[CR] Campy brake hoods; frame painting & restoration in general

(Example: Production Builders:Pogliaghi)

Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 11:40:46 -0800
From: <euromeccanicany@yahoo.com>
To: classic rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR] Campy brake hoods; frame painting & restoration in general


I just received a pair of CR lister Robbie Fellows' Campagnolo brake hoods. They are visually indistinguishable from original hoods: I couldn't be more pleased. The only difference I can detect is they are more supple & stretchy than O.E. hoods. This is a good thing. I'd recommend his product unreservedly over the original. Robbie's fine product and the recent posts about refinishing frames has me thinking about bike restoration as it relates to my field: auto restoration. When restoring a car, it is rare to try to maintain a "patina". There is a part of the collector car market devoted to unrestored cars, where an original paint job is valued, but it is a very small segment. For most cars, a paint job is on top of the restoration priority list. The quality of the paint job has a lot to do with the value of a restored car. A car's finish of course takes a much bigger beating than a bicycle's (more sun exposure, miles, etc.), so it is understandable why it is no crime to repaint an old car. That said, I believe what one CR correspondent pointed out, that it is more common (and less expensive!) to come across really rough bikes with potential than bikes that need just some cleaning & touch-up. This is my situation with two bikes I'm currently messing around with. One is an old Viner which left flakes of yellow paint in a trail behind it. I've stripped it and will have the bare steel clear coated. It will become my daughter's city bike, hopefully not attracting much attention from thieves. The other is a Cinelli which had not a trace of original paint on it. It has been stripped and will get painted as accurately original as I can manage. (The decals just came in from Oz and I'm stoked!) I'm putting it together to sell, and given the condition it was in when I got it, new paint is required to make it worth something. Reproduction parts versus original is sometimes an issue with old cars, but accurate repros generally trump crusty old stuff, especially rubber parts. Take Robbie's hoods: there's no way to tell they aren't original, other than they won't drive you crazy installing them.

Writing bike posts when I should be working...

Michael Shiffer
EuroMeccanica, Inc.
114 Pearl Street
Mount Vernon, NY 10550
(914) 668-1300
euromeccanicany.com