Resurrecting an old friend

[gman]

In 1988, I purchased my first "real" bike - a Guerciotti SLX. I was too young and too uninformed at the time to really understand what a great bike this was. I raced three seasons of criteriums on it and it met an untimely end in June of 1994 when I drove into the garage with the bike on top.

The damage was more than minimal, but less than catastrophic. I had a good relationship with a local shop at the time and they took a look at and pronounced it "ridable". Due to the fact that it was a 6.5 pound frame made of SP/SPX tubing certainly helped.

They tweaked it a bit, mostly in the fork, and I converted it to a fixed gear. I rode it for several seasons in this mode, and recently put a normal drivetrain on it and put it on the trainer. It never felt the same after the impact.

I would like to look into restoring this old friend. Based on what I can see, the top tube and down tube would need to be replaced. There is a mild "buckle" in both just behind the head tube lugs. It looks like a slight hump in both places. Aside from that, the rest of the frame appears to be okay. The fork is definitely off center. This can be seen when looking straight on. Basically, the impact was garage door on top tube and the wheelbase was effectively stretched a bit.

Is it a lost cause or something that is technically possible and within fiscal reason?

Who does this sort of repair/restoration?

[stevep]

let it go.
buy something similar new or used.
no way worth the $$ to fix that thing.

[Peter P.]

Definitely worth it, if you go the entire route, repaint with decals.

As a minimum, some shops will give you a diagnosis for a minimal fee.

Those with a stellar reputation are Cyclart and Joe Bell and Spectrum.

Joe Bell http://www.campyonly.com/joebell.html

Cyclart http://www.cyclart.com

Spectrum http://spectrum-cycles.com
Spectrum's site may not be clear that they offer such services, but they do.

My only suggestion would be to be sure and have the rear end spread to fit current width rear hubs. It was most likely 126mm, and needs to be 130mm wide.

[roman meal]

I always like the way the surface of peanut butter is always so flat, sometimes with a hint of a curly-cue when I take off the lid of a new jar, and slowly peel back that silver foil cap seal. Perfect. Pristine. Unmolested by the butter knife. The whiff of nut that is so new, the unrealized potential of the jar, the stories of Jif remembered and Jif yet to be told.

I tried to contact Jif to see if they could re-create that flat-as-new surface on an old, half-eaten jar I found under my desk recently. I didn't even know it was there, and I could tell from the vintage label that it was made by peanut butter artisans at the apogee of their skills at that time. I told them I'd send it back, half-empty, and all I wanted them to do was flatten the surface and put a new seal on it. I'd pay them, I said, until they blocked my ip address and would not accept my calls.

Stevep said that he would restore my jar for $800, and I thought that that was a good deal, until I spoke with my wife. That got me thinking that you really can't put the peanut butter back in the jar. My college room mate spent years trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube- All he got was a divorce, kids who won't speak to him, an empty bank account, and gingivitis.

He does remember, though, as do I , the day we arrived at the dorm freshman year, introduced ourselves, unpacked, and he opened a new tube of gleem- I looked at him knowingly and opened a new jar of skippy-and the world opened before us, that electric moment that was youth unbounded was forever engraved onto our psyches.

But I've already said too much. Get a Viner at American Cyclery, pocket the hundreds you would save rebuilding the Guerciotti, and thank God you never folded that thing on the road since.

[J.Greene]

Roman Meal,

That was beautiful.

and for the Italian bike.....They were not as great as your memory believes and you should move on.

JG

[Ginger]

Roman meal...

It's been all these years and you haven't figured out how to re-establish the flat top in a jar of peanut butter yourself?

[old_school]

roman,
that was pretty f'n funny!

[Ginger]

Yea...it is funny. :)

[thwart]

Glad I didn't read that the first thing this morning or I'd be wiping lots of coffee off the keyboard... hate it when it mostly comes out of your nose...

[roman meal]

Roman meal...

It's been all these years and you haven't figured out how to re-establish the flat top in a jar of peanut butter yourself?


Shadows on the wall of the cave, Ginger. It's never the same.

[MarleyMon]

roman meal - your reminiscence is veritably Proustian.
I, too, got "a whiff of nut".

OP - listen to stevep, let it go