Colnago and Campy!

Great stuff from our friends over at the Colnago Con Brio blog in their latest post, including lots more photos like this:


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Ysterday's Ride: The Annual Post-Thanksgiving Ride

The CampyOnlyGuy and friends rode 126 miles from C-O World Headquarters to San Francisco. Everyone was Campy equipped; the CampyOnlyGuy rode retro Super Record. More photos here

Campy Only's Benotto, rolling on high flange Record hubs

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Yesterday's Ride Photos: Pt Reyes

A few photos from yesterday's ride. Apologies for the paucity of Campy equipment on my mount ...


More photos here.
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Today's Ride: Dodging the Storms

Today's weather forecast was for rain--and rain it did. But the CampyOnlyGuy managed to get in 40 or so miles between the storms. Here's our fixed gear Quickbeam at the turnaround in Winters, CA:


And here's a radar shot of the rain coming down later in the evening:



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New Electronic Photos: The Best Yet

The folks over at FairwheelBikes.com were able to snap some great photos of the recently revealed incarnation of the electronic gruppo.  They also learned a bit about the gruppo, but all they can reveal is that it won't be showing up in your local bike shop until at least 2012.  More photos here.

Why Nobody Rebuilds ShimaNO's STI Levers

Most Campy fans know that Ergo levers can be rebuilt fairly easily using common tools (the CampyOnlyGuy has done it several times). A friend recently asked us why nobody rebuilds ShimaNO levers.

The answer to that question is illustrated below. One of the mechanics at Branford Bike took apart an STI lever just to see what was inside, and found this incredible assortment of tiny parts:


No word on whether he was able to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

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Alex Marco "The Bike" (Scopitone)

Just some fun for your Monday. There's probably a little bit of Campagnolo in there somewhere ...

Campy Equipped Vitus 979

Back in the late 80s and early 90s, Vitus frames (like this very nice example sent in by reader Bruce) were quite popular.  They were very light and well made, although they worked best in small sizes and for lighter riders.  Bigger, heavier riders usually found that they flexed too much for racing, so many large fellas turned them into long distance machines, where the flex created a comfortable ride.

Vitus 979 owned by Bruce L.

Vitus 979 frames were assembled in France using epoxy to join the tubes to the lugs.  This made the frames repairable (just glue in a new tube), but also led to reports of frame failures.  

You don't see many of these nowadays, but Bruce has clearly taken great care of his.  You can read more about the Vitus 979 here.

Campy-Flavored Blog is All About Colnago

Blogger Warren wrote today to let us know that he has linked to Campy Only from his Colnago Con Brio blog. Right back at ya, Warren!

Lots of cool stuff there about Campy-equipped Colnagos and the folks who ride them ... Like Giuseppi Saronni:


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Non-Campy (but Retro) Crankset Installation

Today's project at Campy Only World Headquarters was the installation of a Grand Cru crankset from Velo Orange on our retro-styled Benotto.  Detailed photos and descriptions here.

Grand Cru Double Crankset from Velo Orange

The Grand Cru crankset is nicely made and finished.  Although it resembles a older Stronglight crankset more than a retro Nuovo Record, it's close enough to match the overall look of our Benotto.  With 48/34 rings, it also offers a lower gear range.

Next project will be to install a classic Campagnolo Rally derailleur to replace the Super Record unit now on the bike (see the post below).  The Rally will be able to handle the wide range of gears easily--the SR struggles a bit with the largest cog, as the jockey pulley isn't quite far enough from the cog.

Feel free to post comments, or email me: enorris [at] campyonly [dot] com

Rally Rally Nice

This 1970s-era Rally derailleur will soon be gracing one of the CampyOnlyGuy's bikes:

The Rally was offered for a few years in the Nuovo/Super Record era.  It fell by the wayside as Campagnolo changed its lineup and eventually started switching to indexed shifting.  Two versions of the Rally were made--this one, and another that was basically a Nuovo Record derailleur with a longer cage.  This is by far the more desirable of the two.

Photos of the completed bike will be right here as soon as we're done.

P.S. We'll also be mounting this crankset.  It's not Campy, but it's very retro and will give us lower gears.

Today's Mod Girl--With Campy

"Hey, my eyes are up here!" Photo from Interbike in Las Vegas. More like this.


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