Mad Honk 

Now back to the challenge at hand...
She is dressed in her favorite color of the season; Jump Suit orange. Next will be a few black zip ties to hold everything on, and into the travel case she will go. Then off to Adventure Man for the ride comparison. It will be interesting whether this poser shall perform to the high level of the Huffente, or if she will stumble somewhere during the contrast rides. The challenge is on! Huffente VS a nice young Italian girl just waiting for the ride. At this point we need to channel Dave Stoller screaming: Mamma! The Italians are coming! Now hear Rossini's barber music in the background.

The Guerciotti getting dressed for the trip.
Smiles, Dave # 3

Mad Honk 

Dave # 2,
She is all dressed and ready for shipping labels. No Match for the BOC as she only weighs in at: 15#. But I am thinking your gonna like her very much, besides she is still pretty after all of these years! As soon as I get her ticket she will be off to you. Picture of her getting ready for the trip:

Her she is in her favorite color; Prison jump suit orange with festive black jewelry on for the trip.

She was ready to get into the special handmade box and was snug as a bug inside.

A few last minute additions that she may need for the new get up.

All sealed up and weighed on the scrapyard scale at 15#. Now to get labelling on she is off to Colorado.
All set for travelling. Dave # 3

Mad Honk 

The competition will soon begin. Smiles, Dave # 2

AdventureManCO 

Thank you! Also, I owe you a phone call! Sorry I missed you so many times! I was on phones one of those days and my voice was shot. I'll give you a call tomorrow if I get a chance.

AdventureManCO 

So, I have very little knowledge regarding Guerciottis, so I thought I'd do a little research on the bikes, and I got started with Ten Speed Imports (TSI). Definitely a storied history there, which was a fun read in various threads, made even moreso by people who actually had some involvement with them in some way, shape or form from the 1980s also frequently chiming in.

And then back to Guerciotti themselves. Looks like their models and tiers ran the gamut, and I kept looking for this exact paint scheme. Then, I was looking in the 1987 Guerciotti brochure, and BAM! Smacked me right in the face here -



Looks like Mad Honk 's generosity knows no bounds, and is compounded by the fact that this was Guerciotti's top of the line frameset back in '87, and available with a host of different groups.

I'm thinking I'd like to go a little off the beaten path and build it up w/ some Dura Ace. I know that people may scoff at Shimano on a Guerc, but the fact that they came with Sante' and 105 sort of permits the level of artistic license one needs here. And let's be honest, this is the Campy Huffy thread, so the scoffing is just sort of expected. Dura Ace is going to be way easier to find than Super Record, and since the bike funds are stretched thin these days, may I say will likely be cheaper as well.

It also makes me happy since Mad Honk will be receiving a frame of equal status in the lineup (the top), the Trek 950, second only to a custom hand built 170 (were they making 170s in 1981?).

Thank you again! I think each of us is going to come out ahead!

Mad Honk 

Well if you are going to go down the Dura Ace rabbit hole let me know. I may have a few bits here that can help you with a build. Dave # 1 may also be able to help in procuring parts for the build. Smiles, Dave # 3

AdventureManCO 

The Huffy’s contender has entered the ring.





The dogs sense something ominous in the air! Could the Huffy have finally met its match?




Much thanks to the incredibly generous Mad Honk for offering g this one up to me. I’ve got something to now send his way. Gonna have some fun.

Ideally, this will be built up with something nice like DA or SR, but seeing as how I don’t really have any of that stuff, I’ll probably cobble something together that will work just as well to get it on the road.

jdawginsc 

I think honestly, most of the newer stuff (brifters even) works so well, you’ll be able to judge fairly.

Mad Honk 

Today was spent pulling this off a Raleigh that is leaving but it should all fit on a Trek. Now off to watch football. Smiles, MH

I will need to find the brake levers and probably send the Continental pads to Dave #1. Not in the picture are a set of MA40 clinchers on Record lf hubs.

AdventureManCO 

Ahh, the good ol' Huffy thread. Lots of pain and frustration, w/ a dash of sleepless nights/trauma on the side. Good times.

We are about to get a shot of energy juice in the arm, because now we've got the makings of one of those massive, pumped up pay-per-view prize fights! Only difference is that nobody cares about this one!

For those of you (many, I assume) who have wondered how a Huffy might stand up against a legit, genuine AND authentic Italian bike...your troubles will soon end, as we plan to answer that question. And NO it doesn't have an obvious answer!

First: I owe Dave a frame. After that, we'll get to work on the build sheet. It won't be identical to the Huffente, but close enough tier-wise to make it count. We are not gonna handicap it. If anything, we are going to juice it up and go super extra just to show what a sweet bike the garbage Huffy is.

Speaking of the Huffy, I decided to get it out to work on it a bit today...






Whoops, wrong Huffy

Andy_K 

I'm pretty sure you won't find a Guerciotti commercial anywhere near as cool as the Huffy Aerowind commercial.

