Visit to the Campagnolo Factory

VeloNews managed to get a camera inside the iconic Campagnolo factory in Vicenza, and posted a photo gallery and report by Lennard Zinn.

Plenty of interesting stuff for fans of Campagnolo--check it out!

 

Recapping Our Bike Choice for Davis Double Century #30

As readers of this blog may know, I selected my original production Quickbeam to ride my 30th Davis Double Century this past weekend. I've always enjoyed riding the QB, which aside from a very brief period with a Sturmey-Archer 8-speed hub, has always been a fixed gear.

My Quickbeam at about mile 175

For the DC this year, I changed up the QB a bit, spinning a one-speed White Industries freewheel onto the Sturney-Archer S3X three-speed-fixed-gear hub that was already on the bike. To deal with the larger cog size (standard single-speed freewheels don't come smaller than 16T), I also put a 44T chainring on the stock SR crankset.

First thought about this setup: It works great. Shifting was flawless, and the hub is absolutely silent while pedaling. By comparison, the 8-speed hub made clicking noise while pedaling, while coasting … all the time. It was a bit annoying. The S3X also locks up the internals in the top gear (1:1 drive), making it very efficient. I'm hoping that, since there are no pawls inside the hub, it should be even more reliable than a standard 3-speed hub.  (The middle and low gears, by the way, are 75% and 60% of the top gear. On Saturday's ride, the climbing never got steeper than about 10%, and even then just for short pitches. I dropped into the middle gear a few times, but I did more than 90% of the ride in a 44x16 gear.)

Second thought is how nice it was to have 700x28 tires. There are about 4 miles of hard-packed gravel road on the DC route this year, which gave me no trouble at all. I can imagine some of the go-fast guys out there next week for the official ride struggling with 700x20 tires.

I'm planning to change out the crankset to one with a 46T ring this week, which will address a minor issue of being spun out at fast cruising speeds with the 44x16. I'll report back on that.

In the meantime, I'm thoroughly enjoying the QB in its latest incarnation. With fenders, a Schmidt hub, great lighting, and now gears and coasting, this is a great randonneuring machine.

Davis DC Workers Ride 5-11-13

Davis DC Workers Ride 5-11-13, a set on Flickr.

Yesterday was your CampyOnlyGuy's 30th trip around the 200-mile Davis Double Century course, duly recorded in these photos and in a bunch of video that we'll be editing into a hopefully coherent whole over the next few days.

Sadly, our bike for this ride wasn't sporting any Campy gear. However, shifting was handled by Sturmey Archer (3-speed), and there is not the slightest speck of ShimaNO on it.

Folllow the CampyOnlyGuy This Weekend

To celebrate my 30th Davis Double Century ride this weekend, I'll be live-tweeting all day long as I ride the 200-mile course with a group of fellow intrepid cyclists (we'll be doing the "Workers Ride," held one week before the official event on May 18).

To follow our progress around the course, use my Twitter handle: @Campyonlyguy

Or, go to http://www.twitter.com/campyonlyguy

The Workers Ride--and my tweets--will start at 5:15 a.m. Saturday morning, May 11.

Interesting to note that when I rode the Davis Double for the first time in 1983, the Internet barely existed. How times change.

Today's Retro Bike: Dan's Merckx

Dan S, from Iowa, sent these photos of his newly restored Eddy Merckx. Some very nice stuff happening on this bike! Paint is by Jeff Bock.

 More photos after the break ...

Amazing Campy Stash

Tomita T. is a retired Keirin racer, now living in Tokyo. He has been collecting Campy parts for some 40 years, with the stunning results shown below. Certainly a collection to be proud of!

Look closely and you'll see the makings of dozens of bikes ... even a pair of Campagnolo tool kits in the iconic wooden carrying cases!

Bravo, Tomita!

Grant Petersen, Paleo Man?

In our latest CampyOnlyGuy tweet, we explore the possibility that Rivendell's Grant Petersen is in fact more than 150 years old:

https://twitter.com/CampyOnlyGuy/status/330390110220742656

 

Today's Retro Bike: Martin's 1976 Scapin

From reader Martin:

"Hi

Just finished building my latest collector, a Scapin Super Chromovelato finish circa 1976 with Panto Super Record (Pat 78)

Thought it maybe appreciated if posted on on your website

Cheers

Martin"

More photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25370444@N07/ 

Branford Bike News: May 2013

Longtime readers of Campy Only know that Branford Bike has been a sponsor for more than 15 years. We are proud to have them on board.

Branford's latest newsletter is now online. You can also check them out on Facebook.

We invite you to check out their selection of Campagnolo merchandise--if it's available, they have it!

Let's All Be Careful Out There

Video shot today on Mulholland Drive, a famous road in the hills near Los Angeles:

Possible Trade: My Richard Sachs for Your René Herse or Alex Singer

Thought I would throw out this idea--I'm interested in acquiring a René Herse or Alex Singer randonneuring bicycle, and if you have one I would be open to trading my near-mint-condition Richard Sachs for your bicycle.

You can find lots of detailed photos of my Sachs here. Color is the super-bright Sachs team red with creme panels and yellow details (the photo above doesn't do it justice).

With a few exceptions, the bike is the same as shown above. The crankset is now a Chorus carbon UltraTorque, wheels are Khamsin G3s, and the saddle is a Brooks B17 Titanium. Everything is in excellent mechanical condition, ready to ride and enjoy. I can of course send any interested party the full particulars.

My Sachs is a 57cm. Your bike (if you're interested in trading) would have to be the same size or nearly so.

I'm not interested in trading frames--I'm looking for a complete bike, ready to ride a brevet series. An older bike would be OK, so long as it's not a museum piece that wouldn't be up to the stress of riding long distances.

So ... If you happen to have a Herse or Singer and would be interested in considering a trade, let's talk. I can be reached at campyonlyguy [at] me [dot] com.

 

A Campy-Equipped Classic

OK, this classis René Herse has only a dash of Campy (pedals), but it's such a fantastic machine that it deserves to be seen by any fan of fine bicycles.

More photos and some very in-depth analysis of the finer points of the frame and components over at Jan Heine's blog. Well worth checking out.

Red Kite Criterium, Livermore 4-21-13

Red Kite Criterium, Livermore 4-21-13, a set on Flickr.

There must have been a few Campy-equipped bikes in this race ... Anyway, my stepson, Willie Myers, won the Pro-1-2 race with audacious, 20-lap breakaway. Enjoy the photos!