I recently bought this late 60's or early 70's Bottecchia Professional road bike, and want to turn it into my nice townie bike. I'm more of a road/mountain guy, so I figured I'd ask for some advice from you experienced utility bike folks.
Goals:
-Keep it period correct, or at least period correct looking. It's not all original, but it is mostly period correct
-Maintain it's racey handling. It is an SLX frame, and rides beautifully. Very quick handling, and stiff
-Carry packages (I own a vintage/used bike shop, and ship a lot of parts. most days it's 2-7 flat rate envelopes, sometimes a big box or 2
-carry a water bottle (it lacks braze on's of any sort
-NOTHING black. Maintain it's coolness with chrome or alloy
-Be able to ride with long pants and no dorky pant strap!
-Not so expensive of added parts that I wouldn't want to lock it up outside ever
Questions:
1) Bars: I like the "on the hoods" position, and have bullhorns on my other bike. i want to stick with that bars nearly parallel to the top tube feel, but bring the bars in towards the seat to make a more leisure ride. I still want it to be a fairly aggressive position, so I will be mounting the bars upside down. Here's what I'm looking at so far. I want to run mtb/Canti brake levers and leather grips, so a 22.2 end is necessary. what do you think? Any other bars worth looking at?
-Soma Oxford:
http://store.somafab.com/sooxha.html
-Velo Orange Porteur:
http://store.velo-orange.com/index.p...ar-config.html
-Nitto Albatross (maybe too relaxed?)
http://www.rivbike.com/product-p/hb2.htm
2) Stem: Since I'll be experimenting/swapping bars likely, a quill stem with a removable faceplate would be great. Problem is everything I know of is either not silver (Salsa), or too modern looking. Any ideas? I REALLY like the old track style stems like these, but not necessary:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BEDLbCKuDE...0/IMG_6305.JPG
3) Rack: This bike doesn't have eyelets or braze's of any sort. What do you think would be good for a front or rear rack/basket? Doesn't have to be huge.
4) water bottle cage: I had thought of mounting a bottle on the rear of the saddle, on the bars, or somehow to the downtube. What do you recommend?
5) Chainguard. I like the idea of leaving this as a standard double, so I would rather not use a bash ring. Open to the idea of a different crank. Frame obviously doesn't have any method of attaching a standard chainguard. Any ideas?
Any advice is MUCH appreciated!
Justin