smd4

A yellow Performance water bottle??

Honestly, though, that’s a magnificent bike. I can’t wait to hear about folks’ reactions.

And red anodized cable ends? *Chef’s kiss.*

RCMoeur 

I know this probably isn't a timely comment, and in reality is just here to bump up the post count, and far be it from me to bash our absent DD or this whole project - but aren't those actually Nuovo Record chainrings? I thought Super Record didn't have the inner circle above the crankarm spider.

(puts on body armor)

smd4

What’s the decal/logo on the underside of the toe clips? I don’t think I recognize it.

AdventureManCO 

How it started-







How it went -






How it ended-

velomateo

This is awesome.
So glad you carried on and didn't let a little weather stop the Huffente.

Mr. Spadoni 

A muddy bike is a happy bike. Mud means it’s being ridden.

stoneageyosh

Wondered how long it will take for someone to pull alongside, look over, realize what is next to them and faint. Unfortunately, that would resulted in a crash, so maybe just an uttered expletive instead.

smd4

Likely preceded by a “Holy…!”

gbi

Is nature trying to stop/destroy the Huffente because nature deems it an abomination!

AdventureManCO 

The funniest moment came when I first pulled it out and a guy can by and was like 'Hey nice bik...oh wow, a Huffy huh? Wait...oh, what? Huh? Oh wow...oh, uh...’ repeated about 3-4 times

Another guy wanted a picture, and the when I passed a bunch of guys on the ride (don’t worry, they all passed me back) one of them was like ‘Hey! There goes the Huffy!!’ lol

Big update later tonight in win/fail flavor. We had a bunch of both!

AdventureManCO 

Well, I rode for 10ft, the bike got muddy, so packed up and left.







Just kidding! But there was a plot twist. More later, and I will also try to respond to some of your posts.

ManekiNico

You're half right? Those are Record (no Super) chainrings, part no. 753. If memory serves, only derailleurs and bottom bracket were designated Nuovo Record. Happy to be corrected.


Campagnolo Catalog 18, page 42.

ElClemente

Incredible!!

ElClemente

I Looked at the pictures and only think INCREDIBLE !!
hoping the ride was FUN.

Mad Honk 

And yet no news about the concourse display and comments. Smiles, Inspector Honk

AdventureManCO 

Hey guys!

Well, it was a full and eventful day! Some ways great, other ways less than ideal, but the biggest and best news is that we are in one piece, and so is the Huffente!

I was sprinkling outside when I took that picture before leaving this morning, and it never stopped the entire day. The first half of the day is was a light rain, and the second half of the day was heavier.


It never quite let up after the morning drive to the ride





Upon arrival, I made good use of the stand and the hatch to shield the bike from the inevitable to come.

You guys never saw this little gem that I found. I had the whole getup!



The bike got some curious observers stopping by.





Getting ready to head out...




The ride started off well enough, with a light mist, and most everyone doing well as we were all still relatively dry. For the first bit, it looked real nice...




But it started to turn!

AdventureManCO 

Here is what it looked like for the 2nd half of the ride up to the aid/rest station that was 30+ miles in.






At this point, everything was soaked. Honestly, I feel dumb, because the jacket I wore ended being more 'windbreaker' energy, and less 'waterproof shell' energy. I had on several layers - base thermal, jersey, and then my jacket...sadly all soaked to the bone. On top of that, turns out I'm freakin' weak! Might have something to do with every spare hour and minute of time being consumed by my jealous, dumb bike, and zero time training, at all. By the time I was soaked, the road also became soaked, and see those deep tire treads in the road? It was like trying to roll through sand. Every single hill ended up becoming Mt Everest, and there were only like 30 of them. I found out an interesting technique where you push on your legs with your arms when your legs stop working! It worked, until your arms got tired, and then the legs turned to jello again.

1st part of the ride: 'No way am I walking the Huffy up any hills AT ALL. Noone is going to be able to say 'Ooooo look there's the guy PUSHING HIS HUFFY!!! Baahahahaha!'

Later on in ride: 'Okay, I'll just stop for some breaks here and there. It's not pushing if you are not moving, right!'

A little later: 'Okay my legs are jello and this 2% grade hill is insane and...well...if nobody sees me, did it really happen?'

