Siu Blue Wind

Moved to C and V from Road per OPs request.

chaadster

Shifts feel good and solid; I was thinking today that shifts sound like racking the slide on a Sig 9mm or something!

I definitely like the idea of trying a 13-28t cassette. I’m a big guy, and gather momentum quickly, so I’ll miss the 12, but by the same token, I lose the most time on climbs, so it’s probably most advantageous for me to manage my efforts there with gearing.

Thanks for the suggestions!

mhespenheide 

If you want to make it Eroica compliant, you can. At least for Eroica CA; I don't know about the other versions. For Eroica CA, you only need to start with a lugged frame (or fillet brazed), and you've got that.

Despite the fact that you're now in the C&V subforum, if it were me, I'd build it back up with modern black R7000 or R8000 (or 5800 or 6800 if needed). The frame and the paint job are the stars here, and I'd go with all-black otherwise to keep the attention on them. Correspondingly, I'd also swap out to a black stem and modern non-"anatomic" bars.

If you want to leave it more as it is, that's 100% fine too -- but again, if it were me, I'd swap out for a silver seatpost just to match the rest of its current aesthetic.

Enjoy it!

Classtime 

I assume your Gladiatore is your current go-fast bike? If you absolutely love that set up, AND after tuning up this Serotta with normal stuff, re-tensioning the wheels, adding new tires, and put at least a 13/25 in the back, then do all your normal Gladiatore rides for at least two weeks on it and spend time in the drops. If you go back to your Gladiatore and you immediately like it much better, move all that stuff that is on the Gladiatore onto the Serotta, put the 90s parts in a box and sell the Gladiatore frameset. That is what I would do.

chaadster

Radical! I’d not considered that option!

plonz 

If it’s not your primary go-fast bike, I’d leave the group as is. I personally love the stem but the bars do appear to be a challenge. It appears we ride similar setups so I think a combination of different bars and slight cheating on lever placement can do the trick.

The 3ttt Prima 1999 with a 26.0 clamp gives me a little better positioning on my Serotta wannabe!

Mr. 66

The white Serotta was originally equipped with Shimano tri color. I went with 2x8 Dura Ace on the Tange Prestige frame.

jethin

I think the main question with any bike project is do you want this particular bike to be your bike, or would you prefer a different bike? There’s no sense in trying to turn an old racing bike into, say, a gravel bike. In that case it’d be better to just sell the racer and get a proper gravel bike. Otherwise mod away.

shoota 

I can tell already that you'll sell it soon. What size is it?

chaadster

57 Long, but I’m not thinking sale!

chaadster

Handsome!

I didn’t realize the Colorado 2 was made with two tubing types; mine uses the Columbus Concept tubing Serotta developed with them. I knew Serotta worked with Tange tubing for a time, but did not realize that extended to C2. Thanks for the heads-up!

seagrade 

To each their own, but what works for me is setting up each bicycle such that I could ride it for five or six hours if I choose to, and try to do that with each a few times a season. Beyond that it’s use what I already have and only replace what at least a few long rides indicates needs replacing. When it comes to buying replacement parts, I go for those I really like or always wanted, rather than what’s definitively period correct for a particular bicycle, hence the Nitto Craft steel stem below, which would be an unlikely original choice for such a Serotta.

In this case that’s also led to 53/39 and 13-30 10-speed, which is newer than the c. 1993 frame but still gets me up most hills where I am while still allowing a short cage rear changer and double crankset. 53x13 was big enough for the sprinting idol of my junior years, Guido Bontempi, who put daylight into the rest of the field in 1986/87.

I am very wary of used handlebars, and stick with NOS or new Nittos, as is the case here. Because the frame below is repainted, and I use Speedplay or Look pedals, it’ll never be truly original again anyway.

Another passing observation from another bicycle is that switching from Mavic Opens to wider H Plus Son TB14 rims gave a slightly lower tyre height and thus allowed a 28mm under the fork crown, whereas the Mavics only allowed a 25mm. Not much in it, but I do think 28s are noticeably better in all respects than the 25s most 25-35 year old steel frames were built for, probably more so on the 60-61cm frames I use.

The Serotta below is still on 25s, with seat tube clearance the limiting factor, but a rounder 28mm tubular as opposed to a taller 28mm clincher should clear, and is next in line in the incremental and continuous improvement process…

bOsscO

I was also going to ask about frame size. If you do think about selling it as is I'd be interested.

john m flores 

What a beauty! I've got a Tri-Colorado; now I wanna take it for a spin!

If you've got other bikes, maybe best leave this as is and enjoy it.

Steel Charlie

I totally disagree with the black components suggestion. IMO black parts just become black blobs.. Keep the bike beautiful, silver parts only !

chaadster

seagrade that stem is sexxxy! And that seatpost is one I was considering, too; clean and stylee. Since I’m handing out kudos, the Campagnolo carbon bits look great and not out of place at all.

Yours does have me seriously questioning the “period correct” paradigm, though I still have to weigh the value proposition in pumping money into updating it. I enjoy riding it now; would I enjoy it so much more were it updated? I just don’t know. I do know I don’t have clear demand for this bike, so I have yo create the justification for it no matter which way I go with it.

