A few additions since the first photos...

The morphing goal of this restoration has become a more useful commuter and errand bicycle. This thing definitely zips, and it's great fun to howl past a lost peletonian. But, I digress.

I decided that one bicycle ought to have moustache bars, and since the stock bars were so ridiculously narrow (and reasonably uncomfortable), this would become that bicycle. Scored some NOS Mafac levers, found a beautifully rendered TTT stem (though it's probably a touch long and low), installed SKS fenders (via RBW - same size they recommend for the Quickbeam), attached the Planet Bike rear rack I won, tracked down some frighteningly bright rear blinky and after riding tapeless for a couple weeks, put on Fizik microfiber bar wrap (from the LBS) with 'flecto barend plugs from RBW. I still haven't put the headbadge on - the original owner had started repainting it. Also, I plan to put some white outline on the lugs some evening with a breeze.

One of the things I forgot to mention is that the Zeus theme has been pushed as far as I could manage - since the "basket case" version of this project came home with me one afternoon, I managed to locate and install Zeus pedals, Zeus cable guides (to replace the badly rusted ones I had), a Zeus seatpost, and a Zeus frame pump, not to mention the Zeus crank bolt wrench to fit the 16mm Zeus crank bolts. Plus, i-Bob Walter S. created this Zeus replica patch which I nabbed.

If you've been playing along at home, you know that the Zeus stamp was on every bit of hardware that came with the bike. The only items which were un-Zeused were the brakes (Alfa), bar & stem (Ambrosio). You can read about the resto (with some cussing involved) here.

And have no doubt - this bicycle is a seriously low-slung frame. Corners like you can't believe, but I have to pay attention when starting up - if I don't start with the toe-clips rightside up, they will scrape at the bottom of the pedal stroke with the bike vertical. May ditch the clips for that reason alone...

-- Jim

jim@cyclofiend.com