Campagman
Dirt Disciple
I bought my Kona CinderCone in 1990/91 from Libra Cycles in Stockport, I think it was £500, sounds a lot back in 1990. I think it was a purchase on the back of selling a car and softened by also buying an eternity ring for my wife.
It was white with blue/red splatter paint and Suntour XCD components.
I did a few MTB races and some trails in the Peak District but was still a roadie in the main through the 90’s and to date. Mountain biking was too slow and didn't clock up the miles that you got on the road. Too much time for not enough miles.......
Sometime I swapped out the thumb shifters to Gripshift and probably in the 2000’s I changed the bars too drops and Campag ergo shifters which didn't work well with v brakes....but an example of an early gravel bike with skinny tyres also fitted.
Later it became a single speed with a locked out rear mech and 1 x chainset as pictured above.
My brother had it for a few years with very little use through the 2010’s then I retrieved it about 18 months back.
Through last summer lockdown it nearly got binned altogether having lost/binned/given away all the components…..but I held onto the frame/forks/stem and bars for posterity if nothing else. By now the frame was is a poor state, very rusty around the BB area. The BB was seized and the lh crank had to be cut off as the internal thread was stripped.
Into the ‘winter 20’ lockdown and I found a renewed interest in doing something with the frame, maybe rebuild it back to original or similar.........
So, I found a local blasting/painting firm who repainted the frame to a bare white and the stem/bars to black for a whole £60.
I got hold of set of decals from Retrodecals (excellent) and so the rebuild starts……..
I’ve always used Campag road kit once I learnt a bit about road riding, so an option was to go for Campag MTB items.
Started looking on eBay, found some bullet shifters and brake levers, a graphite chainset, some nice cantilevers, a Kalloy stem (as original build) which polished up well, both mechs and a pair of Hope hubbed wheels (need a Campag free hub!)
So far just done the decals and polished a seat post and dabbled with splatter painting on an old plastic pipe - planning on making it red and green inplace of red and blue.......so to match the Italian flag colours.