This bike was acquired as a rescue mission. I received many calls that it was up for sale and given the conversations about breaking it up for parts, I immediately sought out the owner and took it off his hands. Its an 85-ish Rossin Cromor Sprint RC4000, Centaur gruppo with Ultegra chain, classic early 10 speed gearing, a new Turbo saddle and a very appealing paint job.
Wheels were originally mismatched Campagnolo G3, one Zonda one Scirocco, presumably for the same rim height. Zonda rims are deeper at the back and shallower at the front. Sadly the G3 wheels came to the end of the road when a huge crack developed across the freehub. Having determined a repair would be uneconomical a new set of wheels were commissioned – DT Swiss rims, LSC hubs, lots of spokes. Strong, light and fast, and unlikely to come apart any time soon which is exactly what’s required. The ride is even better than previously, handles like its on rails.
It rides beautifully and its fast. And yes, its filthy. It definitely gets ridden.
In November 2023, there were changes at the Palazzo, Frank exited the building and the Green Machine has been equipped for eroica duties with Frank’s running gear moved over. So now we have down tube shifters, the frankensteined rear mech, record triple all the gears and so forth on this bike. Turns out Frank while a great ride was just a bit big for what lies ahead in the heroic bike space.
On its first event at Eroica Japan it handled everything, negotiated the big hills and descended like a boss. I’m not really loving the brakes on very steep descents I must say, but that’s probably just the need to drop some mass so the brakes have less weight to arrest. The levers are slippery and narrow as well, it seems modern ergonomics have spoiled me. All the same worked just fine on extended descents at over 10 percent, a really capable and confident ride. And as many have said, it looks great.
