7/6/22 1:49 PM

In retirement, I find I am enjoying collection of the ones I couldn't get to the $pend level$ in the day.

So the other day this 9/10 condition CRL Serotta 59L fell in my lap for sushi money.. Even had fresh pedals PD-9000/cleats on shoes too small for me.

Had some real boat anchor wheels with 23 mm wire bead el-cheapo commutter tires. Like new wheels/tires. But not the variety I'd use personally.

I suspect the 74 year old retired Veterinarian got it with no wheels and updated it to ride few years back. And kept it nice for me to collect.

So I tuned it and tossed on some of my personally built/laced wheels. Also Dura Ace, but 7700 hubs..

Left nasty tape and 8 speed Dura Ace on for a burn in ride. Now I know it fit as perfectly as it should/could have, I will dial in 10 or 11speed on it.

Best part is it came with a matched unused Serotta lugged slope crown fork, never used. It is definitely going on in favor of the Serotta Carbon fork pictured.

7/7/22 2:38 PM

In your case, it appears that N+1 is an incurable disease. This comes from a guy who has a hybrid town bike, a Lynskey road bike, and a Litespeed road bike that is my dedicated roller bike. Every other bike I have ever owned was sold or trashed.

7/7/22 3:27 PM

There were some expensive bikes from the eighties that weren't an option for me at the time, as I recall spending my last 3k getting myself moved back to SoCal after graduation at the end of that decade.

But over the years, the "grail" bikes appeared on Craigslist, even Ebay, at really low prices, and I jumped when the bike in question was my size.

Here are three of those '80's bikes, plus one each from the 70's (Speedwell titanium) and 90's (Boulder Paris-Roubaix):

7/7/22 4:12 PM

I’ve got 4: a candy blue ‘83 Club Special, a pearlescent white ‘91 Colorado II, a blue ‘99 Hors Categorie, and an ‘05 ti/carbon Ottrott. All are fabulous bikes, bought new, ridden for years as my primary road bike. I just never sold any. The Club Special is now a fixed gear, the Ottrott an extremely upscale Computrainer bike. I would be happy with any as my primary road bike today. The Ottrott is fully competitive with my Sachs or RSL.

I remember walking into the Bicycle Exchange in Boston, an iconic shop, in the early ‘80s. They had a candy blue Club Special hanging with a simple sign: “The Best”. Used to see them all the time in races back then.

I went for a ride at Belmont Wheelworks in ‘05, in relation to ordering my Ottrott, in a group including Ben Serotta and John Allis. Cool.

7/7/22 5:49 PM

Need no 'more' I guess you mean
:)

You were getting them while I was just wishing. ;O

7/8/22 3:36 PM

Steel fork on, and some other parts diddles and going to ride it like this:

Kinda was jonz-in for silver bits for a change...

7/9/22 7:21 AM

So the question is, how do you like the ride?

Looks similar to my Colorado II. Nice lugwork, looks like combo fillet/lug at head and seat cluster. I have a somewhat different configuration, but combo at head. Same fastback seat stays, love that.

May have to take mine out.

7/9/22 10:36 AM

It just feels right to me with the steel fork, not that the F1 felt bad. Definitely looks right to me, and I did not care for the tall Mavic vintagy headset stack/looks. So a Dura Ace went on with the fork.

Does your Colo II also have the seat tube that tapers bigger to the BB, and TT worked, or is that a CRL thing?


It does not quite ride as sweet as the Reynold 753 frame. But at my weight I think it's got that bit of extra stout the for hard pushes which the 753 fell a tad short. But that also equaled what you could sit on for 200 mile, if I could still do that.

I was going to repaint the Reynolds, but this will wind up costing less with the $500.00 starting point.

So yard sale on Paceline for the Dura Ace 8 speed groupo and the Reynolds frame for my net zero plan. ;) I hate to part with it, one of the most special rolling bikes I have had under me.

I have hopes this CRL will be that and more, so far it seems it will.

