Electric blue to Jeff Bruce

So I spotted this and decided to make an offer on it as it was my size (52cm) and the electric blue paint job caught my eye. The seller claimed it was a Brian Rourke which was refinished by Dave Hinde, the giveaway was that the seat stays wrap around. Also that the tube set was likely 531 or some sort of Columbus, so I decided to give it a punt.

After coming back from holidays it was at my house and I unpacked it immediately and gave it a Quick Look. Generally checked out, Campagnolo dropouts, looked like a high quality frame with nice bits, no dents only some minor rust and some chips. Gave it a polish and the paint came up really nice. Not sure of the vintage, I would have guessed 80's as it has small cable stops that don't take normal 5mm cable ferrules. Rear spacing is 130mm, but could have been cold set? Seatpost is 27.2 so likely it's a lightweight frame.

Lo and behold the frame is pretty light, 1.9kg frame and 668g forks. So could be some kind of Reynolds 531, maybe 531c?

I bought the frame over Christmas and in the meantime also got a groupset to match this. Main concept is to build this fully or mostly out of vintage 80's/90's parts. Probably Campagnolo or similar, lots of chrome. My favourite era of Campagnolo stuff, where everything was polished and sinuously shaped. I've always found this era of Campagnolo stuff a bit mysterious, as none of the parts are ever labelled like Shimano stuff! And they all look quite similar so very easy to confuse between groups.

Not dissimilar from my 1991 Cannondale 2.8 build https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/386203/ but this will be a proper vintage bike rather than a Restomod

Here's some inspo shots

Probably can't afford Delta brakes though....
In any case I managed to score a 2nd Gen Chorus 8sp groupset. This has the early model Ergopower shifters with the pointy hoods.

Generally working condition, cosmetically has had some use. As part of this process, I had a lot of spare time over Christmas to research and went through a lot of old Campag catalogues from the 90's. It appeared to be all matching and the seller said it was taken all off one bike. Going from the catalogues it looks like it's probably 1995

Plans are to rebuild the Ergopowers, get the shifting sweet, build some wheels, strip and polish the crankset and fill in the missing bits like seat post and headset.

You’re better off without Delta brakes.

Nice frameset and lovely color

That'll make a lovely build. A bit bourgeoise/OTT, but you could get the cranks pantographed with the original graphics? Looks cracking and beats the usual panto approach of covering them in Colnago logos

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• campag.webp

Yes definitely! I've never heard a good thing about them apart from the looks...

Not at all OTT :D Im thinking of using this electro etching method to get back the Campag logos after I sand/polish it back. Will have to do a dummy test first though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTgfWIMxz2M

Slight update. I stuck on some wheels from my Cannondale to do a test fit...

Front wheel. With a 700c wheel the drop is about 55mm

Back wheel. Only the left side is a bit too high... but more 49-51mm reach

And my guess it is actually a 27" wheel frame...ergh. The calipers are only a few mm short but a 27"(630) rim would be just about right. Anyway thinking of several options:

• Change the brakes to medium drop (it's about a 55mm drop)
  
• Get offset brake pads (ordered some on Ebay already to see)
  
• Swap the fork out as the front is longer and the file out the brake arm slot at the rear as it's only a few mm short
  
  

Bit of a shame as I love the look of these Chorus calipers.

I think possibly the Centaur of that era-ish are a bit longer drop ?
Use them on my winter bike , fit ok with mudguards ..

Thanks for the tip! I just looked at some of the old Campagnolo catalogues and I can see the older early 2000's Mirage/Veloce/Centaur calipers go up to 52mm. Should be enough for the back but the front is short by about 4mm so might not be enough... Would have to file the slots. Maybe something for me to consider!

This would drive me bonkers.

Edit: looking at the fitment there's no way it's a 27. It wouldn't fit in the frame, and would be quite tight under the down tube for a road bike.

@bright Yeah I noticed that too.. Mind you those tyres in that pic are 30mm tyres though, It just seems odd that the brake reach is just about 4-5mm out of the normal for short reach.

In any case the geometry on this bike is somewhat odd... It's tight AF
Frame is 52cm Sq c to c
Seat tube 76º
Head tube is 74º
Wheelbase is 955mm
Chainstays 400mm

But manages to fit 30mm tyres, in fact I think you could probably go to about 32-35mm on 700c so I'm at a loss at what the original intent was. Seems odd to have so much tyre clearance on such a tight racy geo? Anyone able to shed some light?

Also I managed to strip down and rebuild the ergopowers

They looked a little ratty outside but the insides were actually very clean with what looked to be original grease possibly. Nonetheless I soaked it all in white spirits and degreased it.

I also ordered new G-Springs and spring carriers which are fixed stationary into the body

The ratchet ring then fits inside this and the springs sit into the notches of this index ring. The index ring is spun around on a shaft which connects to both shift levers. It pulls along the cable on one side as well. This gives the indexing to the shifting. Quite neat actually, this is the first time I’ve pulled one apart. Although I know the springs need regular replacing.

The right hand spring carriers are not available anymore so you have to buy the later model one and modify it. Newer model one on right here

It involves cutting off that stub and filing it down so it's flush. Pictured on left here

Then because the little stubs that extend into the shifter body are shorter I had to create little spacers from some aluminium foil to get it to stay put and stick this into the cutouts in the shifter body. You can see this next to the bearing

All done, with a new set of hoods. The funny thing is compared to the later 11 speed shifters, these have a much more definite solid click. The weakness of these old ones is apparently the springs and carriers regular replacing. Amazing thing is though that these shifters are nearly 30 years old but I still can get individual replacement parts for them...

Yep nice benefit over Shimano for sure!

