For the past week since selling the Colnago Super I've been re-thinking the planned sale of the only other bike I've been considering selling: the Alpina. It's probably the most obscure bike in my collection when it comes to photos or discussion on the Forum; it's only seen the road a handful of times since I first purchased it in London just a few months after the Colnago Mexico. As such, it's the bike I've owned second-longest. The frame's been repainted twice; once in London (fluorescent orange) at Condor Cycles and once by the now-defunct Elliott Bay Bicycles in Seattle. In fact, this was the first frame EBB refinished for me.

For a quick history lesson, the frame was originally a Saba. Saba not only supplied frame building materials such as BB shells, fork crowns, etcetera, they also made some frames. Not able to find much in the way of production span or numbers. Here's a shop sticker that's currently on Ebay - the logos are representative of the decals which originally graced the frame; the upraised arms and head were also featured as cutouts in the lugs:



I searched for Saba decals for years before giving up and deciding to have Bob Freeman make up a set of decals called "Alpina" using an old set of Alpine (DC framebuilder in the Georgetown area) decals as a font guide. I made modifications to the frame's engravings and pantos, removing all trace of Saba's brandings. The frame was painted, decaled, cleared and I put it together slowly with the first drillium pieces I made - probably early in 2004. Over the years it's been ridden maybe twice since the restoration, mainly because I was always moving on to the next project in those days!

Anyway, the reason for this thread: I made one substitution already which will help my fit, but I need to know the best way to proceed with my second planned substitution. The first substitution was a longer seatpost. As with a number of my builds, Jon Williams had his input here as well. Long ago he made a limited run of milled-head Record posts and I was able to commission one complete with round-cut flutes and a bored out upper pivot; Jon also milled the 1A stem and polished it and the post to a beautiful matching finish. The post was replaced for a time by a milled SR unit (since sold) and a too-short but very lovely SR unit which Jon also did a bit of modification to - alas, too short. The two-bolt gives me plenty of length to get where I need to be for 2-3 hour rides, which is all this bike will l be used for. Why? Because the second substitution is a tubular wheelset:



This set has been sitting around for a long time now. Did some tweaking to the axle spacing last night and got a sweet chainline as a result. It will fit perfectly - but how will it perform?



I finally added a pair of drilled jockey wheel cages to the RD, so that finalizes the drillium theme. Note also the corncob freewheel - this will be a flatlander ride, no question!



An overhead shot giving an overall view; still not sure about the colorway...



The first nice Spring day, I want to take this out again for the first ride in forever. However, I admit to having my concerns about riding tubulars. First off: which is best, gluing or modern tape? If you have a preference, why? The last time I used tubulars was in Hawaii '98 - and I had my fair share of punctures while using them regularly in London, too. The Super Champions above have light glue residue (which I'll remove, of course, before proceeding) but no marking to the rims which tells me they've not been used in anger, so that's good. The tires are clean, non-too-dear Gommitalias which will be a nice way to try out tubulars again. Who knows, maybe if I get into these I might glue/tape up a nice pair to the Mavic SSCs and press them into service, too

Any tubular suggestions/advice/tips would be mucho appreciated. Thanks!

DD