Alrighty then, I find that rather ambitious, drilling a hole in tool steel is not for the faint of heart.

Are you going to grind a notch to drill at, have a very good drill press and workpiece vice?

May the force be with you.

I will be curious about how hard this particular tool is. Hence the 8 drill bits.
Lots of oil.

Just realized you will probably take the wrench apart to drill it. I would be inclined to make a pilot hole with a burr, it would get through some of the hardening first.

I would also grind the opposing side in a curve or notch as the locknut is going to want to cam out no matter what.

Very interested to see how this goes.

[MENTION=425004]merziac[/MENTION] - It went well. The steel is not that hard. Got the new drill bits yesterday and did the deed today. No problem getting through, just not quite straight. Such a short distance, it doesn't matter.



Since I have 9+ 3/32 drill bits, I think I will simplu cut one off for this use.
The wrench is an electric B&D adjustable wrench. Don't like it has a really sloppy adjustable jaw and it takes up too much space in the drawer. In the process of taking it apart I lost one of the springs for the switches so that sealed the deal of rejection. I may now rind down the sides to allow for a second wrench. One of the procedures I have learned on hugs is that sometimes if the cone is slightly too tight, I "loosen" the cone against the locking nut. That has worked out really well if there is a washer between them. It worked on the headset as well.

Went for a short ride just to try it out a couple of days ago. I was a bit surprised at the gearing. with a 14-22 block, I knew it would be a bit high but not as high as it felt. I assumed it had a 52/42 ring set, not. 54/46. The combination is too much for this area. That combo might work in the middle of the country, maybe.
So, a 42 was sourced here and a 52 sourced on the bay, as some of you may have seen on the "what came in the mail for you today." Removed the rings and started to install the replacements. The 52 mounting holes did not line up!

Learned something new to me. In the early 60s the 1st gen nuovo record cranks have a 151 BCD. Both a track version, 1/8 chain, and road version were made. I have the road version. If you are truly C&V and have a crankset with 151 BCD and need a 52t ring, it is on the for-sale thread.
I left the 54 on to ride the bike and it is a bit difficult to go from the 42 to the 54 but without cross chaining, it works.

This last weekend we went for a ride on Lee Drive, I was going to take the Bianchi but the rear axle was loose. Discovered that I may not have tightened the NDS side lock nut. Made the adjustment and thought it was good but now there is a tick when the wheel rotates. Disassembly is warranted for an inspection. Good idea to replace the balls and double check the cones and cups.

In the meantime, pastorbobnlnh built up a Regina Extra for me with 14, 16, 18, 21 and 25, which should work out well for my needs, I am not likely to use this bike as much as the De Rosa or Pinarello. If I want a casual rider with my other half, I may take it. The other option is the Bottechia..

BTW, As it is shown above in #90, or as describe with the current rings, it weighs in at 22.07 Lbs. Oops, Keo pedals replaced the Campy SLs. Just weighted toe De Rosa, 22.17 lbs. with brass bell, spare tubular and two watter cages.

I truly wonder for whom this gear ratio (54/52 - 14/22) was considered sensible. Only but the toughest elite racers would be able to use that climbing hills - and that would blow their knees out in no time. The region i live in is quite hilly and occasionally mountainous (2000m of altitude) with sustained grades of 10%+ and spikes of up to 24% in some areas. Mind you, all of this is paved.

Fully agree! A 144 52t is on its way and the 14-25 should be here today. With that, a 42/25 will be an improvement without a significant degradation of shifting with the NR RD.

42/25 is still WAAAAY too tall for me to get up the hills around here I am well glad, my 50/34 -. 11/34 gives me a 1:1 ratio when i need to spin up that hill. I've only ever come to enjoy riding, since those ratios have become available (w/o a MTB triple).
But that's beside the point Hope your new Chainrings work out the way they should!

[MENTION=549560]Positron400[/MENTION] - For serious rides with steep hills, the Pinarello with the triple 30/26 works for me.

That sounds a lot more reasonable

Finally mounted the 52 with the 42 in combination with a refurbished Regina Elite from pastorbobnlnh with 14, 16, 18, 21, 25.



My thinking was that although the touch up paint was a bit darker shade, I could get away with it using it as a fill, not. Looks blue using my phone camera. May get a darker red instead to accent the decals. Dark blue might work too.

From the previous picutre, you can see I was playing around with crank paint fill. I think the mismatched Celeste doesn't have enough contrast so I tried red.
PXL_20231123_140537905 on Flickr

Well it almost works but the color in the fork crown, dimple in the CS and the decal on the fork have the Bianchi blue. So I tried that after mixing a little black in the blue.
Crank color on Flickr

I am not wowed. Reconsidering red.
I will try to match the dark blue so the damage and dimple can be filled in.
PXL_20220925_112356972 on Flickr

Had that Bianchi been my size, I would have hung on to it. Sadly, it was way too big and I am pleased to see the bike taking shape. Now, what to do with this Bianchi mess that came my way last summer...

I have been looking for a tool to tighten the headset. The one I made worked but it didn't really satisfy my requirement to really lock down the adjustment.
I had an inspiration while looking for such a tool and was reminded by the other thread on another Bianchi with a integrated HS.

I bought the Park SPA 2 tool after checking that the pins were close to the right size. Then I simply rotated each end.
Fortunately, this is a Campy headset per @Bulgie description, so it has 4 holes on the locking nuts. Now I have two tools to tighten it down.

That one looks about like my 86 Trofeo when I got it. I like the Formula frame's ride, it feels like 531.
Oops, I'm 2 years late on that quote.