Guerciotti

This Guerciotti is a 61cm center to center.

This frame is absolutely top of the line. It was hand-built in Italy with Columbus tubes. Guerciotti is engraved into seat-stay tips and bottom bracket shell. Guerciotti logo is engraved into the fork crown on both sides. Forged dropouts front w/ adjusting screws in the rear. Fork is chrome, with fresh plating.

Grey anodized Wolber alloy rims laced to low flange alloy hubs.

The cranks are Nuovo Record as well as the rear derailleur. Shimano Dura Ace front derailleur. Shimano 600 tricolor brakes & levers (aero). The brakes are model BR-6403 and are some of the first dual pivots. They are great brakes. Stronglight headset.

Perforated Turbo Saddle, Sakae alloy seat post.

This bicycle is available for purchase. $1200.

Schwinn Peloton

A few years ago, this Schwinn Peloton was sitting outside my friend's garage collecting some serious rust. He gave it to me, and I built it up and rode it back down. Now, he needs a bike, so we built it back up for him--ahh, steel everlasting!

We put on Shimano 105 brakes. Above the "Schwinn Peloton" head badge, you can see the chrome where my terribly thin spray paint job has scratched off (or possibly blown off!). The entire bike is chromed though, so it won't be rusting so easily.


We added SunTour down tube shifters. SunTour is my favorite component company of the era of the widespread manufacture of this sort of classic lugged steel racing bike. Their parts always really perform, and they last. Read the awesome story of their company here.


My friend built a front fender using a quarter section of a cheap plastic tube and some zip ties. He needs this commuter to be totally functional, because he will be using it to ride to Capitol Hill every day for his job as a congressional aide.


A Shimano 105 front derailleur. We left the old crank on, as it is in fine shape.


We put on a very old Shimano 600 rear derailleur. Justin, who did not seem impressed by this derailleur, says it is from the mid-70s. I really love it because it shows no sign of use after thousands of miles and over thirty-five years! The whole body and cage appear sturdily constructed.

It is very short, as most road derailleurs were at that time, and so we put a more of a small "corn cob" type cassette on the wheel with a max sprocket count of 23 to ensure easy shifting to all gears. As this is a commuter, we were comfortable with not having a greater range of easy gears.


The most exciting thing about this frame has to be the awesome lug work. Check out those wrapping seat stays!

by John Wade

Cinelli SUPERCORSA

This two-wheeled beauty is 54 cm center to center.

It has a full Campagnolo Super Record groupo except the Suntour retro friction downtube shifters and Sugino 75 carbon aero brake levers.

The Campy Super Record hubs are laced to Synthesis Ambrosio Super Professional tubular rims. This bike is an Italian racing machine.

Sheldon Brown, who we trust in all things, has a lot of nice things to say about this bike here.

This bicycle is available for purchase. $1,500.

by John Wade

Carlton Professional

This bike is a 56cm center to center Carlton Professional frame from the late 60s. Carlton was a high-end frame-building workshop that was purchased by Raleigh in 1960 and eventually took over all of Raleigh's high-end road builds.


This bicycle was manufactured by Carlton, under the Carlton name. Oddly enough, the Carlton name had too good a reputation for quality, and eventually the "powers that be" at Raleigh decided it was eclipsing the Raleigh brand and making it more difficult to sell Raleigh branded product. So, Raleigh stopped producing bikes under the Carlton name.

This sweet ride has a full Zeus groupo except the Sugino crank (it was probably considered an upgrade at the time, but now we would rather just have all Zeus components).


The Zeus components are highly regarded, and were basically a high-quality Campagnolo knock-off. They also made frames.


This bicycle is available for purchase. $1,200.

by John Wade

Concord Pro 1 Gets a Face Lift

I acquired and restored this bicycle about 2 years ago. The Pro 1 was the top of the line for Concord. I was wondering why this bike had not sold. As I studied the bike it just had no panash.
So into the rack it went. I had originally left the thick-form bar covers on and wrapped over them with black cloth. The white finish on the paint was rather dull. The brake calipers and cables were just dull and tired looking. Just difficult to get excited about. Soooo......

I took the brake calipers apart for a thorough polishing to a bright shine.

Off came the bar wrap, brake calipers, and cables. A little polishing compound and wax brought the finish on the frame up to standard. Chrome polish to the chrome and now it shines like new.

Yellow, Yellow, Yellow. Replaced the black rivited saddle with a brite yellow one. Yellow cable housing & yellow cloth bar tape with several coats of schellac.

Sunday Group Ride

Here Perry and Vic are making some last-minute adjustments to Perry's headset. A little bit of rain didn't stop the hardcore from gathering at nine o'clock on Sunday morning for the weekly 25 mile ride.


