So this was the bike that Ron built for me when I was 15. Best birthday present ever. Columbus SL built up with a whole load of mainly Campag bits from my brother's old bike.



A few years ago the mechanical issues started adding up and when the bottom bracket finally seized up I effectively replaced it with an OTP carbon frame. It sat in the spare room, my emotional attachment preventing me from getting rid of it. Finally I decided to get it back into action and rideable again. Forgive me for going down the steel frame/modern gruppo route rather than the period-correct restoration, but I definitely want to enjoy riding it as much as possible. So I took it along to Colour Tech for a respray and respacing of the stays (and to get the old Cinelli XA stem hacked out! *sob*), and had the pleasure of meeting Ron while I was there. This was February this year. I hadn't met him for about twenty years since he moved out of Honor Oak.





I decided to get a retro-looking paint job in the colours of my old club, VCL. The spec sheet includes a couple of original features - Dura Ace AX aero seatpost and the Cinelli Campione Del Mondo bars. Then it's basically a SRAM Force groupset, and I had the wheels (Ambrosio Excellight on Novatec hubs) built by Harry Rowland, which is rather apt since Harry used to work in Ron's shop in Honor Oak. I love it more than ever.