Son of a bee-sting. I had my eye on that too. I do hope to see it around town some time. Nice score.

Congrats! Score of a lifetime and the bike looks juicy enough just sitting in speckles of rust! Its not often I get envious of anything/anybody :twitchy: ... but this thing triggered something — Cheers, Lorne

You just get lucky sometimes. Congratulations

Well, that is just brilliant. My New Year's resolution to stop obsessing over listings just went out the window...

Nicest car I ever drove and I've driven a lot. I liked it better than the XKE. Maybe it wasn't quite as fast but it had a much nicer feel too it somehow.

Ever have anything painted in Vancouver? Dekerf? Toxik? I'm trying to price it out. I'm thinking single color, red or navy, as opposed to the later fade on the Nuova Strada.

Also, anyone have a source for decals? Seems like there are lots of Gran Criterium, and Presitge decals available, but no Nuova Strada. I will be contacting Jim Allen / the Cycle Smiths, but with shipping, etc, I'm guess he will at the higher end of my budget.

Toxik is good, but it always looks too thick to me. Make sure you specify how you want it. i.e. nice and thin. There is a guy in Victoria at J&B auto body supply store on oak who will paint your bike too, but he does it on the side as a hobby and it take a long time. It is cheep too, but not super durable. I would check him out. offer to pay more for a real good job (he did a single colour, no decals for me for $120.) make sure you specify that he prime is and clear it. I don't think he primed mine, but it was thin. There were some rough areas but I specified I just wanted a good utility job. I can't remember his name right now, but He will do any colour and apply decals if provided.... Jim BLackwood.. I think.. worth checking out. Sweet score Jeff. That is the kind we all dream of.

Wow, Jeff! Congratulations! You defied the cardinal rule about tipping people off by posting about a killer deal before buying it. Not sure how that lasted more than a few minutes. Looking forward to seeing it built up. You must be giddy.

I can't even begin to describe how incredibly jealous I am of that score. The bike is too small for me, but I would still have snapped that up in a heartbeat.

I don't generally post leads to adds. In this case, I had already submitted my intent to buy, and I assumed the were others in front of me. I guess in hindsight someone could have come in with a much higher offer and caught the sellers attention. In my case, I think the seller appreciated my serious interest, and intent to return the bike to "it's former glory". The only reason it lasted for more than a few minutes was because the seller had not checked there messages since the night before; trust me there was plenty of interest, and no doubt I got lucky.

56 x 56 ctc. Perfectly my size.

Will follow up with the gentleman in Victoria. I agree that the samples on the Toxik website do look super thick. I'm fairly confident dekerf could do a go job, but am happy to hear anyone else's experiences.

Just a thought....does it look like ti was ever built up? your might want to check the BB and head tube facing.

Good find for sure! GL on the build.. pics!

Holy *!(@, I think you're right. Headtube doesn't looked faced at all. BB is fair rough looking as well. Drop-outs show very very faint marking from a wheel being installed, but it would think the chrome would be marked more if it were actually ridden. Also, I can't find any signs of it ever being painted, anywhere.

Could it be true? How would a frame like this escape paint?

Oh, and I'm just noticing that the fork doesn't match. Frame says 58 3R. Fork sales 56 3R. Stack height is ~35mm. Damnit.

You have my deepest sympathy. In fact... I feel SO badly for you, that I'm willing to send you $100 plus the shipping cost and I'll be happy to take the whole lot off your hands. Heck, I'll even give you an extra $5 so you can get a McDonald's Happy Meal to cheer you up.

Heck, I'd pay $100 for that mismatched frame and fork!

Tempting... It's been a long time since I've had a happy meal.

I have used Toxik for quite a few bikes and have always been very happy. Harald, the owner and painter at Toxik has, and does, paint for Dekerf so the paint should be the same quality.

I've never had cause to actually go through with it in my couple of years on and off here. Back in Montreal, it'd be Marinoni, no contest, but I really have no knowledge about the Left Coast situation. Closest I came out here, a fellow member in the US just barely topped my bid on a stripped and somewhat unusual Superior/Paramount frameset (I wasn't the one to out the listing, though it did get discussed extensively on the board here...)

Keep us updated on how it goes with the painting...it'd be great to hear some feedback (which I'm already seeing a bit of in the replies) to go on in future!

Wow, what a huge score! Congratulations!

don't despair: there are work-arounds around a too-short steerer.
It might have escaped paint because it came into (the US) bare.

35mm shouldn't be a problem:

http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/stack-height-1.jpg

Source: Barnett's