Concorde Squadra aero steel bike project

[SWijland]

Today I finally managed to do the cables, bar tape and chain. I also added some Elite Inox bottle cages. All it needs now are some nicer wheels and tires . So far so good!

[Miller]

It doesn't seem that long ago to me that all those components were current and not retro. Sigh. Lovely bikes and photos, thank you.

[SWijland]

Still not sure what to do with the wheels. I have a pair of matching Record hubs, so that is a no-brainer. 36 holes are also a given and for now I am thinking of going radial up front and 2 cross on the rear. All that remains is the choice of rims.

I like H Plus Son rims a lot and I also dig the concept of the wider profile of the TB14 and the Archetype. If I go the H Plus Son-way, I need to figure out first if the wider profile will fit the tight clearance on the front fork. If it does, next is choosing between low (TB14) and high (Archetype) profile and grey or silver. Depending on the tire choice (tan sidewall or not) a grey rim with a black tire will definitely not look the part, but a tan sidewall tire will work with just about anything...

[Miller]

Still not sure what to do with the wheels. I have a pair of matching Record hubs, so that is a no-brainer. 36 holes are also a given and for now I am thinking of going radial up front and 2 cross on the rear.

It's your choice of course but I'm not a fan of radial lacing on high spoke count wheels. So many spokes creates a sort of 'wall' close to the hub that makes it difficult to access the hub to clean it.

If you want to create an interesting look, have you ever seen the three-leading three-trailing pattern?
http://www.terminalvelocity.demon.co.uk/WheelBuild/3leading.htm

[SWijland]

I finally managed to found a pair of rims I think will look nice on the bike, namely a pair of vintage Mavic CD Ceramic rims. All that remains now is dropping them of at the wheel builder.






@Miller: You got me doubting about the radial lacing pattern up front. I like your suggestion of a 3-leading 3-trailing lacing pattern, but I think it is a bit to trendy for this build. So I will probably go 2-cross front and rear.

[SWijland]

The wheels were built during the weekend and I picked them up today. When I told the wheel builder (over 70 years old and still going strong) about my plans for a tan sidewall tire, he told me he had a NOS pair of tan sidewall Conti tires lying around. Luckily I was able to persuaded him to sell them to me .

Aside from the pedals, the bike is now pretty much finished and I am really happy with the end result. I will try and take some better pictures of the bike later this week.

[Miller]

Nice bike, nice wheels. Don't take those tyres near any sharp stones or gravel, I used to use those Conti GPs and the sidewalls are fragile and prone to being slashed.

[Geoff]

Great job.

[KB]

Nice job. I like the wheels including the CXP 30's. Only thing I would change would be traditional bars, but otherwise you've nailed it.

[SWijland]

Some better shots of the bike (although still not as nice as I would like them to be).

[SWijland]

Today I drove down to Westauto's in Belgium, the main sponsor of the team this frame belonged to back in the days. I figured it would make for a cool background for some nice shots. IMHO they turned out really nice, finally . Below are a couple of pics, you can find the rest on my Flickr page.

[hollowgram5]

Man, this this is cool. If you ever have a desire to sell, I might be interested in having it next to my Columbus MS bike in the rack, being that it is my size and all. How does it ride compared to other vintage steel you've owned?

[Genesis]

Looks great! Hope it rides good too