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This bike was mine for a while and it was great. All chrome and with a black Dura-Ace group, about 1975. The bike probably had four or five years by then. Too sharp for me, it turned out, so I sold the bike to my friend in Port Angeles, even rode it out to meet him on the island. I was living in north central Washington, then. Last year I was visiting him and he confessed that he wanted to give the bike back because the chances were a null set that he would ride it again. Well, I was glad that we were driving, not flying home .

Since I have a quiver of other bikes, including a track bike, what to do with this bike was a mystery, for a while. It was all rusty and some dirty. So I took all of the fittings off and started at it with steel wool. Got what I could off, and then hit it all with tung oil and then finishing wax. When I get antsy I can get out the steel wool, take off the old finish, and do it all over again.

So this was destined to be a bike refitted out of the parts bin. What I had was a bb for a triple, and a 56t D-A chainring. The frame was built without shifter braze-ons or cable guides, and it had Shimano precision dropouts. Horizontal dropouts. TwoxSinglespeed, of course. A 20t and a 24t to go with the 56t and 52t chainrings. Nitto moustache bars wrapped in hemp and shellaced. Tektro tri-brake levers in the barends. Campy Record front hub and brakes, Shimano 600 7-sp freehub in the back. Spacers for spacers and the original bottom bracket lock ring repurposed to the freehub. Brooks B67 on the original Campy seatpost.

Elrey, Orange County, California, USA

jw.stephens@gmail.com