What have I done? Bottecchia my old friend was stolen last summer. I looked and looked and finally found a $200 Stella frame I knew nothing about and bought it. It's in good shape except that it's a Stella. I mean it's a great frame, quite interesting lug work, columbus tubing, chrome fork ends front and back. But everything else presents problems. Even the paint. Actually it came with a head set that works well, and a bb (nevar) that's ok. But keep the square Nevar?? I've been riding a bike since the '70, now I'm oldish and have a bad knee from too much motorcycle crashing. Well, just once, but that's all you need. So I want a decent drive train, probably with 165mm cranks. BTW I've learned A LOT from the sheldon brown web site. I realize I'm in for a huge project. So drive train. And rear wheel spacing. Cold set to a wider space? Do I really want to do that? I'm I just being squeamish or is it really a good idea to jam something wider in there, and if so how much wider than the current 120mm will allow. I can get it to 126mm with force, but .. really? And to what end, as I still have the issue of that french bb? Ideas?

Thanks a mil.