John rode over his Specialized Allez with a full Shimano 105 groupset.


This bicycle ride leaves Vic's Classic Bikes at 9:00 every Sunday morning. Riders of all skill levels are welcome, but this is a Louisville Bicycle Club ride, so bring a helmet!

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by John Wade

Custom Surly Single-Speed

Eloy wanted a bike for short trips around town. He and his wife already have bikes that they use for long rides, but he wanted something simple for under five mile trips. He came in thinking about building a three speed 29er mountain bike, but after numerous discussions with Vic and much thought, decided instead to build this single-speed Surly Steamroller.


Vic advised investment in and hand built this monster wheelset. The Velocity Dyad rims have been laced with DT Swiss double-butted stainless steel spokes to Velo Orange high flange track hubs. This is a light-weight, high-performance, extremely durable wheelset for Eloy's 200 pounds.


If you think it looks like a monster now, wait until Eloy removes all the decals, as he plans to do immediately for an all black and silver look.

by John Wade

Vic Attacked by Pack of Wilding Youths!

I arrived at my shop in the Highlands about 9:15 this morning looking forward to getting out for a 20 mile ride before opening the shop at noon. After taking care of a few chores, such as walking the dog, checking email, etc and I was out the door on the fixed-gear bicycle before 10:00am.

This ride takes me west on Christy to Barett, then a block north to pick up Breckenridge and continue west towards downtown. After passing under the railroad overpass on Breckenridge and continuing a few blocks through stop signs and lights, I was traveling slow at 5 to 10 mph. At about Shelby Street I noticed a group of 6 to 8 youths (late teens, early 20s) spreading into the street ahead of me.


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Their attention seemed maliciously focused at another youth on the other side of the street heading away from them. I heard some raised voices and shouting and things were looking like a disturbance of some sort.

I wondered if I should turn and avoid the street in front of me. I decided to veer to the left side of the street away from the group and proceed. As I crossed the intersection at Shelby, the attention of several in the group turned towards me and I heard one say,

"Get the guy on the bike!"

The young man closest to me was 2 or 3 strides away. At that instant I put everything I had into accelerating, veering to the left and ducking my assailants blow. He lunged and attempted a close line type manuever towards my throat. I ducked so the main force of the blow hit me in the helmet and sun glasses, and I felt him against my side trying to get a grip.

He caught on and was able to pull my new iphone from my hip.

As I broke free of him I heard several shoes hitting the ground just behind me as the pack gave chase. I suspect that if I had been on a geared bike instead if a fixed-gear, I might not have escaped.

I continued on at full speed looking for a policeman. At about 3rd street, I saw a city inspector getting into her truck. I told her what happened, she called 911 and soon there were 2 patrol cars there and a report to file.

I went back to the shop, got the car, and was off to Verizon for a new iphone.

All in all, a harrowing experience...I am lucky to be writing this from my shop and not a hospital bed.

Victor Miller

1973 Raleigh International Finds a Home

From Vic:

"This bike came out of my personal collection. I did not want to sell it, but Walt caught me as there was a Trek 950 road bike available that I just had to have (post coming soon). Oh what a collection I could build if there only unlimited piles of cash at my disposal..."



From Walt, the satisfied customer:

"Hi Vic,

The bike arrived at 1:30 Wednesday. Your packing job was very good. As I opened each piece, I was both pleased and thankful to you for the cleanliness.

As I sat on the kitchen floor and assembled the bike I was again pleased as I could feel the fresh grease in the bearings, the finely adjusted cones, the wheels true and round, the new tires mounted straight, the bar tape just right- overall, the superb original condition of the entire 38 year old machine...

The Int'l was quiet, stiffer than I expected, and just real fine.

Thank you for all your hard work and expertise. I appreciate your letting me have it.

Walt"

View on the website

Make: Raleigh

Model: International

Frame Size: 57cm

Frame Description: Carlton built. Reynolds 531 tubes & stays. Chain stays are the uncommon rapid taper style (round at the bottom bracket shell then a rapid taper to provide greater clearence for tires). Nervex lugs, head lugs chromed. Campagnolo dropouts (rear has adjusting screws) Additional chrome accents include trident fork crown, chain stay, seat stay, and fork ends.
Wheels: Campagnolo high flange hubs laced to Sprint alloy tubular rims with stainless steel double butted spokes. New Servio Corsa sew up tires.
Components: Full Campagnolo Nuovo Record with the exception of Weinmann 610 Center pull brakes and QR drilled levers, Carlton hoods. All other components are Campagnolo engraved including crank, bottom bracket, pedals, crank dust caps, derailleurs, shifters, seat post, seat post binder bolt, and headset.
Saddle & Seatpost: Brooks Professional Saddle, Campy seat post.
Bars & Stem: Cinelli