And the final form: 'I don't care. I can barely move anyway'

To be honest, walking felt really nice at times...it gave my legs a different movement and that was welcomed.

So I finally made it to the rest area, and as soon as I stopped, my body just started shaking violently. Honestly it was embarassing, but it's not like I could help it! There were other guys shivering, too. But this was 'ugly' shivering, almost convulsing haha.

Thankfully, I found a bath towel stuffed under one of the food tables and draping it on felt like heaven.

So, as I'm sitting there shivering, I'm trying to stay upbeat, and smile at all the other guys, you know, positive attitude and all. And one of the other guys was just sort of done with it all, and was saying something like 'F this, I'm done with this'.

Then outta nowhere, this other guy that sounded Italian comes in and is like (sounding very Italian) 'Oh no no! This is nothing! Not bad at all! I did dis race couple years ago, and weather turned bad, much colder! We had riders go to hospital. One guy died, so not bad at all.


I'm like, what!!? Dude's are dying on your ride? What is this? Lol this is crazy!

So I start grabbing food just trying to eat as much as I can so that my body can make some energy. And then, as I'm sitting down, a guy opens up a car door, and is sort like 'Your turn!' I'm like, really?? I'll take that!

So I hop in the driver's seat to get warm, and it feels just insane...insanely good! And the car is packed with other riders as well. We are all completely soaked and its about 45 degrees outside (I thought it was at least 60).

So after a few minutes a guy comes over and motions to roll down the window.

'Hey, so can you drive?'

Uhh...yeah? I...think so?

'Okay, so you drive my car back to the start and take these guys with you.'


They had decided to close up shop. I don't know if it is because we were the last of the riders to really come through, but they had decided to close things down, and a lot of riders were really cold and really weren't able to ride the 20+ miles to finish out the ride. So, in a way, I guess I sort of had my fate decided for me.

Here's the thing - I think it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I don't think I would have been able to finish the ride, being completely honest with you. My body sort of just gave out, and I couldn't stop shaking for 45 min - even the whole car ride back in heated air. When we got back to the staging area (bout 30 min from the rest area), we got out and found another rider collapsing from the cold/exhaustion, so we helped him get to a car to get warm and rest a moment. And as soon as the air hit my, I couldn't stop the shaking...again! After that escapade, I drove back to the rest stop to pick up the Huffente, and then drove home.

It is humbling to admit that I couldn't hang for the entire thing, but I'm also feeling really grateful, because I found my limit, at least my limit at 45 degrees out in the pouring rain soaked to the bone. I'm good for about 30-35miles

It's also a little scary to think about if I tried to be macho and finish out the last 20 or 30 miles or whatever, in the condition I was in. I don't think I would have been able to make it, so it ended up being the smartest decision I made all day, to agree to drive those guys back. And none of it was the Huffente, it was all the 'motor'.

So, here is a quick synopsis of the day, win/fail style:

Fails:

- I'm weak
- inadequate clothing
- weather (rained all day)
- lack of any training whatsoever
- roads totally sucked
- I couldn't even open a granola bar
- dirty bike
- dumb water bottle holder

Wins:
- I'm in one piece!
- bike is in one piece!
- bike performed magnificently
- I got in a heated car
- got some good comments around the bike


That last fail, the water bottle. Yeah, so we started out riding, and not even 1/4mi into the ride, I almost crashed, I look down, and my water bottle holder (that single clamp-on style), is just falling over on the downtube. So I quickly yank it back up, and it starts falling over again. So I yank the bottle out and drink about 2/3rds of it to lessen the weight. It ended up trying to run into the cranks all day, and had to keep tilting it up over and over again.

Guys, the bike was awesome. It did great! The only super minor mechanical issue is that the Campy shift lever for the RD came loose and lost tension, so I just cinched up that D-ring on the fly and we were back in business. Bike was solid, stable, and fun to ride! I had it up to about 25-30mph on some of the downhills, and I was more worried about the roads than the bike. That Regina Oro though...I will never ever, ever think bad about anyone that pushes one of these old school drivetrained bikes up a hill ever again.

Speaking of the freewheel...it feels crusty. So, I washed the bike when I got home, but man o man...it got so dirty. I basically have to rebuild the bike again. Right now, shifters - disassembled. RD - disassembled. Stem is out. Seat and post is out. Wheels off, chain off and soaking. I shoulda shoulda shoulda put a nice ring of grease around the stem-to-headset area, the seatpost clamp area. I threw some CLP down the steerer tube and seat tube, around the brake mounts, FD & RD pivots, shifter mounts. Those fancy red jockey wheels got some mega wear on them.

