fiataccompli

I picked this bike up...sad, dusty,aged condition, but almost no scratches & hopefully more "shelf wear" than real wear...not sure what I'll do with it - probably migrate the group to another bike & rebuild this frame for someone. I had never seen or heard of this particular one, but apparently it's a 1994 R600 ?



anyone have experience with these frames/forks (aluminum fork?) or this Campy group (apparently Stratos & it is 8 speed) ??

dddd

I would have guessed that it was the Avanti gruppo, which I think was the Ergo-era 8s replacement for the bottom-end Xenon Synchro-II gruppo.

The Xenon gruppo dispensed with dual-pivot calipers and had plastic brake levers, but I find that it works quite well in index mode using modern 9s chain on a Sunrace 7s freewheel. The low-end Campag gruppo's chainrings in those days looked just like the good ones, made from thick stock.

Here's my similar Campagnolo Cannondale from just a couple of years earlier, sporting the complete Athena Synchro-II gruppo.

pastorbobnlnh 

I have a '93 R600 2.8 that came equipped with Shimano 105. The frame is very light, stiff, yet still very comfortable to ride. Since it is a 60cm frame, comparing it to how your small frame rides is probably not the best comparison.

If the frame fits you, I'd encourage you to give it a try and ride it for at least a few hundred miles, before deciding to move it along to someone else. Since you live in a mountainous area, one of the great advantages of this frame is out of the saddle climbing. The stiffness works in your favor (at least for me at 230lbs), when compared to my Schwinn Paramounts, which do flex. I've never noticed my R600 flex when I need to "stick it to a hill!"

If it were mine, I'd clean and tune it, add 25-27mm tires, then ride it as much as possible, even go climbing in the Smokey Mountains, since they are so close by!



Mine at the top of a local mountain climb.

fiataccompli

well, unfortunately (in a way), this C'dale is way too small for me. I picked it up because 1. it was relatively inexpensive, 2. I thought the Campy group would be nice to use to rebuild one of the cool steel bikes I have on deck to rebuild as around-town roadies (an '80s Torpado, late '80s/early '90s Fondriest, etc.) & 3. because I always have people who ask me to find them a nice but small road bike so I figured i could build it back with a respectable Shimano group (which most people would probably prefer vs. trying to find "obsolete" Campy stuff) and it would be used.

You touch on a great point however - I am incredibly lucky to have the awesome foothills & then Smoky Mtn terrain at my back door!

fiataccompli

Oh, one side question here - should new hoods for these levers be hard to come by?