I decided to build something I haven't had in quite a few years. Heck I think it's been close to ten years since I rode something with no derailleurs. I acquired this Holdsworth Cyclone built with 531(not sure if straight or DB tubing) from David (Oddjobs2) this past fall for the Cannondale pre Black Lightning "Black Lightning" frame. I'm guessing the frame is mid to early 70's. Never checked out the serial number or looked too find into the brand if the build date is in there somewhere. I actually had it completely built up with entry level sort of period correct Campag group. The group was a mixture of steel Sport cranks and GS shifters, Valentino FD and Velox RD and some Gnutti/Super Champion tubular wheels. I wanted this to my vintage back roads bike so I was looking around for reasonably priced filled tread cross tubulars(yeah I know...reasonably price tubular cross tires. Haha!) It looked pretty nice but I wanted specifically a tan side wall file treaded tire. I could of picked up some practice tubulars or the normal YJ pair and spare but riding 23mm tubulars on gravel roads doesn't sound like fun.
So I figured for the price of a pair of tires I could get a new set of wheels and build something I've been thinking of riding again. Did a search on eBay for some cheaper fixed wheelsets and discovered the decent selection Velomine had to offer. So I checked out their website and actually found them cheaper($150 ebay vs $120 on they site). So with some money I received for Christmas I treated myself to some new shiny new wheels, 19t cog and lockring! These have your standard semi polished high flange Origin (Formula) sealed hubs laced with stainless straight 14g DT spokes to Sun M13 polished double wall polished box style rims. Overall I'm pretty darn happy with them and run pretty staight and don't look out of place.
I'm about 80% done with my Holdsworth Cylone fixed commuter project. Only problem is that this bike came stock with 27's and I went to a 700c clincher rim so the pads are not able to fully reach the sidewall completely now. It has your standard of the time Weinmann 610 centerpulls. What are my options for a period correct and centerpull with a slightly longer reach? I could get out a small round file and take off probably 5mm to get the reach I need for the front and the rears maybe 2-3mm if I don't find anything I'm happy with. I've never really cared for centerpulls but they're growing on me. I was going to enter this into the velo cheapo contest but wanted some decent fixed wheels so they pushed my budget completely out. Say la vie!
Now I'm just waiting on a matching Campag Record NDS crank arm. I've got the steel Sport crank arm on there now. I would of loved to use the Sport crankset but the rings are riveted together and 116mm BCD rings aren't hen's teeth but not super common and the chainring bolts are smaller then normal bolts also. I may also drop down to a 42t as it's fairly flat but quite a few long rollers here in the thumb.