Preuss lo-pro

Hi everyone,

I pick up recently this bike. I got it almost complete, but I will need your advices to make it justice!

Small history features:
It is a custom bike, made by a French artisan called Preuss. The previous owner is the son of a cycling trainer in Roubaix, so I’m the second owner of this beauty. He used it during one season and then stored it, unfortunately not in the best conditions. So it has some small rust spots here and there. But the pain job is still amazing (sorry for the quality of the pictures, it will be better soon. You cannot see really well the yellow).

Preuss used to work with high quality tubes, like Columbus Max. Here I have a Columbus Multi Shape frame:


This tubing is really interesting visually, and it is pretty rare.

Project:
This is my first lo-pro and I know that getting a comfortable set up will be difficult, plus I would like to have two versions, so this is a long term project.
Currently it needs:

• a cockpit: I left the original one in the previous picture to a friend, who collected the bike for me. I’m planning 2 versions: one with a riser, one with a bullhorn
  
• a proper set of pedals: I have some mtb pedals, but this is not a « period correct » option. So I’m planning to find some nice track pedals with clip toe
  
• a new chain, the old one is completely rusted
  
• new tubes
  
  

Here is the bike check after purchase:

• Lo pro wheel set: unknown Mavic tubular rim in 650(anyone recognise this?), on low flange Campa record pista
  
  The rear is a Rigida s200 tubular rim in 700 on large flange Campa nuovo tipo. Apparently this is not a track hub, so no lock-ring thread. I’m a bit annoyed because I can only use this on track, so I will probably sell it at some point. I have to check if the cog is a campa or not.
  
  
  
• Campa super record pista crankset, with Campa dust cap, chainring, and bolts
  
  
• Stronglight Italian threading bottom bracket
  
• Milremo 25mm seatpost. This will be tough to replace if necessary
  
• San Marco rolls saddle
  
• (gone) Barelli stem and Mavic Bullhorn
  
• Bonus: 2 front wheels: a wolber profile 18 tubular in 650 on Mavic 501 hub(but I need to find a pair of cones and an axle) + a wolber profile 20 tubular in 700 on Campa record(road, with the nice ring). I will probably not keep the 700, but I’m not sure for the 650.
  
  

As you can see on the pictures, it needs some love and good care to make it nice again.

I already bought:

• a Mavic 360 stem, 70mm in really good condition
  
• a Mavic Bullhorn, 40cm also in good condition
  
  

Do you have any suggestion for the tubs? Which color would look good?

Same question for the second cockpit. I was thinking Nitto 260AA + small italian stem. For the bar tape/grip the obvious solutions are: white, black, orange and yellow, but I haven’t decided yet(open to funny suggestions!).

Now the main problem: the pedals. Campa pista record? Supper leggera? Or some chorus/record aero pedals? MKS would be a cheap solution, but it’s better to find some Campa to go with this crankset.

For the moment it stands on the top of my closet in France. I will start to work on this project in June, but I'm already looking for parts.

*Thanks if you read everything :) *

very nice frame! what size is it?

Bike looks sick. Got some crazy stuff going on on the seat tube.

Awesome bike man! Looking forward to the risered up version

What size is it? top tube looks quite long?

I think I will have to sell you that hub to match the front..

Thanks for your feedback guys! Let me know if you have any idea concerning pedals and cockpit.

@poorman: Thanks! The seller was selling it as a 52, but if you take the C-C measure of the seat tube you have 54 (and 57 c-t if I remember correctly).
The top tube is always difficult to measure on a lo-pro. If you take only the tube it is something like 56, but if I take the "horizontal" it is a 54.
I don't need to have a long seatpost on this, so it should be ok. And I will have short stems(70-90)

@HHC: In the last picture you can see the fluo yellow. It's like some dots doing stripes everywhere! The fork is also really nice

@timbre: Soon :) The riser will be a Nitto 260aa, now I need to decide the color for the grips (help me please!) and find a short stem.

