Andy_K 

I left this on the dining room table. Somehow it got broken even further (I suspect my 18-month old grandson). I came into the room last night to find my wife and daughter sitting at the table talking as my daughter played with the broken pieces. I acted horrified and demanded to know what happened. They both fell for it.

Andy_K 

Pics or it didn't happen.

Andy_K 

Built and ready to ride!






My small indulgence in extra Celeste











I've found some gray bar tape that I think will match the saddle. I may switch to that at some point, but I don't think the black looks bad. I haven't decided about the bottle cages. Nothing seems quite right, so I may end up with silver.

daverup 

Nice! That paint job is awesome!

Classtime 

Lovelyasitsits, but white tape, saddle, housing next time.

Andy_K 

I thought about white tape and saddle, but I was having a hard time visualizing it. Celeste is a surprisingly difficult color to accessorize.

I bought the cables so long ago (early April) that when I was getting ready to do the build I thought to myself, "I should go buy some blue cables for this" and then I found them in my stash. I really like how the blue cables work with this. It's hard to see in the pictures, but my valve stem caps are the same shade of blue.

Spaghetti Legs 

Here ya go Andy. Not very good pics, but all I had on hand. Yours looks good and I’m sure you’ll be pleased with the ride.

Classtime 

Maybe with a couple of parallel blue spokes at the valves?

Drillium Dude 

The frame came back looking superb - very hard to tell that's not wet paint; they did a fantastic job for the money quoted. Like the fully-built pics, and the blue cable housing works well, as does dark gray/black for the saddle and tape. Might want to tweak the adjustment on that driveside front brake shoe as it looks as though it will rub the tire sidewall.

Btw, I still have that matching pump if you're interested. It's gratis (too small for my rig), and I'll bring it along when I come down your way in about a month on the way to AZ. I know you don't want to go overboard on Celeste, but a frame-fit pump should match the bike's frame IMHO.

DD

RiddleOfSteel

Hope you caught that front right brake pad's position and realigned it! Beautiful color and build! I think silver bottle cages would work just fine. If you ran a black seat post and stem, then black bottle cages would complement. You could still do black cages as is and I think it'd be fine. Does it ride better with the better color?

Andy_K 

You know, I've never used a frame pump, but the price is right. If the color does match I'll take you up on that. Will you be able to linger long enough for a bike ride as you're passing through? In about a month it'll probably be raining, but if not we should get out somewhere.

Andy_K 

Why spend time checking for mechanical problems when you can just post pictures and have other people point them out? I hadn't noticed before you and DD pointed it out, but I haven't ridden yet either. I moved the brakes over from another bike and they were working there. I guess the pad wasn't tight though. Hopefully I'll get it out for a shakedown ride tomorrow.

I installed a pair of stainless King Cages on it tonight. I haven't seen a steel frame they don't look good on. I like color though. I ordered some blue cages, but they're anodized so you never know what color they'll be until they arrive. If they match the decals and cables I think that'll work. Otherwise I'll stick with silver

Gonzo Bob

I like what you did. I have a bike with white saddle and white bar tape. The white saddle shows the wear so much more than darker colors (hey, it's 35 years old but I'm not gonna replace it because it has a plastic shell and I've sat on it so much that I swear it has formed to my butt ). And bar tape other than white just does not look right with the white saddle, but it shows the dirt and grime and I have to clean it about every other ride (OK, I clean it only about once per month so it gets pretty grody).

Andy_K 

It depends on the tape and the saddle. I have a white Turbo saddle that's mottled to put it kindly, but I also have a couple of white modern Specialized saddles that, at least so far, aren't showing any sign of losing their whiteness. Maybe that's not a fair comparison. But bar tape... The bike I've ridden most over the past couple of years has white Fizik bar tape that still looks like new. Another bike that gets a lot of mileage has white cork tape that's almost entirely a brownish gray now. Then there's my De Rosa which I don't ride so often for various reasons. It has white cloth tape that was dirty before I got it out of the garage the first time and after a couple hundred miles looks like I rubbed it down with mud from end to end.

Crang

What a thing of beauty. Congrats! Maybe a dumb question but Im starting my first restore now. I had planned to chemically strip thw frame myself as its been chromed underneath and may want to adjust how much chrome shows. Did they have to blast anyway to etch the metal after the chemical strip? Im cheap sometimes and hoping if i do the grunt work stripping I can save some bucks on the blasting step. Thanks and congrats again. Its really gorgeous!

Carrottwo

Beautiful!

Andy_K 

I think you'd have to talk to the powder coater and see what they're willing to do. My understanding is that the main thing is that the frame needs to be free of oils and grease, which they'd have to handle immediately before powder coating regardless of what you did, but I think that's probably part of the basic powder coating cost. I don't think etching matters with powder coat. The powder gets electro-statically "attached" to the frame and then baked into a casing around it. The final coating doesn't actually bond to the metal at all. Wet paint, of course, is a completely different story.

Crang

Ahh- makes sense. Thank you-

denaffen

You've seen mine, but why pass up an opportunity to post it again. For inspiration!

merziac

I think most any C+V bike benefits greatly aesthetics wise from a Silca, especially paint to match. It of course was a Merz trademark like so many others and while many struggled to get good service from them, I have always been able to get home with one. I have several and all work at least ok, even if not I will install one just for show and am always on the lookout for good ones at a good price. I love em.

Recently bought another celeste one as it was a pretty good deal in good shape, I have two now and seriously doubt either one matches any of the bikes they may go on.








And if there's a brazed on pump holder, you better hope you can find the right one.