7/9/22 11:58 AM

I once had an early 90s Colorado TG with Shimano 8-speed Ultegra grouppo. I was never impressed with the stock Serotta steel fork as the overall bike handling in general was a little twitchy (overresponsive) at speed. I never dared ride that frame with my hands off the bars. I managed to calm down the handling by installing a Kestrel EMS carbon fork, but I "might" have adjusted the trail when I ordered it. Too long ago to recall. With the Kestrel fork on, the handling was notably more stable.

7/9/22 12:15 PM

Not bombed anything just yet with it.

7/9/22 12:33 PM

Yes the Colorado II I think was the first steel bike with shaped tubes, I think the CRL came after it.

FWIW I found all my Serottas to handle dead neutral, maybe that’s why I got 4 of them. :). Steel fork on the Colorado.

7/9/22 6:21 PM

Dan's Colo_II

I recall seeing the 1/2 Lug braze before...

The brake cable 'entry/exit' is a lot more onatop than the CRL I am noticing... Also further from the lugs by a good bit.

7/10/22 6:34 PM

Rode the CRL 25 miles today. Unfortunately the 44CM bars scheduled to land Sat are coming Monday.

So especially out of the saddle my temp 40CM bars was odd, just really felt s odd to me. Have to just try again with the 44 bars Monday I guess. Rinse and repeat etc, etc. ;)

Thinking about a Sugino XD2 double 110BCD crank.

SUGINO OX2-901D Compact Plus+ Crankset sure is pretty, but cost more than I paid for the CRL. ;)

7/20/22 8:28 PM

quote:

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Thinking about a Sugino XD2 double 110BCD crank.

---

7/20/22 9:20 PM

I have this on the way with Gephardt GTP Chainrings - 48-34T



I want this for the Smurf bike too:



Smurfed with blue tape [had in drawer] and new TR levers and silver Soma Hywy. bars.

7/21/22 7:34 AM

Bob, that smurf bike is done in almost (needs a darker blue) proper SU colors, esp with a big orange S on the blue background, Serrota and SU both being NYS institutions....

7/21/22 4:00 PM

As you note, Serotta was always an upstate NY builder.

Though I don’t know that he ever had a connection to the ‘Cuse.

Dan (grew up in Buffalo and former Stumpy)

7/21/22 8:42 PM

Grabbed this S&S coupled filet brazed Curtlo to use for trips. Probably leave it there @ my Sisters in CA after 1st trip down.. Fits perfectly, or will once I flip the stem... Included the case and wrench for couplers case padding fodder etc etc.

Tire fit looks like a 40+ should fit. But going to try 42x650b on it...

7/22/22 12:17 PM

Don't know if there ever was a direct connect other than having NY addresses....

7/22/22 2:28 PM

Some fit diddling [bars, stem flip, tape etc] and how it fits in case apart...

7/24/22 8:51 PM

Took the travel beast on a tri-type test ride yesterday.

Rear Pannier bigfoot test.

35mm Gravelish tires ride on paved river path, coarse variety of cracked root laden un-smoothness @ 75 PSi.

Then dropped out some of air and ran some hard packed deer paths.

Next, drop more PSI maybe down to 35-40 and ran some woods trails under tree shade with breeze off the river. #heaven.

The lower the PSi the more fun it was.

But I txted the guy I got it from and said "This is 'so' a good woods bike".

8/3/22 1:41 PM

Not exactly what I wanted when I was a kid in the early 80s but I did have a neighbor that rode a chrome Redline that I always wished I could have afforded. Fast forward to a couple years ago and I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the Redline PL26 "adult" sized BMX bike. Mostly use it as a neighborhood cruiser, but I did dress it up with Flight checkerboard pattern pads, a number plate and dice valve stem caps. :)

Finally had a chance to use it on an actual BMX track for the first time a few weeks ago here in Indy at the track adjacent to our velodrome.

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8/3/22 3:09 PM

Most kids never grow up, right? ;)