@BigH: Yes it looks really long. I think that I have an explanation for this: the seat tube angle is a bit strange because of this tubing. The seat tube is not going directly to the center of bottom bracket as usual, but goes to the front, close to the down tube. So this creates a different angle(meaning longer seat tube). If you have a look to the second picture, you can see that the axle of the BB is not in line with the seat tube. This can also help(and you can see that the white is a bit pearl ^^):

Only a lucky man owns MS. Awesome machine, watching with anticipation!

@alibi: Thanks! Not sure if I'm a lucky man in general, but I've been lucky to get this ^^.

Hi guys,

Sorry, it took some time to do the first version of this bike. A lot of troubles with bolt standards and stuck expander bolt…
So here are the difference pieces for the first build:

• Cockpit: Mavic Bullhorn and Mavic 360 stem:
  
  
• Campagnolo record crankset:
  
  
• Izumi silver chain:
  
  
• Campagnolo record pedals(good price on eBay, but came without dust caps), probably Supperleggeri:

  
• Cinelli duo cage and straps:
  
  
  
• San Marco Rolls white saddle
  
• Milremo 25mm quill seat post
  
• Stronglight A9 headset
  
• Stronglight Bottom Bracket
  
• Front Wheel Campagnolo record pista small flange on Mavic SSC with (old)Wolber Champion de France tubes. I'm pretty happy with my work on this wheel to get it clean, and I will probably change the tube soon for a conti sprinter.
  
  
  
• Rear Wheel Mavic Open Pro on Miche Primato 1st generation with Gatorskin tyre. This is usually the street wheel of my Nelson.
  
• And frame:
  
  
  

*Tease* :)

riserriserriserriserriserriserriserriserlyfe

plz

Wow

Magnifique

Love this

I presume this is the traditional way of positioning the bars, seen a lot more of them recently.

I'd say go tout Mavic on this!

Thanks for your feedback!
@timbre: Yes I will! You know that I'm not a fan of riser(except on a Nelson ^^), but I definitely need that for long distance. I'm just struggling to get the good stem.

@3cc: Thanks! I hope that you won't be disappointed with my future builds :)

@HHC: Good question. This is the first time I'm using a bullhorn. I asked to @HACHA some advices to position it. I will probably change this depending of my feelings in medium rides.

@Heldring: That's a good idea, but I see two issues with this plan:

• Crankset: I can't even find a mavic track crankset on eBay... This seems impossible to find!
  
• Pedals: see comment below and replace crankset by pedals.
  But I'm thinking to do a full mavic wheelset(open 4CD on 520).
  
  

@Thomas63: Tu l'as déjà vu entier...

So here are some pictures. Still needs a (orange?) bar tape

Love this, especially the paint. Saddle angle tho.

Looks, especially in the 2nd and 3rd last pics, like @Breso s somec.

Tu l'as déjà vu entier.

Quoi, j'ai pensé que tu habitais en France?

Actually it's better with bullhorns, so nice

Paint the back wheel surface black, or just good old electrical tape it?

That's nice!
I vote for white handlebar tape...

But black tape on black mavics looks epic.

This is properly good. Fluro orange bar tape?

@HHC: I changed the saddle angle since. I think that the two seat bolts were not tight enough, and the saddle angle changed during the ride.
I know that it looks like this famous Somec, unfortunately the fluo yellow is not as bright on my Preuss :(. I've been living in London but I'm currently in France, it's just because I sent him some picture before :)

@timbre: Do you think that electrical tape can do the job? A full black rear wheel could be nice on the Nelson as well...

@Reinier89, @Antidotes: Thanks guys! We can test this, we have the technology, we have advanced software, we have the skills :)

Electrical tape works well ive done it to a bunch of wheels. Just go round slowly and make sure its all stuck down.

I vote orange to match frame (if you can find the same shade) or white to match saddle. Or just stay safe with black

unfortunately the fluo yellow is not as bright on my Preuss :(.

But yours has the cool scale paint.

Bar tape I would go for some matte black tape only on the bits of the bars that are parallel to the rest on the frame, reckon it'd look lush. But that's just me.

BTW Photoshop guru status for you for making that gif.

Nice gif!

I vote 20

And yeah the tape thing works pretty well

3 fluro orange would be so sick, if not black