Arlecchino's consolidated CP Thread: mostly steel & outdated.

I moved to Berlin in the beginning of the year and I’ve accumulated a number of new projects so I thought I might as well start a cp thread to document the progress.
First up, the daily. I love this bike, Berlin’s roads aren’t the best and the fat slicks are perfect to hover over any surface. I’ll replace some of the remaining parts from lx to dx from a donor bike I bought recently.

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While the Marin makes a perfect city bruiser, I still felt the need for a quick road bike, especially after a weekend with an Ultegra equipped carbon bike. Since I had bought the jan janssen max frames a weekend before, I decided to build it up as a budget neo retro with a tiagra group:

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I bought the Tiagra Group as a semi compact with a 32t casette since it’s just a temporary set-up on the janssen. My plan is to put the group on the bottecchia I bought last year to set it up as a neo retro rando for a trip to sweden later in summer. Even tho it originally came with flatbars, the top tube is not excessively long at 55cm (c-c) which makes it perfect for a drop bar set-up.

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And finally, I found another merckx on ebay kleinanzeigen recently. It was advertised as a rare merckx with only a few photos. Most notably, it was equipped with mostly shimano sora parts. But on one of the sellers photos I spotted those seatstay engravings:

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Anyway, I got it for a good price and it’s a merckx professional with all of the details of the very early ones: long lugs, flat forcrown stamped eddy & merckx, ‘ear’type-seatpost binder lug, signature seatstay engravings, bottom bracket pre-eddy ‘merckx’ cast, portacatena dropouts. But oddly, the cable guides are under the bottom bracket shell and not above, as on all other professionals from that era. I already noted the odd cable routing on the sellers photos but I bought it anyway. When the frame arrived, I noted upon closer inspection that there is an uneven surface above the bottom bracket. So it seems the cable routing has been changed at a later date and was initially over the bottom bracket.

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I discussed the issue with a colleague and fellow merckx enthusiast and he offered me to re-braze the over-bb-cable guides if I got him a pair. Last week I ordered a pair which should be on their way from Sardegna :)

After that, I’ll have to get it re-painted. While the paint is still in good condition, I don’t think it is original since it was painted over the scars from the cable guide surgery. Not sure which colour I’d get it painted in, maybe silver or ice blue metallic.

Thought you moving down to landan

Some progress on the Bottecchia. After removing a badly stuck stem, I cleaned up the frame with paint cleaner to bring back its shine. Due to the short steerer length, My stem options were limited to low stack shimano units, so I opted for a 600 in good condition. As for brakes I’m trying to fit tektro cr 720 which is a bit of a challenge since the distance between the brake bosses is only around 7mm. Initially I wanted to buy/build new wheels with wider rims but I would run into problems with the brake pad clearance and angle with wider wheels. I still have a pair of old new wheels with shimano 600 8 speed hubs laced to mavic cyp 11 which are relatively narrow so I guess te tektros will work with them. Since I‘ll be using the Tiagra 4700 which is 10 speed, I don‘t have to get a new 11 speed compatible hub which is nice :) Today I ordered the rest of the parts:

• Ortlieb Sport rollers
  
• Ortlieb Back Roller
  
• Tubus Tara with the lm1 adapter kit
  
• Tubus logo evo
  
• SKS Bluemels
  
• marathon folding tyres in 32c (clearance wise I could have gone with 35s but I thought 32c might be better for 20mm rims)
  
  

Still need to order a pair of Nitto b135ssb and find a compatible relatively short stem, preferably with a positive rise.

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And I also found a donor bike with a SR group for the Merckx. Being a vitus it comes with a 25mm seatpost and presumably a bsathreaded bb though :(

More progress: I transplanted the parts from the JJ max. Had to drill the fork to fit the fork mounted cable stop and I’m happy that the cantilevers fit well. Next step is to mount the racks and mudguards. I’ll change the stem to a positive rise 80mm velo orange quill stem to have a more upright position. I normally ride 40-42cm drop bars and The current one is a soma hwy one in 44cm (end to end). Do you reckon it makes sense to change to a 46cm deda piega for better leverage when the bike is loaded? Obvs I won’t be touring on mavic cosmic so they’ll be replaced with the 32h mavic cxp 11s which are currently still at my folks place. Long term plan is to build wheels with a dyno hub.

P.s. recommendations for kind of budget friendly platform pedals are welcome :)

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That's awesome!

I had a pair of these which I very much enjoyed, not too speedy either:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/mks-lambda-wide-platform-commuter-pedals/

That is hot. Although not what you needed still think i prefer the flatbar.

fantastic!

looking gooood! and tiagra is a good group!! well done!

Cheers everyone :) i’ll keep the drops for now, maybe i’ll put on some diy crazy bars à la @t0-ster for v2. It’s starting to resemble a touring bike, will cut the mudguard and rack stays tonight:

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Had to take most of the bike apart to change the stem. Fitting compact bars on the velo orange stem was quite a challenge to say the least. Not sure what to think about the chrome but it was primarily an ergonomical choice and it makes for a comfortable position as far as I can tell from a first test ride. Also had to realign the derailleur hanger and the shifts are considerably more precise now. I also cut the struts and levelled the rear rack and cut the fender stays. Can’t wait to put on the new wheelset with the 32c tyres :)

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Moar pics:

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Lovely. Great work.

Thanks, I’m quite happy with the result so far :)

Taken it anywhere yet or are the bags just for a visual at this point?

Really nice, even the Cosmics don't look that much out of place imo

Aesthetically, it could be worse but they feel just wrong on a touring bike, way too harsh. I quite liked them on the jj max though. I already miss that bike, maybe I’ll build it up next spring with sram rival or force, the frame deserves it :)

Just a testfit, i’ll go on a tour from berlin to malmö with my partner in mid august :)

Damn! cool thread, and rad bikes. The last picture is hot <3