De Rosa Al+ recalled to life

Hunting around in the shed I was delighted to find lever hoods, g-springs & a grubby service manual for the chorus ergos so a full brifter tear down will be the next job

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Ergos sorted. G-spring replacement was easy but the hoods were a nightmare... now feeling good as new

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Lovely. This resurrection is amazing. History that you have with the bike is epic. Looking great! T

In my search for brifters I just found these on the 'bay, if you were looking for some to replicate the original build.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/114158802343

Just noticed you've posted the manufacturer link, ignore me!

I wasn’t all that keen on the Modolo design in the end and was pretty pleased to get back to campag, the hoods are much easier to grab when you’re out of the saddle

Busy all week in the lab so I made very little progress...
The brakes were fully seized requiring full strip down and rebuild.

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Cosmetically they’re quite battered but I’m quite attached to them, they were on my 1999 Moser, provide smooth braking control and are surprisingly light.

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Just the cables and bar tape to go and then I can see if it’s still as fast as it was...

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and then I can see if I am still as fast as I was...

ftfy ;-)

Looks ace with the alter and the syncros

Nice resurrection. Can’t help but think of..

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Wish I had a shed with things like that inside haha!
Bike looks ace too. :)

What did you do at RAL? And/or now? If you don't my asking. Have a friend who worked there on satellite electronics stuff for a bit.

Being a hoarder has its upsides.
Glad you like the bike, I’m looking forward to getting out on it soon

I was with a small business in the science park, we had a clean room in the micro/nanotechnology centre. I was developing processes and tools for chip and sensor packaging. The only satellite stuff I got involved with was electro plating with the millimeter wave tech group. Nowadays I’m working with medical devices in the area of cell preservation (cryo-freezing & ivf incubators) and I also do some work for a 3D printing software company.

Did a shakedown ride at the weekend but these 28mm tyres are too large in diameter and rub the crown so I had to swap out the front wheel!
So smooth and comfy - after years of riding tarckbieks all the time I immediately fell back in love with a slack seattube - looking forward to getting out on some longer rides once the tyres are sorted....

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more views

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Gory details

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Ace! Great to see. Remember you riding this on that Phoenix Easter ride in the pissing rain (when I punctured twice and someone had removed the signs).

those campag single pivot brakes are just ace

Haha - indeed - you had a newly acquired and (very) pretty Colnago.
In my top 10 toughest days on a bike.... I crashed in Windsor on the way out and was borderline hypothermic by the start line.... Cake stop was a highlight though.

I love 'em
IIRC they cost £8 new from Ribble when I first built the biek and the Alter in the same order was sub £20.... those were the days - before cool shit became fashionable!

Love this!

Cheers!

Soo... I’ve bought the one from the classifieds - looks like it’ll take 23c max but I’m going to try for 25c anyway - what did you end up with on yours? 28c Clement Strada was too snug...

Wicked - glad it was you that got it, I'm sure you'll do a good job of it.

I think your frame's identical to mine, probably a year older (threaded steerer) but you'll be impressed with the build quality and smooth ride.

I'm running narrow rims (15mm internal) so the issue with 28mm Strada was a clash with the underside of the fork crown. (quite close on the rear brake bridge but running freely)
If you're runing wider rims or less bulbous tyres you might be ok, I've ridden smaller 28s (rubinos) without any issue but right now I'm running 25mm Contis which are absolutely fine.