dnslater

There has been a lot of discussion on bike forums about refinishing Ti frames so I thought I would document my build......

My wife's is a Triathlete and has been wanting a nice comfortable road bike so when we ride together she doesn't have to ride her tri-bike. I ride a Ti Guru and the thought of a comfortable Ti frame matching mine had some appeal, so she bought a 15 year old Serotta Classique Ti from ebay last month for me to build into a bike for her. The old Classique Ti Serotta has a 1" stearer tube with a nice Nitto quill stem and decent carbon fork. I believe these were made between 1999 and 2001. The headset bearing didn't sound good, but I cleaned them and re-greased and now they are working fine.........



The frame was in good clean conditioned, but has a stock bead blasted finish with some scratches, so the first step was to strip it of most decals and give it a brushed finish. I started with a purple 3M paint stripper pad on a power drill to initially remove the bead blasted texture. This took several hours as I was careful to go perpendicular with the frame. I then cut 1" strips of 400 grit sand paper and went over the entire frame again with a steady back and forth movement - again perp. to the frame tubing. Finally I finished with green scotch brite pads, which give it a nice fine factory brushed look. There was still a light bead blasted texture under the brushing, which isn't such a bad thing. In order to completely remove, I would need to start with a more aggressive sandpaper.


She asked me if I could put her name on the bike, so I thought it would be fun to experiment with my media blaster. I masked the bike and left a band unmasked, placing her name in vinyl letters on this area. I blasted it first with medium grit Aluminum Oxide and then with medium-fine glass beads. It gave a nice finished product, but she is looking for something with more subtle lettering, so I will re-brush over this area and try again later with smaller letters - maybe something matching the "Classique Ti" original font.


Next time I will be more careful to center the letters in the blasted band.







I will update the build with more photos as I start assembling the bike and take another shot at blasting the letters, and apply the new Serotta decals. She upgraded to carbon clinchers on her Tri bike so we are putting her old Soul wheels on this build. She also found a lightly used Red groupset, so we are splitting that set between this build and her Tri bike.

stockae92

that looks awesome, nicely done.

55/Rad

Nice! I'm a big fan of media blasting on frames and love the look. Will you be doing the same with the Serotta decals? I once did this with a reverse template on a chrome Pinarello frame to fantastic results.

dnslater

I probably won't do it with the Serotta decals as getting a reverse template made would be tough. my Guru came stock like that though and it is nice

here is an update on the Serotta build. Still need to mount a brake and a dérailleur and add bar tape. My wife will swap out tires. I think she is going with a green motif as the new Serotta decals will have green outlines.

datlas 

Looks gorgeous. You may want to rotate those bars a bit down.

dnslater

Yes, definitely need to. Still dialing in a few things. Bars will likely drop and seat will go up once fitted to my wife. I am taller than her but her inseam is 4" more than mine.

dnslater

Here is my Guru....

rpenmanparker 

The problem with those old bars is that modern levers "require" them to be rotated up to get a flat run from the tops to the hoods that OP is showing in the photo. If I were OP, I would switch out the quill stem with a threadless stem adapter and buy a new stem and modern bars. Hand positions are an area where newer bikes are much improved over the old. For not too much money they can have the best bar setup that is now available.

shelbyfv

Love the bead blast, very classy. If she's going green, there is the Vittoria Pave Vittoria Open Pave CG Tyre, TYRES ROAD/TRI/TRACK FOLDING .

MZilliox

very cool build, nice wheels

dnslater

I looked into this a bit and urged my wife to get a Soma Hwy One bar or something similar. They fit the look of the bike and work with the 26mm Quill stem while being modern geometry. I am not a big fan of the look of the adapters on thin tubed bikes and think the Quill stem looks very nice on the bike. There are a few other companies that make modern 26mm bars.


In the mean time I rotated the old bars down a bit as they were meant to be and it is not bad, although she may still want a more modern setup.

shelbyfv

The Nitto Noodle bar is comfortable and would look good on that bike. Agree with you about the quill as opposed to adapters.

rpenmanparker 

Well, DSFDF for sure. If you can get a modern shaped bar that fits the quill stem and together match your sensibilities, by all means go for. It is just that I never liked quill stems when they were all there was. I have always considered them gangly and ugly no matter what tube diameters the bike used. When the threadless stem was introduced, my first thought was, "It's about time!" I especially like the removable face plate on threadless stems for convenience.

dnslater

Update:

I had decals made with my wife's name and a black surround. I cut out her name and masked off the bike and blasted it with Al oxide and then glass beads.







Serottaa stickers are still incoming from Velocals in Europe.

She found a good deal on a 3T ergo road bar in polished aluminum that fits her 26mm quill. Hope to have it soon so we can complete the build.

the_freewheeler

your second take on the blasting looks fantastic

dnslater

Mostly finished the build. Green scheme was all her idea. Still need a permanent polished seatpost and a different seat. TT seat on there for now.

dnslater

a1penguin

Very nice! I like the green. Not too much of it and it looks like the green on the bars and wheels match well.

link0

Great restoration and lovely bike. But please change out the ugly handlebars.

shelbyfv

Very nice. Happy wife....

dnslater

My wife bought them on ebay. 38mm wide older 3T Forma ergobars. I think she thought they would be more modern. She will try them for a bit and see how she likes them. I think they look good on the bike in person.

rpenmanparker 

I like 'em. Nice look and I bet very comfy.

BillyD

Great job!

cydewaze

Looking great!