My steel lugged update.

Steel Love...

Hampsten won into Selvina, Giro 1988.

From: Tour 88.

One aspect of cycling that attracts my undying attention are the bicycles. These days it’s constantly on my mind and this year I want to do something special to celebrate my birthday. A new bike seems like the logical choice. Guy and myself talked, during our recent stage 1 podcast, on the 1988 Giro. Specifically on Andy Hampsten’s assault on the snow covered Passo di Gavia. Steel lug bikes were the norm and I smiled as I read a good article of Hampsten’s steel lug Huffy. Check it here.

I looked over at my steel lug 1987 Marinoni and my grin was even wider. Recently, on a business trip to Peninsula Cycles in Surrey I talked to Simon the sales manager and had a reawakening. He suggested that I send my Marinoni, in desperate need of a paint job, back to Quebec. The advantage here is that I get a new paint job and new decals for my old Marinoni. I'm happy to discover that Marinoni has a life time paint warranty. Good thing, they will take out any rust that's been building up over the past twenty years. It won't be black. I'm going for the medium blue to keep it retro. Then I'll  build it with a new gruppo. Retire my trusty Campy Nouvo Record gruppo. No more down tube shifters. Add lighter wheels and maybe I can bring it down under 20 lbs. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait until the Fall as this is my only ride. Patience, patience, patience!