So...we have another full day of rain tomorrow. Its raining right now. There is NO way that I'm going to ride this thing again out in the rain. I don't even know how they are staging the concours, but I'm real hesitant to just stick the bike in rain, dirt, mud, etc...not after I just cleaned it! W/ the leather seat and bar wrap...it can wreak havoc.

So right now, I have two options, and I'm not quite sure what to do. I can either bring both the Huffente and another bike, and slog it out in the rain on another ride on a different bike, or no ride and all and just do the concours. If I ride another bike, that bike is going to get a bit messed up, and I really don't want any of my bikes messed up! Any thoughts are appreciated. All my stuff is still soaked, including my riding shoes, and I don't really have any good wet weather riding gear anyway. Just...not sure.

Anyway, that was the day! We'll see what happens tomorrow!

AdventureManCO 

Concours is tomorrow. Supposed to rain all day. We'll see what happens!

AdventureManCO 

ALE

Pure Italy

AdventureManCO 

LOL it was the only one I have. We ran out of budget (even though we have no budget).

Hey, I tried to look for a Huffy one!

Camilo

I've read, or tried to read every post. I don't know if I contributed anything useful (probably not), but I've enjoyed every bit of the process and the end result. BUT, and maybe I missed something....

Am I the only one who looks at these beautiful pictures of the bike and its drillium artistry and sees a huge opportunity for more??? coughdropoutscoughcough This might get you an ounce in phase 2 and from my weight weenie days, short lived as they were, I appreciate that an ounce here and there turns into a quarter pound!

RCMoeur 

Thanks for the info. My reaction was based on my past experience of a seemingly near 100% correlation of silver Nuovo Record rear derailleur with 753 chainrings and black Super Record derailleur with the cutaway 753/A chainrings (which it seems became the de facto standard design for most vendors by 1980). I'm a civil engineer by training, not a mechanical engineer, and I'm wondering how much did that inner circle on the 753 contribute to strength or lateral stiffness.

Then again, my racer has a crank made from an old Super Maxy which had a fixed swaged-on 52 tooth chainring that I sawed off just above the 110 bolt circle and then bolted a chainring on each side - not exactly a recipe for stiffness itself.

retswerb

That sounds brutal AdventureManCO! Thanks for bringing us all along for the ride. Pretty sure if I was in your shoes I'd just be doing the concours tomorrow but regardless of what you end up doing we'll all be here to hear how it goes.

RiddleOfSteel

Definitely brutal. Rain + 40-50° range sucks. Well, ok. 45-50° sucks, 40-45° super sucks, and anything less than 40° SUCKS, especially over distance. And hills. Did 39°-ish for four hours and one really beefy climb (20% grade for a bit, plus a bunch of 15% stair steppers..) over 40 miles in the rain, in the dark. Thanks, Seattle winter! I was on my '85 Trek 620 with its original canti brakes. Man did they get soft at the end of that loooooong descent! Went to get out of the saddle for a quick hill and felt a big squish-squish in my cycling shoes. Yeah. Completely soaked through, everywhere. I couldn't even look at my bike for a day, it was so filthy. Took me four hours and half a disassembly to clean it all! Never again!

[Thankfully no shivering. Love for, er, um, king and country, kept me above threshold there. That and whatever "base" I had worked up during the first half of Covidland. My base is more, say, quicksand this year. ]

Hondo6

Well, so much for my "have a great time at the ride" wishes. Bummer.

Sounds like you were starting to go hypothermic, or were already in the early stages of same. Being soaking wet at 45F for an extended time (or lower temperatures for shorter periods of time) can do that even if you're engaging in physical activity.

Best I can tell I've "been there" two or three times in my life. First and third cases made me miserable (uncontrollable shivering and thoroughly chilled) but were not life-threatening; second was borderline and very minor. I'll pass on any repeats, thanks.

What you did was probably best. Hypothermia can be life-threatening if it's bad enough - and that doesn't require freezing temperatures, either. Glad to hear you made out OK with (hopefully) no aftereffects.

Hope you feel up to doing the concourse.