At the suggestion of Gomango, here it is.
For quite some time I have been putting the pieces together for this bike, destined to be the rainy day ride/tourer. Starting with a $50 buy-in for the basic-black spray-bomb, it's taken 3 years and some help from various Forum members to assemble the parts necessary to allow this gorgeous Swiss beauty to shine once again.
Four months of searching Ebay turned up a beautiful period-correct set of Mondia Special decals from VeloCals.
My pal Robert Broderick assured me that Campy long reach calipers would definately fit on this frame, and just to be sure I scored a nice, used set on which the rear had the classic Campy drop-bolt. Just in case, you know.
After looking and considering options, I was finally able to locate a Campagnolo French threaded triple BB with the 123mm spindle and thin cups. Cups should be here any day from the UK. Only $20 for the pair if you can beat that! Nice.
I also had a little help from Kpug505 in obtaining parts for the ultimate touring bike wheelset - he provided me with a gorgeous vintage Phil Wood front hub in a friendly exchange (I added to his extensive derailleur collection) - thanks, Kelly! However, once the wheels were all built up the rear wouldn't go into the frame. Huh?
Yes (sigh...); at sometime during it's life, someone spread the rear triangle and the 5-speed axle just wasn't going to make it. Fortunately, I had a spare, stout 6-speed wheelset that shot right in. I threw the 5-speed freewheel on, and although there is a chain-width gap between the last cog and the inner face of the dropout the problem is solved.
It's good to have great friends: my pal Carl Kamenzind over in West Seattle gave me a pretty much NOS Campy Rally rear derailleur. He's been bugging me to put together a rain/working bike for years. This was his contribution to the project - thanks, bud!
I decided to give a nod to one fairly rare piece of kit and scored a first-version Super Record two-bolt seatpost in 27.4mm. The remaining components (bars, stem, saddle, pedals, derailleurs) I have had kicking around for a couple of years.
The frame was finally completed (refinishing) a couple of weeks ago. A couple issues, one being that the canti bosses were supposed to have been removed. This was vocalized, but didn't make it onto the paperwork. Oh, well; I'd just have four big posts sticking out that weren't doing anything when I mounted the Campy calipers, right? Wrong. The wheel guides on the brake shoes interfered with the canti studs - had to now source those.
Well, finally I have the cantis - although I admit to being a rock-ape when it comes to adjusting centerpull brakes of any kind. For the first time in many a year I dropped off a bike at the LBS to have them do an adjustment. I get the bike back around Friday. I hope by then the triple cups have arrived; if so, I will drop them in, add the 36t third ring and go find some hills for the shakedown cruise.
The before shots:
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A teaser after shot:
I don't know a whole lot about Mondias, other than the fact they have French threading and are a pain in the rear to find said French-threaded parts for! However, I assume that the headlugs, fork ends and the seat tube band would probably have been chromed in the frame's original guise. That would've been cost-prohibitive, especially cosidering the intended use of the bike, so I passed. Regarding other departures from original spec, I upgraded by adding derailleur cable guides, brake cable guides to the top tube and shift lever bosses. The extra 'mountain bike' cable stops - obviously added sometime during the frame's hard life - were removed.
If this rides anything like she looks I'm going to be a happy, happy camper...