Restoring a Bike to its Old Glory

I have been spending so much time talking about Campagnolo components I am tempted to start another blog in that name; this is another one. A while back I identified all the Campagnolo components on my Specialized Allez. All the components were Nuovo Record, except the shifters and derailleurs that had been "upgraded" to the C-Record shifters and C-Record era Chorus Derailleurs below.







While these are very nice components, I just felt they did not belong with the Nuovo Record parts so I endeavored to restore the old style drivetrain components to their old glory.

Here is the new side view.


The classic Nuovo Record Shifters



The front Derailleur with the very classy clamp.


And the pièce de résistance, the Nuovo Record rear derailleur.

This little gem was lasted almost unchanged for 16 years as the must have racing derailleur. There were some incremental changes however, each getting it's own yearly patent number. I looked to find a late model; this being a Pat 84. There are simply a jillion of these derailleurs out there but they are still quite pricey. I actually found this one in Poland. Turns out the pulley back plate was bent (a very easy fix) and the pulleys are Shimano. The OEM pulleys for these are quite pricey and hard to find, but there are some high quality replicas for about $30, which I will be purchasing in the near future. The NR derailleur was rated for 6 speed, but handle pretty much any tooth count about up to 8 speed. I have retained the 7 speed 13-23 freewheel for now, but I have a 5 speed in reserve. My reasoning for the 5 speed instead of the 6 speed, is because there is something still classic about a 10 speed race bike.

I have the Regina Extra chain that came with the other components but it is a couple of links too short. I have still run the chain through the derailleurs and it works great. But I continue to use a SRAM 8 speed chain, as it works great and is easily replaceable.

Campagnolo Components Part 2

Of all things I found the Cannondale specs (1987) on the parts I switched out from the Cannondale (SR900) to my Specialized Allez. When I really started to pay attention to the parts, I was under the impression that someone had spec’d the bike as some dream build; turns out it was true, but the someone was Cannondale. Here is what the spec sheet said on the parts I transferred that were the same;

Hubs......................Campagnolo Nuovo Record

Crankset...............Campagnolo Super Record, 42/52
Pedals...................Campagnolo SL, toe clips and straps
Brakes..................Campagnolo Nuovo Record, recessed allen bolt
Headset................Campagnolo Nuovo Record
Front Derailleur..Campagnolo Nuovo Record (Since the Allez did not have a braze-on front
derailleur mount, I replaced it with a Chorus clamp-on).
Parts that were different;

Freewheel............instead of a Suntour New Winner freewheel, there was a Regina Winner.
Handlebar............instead of a TTT Tour de France, there was a Cinelli Giro d’Italia
Stem.....................instead of a TTT, there was Cinelli 1A
Derailleurs...........instead of a rear Campagnolo Nuovo Record, there was an Athena that
replaced with a Chorus.
Shifters................instead of Campagnolo Nuovo Record, there were C-Record Syncro II

The inclusion of the C-Record Syncro II shifters and Syncro compatible Athena rear derailleur has me believe that the Cannondale swapped out the parts from was upgraded to Syncro after it was purchased. The bike and other components are 1987, but the Syncro II did not come out until 1989.

This may not seem interesting to many, but it is way cool to me.

Identifying My Campagnolo Components

As I explained in an earlier post 3Rensho Specialized Allez, about ten years ago I bought an older Cannondale bike on ebay for about $500. The bike was originally a gift for my brother, but the old style Campy components (why the bike got my attention) proved too much for him. The bike hung around in his garage for a number of years, until I came across the beautiful Specialized frame at my LBS. I didn't have any components for the frame, so I traded the Cannondale back for another bike and swapped the parts. The only parts I needed to buy was a front derailleur, seatpost and brake levers. I ride the bike around from time to time, but have never sat back and really identified what parts are on the bike. Vintage Campagnolo is renown for not labeling their components with identifying markings other than "Campagnolo." There is really no way to know what vintage parts you have without doing some detective work. Most of the info I got was from Velobase.com and Campyonly.com. What I discovered was the Cannondale was obviously someone's project bike and they just draped it with some of the best parts they could find.

The first photo is the Crankset which I have identified as Super Record. There is also an "11" on the crank arm which I have read means it was manufactured in 1985.


Next are the hubs, which are Nuovo Record

The brakes are Nuovo Record

I can't photograph the bottom bracket but I'm fairly sure it looks like this; Nuovo Record

The headset is also Nuovo Record

The shifters are C-Record Syncro II (7 speed)

The original rear derailleur I later identified as Athena. One person who saw the bike said they believed it didn't fit with the rest of the parts; further my mechanic told me the derailleur seemed a little tweaked and might have been in an accident, even though it seemed to shift fine to me (as well as Syncros shift). Based on all this I bought a Chorus of the same vintage to work with the Syncro II shifters. I later discovered the Athena derailleur was indeed the right period derailleur for the shifters.

Here is the upgraded Chorus derailleur

This is the original Athena derailleur

The pedals are Record Supperleggeri; I added the toe clips and straps.

As I mentioned before, I bought three components. The first was a Victory front derailleur, which is probably the lowest part of the Campy food chain on this bike. I upgraded that derailleur to the Chorus you see below.

Here is the original Victory front derailleur

The next was a budget buster but worth it; the seatpost is a NOS Nuovo Super Record

And finally the brake levers, which are famous Super Record made out of drillelium.
So there it is, a fun lesson in Campagnolo components. I may be wrong about a part or two but I doubt it.