What to do - 89 Bottecchia ADR Replica
 

Hi,

I have a 55cm 89 Bottecchia ADR Replica with full Campy graphite Athena and Columbus SL (its all stock). Ridden only a few hundred miles in its life. I stopped riding years ago after a serious mountain bike crash and its been in my garage since then. Its in excellent condition with only a couple of chips.

I've gotten back into serious running the last year and plan on training for a triathalon and want to start riding again. My dilemma is that I hate and have always hated that paint scheme (I bought it as a team bike so didn't have any choice in the color) - my choice was always the classic red and white.

I love the bike though and am thinking about sandblasting/stripping it and painting it the classic black and white or red and white Bottecchia color scheme and replacing the decals. I'm interested in doing this because I like restoring things and I have always though all these years wished my bike was the classic paint scheme. I just feel like I have some unfinished business with that bike.

Is this a serious faux pas? Is this bike a collector's item? Or should I just go ahead and do it? Or should I just buy a classic frame and rebuild from there? Or finally are new bikes that much of an improvement that I should sell my old bike and buy a new one? I'm assuming that if I really get into triathlons, I will buy a tri bike and keep a road bike for training and weekend rides.

Thanks in advance for any advice. I'm trying to figure out what to do. Here's a picture of it - I haven't cleaned it up yet and it is still very dirty.

Yeah, the ADR livery looks very '80s in the worst sort of way, but it is authentic, it's representative of a high point in Bottecchia history, and it's in good shape. I'd only refinish if there were some serious corrosion going on under the paint.

I think we need to remember to celebrate the outward tackiness of certain manufactured products, especially if they show great beauty and integrity underneath. Take chartreuse Lamborghini Miuras and your Bottecchia, for example.

I feel you...that's a nice bike but much as I love my Bottecchias, the Team ADR and SPAGO colors of the late 80's are just horrid (Shhhh...I long ago burned my pastel shirts and Miami Vice white suites ;) ). Realistically, unless it were an actual ADR Team bike, it's not going to be worth a fortune as a collectable. About the only Bottecchias that really bring a decently high price are the SLX/TSX frames of that same period in the red/white/chrome or black/white/chrome color schemes. That said, you're probably looking at $350 give or take for a paint job, add another $75 or so if you have to ship it somewhere (not every town has a decent bike frame painter) and around $50 for decals. So is it worth $475 to not have to put up with the color scheme? Only you can decide that.

As to whether to buy a new bike...I would guess that under $6000 or so the only really big difference between a bike like that and a new one is going to be the integrated brake/shift levers. You could just add that to your existing bike. Above that price range you'll start seeing serious difference in weight but that's a lot of money. If you are primarily interested in triathlon then I would keep the Bottecchia as a road bike/training bike as is and use the money to buy a modern tri bike.

Does this bike fit you?