MooneyBloke

While I have no issue with swapping out the ergo bars though I have them on both my Mooneys, I'm going to advise giving a hard pass on any of the Cinellis that have the big machined out front with the black plastic insert. In over four decades on the bike, I've taken the taxi of shame very few times, and one was from an XA that cracked across the front when I stood on the cranks after stopping for a fruit break about twenty miles from home; I was happy to just have slack handlebars rather than a crash on my face. I actually got another XA, and it showed stress cracking in the same place when I retired it as did my Cinelli art 1-R. That sharp radius front cut-out coupled with the grooves on the back side made nasty stress risers in places where there should be none, and unless I was paid to ride them, and had them replaced on the regular, I'd look elsewhere. Your health is worth more than having a pretty stem.

That aside, I have trouble with up-tilted stem on classic bikes. I'd probably put a 72 degree TIGged CroMo stem in place of that TI, and I agree with ljsense that it'd be black. I wound up with Salsas on my Mooneys, and I don't worry drastic failure, though I think a stem, much like a crank (I've broken one of those too, and I'm more a hill twig than the local Cippolini), should get regular inspection. Alternatively, you could hire a frame builder to make a beautiful brazed stem, but that's a very pricey solution. Small point: if that is a good saddle extension for you, then it seems a horizontal stem might not be in the works. I do find them more attractive, but they might put your bars way too low.

The only other thing I'd do is make the drive train interchangeable with my other frequently ridden bikes. Mine are all early 2000s Campy 10s, and I don't look forward to the change when things start failing assuming I don't fail first.

MooneyBloke

I wonder how well Ergo would mate up with a classic handlebar. For many years, I rode Cinelli 65s. I liked that soft bend, but I think it would put the brake levers in a very strange place.

rustystrings61 

I've ridden with guys using Ergo on traditional classic Maes bend bars and they liked it just fine, and it DID make the bike look a little more ... well, classical. FWIW, I think the more modern short drop bars, and especially the flared ones, remind me of Marsh bars and similar styles from the mid 1930s. Handlebar shapes come in and go out of fashion regularly enough that sooner or later everything old really IS new again.

I used to run Campagnolo 8-speed, first with Ergos on a Bianchi Alloro and later with friction bar end or down tube shifters on my Rivendell. It worked beautifully, and I've even flirted with the idea of scoring a set of the levers and doing the Shimergo thing on my Lighthouse. My preferred cassette was 13-26, which I think was as big as Campagnolo sold in that era. It's good to hear that Miche offered a 28T option. On the Riv I wound up going from a 52/39 Chorus double to a 50/38/26T T.A. Zephyr triple, and switched the rear derailleur from a short cage (Chorus? Veloce?) to a Campagnolo Olympus mtb mech. That worked so-so with SunTour barcons but was flawless with Rivendell Silver dt friction shifters - but I bet it would have been just fine with 8-speed Ergos as well.

MooneyBloke

The 65 (Cinelli criterium bend) isn't quite a traditional Maes though. The top bend was more like a track bar.

Modern bars to be look as if the hooks are a cosmetic appendage. It seems a bad idea to have your stem already so slammed that the hooks are too much of a reach.

Steel Charlie

The Serotta that I have is an '85 and I have no problem changing anything on it

Serotta On The Road

seagrade 

You’re not wrong, of course. I grew up on Cinelli 65-44s for road and track and couldn’t use my favourite Cobalto aero levers with them due to bad lever body/bend interface, and excessive lever splay. Just setting up another classic with 65-44s this week and tested first generation Ergopower on them with similar issues, so the C-Record aero levers with integrated quick release, which do sit better, live on for another day.

I’ve used first, second and third-generation Ergopower levers on Nitto M176 Dream bars, which to me are a modern-day 66-44 Campione del Mondo/3ttt Merckx bend, only available and affordable, and all sit well. Third generation Ergopower also sit well on 64-44 Giro d’Italia, so I expect the earlier versions would too.

From memory Peter Sagan was the last World Tour-level racer to persevere with 65-xx Criterium-shaped handlebars, ten or so years ago, and his SRAM Red 10-speed? shifters were marginal at best…

bikingshearer 

The first thing I would do is . . . ride it. A bunch. As is. For at least a month, maybe two. See if you like how the frame rides. If you love it (and I bet you will), then fix it up in whatever way will make it easiest to get you take if out for rides, If you don't love it (unlikely, but possible), you can move it along without the expense and effort to swap out components. A good, pragmatic approach that still lets you have fun, both riding it and imagining what to hang on it.

BTW, Campy ergo levers play very nicely with Nitto noodle bars; at least the 9/10sp levers do. It's my go-to set up. Even my Cino bike has that set up (10sp ergo levers with the shifter guts removed).

obrentharris 

If you don't care for the stem, there are plenty of other period correct stems out there. Then you can sell the Ibis to one of these folks who feel so passionately that you should keep it because it's super cool. Everyone wins.
Brent

chaadster

This thing with the stem is kinda weird…

Maybe it speaks to why I love this bike so much: it’s a perfect encapsulation of the cycling zeitgeist of the ‘90s.

It’s about resurgent American innovation and leadership in cycling driven by the MTB boom. Serotta built a road frame of unique and innovative tubing and design, and the bike was finished by the owner not in a slavish dedication to road bike fashion, but rather with a smart selection of parts that drew on the best equipment available. Inis, Chris King, Thomson, and Hugi represent this well.

I think it’s all just so super cool for the story this bike tells, but at the same time— and perhaps jealously— I want to derive maximum riding enjoyment from it, and just warehouse it like a museum piece.

I’ve only ridden it once really, and my desires are still muddled. Once the nostalgic novelty of riding silly flexible wheels of 23mm tires on 13mm IW rims steered by a springy front end wears off, I’m sure things will be clearer.