Zeus Pista 1970/80's - "Poor mans Campagnolo" + "Lava Lo-Pro"

Wassup Y’all.

Here is the start of my first properly documented build, I always seem to forget and regret not doing one after I finish. I find there’s loads of good reads on, such as Kal_xyo’s in-depth Bennoto, build, and this has inspired me to try and do the same to a similar level of detail. I’m not the most patient person and find that this build is helping/making it worse (I tend to buy too much unnecessary stuff of fleabay because its cheap, then regretting it later) but I definitely won’t give in. My inner most secret about lfg is to have my bike in the porn section;-) But would really like to start training when Herne Hill opens back up next year.

I bought the frame this spring for an early 21st birthday present. At first I thought it was definitely a Zeus frame but then once it arrived I had doubts. A couple weeks later my Brother track frame, which I built up with my uni bursary money, got stolen from inside the hallway to my flat. So it kinda just stayed in the corner unloved as whether or not it was worth restoring. As I had to build up my daily ‘commuter’ first, I forgot about it. The frameset was bought off ebay as a 53ctc Zeus Pista Track Frame and this is what I was told about it.

numero de serie creo que no lleva pero no estoy seguro, estos cuadros no se hacian en serie sino expresamente para ciclistas, federaciones o clubs y por eso muchos no van marcados.

Este concretamente se compró en Tortosa hace unos 15 años, luego lo use yo por un tiempo y el resto del tiempo fué guardado.

Which in quick translation is it has no serial number due to it being manufactured to order, for clubs etc. It was originally bought in Tortosa - http://goo.gl/maps/8eusZ about 15 years ago and used by the owner and then kept in storage. It sounds pretty believable as from what I’ve researched about Zeus. I remember reading they stopped making frames during the wars and made weapons etc. for the Spanish army for a while. It was a bit overpriced for the state but just loved the dropouts and other subtle detail. I thought it would be nice to give back to the Spanish in their time of need with the recession and all that.

Included was the bb, headset and what I thought was an original paint but turned out to be some sort of bright enamel orange with light metallic blue underneath. The Zeus bb was marked as 55x109p (not sure on threading for both) and runs buttery smooth. Headset parts could do with some re-chroming but spins decently well. The fork is stamped Zeus 2001 and underneath the orange paint was chrome.. meme of super excitement please.. Seatpost size is 26.2 which doesn’t really help identify it. Droupouts are all marked Zeus but the rear are in a very used state.

While waiting for it to arrive I looked up the company as a whole and the parts they created. Some might say they just copied Campagnolo that’s another story. Looking up the catalogues I could find and tried to compare the scans to the photos of the frame. It was also interesting how seriously they took the whole drillium hype. Might be tempted to drill some bars and chainring Merckx stylee.

Anyways, my final aim is to finish it to a pretty good standard, for this summer coming but at least have the parts. And maybe get a paint job after a season of riding as a treat for the hard work. Then once I have saved enough get the frame chromed a bit and get full repro decals paintjob etc. But that will be decided way further. Maybe something along the lines of this but definitely not finished in white, as it will just get dirty.

That’s it for now as it’s late and should get some sleep in, but will be updating regularly with ebay buys and other things.

Apologies for the long post but really should get into reading and writing more as it would do me good for uni.

Thanks for reading.
H