Saturday, January 5, 2013

Juli's Pinarello Treviso

Nearly two years ago, I built an old Schwinn World Sport frame into a 650B, step-through all-arounder for my (now 12 y/o) daughter Juliana.  The result is a neat little bike, and the build kept me entertained, with a couple of challenges requiring unorthodox solutions.

With its step-through frame, a 48cm seat tube, smaller wheels, a short-reach stem and narrow bars, it was easy for Juli transition from her little 24" Fuji to the Schwinn, and she seemed to enjoy most everything about it, save for the color.  But I noticed two things over the two seasons she rode the bike.  First, it seemed to keep getting smaller and smaller, as Juli's limbs and torso stretched out (eh... it happens).  And second, when we were out riding, if another cyclist passed us, her natural reaction was to give chase.  For that matter, if we crested a hill and saw another cyclist off in the distance, she tended to want to chase them down, too.  She's a little competitive, it seems.

Now, my elder daughter is artistic and bright, but also disorganized and argumentative.  She plays soccer, but she's like me in that cycling seems to be the sport she's best at, and it's not clear to me that team sports or ball sports are her thing.  So... despite the very good advice Grant Peterson gives to parents not to make cycling a 'sport' for kids, I decided to get Juliana onto something more aggressive than she was riding, to see if I could nurture the road cycling bug just a bit.

At the time, a friend had a bike in storage that we'd rebuilt together a few years ago - a Bertoni Corsa Mondial which seemed it might fit the bill.  She was planning her return to the states, and we'd talked about her cycling needs going forward.  She agreed a city bike would be a better fit for her needs than the Bertoni, so we arranged a swap -- I would rebuild a Puch mixte I had salvaged from my family's homestead as a city bike, and take the Bertoni in trade.  More on the Puch another time, but it's a truly lovely bike to ride.  Not light to carry, but with a spritely and nimble feel just the same, and much more useful than the Bertoni.

Unfortunately, that Bertoni was too small for Juli.  It was sportier and faster than her Schwinn, and she loved riding it, the handful of rides she took on it.  But it's a 46 (I thought 48), so it was a step in the wrong direction, size-wise.  So it now sits in storage, again, waiting for Ava to stretch out a bit.  Which is fine -- it's a nice bike for her to graduate to in the coming years.

With probably three bikes worth of components sitting in my parts closet, I was perfectly well equipped to build a bike up for Juliana, so as last season drew to a close, I started looking for a frameset.  I made the call that Juli should get a 53, after measuring the Schwinn and Bertoni, and studying her fit.  That seems like a big number for her, but on the other hand, I've been riding undersized frames my whole life, with posts at their max and long reach stems -- I should have been riding frames 5cm larger (and am today).  So 53 it would be!

After bidding on a couple of Colnagos on eBay, I happened upon a 53 Pinarello Treviso frameset.  It has Columbus tubing and a nice complement of braze-ons (including bottle cage braze-ons inside the seat tube, which I initially mistook for a hack job).  It  came with two forks -- the original with some deep scratches, and the newer chrome Pinarello fork you see here.  And let me tell you - the paint is simply gorgeous.  It's not pristine, but it is a deep red metallic with an almost luminescent quality.  The rear triangle has chroming on the right chainstay and  at the tops of the seatstays, and the decals are large and white.  Juli fell in love with it, and insisted that I build it with a period Dura-Ace groupset I was also watching at the time, in fact.  But I talked her down to a 600 (6207) group I had on-hand.

The cranks are 600, in 170, and the bottom bracket a Phil Wood with Italian stainless rings.  The hubs are 6207 (freewheel rear), laced with 36 spokes to Mavic MA2 rims.  The rest of the drivetrain is all 12-speed 6207, with a SRAM chain.  The headset is 600 from the 6207 line, which means it has one of those cool star nuts up top.  The seatpost is an inexpensive but nice Kalloy Uno part (the forged one that looks like a Ritchey), because the other 27.2 posts I had on hand all had aero shaping or fluting up top, and I didn't want water getting into the frame (the post sits way down in the frame for Juliana's needs).

I also departed from 600 when it came to the brakes, bars and stem.  I have been impressed by the first generation Shimano SLR brakes that came on my Shogun.  They don't center as cleanly as current dual pivot brakes, and they're not quite as powerful, but they still work way better than most I've tried, and require only a light touch.  The ones I have are Exage Sport, which was the trickle-down group under 105 in the late 1980's.  Not a fancy label, but a good cosmetic match with the 600 groupset, and they work much better than the older 600 brakes I had on hand with the rest of the groupset.  I upgraded the plated anchor bolts to stainless with allen-heads, and paired them with the matching SLR levers and Tektro cross levers.  The bars are old Olympics (I think) and the stem is a Nitto Dynamic II in 90mm.  Juli isn't used to leaning way over her bars, so the 90-degree bend and short-ish reach will make her happier than something more traditional.

The current saddle is a Brooks Team Pro S, which she is tolerating but not altogether fond of.  The build has progressed from the state shown above, and I've since bolted on a full complement of accessories.  A Zefal frame pump -- the last accessory needed) is on order.  I'm also planning to build a tubular wheelset for her, around an identical set of hubs, using Ambrosio rims.  More on that another time.

The resulting bike is a great ride.  I took it for a spin after I finished the build, and all I could say is wow.  It feels light, fast and nimble -- definitely the nicest bike in the family, including my Colnago, which is pretty nice.  No, the drivetrain doesn't shift as crisply as a new one, and no it doesn't have brifters.  But it's still a Pinarello with a 600 drivetrain!  It'll carry her through her teens, I expect, and if she wants something more contemporary, we can have that conversation when the time comes.  In the mean time, she has a delightful old-school racing bike, far better than anything I rode before I was twice her age.

All for now,

J

1 comment:

Treviso hotels said...

For sure, you are a professional! Good luck in everything you are doing!