Monday, October 19, 2009

Unsubstantiated 'Cuevas' Turbo roadie frame and the Choose your own adventure Townie build!

I got this 'Cuevas' road frame from the old Spokes and Strings shop in Brooklyn in 02' or something I think. They had this one and a bunch of other that they claimed to have purchased when Cuevas closed their build shop. Which is around the time when Francisco died if I'm not mistaken. I went to the old Cuevas bike shop in queens to check it out and met his son Fernando. From what he was saying it wasn't a true Cuevas frame made by his father and wouldn't really comment on it's origins. I assumed it was some sort of not quite finished experiment/abortion since it was originally raw and not quite finished when I got it..



More here..

Regardless I def remember it riding real nice when I built it up a while back. It's obviously not been built up in a really long time..

Right, why am I telling you this shit.. Well, I've been kinda wanting to build up a super chill cruiser/townie type jam with a few speeds in back, single ring in front and some north roads bars for a while now. Both my tall bikes have north roads on em and they're kind of rad. Anyways, I was going through possible candidates when I spotted the 'Cuevas'. It's not a contender but I thought you'd all enjoy having a peek due to it's overwhelming aero oddness..

Here's the main thing- I've been wanting to build a bike up around this for a loooong time:


Campy single sided clamp on shifter = WIN

I bought it on ebay around the same time as when I got the Cuevas frame. I just got it for the hell of it cause I thought it was neat. Only $15 bucks too :)

The idea behind this build closely resembles the premise behind this old commercial:



Though on the other hand it's a bit of a FAIL since the only road frames I currently own that'll fit me have shifter bosses. Which could easily be removed of course. Though the implementation of which for a measly clamp on shifter would undoubtedly put a considerable twist in the panties of many a bike snob. Which certainly doesn't make me want to do it any less, in fact, quite the opposite!

So here's the choose your own adventure portion of the build. Which one shall it be? You decide..

Tonights contenders are these two pretty beat to shit basement find steel road frames I got for free. Neglected over the years to be tripped over, scratched, dinged and rusted from floods. No matching fork for either due to front end collisions no doubt..

DeBernardi:


Guerciotti:


Either way the sparks are gonna fuckin fly!

So untwist those panties folks cause they're mearly Cycling Trivialities. The great thing about steel, what the frames are made out of, is that you can use these things called torches that get really hot and enable you to remount said shifter bosses with a process called brazing. If one would choose to do so of course. Though spending any time and money required to renovate either of these frames would be better spent getting ones head examined..

Also keep in mind I was originally thinking of building a tall bike from them so consider this possible action as the lesser of two evils..

So choose wisely and we'll move on to the next chapter in our story..

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7 comments:

Unknown said...

I vote for DeBernardi. you'd look good on a white and baby blue bike. toss a basket with a puppy inside and you'd be good to cruise the streets of the jerz. (although you better hide a handgun under said puppy, cuz your ass is going to get shot for shaving off shifter bosses!)

Alan Sikirić said...

BAAAAhahaha- Who said anything about leaving it white?!

Coyotes and Buffalo said...

My last road bike was a single chainring set up with an athena crank on a too narrow phil wood bb (102mm?). The bike had a great q-factor, and was awesome from stop light to stop light (the rest of the drivetrain was dura-ace 7800 with a single DT shifter). I really miss that set up.

Also, thanks for writing about all of these great/obscure/awesome bikes.

Anonymous said...

My first reaction was to suggest the Guerciotti. After taking a closer look I changed my mind and thought the DeBernardi was a nicer looking frame. I like how the chain stays meet up with the downtube.

Jolan said...

My friend had an awesome 5 speed Olmo set up like this. One shifter and the stem, bars and brakes all as one piece.

Email me at info[at]mollyandatiba[dot]com and I can email you some pics if you're interested.

And I vote DeBernardi.

Sam said...

DeBernardi. But no repaint...

morgman said...

Tall bike, no repaint. An homage to me.