Flandria's projects (Colnago Master Piu, Shimano 600 AX,...)

Edit: decided to change this project into a more general topic of my current projects, after @Familyman suggested to do a retrospective CP on the Shimano AX. So expect a chaotic overview of the bikes I’m currently working on . Most of time, these take long time and I don’t have the persistance to keep detailed pictures etc during the proces. A chaotic ‘bike stable’ topic seems a good idea to me.
At the moment, following bikes are just finished / works in progress:

1. Colnago Master Piu – neo retro, full frame restoration
   
2. Shimano 600 AX – 80’s Japanese aero craze
   
3. Parijs Brest – 60’s/70’s patina galore
   
4. Faggin Campione del Mondo – frame restoration
   
   
   
   
   

The Colnago Master will be a slow-burner, so don't expect a quick build here. Plan is to get it finalised for spring next year.

After restoring the frame and forks and building this Fondriest for a good friend (see pic below), I was convinced that I needed a steel bike with straight chrome forks for myself. Pieces felt together when I was offered a Colnago Master Piu in my size (61.5 CC) for a very reasonable price. Unlike a lot of bigger sized Colnago's, the frame doesn't have the (in my opinion) fugly extended headtube and seattube lug, which is great. Frame can also take two bottle cage holders + a race tag holder. I still have to read more about Master Piu's to date the frame exactly. If there are any experts here, feel free to contribute.

The frame has been resprayed and the chrome on the headtube lugs an front forks is bad, so should be rechromed. The rear fork wil polish up nicely. Plan is a complete repaint and new chrome.

Before going all-in on restoring the frame and buying groupset (thinking towards 10 or 11 speed Chorus / Record) and carbon wheels, I'll build the frame up with parts from the parts bin. I want to ride the frame first to make sure frame size is perfect and to see if the fuzz about these master frames is with good reason. If size is not ok or if I'm not convinced of the ride, there's no sense in restoring it.

So first step with be a quick build with 10 sp Daytona and Khamsin wheels. Will post more pictures soon!

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Interested to see how you get on with this!

Especially replacing the chrome, when i got my Colnago Master frame repainted i was told it can be a bit hit and miss with the quality (and expensive).

Look forward to your next post!

See if you like riding it before spending loads of money on it... I should try that sometime.

I like the straight chromed fork thing too; and the crimped tubing. Sounds great.

The framebuilder who I work with for repairs / paint / chroming is an excellent guy who has an incredible experience and builds frames since the 60/70's, so that should be fine. If I trust one guy in the world with bikes, it's him :)

a lesson I learnt by experience

Great, look forward to seeing your progress!

I still have to read more about Master Piu's to date the frame exactly. If there are any experts here, feel free to contribute.

I'm no expert, but I think I read somewhere that the IOC took issue with Colnago's usage of the word Olympic in the Colnago Master Olympic so they rebranded it the Colnago Master Piu*. This was in the early to mid 90s.

*Piu is Italian for 'more' I think.

What does underneath of the bottom bracket look like?

There are some sites that have old catalogues

Here is the bracket:

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The Shimano 600 AX project than. My interest in this groupset started some years ago, so I slowly started gathering all the parts for a build with this group. I had found a matching frameset, sold it because it was too small, bought it back because I liked the finish, and with some time during the quarantine finally started the build.

These frames with 600 AX are quite commonly seen in Belgium, as these bikes were sold under different brandings (for example Norta, Jan Janssen, Pavic,...). I bought the frame when it was shotblasted and clearcoated. Ratty look which I liked, but decided to do a respray as I had found the original Shimano AX decals. Note that the frame has Shimano EF dropouts and aero seat and downtubes. I've sanded the frame down, put on a first primer coat with metallic silver paint afterwards. To finish it off I used 2K clear coat.

The parts I gathered were in very good condition. I even managed to source the derailleurs and hubset NIB. The saddle was a restauration of an old battered Viscount saddle. I have a good friend who cleaned up the saddle, restored the foam padding, added new leather with an embroidered AX logo. I really like the shape of this saddle, as it is just a little slimmer than a classic concor.

