new project, Strong Custom Blend Steel Racing bike…

this is going to be the last project bike I get for awhile (I still have plenty unfinished ones downstairs), no seriously, it is! unless I find something really cool… it’s an addiction 😉

but back on topic, the new frameset is a slightly used (I mean there are a couple of marks, but hell, it’s pretty darn perfect) Carl Strong “Custom Blend” steel racing bike. it’s a little long in the tooth in regards to the top tube, but standover is nice.

just to get it out of the way, the stem (including the spacer under the stem) and wheelset are completely for mockup purposes only.

so far I have it setup with a set of older Campagnolo Chorus Derailleurs (the silver/black or carbon kind) and an Ultra-Torque Athena 11 crankset. for the crankset I’m going to swap the bottom bracket cups for the black Super Record type (where you remove the seals from the UT BB cups and pop them into the SR BB cups) and I have some black chainring bolts in the mail to try to tie it in more with the Chorus bits. the levers are going to be the silver Athena Power Torque levers (only one click down sadly on the thumb shifter). there are a bunch of parts on order, I’m going to keep some of those a surprise until they arrive 😉

otherwise I’ve installed a black Phil seatpost collar, a Nitto S83 seatpost (sexy, sexy seatpost, though the setback isn’t helping me any haha) and a silver Ritchey Classic Curve handlebar. I also replaced the barrel adjusters with some brass Kirk Frameworks knurled ones, and I swapped headsets to a 1 1/8″ Campagnolo Record but sadly the rubber ring on the bottom fell off (literally found it on the floor) so it’s going to get swapped out for a used King I got (in the mail). the cages are the ones from the Klein, I never really felt that they fit the klein as well as I’d like but they look just perfect on the Strong!

so that’s it for now, just a tiny update, more when it happens,
-peter