Content-class: urn:content-classes:message
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 09:54:05 -0500
Thread-Topic: WAS Merckx's Colnago NOW Details and Set-Up
Thread-Index: AcT46SjUgtt14zTlRqGDBwQss1W+AAAkBcWQ
From: "Bingham, Wayne R." <WBINGHAM@imf.org>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR]WAS Merckx's Colnago NOW Details and Set-Up
>>>Check out the brazed on brake caliper spindle/axle on the fork crown:
http://home.t-online.de/home/dirk.feeken/colnago/COLNAGO4.JPG
Koolamunga!!!...Chuck Schmidt<<<
>>>I've got an image of a similar brake bolt brazed directly to fork
crown on a Bianchi ridden by Gimondi...Brook Watts<<<
>>>I remember Bruce Gordon doing that too. Steve Willis<<<<
It's great looking at all these cool bikes and checking out the details
and the set up of the components and accessories. Jon had mentioned the
cable routing on the Merckx Colnago, and Chuck had noted the same thing
about the Masi in the Alberto autograph pic. I've tended to leave
cables too long in recent years, something I never did before. I guess
some of this is to make it easier to re-do and adjust later. It's so
easy to make the cables and housing shorter, and so hard to make them
longer. I'm going to think about that a bit more from now on.
One of the other things that struck me as interesting on the Merckx bike
was the front caliper set-up:
http://home.t-online.de/home/dirk.feeken/colnago/COLNAGO4.JPG
The cable is wrapped fully around the fixing bolt and clipped short (a
safety measure I used to do while working on other people's bikes, but
haven't done in a long time). Also, the adjuster barrel is threaded
fully in and the release lever is in the "open" position, even though
the arms seem to be adjusted pretty tightly. Hmmmm...wonder if that was
original race set-up. I can't even see the cable end on that
"meticulously" drilled rear derailleur. And could that rear housing BE
any shorter? Race bikes weren't necessarily set-up to look pretty,
rather to work hard and stay together. I guess that's one of the
reasons I like team bikes and "user" bikes, with all their quirks and
oddities, better than the "perfect" restorations.