My new project c/w Campag C Record & Deltas

My first post not so long ago was shortly followed by a meet up and ride with the ed edwards posse around the Gospel Pass. Much discussion regarding retro bikes, not to mention a degree of reminiscence for my old road bikes back in the late 80's naturally led to searching for suitable retro projects....just looking mind :roll:

After a week of on and off looking I found this George Longstaff, although not even remotely my size and despite being built into a time trial bike setup, it had my ultimate parts spec of a full C Record groupset complete with delta's...and the price was right!

After taking a look, a deal was struck and the bike bought. The 653 frame is nicely built with all the nice bits like the Cinelli BB, Campag dropouts, shot in stays, chrome rear end/ forks and nicely detailed lug work - although it has a cosmetic ding on the underside of the top tube and given that ideally I need a 52cm, will most likely be sold, whilst all the bits get a thorough cleaning whilst awaiting a suitable frame to hang on.

The groupset has some interesting deviations, notably the 'century' finish 36h hubs (std freewheel and not cassette) The rear mech is the first Record (I think its Record) model to change over to the parallelogram design and the synchro levers are possibly first gen 7 speed versions. Of course the icing on the cake are the brakes and that lovely crankset...Funnily enough, I had all this kit complete with same rear mech on my old 653 pug back in 91, its certainly brought back fond memories and despite owning a modern 15Ib carbon framed bike with all the carbon gubbins - it still somehow fails to excite to the same extent as all this old kit!

I've added some pics of the bike as it stands and no cleaning has taken place at all...yet , I'll update regarding progress with the clean up of parts and hopefully soon, new build!

looks very nice!

I don't think the NDS crank arm is C-rec though, it looks more like chorus or athena.

Andy

Sweet basis for a build - what frame are you going for?

Thanks both!

You are right Andy - Its a chorus nds crank arm, I discovered after I took the cranks off but noticed the absence of the self extracting bolt when picking it up. Was a bit of a disappointment but for the price I paid, I wont be losing sleep...think a Record arm will be icing on the cake once rebuilt.

Ed, its a good question and one now I've ended up with Record - not sure of. Originally it was going to be a Vitus 979 or Peugeot 653/753/carbone. Ideally perhaps it should be Italian Columbus tubed? I'm watching a 1991 tvt92 carbon right now, so maybe an option. Essentially I'm wanting to create something period correct to the 1990/1991 era pro tour type machine.

Whatever I decide, one thing is certain - I could well end up with more bits than less before anything is built simply because I'm now thinking I may build with the later 8 speed synchro levers and cassette hubs with 130mm o.l.d frame - rather than the std 126mm freewheel hubs on there now...although I've found out I've presently got a nice 7 speed Regina America freewheel on there.

In short, I've perhaps just entered the entrance of a potentially large bike build maze, but at least with some of the bits I've now got - should end up with some decent working capital if I choose to trade some parts out....Could get messy!

Update 27/12/12

Right time for an update, the latest on this is as follows, everything has now been stripped off the bike and cleaned up with a view to seeing what I've got and more importantly, what I need to obtain to turn a collection of bits into a bike.

Sadly the nice Regina America freewheel was dead with an alarming amount of play in the unit so sadly had to be binned!

I'm now unsure of what rear mech I've ended up with, I think its a 1991 CDA, the last year of the CDA group. I think the only difference is the sealed pullies on Record and std ones on this.

Pretty happy with how the wheels have turned up too, the nice Century hubs have polished brilliantly and the Open 4cd rims show hardly any concave wear, a little truing up and they'll be a nice tight set of wheels if perhaps a little overkill at 36h for my Grimpeur-esque build .

My next move is dependent on what frame I end up with, I'm in the process of moving in on either a TVT carbon or cheaper Vitus 992 BUT WHAT I REALLY WANT IS cchris2lou's Peugeot SLX Its 100% perfect for this. I have 8 speed Synchro levers within my set of parts so may opt for my preferred wheel choice consisting of early Record 8 speed cassette hubs, releasing the Century's for sale ....Lets see!

So list of bits required as follows -

Frame - Pending
Saddle
Freewheel or Cassette with new wheels
Chain
Cable set
Bar tape
Pedals (and most likely matching shoes!)

I'm now looking more forward to getting this on the road than my Ridley Helium that still lies in bits and prpbably will be long after this hits the road.