Amazing! Keep the paint!

That's quite a shot...your bike's kinda posing, all sexy and stuff...cough

I'm mean nice ride buddy!

Thanks fellers! I'm a lucky, lucky guy, that's for sure.
This is the only new shot I've got, but I promise more tomorrow of the Look with the ornamentation on it.
Fell asleep looking at her leaning up against the bedroom wall, lit only by the TV showing "Stars & Watercarriers" again.

Just dying for some quality time with my gf, so we can engage the brake & shift cables, and tape the bars.
Anticipation! Hunger is better than the most talented French chef for lending savor to a dish.

But . . . but . . . those wheels! They mislead me!

Glad to see more pics regardless. I agree that the white Ritchey looks much nicer than the red.

Gracias Jesus. That stem is just a less obnoxious place-holder until the Thomson silver arrives. That Ritchey stem is just too high-gloss white in person.
Going to tape those comfy carbon bars all the way to the stem, as is currently done on both Pelotons.
Probably going to be a lot of knots in a lot of undergarments when everyone notices the Dura Ace pedals.

Hmmph--typical new money... silver spoon with a paper plate... Hmmph.

Wow, that is amazing - excellent work. Those bars with that bike, well...I don't think I would even put bar tape on there they match so well!

Thanks DC. But in person they look completely different. I have a white version of that seat and considered using it, but it's also too white. The pearl white and the other colors transform when photographed. Something weird going on with this bike.

She's a Bad Motor Scooter... whiteness, purity and virtue have no place on her. She's evil, I tells ya! My bridal Schwinn Pelotwins cowered when I first brought her home. Might have to keep them in separate harems.


Haven't decided if she'll get a red saddlebag or the yellow. Also considering removing the flashy "Dura Ace" decals from the rims. Mavic showed great foresight back in the 80's, making their rims carbon-fiber gray back then.

Where I come from, a bike like that is called "pants-wettingly ace".

Thanks, man... (I think...)

Very pleased with my Badger bike, but I've only been able to ride it twice. Have a broken rib (only hurts when I laugh, haha[oww.])

More pics to follow, but here she is on her maiden voyage before I broke my stupid ribs.



And since I know you guys are gentlemen, here's my beloved girlfriend with Badger a few weeks ago. <3



Beloved gf's '86 Schwinn Peloton is currently at Cyclart filling in the chips and spreading to 130.

Very inspiring build! Can't wait to get my Look KG86 in.
Quality bike-time with the lady, is always great. You did great on the bike.


Out of curiosity, and out of respect: what is your affinity with carbon bars? The weight difference?
I just ask cause I am not sure why one would go through the process of putting all of the fittings and whatnot on, only to completely wrap them with tape.

Your respect is unwarranted; I was an enlisted slug and a REMF.

The carbon has nothing to do with it. If they made that shape in aluminium, or even steel, I'd probably select it. I've tried a few different bars and no longer care what's correct. I've been seduced by modern technology's shapes and feel.
When I'm finally destitute or dead, the next lucky owner can build it up how he or she likes.

And I wrap the tape all the way to the stem for comfort's sake, not shame's. I spend a good deal of time grasping the bar's center.

So did Hinault ever ride something like that? I have to admit I didn't like him much as a rider back in the day, but as the years have passed I have come to appreciate him a lot more. I saw him in the '79 Dauphiné and Tour de France! Sort of-- in the Dauphiné they were flying in the final sprint into Avignon and it was just a blur, and in the Tour the entire peloton came by as a single rain-soaked pack.

I've seen brief footage of him riding a frame painted in that mode, but most of the famous pics show him before this frame.
And on the back of Lemond's book, Greg's crouching behind the same bike, but with Huffy stickers on it.

I considered Hinault the French Hitler back in those days, thanks to the coverage in America. But I've since watched the same footage that made him out to be such a vile man, and decided that the commentators (and Davis Phinney [what a worm]) were really hamming it up at the Badger's expense.
There was one stage of the Coors Classic when Hinault and Phinney were in the same breakaway, and Hinault had no reason to work, so he sat on Phinney and took the Sprint. Phinney behaved like a child, dramatically scrubbing his face and saying, "Well, if ya gotta win like that...!"

Welcome to bicycle racing 101, Davis. The object is to win, even if it means [shudder] drafting.

Wish I could find that footage on Youtube now. American cycling was really in its awkward teen-phase back then.
Eddie Merckx is still greater perhaps, but Hinault has done some things even Merckx has never done, like riding the field off his wheel (while in yellow) on the Champs Elysee, and winning Paris-Roubaix just so he could say he'd never do it again. And there are so many other great moments, but Wikipedia already has them typed out.

Besides I've been sporting the Mondrian La Vie Claire colors at events since '07 and I never see anyone else in them. Even if you take away the conditioning and the association, I like the brash, visible colors.

I should have never opened up this thread, my hidden desire to have a Look bike has resurfaced.

I just bought a pirated DVD of the 79 tour on Ebay. He pretty much dominated, and it was so cool that on the final stage, the Badger and Joop Zoetmelk (which is Dutch for "Saltmilk" haha) broke away from the peloton on the final stage and finished 1-2 in Paris.
Poor Joop (the Eternal Second.) Merckz finally retires, and then Hinault steps up... poor guy.
Fie on Chuck Norris and Lance Wutzhisface--neither have enough strength in their girlish forarms to carry Hinault's jaquestrap IMO.

The La Vie Claire team rode these bikes throughout much of the '86 season. If you go to YouTube and search 1986 Tour de France, you'll find lots of videos of individual stages showing Hinault, Lemond, Hampsten, etc. on these bikes.

Here's one example, and not the best (see 0:40 to about 0:55):


They also used these bikes in the team time trial (a tragic day for the 7-11 team, a day after they won the yellow jersey in the clip above):


(Note: On the mountain stages, the team used Look-branded TVT carbon bikes instead of these Reynolds 753 frames.)

Your Badger's headbadge is nicer than mine. But I still LOVE this bike!!
Latest pic from last Saturday's Cool Breeze Metric Century with my sweetheart.

Great pic. Now you need some LOOK shorts/bibs.

Actually, your headbadge is probably nicer than mine. Remind me, your headbadge is a decal, correct? Mine is a repaint (done by yours truly), and the headbadge on mine is one area that's not 100% correct. The headbadge on my Look is painted on, and is missing the small "B. Hinault" font below "Look" on the headbadge. It was a compromise decision since I had no chance of finding the appropriate decal or replicating that small font with my novice paint skills. By the way, before Jan sold you his frame, I asked him to send me some hi-res photos of the frame for future reference in case I decide to have mine professionally repainted down the road.

Oh, that was YOU! I stumbled into that thread and those pics when I was on the quest that eventually brought me to Jan.
Heh heh, small world. There's a faint little nick on the headbadge of mine. I just learned the Grantism "beausage" the week before last...

Perhaps out of peer pressure from the staunch traditionalists in here, I've ordered one of these Nitto lugged stems, so I can install some Look Drop-In bars.
I found these on Ebay earlier this year, and they don't seem as noodly as some claim on BF.



Might even paint it, as this guy did, (but probably not black.)


As always, pics of finished product to follow!

Oooooooh, can't wait to see the update

Why is this beauty still nekkid? Get crackin' man; make with the pics!