This
bike represents the beginning of my infatuation with classic, lugged steel
bicycle construction. I had been watching a spectacular, red Colnago on eBay,
wondering whether I should bid on it. I didn't, and it went for $600 with a
single bid. After kicking myself energetically, I swore I would have the next
classic Colnago that came along. I bid on the next one, a 1988 Colnago XL frame, and I
got it for a very modest price. Then began the task of turning it into a bike.
Although the bike probably had C Record when new, I like the classic look of Campagnolo Super Record components, so I chose to outfit it with those. I bought most of the components on eBay. One problem in the restoration was an out-of-round seat tube, which prevented fitting a correct seat post. It was easily reamed out for me by Gian Simonetti at Simonetti Cycles. (I can do this myself, now.) The derailleur cable stop had broken off, but a clamp-on stop replaced it nicely.
A more difficult problem was finding appropriate wheel rims. I didn't want to mess with tubulars, and was willing to accept any simple, good quality, unmachined box-channel rim. Naively, I asked at the local bike store, and the salesman pulled out a pair of Mavic MA2s from the pile of old rims in the shop. He sold them to me for $10 each. Now, they go for $50 each on eBay.
I had some trouble finding an acceptable set of Campagnolo brakes at a reasonable price, so I got a set of Modolo Speedy brakes to use temporarily. After replacing them with Campagnolo Record brakes, I found that the Modolos are easily as good, and I might well have kept them. Some of the pictures below show the bike with those brakes.
Having bought rims and hubs, I was faced with my first wheel-building task. I had already studied the subject, and decided that it shouldn't be particularly difficult. It wasn't. The wheels went together without any problems.
I painted a Silca pump and water bottle cage red to match the frame, and bought some white water bottles with red caps. A nice little touch. Eventually, I also found a set of Campagnolo brakes, replaced the C-record front derailleur with a Super Record, and finally replaced the tires with ones that visually complemented the frame a little better.
I've enjoyed riding the bike, and it gets noticed a lot--the combination of the red color and chrome fork really looks slick when the bike's moving.