Cool project. As for the geometry, I‘d say you‘re in luck. I have a 531c frame with aggressive geo (headtube angle 75*, wheelbase ~97cm) and clearance for 32s and it’s one of my favourite bikes to ride:

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Agree that if you can fit 32 tyre that seems like a big bonus.
Spenny but these are meant to be great brakes if you don't want to go for tekros (which do work fine but are not a nice)
https://freshtripe.co.uk/velo-orange-grand-cru-long-reach-brakeset/

This is so good!

Slight update
Stripped the anodising and polished the cranks.


Managed to get a used Chorus BB. Odd thing is when installing the NDS cup you could feel bearings starting to bind before it bottoms out. The BB shell is 68mm exactly so not sure what is wrong, googling it turns out that this is not uncommon and I ended up just loctiting it in there before it binds. NDS cup was not exactly loose in any case so should just stay.

I scored a set of Centaur callipers on the advice of @may and it looks like they fit a lot better. Front is only out by a few mm so I think I can file the slots out slightly.

Rear is perfect without any modification

The only thing is that with tyre clearance looks like max is about 28-29mm at the rear as the chain stays are the pinch point. Seatstay bridge has loads of clearance. Fork you could probably fit 32mm or maybe 35mm. Quite odd!

Did a bit of a mockup with some spare wheels…

A few updates. Managed to get the front brake calliper to fit with only about 2mm of filing in the arm slots

And did a bit of a mockup with some wheels I had hanging about

I had a bit of a think about what I do with the wheels as I had a bit of a dilemma, the shifters are 8 speed so basically it means you have the following options for cassettes and freehub

• Original Campagnolo 8sp cassettes and freehub. Availability is limited and hubs are generally all vintage
  
• Shimano HG freehub with Shimano 8 speed cassette but use Shimano 7 speed spacers. This is a bit of a kludge but actually works really well as the spacing is the same as the Campagnolo 8sp.
  
  

Availability of cassette choice is a bit limited for both and the max sprocket of the Chorus derailleur is theoretically 26t, although I have heard 28t is fine in reality.

The other option which might actually be easier is to convert the shifters for 9sp, apparently it only requires the change of the index ratchet part. The other plus is that I am going to build a wheel set for this bike so if I am going to spend a bit of coin I would prefer to have some future proofing, a 9sp Campagnolo freehub generally can also fit 10 and 11sp Campagnolo which has compatibility with two of my other bikes… Also I managed to score this on ebay for very little, apparently it still works and comes up on ANT+

So I decided I’d give converting the shifters a go… I got a pair of Veloce 9sp shifters from the late 90’s which still have the pointy hoods

And then pulled out the index ratchet ring from the RH shifter, and swapped it in. Went in with no problem!

loving this

Also I need a bit of help from you all. Not sure what colour rims to go with, as I love the look of all polished rims, but they are not that readily available in all drillings and options. However black rims are much better in availability, however I’m intending to run gumwalls and I always found it odd looking to get a black, silver,tan and black rubber rings all together.

I did a mockup with the polished wheels from my Cannondale 2.8, and then photoshopped what a black rim might look like. What looks better, black or polished?
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/386203/?offset=50

Also still thinking about lacing. As I’ve done 20/24h (radial front and NDS rear) on a few of my bikes, I’m thinking of going 32h 3 cross on shiny vintage Campagnolo hubs to keeep with the vintage theme… Convince me otherwise

Bike looks much nicer up thread with proper black tyres … I reckon low/shallow rims , 32 , 3 cross … sliver , silver , silver …. isn’t it supposed to be old fashioned … ? !

photoshopped what a black rim might look like. What looks better, black or polished?

Polished

I agree with the silver massive, it really brings out the frame colour in a way the black just doesn't do.

Aye! Thanks yep that just confirmed my own suspicions, I was dithering slightly but always loved the look of all polished :D

In other news, I managed to get a pair of wheels from @lot14 a few weeks ago, they were Campagnolo hubs on some Mavic Reflexes with some tubs. I'm only interested in the hubs to be honest, but they appeared to have the 9 speed free hub on them, supposedly they were Chorus hubs.

So after getting home I popped off the free hub and did a bit of browsing on old Campagnolo catalogues... from what I can gather these are not Chorus hubs but actually '97-'98 Record Titanium 9 speed hubs! The tell tale sign is the titanium axles as well as the plastic bearing covers on the front hub. Likely this is a '98 as it has the late style 9 speed free hub which is the same pattern 9/10/11 speed today.

These are quite unique hubs as they are basically similar to the older 8 speed hubs introduced in the early 90's. They are somewhere between the older design of traditional hubs with a threaded axle, and the later '99-'06 design which had oversized alloy axles like most hubs you see today. These from what I can gather are the last generation of Record hubs that Campagnolo released with raw polished aluminium. The later hubs all were polished and clear anodised so aren't as shiny.

Rear axle is titanium and has Campagnolo etched on the end. Tested with a magnet so definitely titanium.


Ditto with the free hub... no doubt here.

Snippet from the 1997 Catalogue

The front hub is actually very unique as I think it's the only Record front hub that doesn't have cup and cone but has cartridge bearings. Also it has a titanium axle like the rear. The grease almost looks new, and the front hub is smooth like silk.

The rear hub is not as smooth as the front but not sure if it's just contaminated or there are worse things hiding in there. I'll have to open them up, but needed to buy some new cone wrenches as the crappy ones I have bend too much and won't loosen the cones and locknut. Fingers crossed it's not too bad inside as these are difficult to get spares for as they are so old.

Next level tinkering, hope the reward matches the effort!

Silver wheels ftw, has anyone mentioned pink Benotto bar tape yet?..