddle, mini brake levers and red walled bontrager tyres, and even from the pics I could tell it wasn't it great condition, but I could see the Campagnolo drivetrain and what looked like a Campag seatpost, so I thought it would be worth a punt.
When I picked it up it was indeed in a sorry state and actually unrideable, problems including a loose headset, stuck seatpost, brakes which barely worked, both wheels out of true and a knackered chain. The reality was the bike was a lot worse than initially thought, however I could still see some potential and after a few hours of wrestling with it I even managed to get the seatpost free! I then continued stripping it down to work out what parts were good and what needed to be done, it was at this stage I decided to try to work out what model of 'Pinarello' it was, after posting on this forum to find out then general verdict was that the bike was not actually a Pinarello at all, despite having the Super Record parts and Campagnolo dropouts, however the view was that whatever make it may be, that the frame was good quality.
This left me with two choices, either to cut my losses and break it for parts, or to continue with my plans anyway. I decided to see how the frame came up and go from there, que many hours of cleaning and polishing using all my experience from my other hobby, cars! Once done I satisfied myself that I could get the bike up to a standard I'd be happy with so decided to continue with the project.
At this point I also decided that real Pinarello or not, it had been a Pinarello by name for a long time, and that this wouldn't change, therefore I'd continue to focus on the Italian theme.
Ultimately the only parts that remain from when I bought it are the frame and fork, crankset, derailleur's, and DT shifters, everything else has been changed, the idea being to make it a bit of a retro modern, keeping all the good things about retro bikes, but upgrading in the areas where large performance gains are to be had, this bike was always going to be built to ride so it had to be capable of working well in the real world. And I'm please to say the result is a stunning bike to ride.
Anyway, this is what I've ended up with!
Full Spec:
Frame
Steel frame/fork of unknown manufacture, Campagnolo dropouts, internal rear brake cable routing, Shimano 600 headset (Shimano branding removed)
Wheels
Mavic Open 4 CD with Campagnolo Veloce hubs and matching wheel skewers, Continental GP4000s tyres
Drivetrain
Campanolo Record cranks with original chainwheels, Campagolo Super Record front and rear derailleur's (rear with original jockey wheels), Malliard rear cassette, Simplex retrofriction shifters, Shimano 520 pedals (Shimano branding removed), KMC chain
Brakes
105 dual pivot calipers (Shimano branding removed), Swisstop Green pads, Campagnolo single speed carbon fibre Record brake levers, Ashima Reaction Plus brake cables
Bars/stem
Cinelli Giro d'Italia 40cm bars and Cinelli 120mm stem, Planet X cotton bar tape
Seatpost/Saddle
Thomson Elite seatpost, Pinarello Catini saddle.
And here it is as it stands now
