Pinarello Montello

Bought this beautiful frame last year and decided not to use it over the winter. Now the sun's out I need to get it built and take it out riding!

Ive been slowly putting together a 1st Gen Chorus groupset for the build (c-record was too expensive/hard to source) and have most of the parts now. I also have a 10 speed Chorus group I may try at a later time, but it has to be vintage to start!

It really is a stunning frame, amazing build quality, and the paint is almost immaculate. I didnt realise it had repro decals when I bought it, they are the wrong size so may replace these at some point

Will update progress over the weekend..

I have an Asolo (One down from this in the range i belive) which is sat in my basement, really need to dig it out and clean up it. Subbed for some inspiration.

Kompute- do it! Would be great see yours. I initially bought an Asolo before this, unfortunately it was slightly too big. The build quality looked equal to me, beautiful frames.

nice! if not c-record go for croce d'aune!

Cheers breso, Croce is also beautiful but again expensive! I really like the Chorus , especially the rear mech, its good looking and a clever piece of engineering with its multi poistion body.

I've been enjoying your Montello build thread, it encouraged me to start mine!

Ok not a great start , took the headset apart and the crown race looks like this! Never seen brinelling this bad. I don't really want to buy a new headset, can you buy an aftermarket crown race that will be compatible or are they headset specific. I'm pretty sure this is a Shimano hp-6400

Want to keep a shimano headset on a future campag pinarello? :O

Yes I know it's sacrilegious, but the steerer is really short , I need a stack height of 33mm . I think only campag pista and gran sport are that short and I'm yet to find one for sale ... Anyone ?!!' Otherwise it might be a stand in tange levin

That frame looks tidy, zootsuit. What year are you thinking? 1985?

I'm currently collecting 8 speed Chorus parts for my Montello to eventually swap out with the 105/600 parts that it came with. The big one though is to track down an original fork, which is proving difficult - see the wanted sub-forum if anyone can help out.

I keep a spreadsheet of vintage Pinarello serial numbers - got one for me?

Cheers. The original guy seller thought it was late 80s, hence why I bought Chorus but I think the paint, chrome seat stay caps and traingle actually match the 1985 catalogue http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/catalogs/pinarello85/9d.jpg

It's hard to tell by the decals as it has some replacments but I not sure if they all are . Also the ghosting of the original downtube decal has the word pinarello dead centre like the replacment , not either side like in the 85 brochure . Not sure if this varied in production though , other models in the 85 catalogue do have it dead centre

Serial number is MM695, does that give any indication?

...although looking again now that 1985 model doesn't have internal cable routing .. Now I'm confused !

If you look at the 1985 pros pinarello you can see the internal cable routing, so I guess it was an option for customers at the time.
You can tell it was made on the first years by the rear brake bridge ;)

Nice spot Breso, what is different about the brake bridge on other frames?

There's also picture of a 1985 with internal routing I found here (Montello from Retrobike's website), along with some other useful resources.

http://www.redvelo.co.uk/pinarello/other-montellos.shtml

this is the bridge on newer models (similar to the one they used on the 90s oria tubed frames):

Zootsuit, this is yours: http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/pinarello85/4.jpg note the internal cable routing and central ST decals - they split them into two when ST bottle mounts were introduced somewhere in 84/85. Yours would have been bought as a complete bike, where the one you linked to above would have been bought as a frame only, note the ST bottle mounts and cable guides - like mine!

The other two 'MM' serials I have alude to a bit later (87?) models, but Pinarello are famous for their cryptic and nonsensical numbering system. However, the double letter prefix spans from 84 to 87 with some later models having a ZZ prefix.

Keep in mind catalogues and serial numbers should only be used as guide as production runs changed and those crazy Italians used whatever was lying around the factory at the time. But with all the clues you could comfortably say it was a mid-80's Montello and leave it at that.

Can't wait to see some finished pics!

Thanks PIN20 that looks spot on. You're right it is probably impossible to pin down exactly. I guess frames for export to the US etc. may have also had different variations.

Woud love to see your frame, do you have any photo's?

Just waiting for a new headset to arrive then will commence with building again!

Mine's a bit of an ugly duckling at the moment - just collecting parts and trying to source a fork before I pull it all apart. It's had a bad respray at some point so no decals remain. While I haven't got the paint stripper onto it yet, there doesn't appear to be any chrome on the rear triangle, which is interesting, as almost every model from that period had at least some chrome on the chainstay. I don't have many photos of it, but here it is:

Note the cable guides and seat tube bottle mounts. Out of shot is a nice Cinelli 1A stem with Pinarello panto - probably the only part that survived from it's original incarnation!

Can't wait to get stuck into it, but it's super fun to ride as it is.

I bet it rides great! I guess you get to ride it more as it is at the moment too, as its a bit more low key. That'll be a really interesting restoration as you have a blank canvas to start with . Any ideas what you want to do with it, colour etc?

i can guess the forks research is a tough job PIN20!

I bet it rides great! I guess you get to ride it more as it is at the moment too, as its a bit more low key. That'll be a really interesting restoration as you have a blank canvas to start with . Any ideas what you want to do with it, colour etc?

Yeah I don't have to worry about it quite so much without having Pinarello splashed all over it! At the moment I'm thinking painting it midnight blue like the catalogue and chroming the rear triangle. Would like to do something clever with the decals, but not sure yet.

i can guess the forks research is a tough job PIN20!

You wouldn't believe how many places I've contacted. Almost all the ones I've found have been too short. I did find one in Germany, but they wanted a small fortune for it and the exchange rate killed it, (I'm in Australia, which doesn't make it any easier.)

I love this derailleur, its almost completely rebuildable. Great design.

Which bits do you miss?

Do you mean which bits of the groupset ?

Yep

Bottom bracket , though I have a gipiemme one that works. Chorus headset won't work as the steered has been cut very short. I also don't have the hubs but for now I'm going to try running my existing set of 9/10 speed hubs with a cassette as I may switch to a modern groupset at some point .