Wednesday, April 29, 2009

my bike, Odetta the P14




As always click on the pictures and the get wider.
Odetta is a lovely lady, my nice weather girlfriend. She is a factory team bike that was raced down at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome. Some time around 1980 he daddy brought her up to Cambridge as he was going to grad school at Ha'vhaad. My friend Robert (Row-Bear) the horrible old French man traded some road bike to the owner as there is/was no track in area. Robert tore the bike down and rebuilt her with a campy 1 inch pitch drive-train and wooden rims(!) as his winter commuter/roller-racer. Robert rode it in this configuration until the mid 90's, when it was hung out to dry in his basement in favor of a Moulton. Last fall I inherited the bike from Robert (along with 80 or so pipes) and stripped her down and rebuilt her with some modern components.
I've gotten some flak for rebuilding it, these are my 3 reasons:
1. The bike was built up in an anachronistic fashion anyways, the only thing original was the seatpost and stem
2. The drive train was screwed, the drive side pedal was helio-coiled in place
3. It's my bike, and if swapping out parts is what's going to make it ride-able, at least i'm riding it.
The bike is now built up with a set of 36 hole Phil Wood hubs laced 3x to Mavic Reflex tubulars fixed/fixed with a 18 & 22 tooth phil cog, the cranks are Sugino 75's with a 48 tooth ring mated to a Phil Wood bottom bracket, it has a Nitto Dynamic seatpost topped with a white San Marco rolls saddle, the stem is also a Nitto Dynamic with a NOS set of Cinelli 64's with Dia-comp brake levers (the right side is a dummy lever), the breaking is handled by a Campa Victory front brake, and my water bottle cage is vintage 60's T.A.
I'll be upgrading/swapping out my saddle soon for San Marco Regal in brown suede and I'll be replacing my 18 tooth cog with a 15 and my Sugino ring with a 3RRR "Mighty Pimp" in 46. I also have some Conti Sprinter/Gatorskin Tub's on the way in 22c to replace my crappy Celemente* that are on there now.
*I had a pair of Conti Competition's on there, but I've finally put enough holes in the rear that no matter how much tuffo sealent I put in it had to be replaced. I used my first spare (a used Vittoria Competion) for about a week before I ran over a huge fricking screw, so I switched it out with my other spare and 2 days later I put a huge hole in my sidewall. I'm ridding on some supper crappy Clemente now.

1 comment:

  1. my brother has the same san marco on his brass knuckle. an amazing bike with an awesome story.
    Foster

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