Mad Honk 

A nice find for the Guerc build and just in time! A new old stock Shimano 600EX bottom bracket, which should make using the DA parts or 105 a little easier. For some reason the Italian threaded parts don't often show up in Shimano's line. Smiles, MH

a lucky find and timely, almost like the offerings from the BOC

Mad Honk 

By now Dave should have gotten the bottom bracket, and hopefully recovered from the "creeping crud" that has attacked the family. I also trust the kids got an extra dose of candy in the Halloween bag this evening. I am bumping tis back to the top so we can keep up on the Big Challenge of 2023. Smiles, MH

AdventureManCO 

Whew, so many irons in the fire!

But we all know where my heart lies. Anything that needlessly, and shamelessly, pumps up the Huffy, I'm game. Which means all these other silly bikes are just distractions from this thread. The Guac will need attention! Good news is that we are already looking at 24% or so of the parts already in-house (and if I REALLY wanted to get it complete, I'll just steal parts of some other bike). I've gotta get these other ones out of the way, the pesky Paramount, the time-wasting Ted Williams, the aloof Allez!

We went trick-or-treating tonight at my wife's sister's place, and let me tell you, it was legit. Most of her neighbors were going FULL SIZE. Kids did solid lol.

Steel1

Wow, that Huffy is more famous than I thought! They spelled it wrong though…

Mad Honk 

Tonight was a good one with a score on a Mystery frame from the co-op. I am wondering what to do with it once I find out what it is and how much I can do to save it. Smiles, MH

AdventureManCO 

I saw your post in the 'At the co-op' thread! Yes! A mystery! Maybe a custom American? Like a really good kid who just got out of Eisentraut's class?

Mad Honk 

Well the Co-op thread lost about nine months of posts so the questionable bike pictures are gone, But the Guerciotti should still be the heavy-weight in the ring to do the face off.
It was a two hour fone call from AZ today asking about the 50 year old bike with rust problems, to finally get to some resolution about my choice to send it off to Pro Kote Indy for rust remediation and my choice to powder coat the frame. It felt like a twelve rounder about all sorts of paint issues but a solid resolution seems to have been reached. The frame will be photographed for the before and after thread. And then sent to PKI for a light lavender coat, and then on to AMCO. It will be decaled and then hopefully clear coated with a lacquer. It will all depend on the decal choice and whether it can withstand the lacquer clear paint. It will however leave here in a condition that it can be built and ridden safely. I figure in about three weeks the frame will return and be photographed and then sent away. Smiles, MH

chain_whipped

Here's a lonely fork with some sort of story. Who knows but after 75 pages of this madness, using this fork on the Led Grande might lead to blasphemystic proportions.

AdventureManCO 

Wow...great find! It would undoubtedly be a bit of a mismatch on the Huffente, but I do know of another project that such a fork's use on would cause scores of reasonable, upstanding cyclists to writhe around on the floor in uncontrollable agony

Mad Honk 

Maybe adding that fork to this frame would be enough to get some purists to start screaming. Har! MH

It would certainly be a clash with the lavender color!

And it would have plenty of screamers about blasphemy!

ascherer 

It came out nicely!

AdventureManCO 

Wow...looks great!

If they still have that fork in Jan/Feb, I'm going to get it.

Mad Honk 

Well Dave,
I think the folks at Pro Kote Indy do a rather remarkable job of cleaning up damage to the frame that is surface rust. This one was not an exception, After 50 year of what I think was a pretty rough life it is looking pretty nice now. The frame detail shows up rather well and I would not even think about paint fill on the pantographs. The clear lavender second coat give a bit of definition of the panto, so it shows well. Even though it has kept the frame alignment I did before coating, (which involves an oven baking) I am going to have the opinion that it is just another rider quality old Italian frame.
The real problem for me now is what to do with it. It has slowed down my progress on the Ochsner to the point of a stand-still. I spent an hour today polishing the seat post to a nice finish, which is nutz! The threads in the frame have been chased, and I am thinking about replacing the drop out adjusters with stainless bolts. But since it is not a keeper here I am kinda wasting my time with it. The sooner it leaves, will be the better thing for me. I trust the paint shows the sparkle in the clear lavender over coat. The base coat is actually silver metallic so it shows up a a metallic lavender, but it really sparkles in the sunlight. Smiles, MH

Mad Honk 

More time wasting photo's of the "Old Nago" for those following this thread-jack. Smiles, MH

Must be some kind of serial number FWIW. But the new paint is pretty good about frame detail.

More frame detail even though I think it is a Friday afternoon build after a wine break for lunch.

Seat pillar after polishing today with most of the detail being pretty clean.

Hopefully this shows the sparkle in the paint

And another picture trying to get the sparkle to show up. The color does a pretty good job of making the lug lining unnecessary.