This started with a Marketplace ad for a bag of parts.
Who doesn’t like a bag of parts? I sure do.
I had my eye on one day building up a vintage road bike. I had a long-term plan: to slowly gather parts, eventually a frame and then put it all together. I wasn’t expecting to get it all in one fell swoop, especially for pretty damn cheap.
The bag of parts is mostly Campagnolo stuff from the 1970s. There’s a nice leather Spa Cycles saddle, some Japanese pedals. It’s all pretty good quality stuff. I would have been happy with just that.
When I got to the dude’s house, he had the frame and a front wheel set out as well. So I came home with them!
That brings me to the frame. It’s a 58 cm frame. I think I’ve dated it to the 70’s based on the Suntour GS dropouts and the particular Columbus stamp on the steer tube of the fork. Oh also, it’s Columbus tubing.
That’s about as far as I got with it. The serial number is four digits stamped on the left side of the upper seat tube lug. There may be some makers marks on the bottom bracket shell, but it’s hard to make out. The frame is super light, which is sick, but as for who made it I have no idea. Throw it in the comments if you know — I’m located on the Canadian west coast if that helps.
I started with some rust removal and fixing the godawful hood angle, but so far that’s it. I’m excited to dig into this and get a sick bike out there for someone to ride.
UPDATE: I am very sure it’s a 58cm 1980 Windsor Touring Elite.
Windsor Bikes were basically knock off Cinelli bikes made in Mexico. Rumour has it that one of the Cinelli famiglia members ended up working in Mexico making bikes, and used a lot of the designs from the motherland (see the fastback seat stays that gave the frame ID away). While they don’t have the cachet of real Cinelli bikes, they are pretty damn sick.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Got the bike in ride-able condition this weekend. DIY crown race setter (1 1/4 inch PVC pipe joint for the win) and DIY headset press (long-ass bolt and some wide-ass washers) got the tough parts together. From there it was just a matter of installing the rest. Having some trouble making the RD work with the modern cassette, but I think I’m on to a fix. Will check back in with an update.
Now that it’s rideable, I really like this bike. It feels really fast, excited to get it out for a few real rides before I pass it on to someone out there.
Stay tuned for more!
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: It’s built! It’s done! It’s for sale! I did a whole post on all that, you can check it out here.