I realy enjoyed building this bike and exploring the 600 AX group. It just looks great and has this great innovative feeling around it. It works very mediocre and is a pain / illogical to build up though :). Recipe for a marketing fail but for sure has his place in cycling history.

Funny things to note: the cable guide for the brake cables and the original AX headset cover, for more aero.

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for more pictures, I'm referring to this pedalroom page: https://www.pedalroom.com/bike/shimano-600-ax-43050

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So nice

Another (slow) ongoing project is this Faggin Campione del mondo frame. Full of rust, but the good news is that it is fully chromed so the rust is reasonably superficially. I had this frame for a long time without doing anything with it, quarantaine gave me time to dig it up and get started. For most of my respray's I have a good address, but due to covid that became a bit difficult. For this one I'm going for a DIY sprayjob. Orange candy, with 2K clear coat. New yellow decals have been sourced already.

I'm slowly cleaning up the frame with a powertool and copper wire brushes. The paint and rust come of quite easily. The chrome on the fork will clean up ok. Not perfect, but it will do.

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The Parijs Brest bike that I mention in the OP is another one that has just finished. Yesterday I tweaked the last small things, hope to have some pictures of the finished bike soon. For now, I'll post some retrospective 'before' and during pictures.

This bike was in a very bad shape at first sight. A lot of rust, old stuck parts,... Underneath was a nice frame though, with beautiful 60's/70's Campagnolo parts. Some of the 'cosmetically challenged' but in an OK state, some of them fubar. I decided to deepclean the frame and parts and preserve as much patine as possible, whilst ending up with a bike that is fully serviced and technically in top condition. I used a second donor bike for parts that were missing. Target was to re-use as much parts as possible, so no replacement bolts, springs, .... where possible.

For the frame, I cleaned up all the rust particles with a lot of patience, degreaser, rust convertor, commandant 4/5, wax, ... The paint has a magical color. After all this cleaning (which took me weeks) , I sealed everything off with a solid layer of 2K gloss clear laquer. This layer feels very smooth so no rust or damage protruding through it. Hope it will stay like this, but as I'll keep the bike inside for most of the time, I'm not expecting much troubles here.

For the parts: every part was carefully taken apart, cleaned (if needed ultrasonic), regreased and reassembled with new grease. Also new bearings where needed. Original to the frame where a 151 mm BCD Record crankset, bottom bracket, headset, seatpost and Brooks Professional saddle. Also the high flange campagnolo hubs (no record, date stamp 63 on the cones) came with the frame. The 1963 first gen Record derailleur (pulleys with loose bearings!) came from the donor bike.

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more before pictures:

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Great projects, what rims are they on the 600AX hubs?

They are remerx taurus 5014 in silver color

The Parijs Brest patina galore project is finished. See it as a 60's/70's racer, ready for his retirement. Full of battlescars but fully cleaned and serviced. Frame has been 2K clearcoated for protection.

151 mm BCD Campagnolo Record cranks, with 53/44 gearing. Combined with 13-17 straight block Regina Extra Oro - do you even rpm

bar-end shifters with internal cable routing through bars

Very good. Again.

Special stuff right here, love it! The fine craftsmanship of these 60-70s bikes is just superb.

Really nice, I work in Genk. Any history on the brand?

I have no clue to be honest. There is a decal on the bike of 'Andre Janssen Rijwielen', which is still a very good bike shop in Genk. I've never Deen any other Parijs Brest bike, so I assume it's just another Belgian 'decal' brand, where bikeshops put decals on frames bought from framebuilders.

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Found some time this morning to work on the Master. As said before, first stage is to build it up with parts from the parts bin so I can do some test rides on it. Want to check if frame size is good and if the frame feels good. Only is so, I'll go all-in on the frame restoration with new paint and chrome.

Sizes seem pretty good compared to my (fitted) racebike. The 125 mm 3ttt stem just seems +/- 10 mm to long, but I don't have a shorter one at the moment so will do for test riding. The groupset I'm fitting is 10sp Daytona. I like the look of these early 10sp shifters, especially with slim steel frames. Somehow they also shift very solid. Seems like quality of the Campagnolo shifters was better in the lower level groupset before.

Excuses for the bad picture quality, but light conditions in the basement are rubbish for quick pictures.

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Did you drill the bars yourself or were they predrilled?