Thanks! One of my more satisfying restorations. That bike did Eroica in 2012, on those woodies with those same tires, and they are still on the bike. We did the middle distance, 81 miles I think it was. I don't think I've changed anything on the bike.
It was a spectacular 3-week trip, where we did lots of riding around Gaioli before the event, and some after including near Montalcino, Badia di Lucca, and around the wall at Lucca, and at the end of the ride we came back to Florence and rode for a day with Roberto Poggiali, a well-known racer from the 50s through 70s, and a gregario to Gimondi and Moser, and a Direttori Sportiv for a couple of teams, and he also had his own shop in Scandicci called Tutto Ciclismo. My friend Amy who was with me on the trip rode a Poggiali bike (Not Pogliaghi!). I had met Roberto through a fellow I found on flickr, Marco Borri, who had several of his bikes in pictures, and who supplied me with original decals. Turns out Roberto was his next door neighbor! Marco and I still chat on a regular basis. Especially during Covid. He was a great source of information about how bad it really was in Italy. Luckily he speaks very good English as my Italian is meager.
We also got to meet Antonio and Giovanni Cermenati, who made the Cerchio Ghisallo wood rims. They have just closed up shop, sadly.
Fun story - a couple days before Eroica, we were riding south of Gaiole, and we were about 10 miles away from the cars when my Regina freewheel started coming apart. It was the splined Regina body, and those sometimes crack all around through the splines. It had not quite spilled its guts yet, and I was able to lay the bike on its side, slide the wheel out, and keep it intact. I cut some leftover sewup boot material into the shape of washers that would fit over the axle and fill the space between the freewheel and the frame, and carefully slid the wheel back in, and rode the 10 miles back to the car. Then went to the Eroica swap meet and found a guy with a freewheel, and the tool to be able to swap my 13-31 cogs over onto it, as I really wanted those for the event.
Lots of pics here.
Collection: Italy 2012