L'Eroica Rat

Got em, and am rocking em now!
Are you here yet?

Got em, and am rocking em now!
Are you here yet?

lovely ride!

Success: The bike made it! 205km of Strada Bianca without incident.
The vintage home-repaired Wolber 290 went the full distance without puncturing.
I think the rear mech got damaged in the flight and made a ticking noise (as if there were stiff links) for the whole ride, and the drive side BB cup unwound by a small amount enough to make the chain graze the front mech cage when the pedals were pushed particularly hard (e.g. climbing out of the saddle).
The 52T chainring was superflous and only used on the tarmaced descents!
Other than that it was an excellent bike to ride, what had felt like slovenly handling on an urban commute proved ideal for the bumpy off-road mountain passes - the bike just went where it was pointed and felt very safe.

well done to both bike and rider! amazed your arse survived 200 odd k on that saddle :-$

^ Saddle was comfortable by comparison to the stripped flite I did my 2 training rides on and I was out of the saddle on all the descents (and with the 44x24 smallest gear; most of the climbs too!!).
That said, I spotted a black Frescia D'Oro at the Eroica market and considered it for a forthcoming project - Needless to say after 205km on that thing I'm glad I went for the Arius Gran Carrera!

^^ Actually it was all down to my secret weapon
Euro-style Butt'R
A sachet of that on your undercarriage and you're good to go

Better shot of the bike at the end of the event, and with the appropriately clad jockey mid-ride....

Looks like great fun, loving the matching kit

On the subject of matching kit - check out what my brother and I wore.
He lives in Italy, I in the UK - by some insane international telepathy we packed matching kit, including identical shoes and only discovered this as we dressed in the tent on the morning of the event!

I've just joined the forum, and reading this thread end to end was the reason I joined.

Brilliant stuff, and great to see bikes built for riding, rather than polishing and keeping in the house.

The matching kit is a bit spooky though........

the blacked out eyes are all a bit 'special forces'..

..or reader's wives circa 1979

It's what you have to do when you've run out of holiday and phone in sick..... allegedly.

It's what you have to do when you've run out of holiday and phone in sick..... allegedly.

Brilliant - made me chuckle.

(I'm a bit old fashioned when it comes to splashing my face across the interweb so this seemed like an amusing compromise, and yes the inspiration came from 80's SAS survival manuals!)

Glad you enjoyed reading this thread, I've enjoyed writing it and it helped keep me on-time/budget! I learnt some new skills along the way (cold-setting, bar shellac, tub repair & varnish decals) and I think the final result looked pretty wicked and was very much fit for purpose, everything a good rat bike should be!

Thanks wonderful morning read. beautiful thrify bike. 10 out of 10 would bang.

I agree with everybody, great write up and great bike. I've enjoyed following this.

A great thread, very inspirational. I can't use money as an excuse for leaving those projects unfinished now!

It was very quick on the hills too!

At one point, I was having a tired moment, when rik came dancing by on this..... :0)

Haha this is indeed an awesome thread.

And you had fun right? No mechanical niggles en route?

^ Brilliant fun thanks - only 2 mechanical niggles
1) Constant ticking from rear mech - I think a return spring was damaged in flight leaving inadequate chain tension.
2) Slight loosening of LH BB cup caused chain to rub front mech when climbing.

^^ You're too kind Pat! - and a great ride from you too on the day, a credit to the mighty Hetchins!

Simonfreese - A bit of an epiphany for me too! get the bike on the road and have some fun on it - you can worry about period correct, colour coded or superlight component selection another day!

Frame, seatpost and canti's sold/delivered to Andrew last night, signalling the end of my period as curator!
Look forward to seeing the new incarnation.... SSCX project perhaps!!
I'm sure it'll be excellent, the man has impeccable taste in ale!

Over to you Andrew

I thought you might like the beers - whilst I like a nice ale or beer, it is a nice change to find a decent lager don't you think?

You haz PM too - I need your address.

It's a shame the pics have gone on much of this thread. It was LFGSS gold.

Yeah, was a good read but woulda been better with pics.