3speedslow

Well, the bar tape may be green but so is the grass on the other side of the fence! I can't wait to see your finished build.

bikemig 

I've been busy cleaning up the parts. The brakes are cleaning up nicely; I need to track down some hoods. I have a pair of cane creek replacement hoods in brown that will fit and I suspect I'll end up using them. I did replace the brake shoes with a pair of kool stops; I do want this to be a working bike, .

I have a silca impero pump with a plastic head that fits the frame.

Next step is tracking down a cotter pin press. I'm trying to avoid buying one and I want to use something better than my trusty block of wood on this bike.

The crank is cleaning up nicely with some simichrome for the crank arms and a dip in my parts bucket for the chain rings. The crank looks better in real life than it does in the picture; it must be the way the flash caught the crank arms.

It is an interesting design. It is a 3 arm 116 bcd. The outer chain ring bolts on to the crank arms and the inner bolts onto the outer. Sort of like a tripleizer without a triple. There is wear on the teeth but there is plenty of life left in these chain rings:

juvela

More fine work, looking good!

wrt wedgebolt press here is one enthusiast's solution:



From this forum thread:

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...c-heavy-5.html

wrt frame pump - am sure many readers will have a sleeping non-framefit Impero body they could send to you.

bikemig 

I do have a c clamp. It did me no good getting the cotters out; I just relied on a block of wood and a hammer. Maybe it will do a better job getting them in though. I'll give it a shot.

juvela

Pounding is dangerous because one can brinell bearing races. Necessary to support the back side very well with something like a socket resting on an anvil.

Reynolds 

Nice bike! You could try using a bench vise as a cotter press too, it worked for me many times.

John E

I really like your Olmo, perhaps because my 1960 Capo Sieger has almost the same complement of components. My gearing will be 49-46/14-16-18-21-24-26 if I can make the ultra-6 speed freewheel work, otherwise 49-45/14-16-19-23-26. The Gran Sport front can indeed handle something like an 8- to 10-tooth drop, as in a 1.5-step setup, but the Gran Sport rear's chain wrapup capacity is extremely limited. With a 3- or 4-tooth drop in front, you **may** be able to cram 28T in back, depending on your rear derailleur dropout. (No such luck on the Capo.)

Not having a proper cotter press, I use either a C-clamp or a bench vise with a wrench socket on the other side. I have Agrati cranks and road quill pedals and the Ambrosio variable-reach handlebar stem.

gerv 

Sweet bike, @bikemig. Hope you enjoy it!

bikemig 

I finally finished the bike. It took me a while to track down a cotter pin press. The bike is pretty much original. I replaced the original ambrosio bar and stem with a cinelli bar and stem. The original stem was too short for me. The gran sport front derailleur didn't survive, , and I replaced it with a "nuovo" gran sport. I replaced the tubulars with clinchers that if not quite period correct are in the right neighborhood: campy record high flange hubs and milremo alloy clincher rims. One thing that surprised me about the bike is that every single bearing surface (and there are a lot of bearings in this bike from the BB to the hubs and headset to the pedals and the rear derailleur jockey wheels) was smooth with no pitting.

I was lucky to have a black silca impero pump that actually fits the frame. I used black tressostar tape. The hoods are dia compe that fit the levers well and the water bottle cage is from velo orange.

The bike reminds me a bit of an old house that is very well built but you need to keep repairing. Plus nothing is quite straight or plumb and it can be tough finding parts.

Every part of this bike needed some TLC; a lot of the parts need a bit of modding and coaxing to make them work right. But every part works well in a 1960ish summer of love kind of way.

This is a very solid bike; it just feels right as you pedal it.

juvela

Congratulations, beautiful work!

The stem you mounted does not look like a regular 1A road model. Is it the track model?

The NT/NGS skewers are a bit late. You might want to keep an eye out for some pre-CPSC Records with straight levers to fit.

She really looks Eroica ready.

Enjoy.

bikemig 

Thanks! If I were going to make the bike eroica ready, I'd swap out the RD for a long cage and put a honking big freewheel on the back!

I believe it's a 1A stem.

The bike came from Valley Cyclery in Van Nuys before migrating to the midwest to spend its senior years, .

Here is a bike forum thread on vintage bike shops that includes a pic of the shop where the bike was sold (go figure): https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...op-photos.html

qcpmsame 

Turned out excellently, my hat is definitely off to you on this resurrection. Doing an l'eroica would be my ultimate goal, best of luck on accomplishing this, also.

Bill

crank_addict

Neato! Nice job too and resourceful on that freewheel selection. Especially for the territory. For an original finish, sure looks clean and well preserved. Ride report?

(My only nit would be to toss the bottle. Mine leaked; the company kindly acknowledged, sent two more and one of those leaked too! ha)

Narhay

I've got an AVA stem and bars that flex a bit too much for my liking. This origin 8 stem looks pretty nice. Is there a specific model name to it?

SJX426 

Nice work! It reminds me of my Bottecchia. REALLY like the chrome head lugs!

Bikerider007

Turned out great! Are you considering fenders? I am for the Olmo I have just have not made it back to it yet.

bikemig 

I hadn't thought of fenders. This is or was more of a racing bike. I probably won't. I really tried to do as little to the bike as possible other than to get the old parts working again.

bikemig 

Just took the bike on a 25 mile ride. This is my favorite training ride. There are fine views throughout the ride and a fair number of rollers. The bike rode great. It is such a solid bike and those 56 years old parts are still working fine, .

gugie 

I think the correct thing to say is, "*****in!"

juvela

Does someone have a non-framefit Impero body they could send bikemig's way? It would give him an opportunity to add a Tullio nr. 632, and be period correct.

bikemig 

Hah, I just hope that my plastic silca doesn't blow up the first time I use it! I've seen the head blow off these things once or twice . . . .

juvela

"Robust" has never been an adjective that comes to mind for them. Silca actually produced metal frame pumps at one epoch.

bikemig 

I've been riding this bike regularly since I bought it in 2016 and decided to update the pictures. The bike is fairly original. I obviously replaced all the consumables. The brakes, headset, crank, pedals, and derailleurs are all original. The magistroni steel cottered crank has alloy 49/46 chainrings. The gearing is half step (49/46, 13-26 5 speed freewheel). The chrome is in terrific shape and the original decals (and there are a lot of them) are in very good shape. The bike is made of falck tubing (there is a tubing sticker) and has campy drop outs.

I replaced the tubulars with clincher rims built around Campy Record hi flange hubs and milremo 700c rims. The "new" wheels date from 1970; the original tubulars from 1960. I also replaced the original ambrosio stem and handlebar with a cinelli 1A stem and model 64 handlebars. The original stem was way too short at 8 cm; the bike fits me a lot better with an 11 cm stem.

The other big change is a cool new "Olmo invincible" saddle made by @rhm. I wanted to give him a shout out and show some pics of the bike with the new Olmo saddle. If you scroll all the way down, you'll see close ups of the saddle:

Hudson308 

That's such a cool bike. Great work, and glad to read you're riding it!

niliraga 

So perfect. and with the extra 'i' in there, you can wave your hands around like a real italian and say "in-vin-chEE-bih-lay"