The Bike Hive

I picked up this Miele in very rough condition last month.  Although I'm not super excited about the brand, it is a decent quality classic early 90s steel bike made with Columbus Cromor tubing.  I got it with a solid Shimano 600 group on it.  Even though I like the 600 components, I do love Campagnolo.  It doesn't hurt that I have a Daytona gruppo in a box that would look great on this. Before I get ahead of myself, there's some serious cleanup and touch up to do.  I'd rather not spend the money on a repaint so I have some fine sanding to do and some paint touch up.  The fork is in very poor condition with more rust than chrome plating left so I'm thinking of installing a carbon fiber fork that I have.  Not only would it look great but it will smooth out the ride quite a bit too. I'll post updates as I work through this new project!

I finally finished the new wheels for my '86 Sagres restoration.  The original wheels will be nearly impossible to find because they were painted to match the dark grey paint on the bike.  In the mean time, I decided to buy a rim that was similar to the original and paint it myself.  In order to make this happen, I had to tape off the sidewalls so they would be silver.  This took some time to get it right but I'm pleased with how they turned out.  The paint isn't a perfect match, but it's very close and they look great! The wheels were built with a basic 14g stainless spoke and a set of used hubs.  Tires are Panaracer Pasela 27 x 1 1/8 - the only true skinwall tires I could find in this size.  Not ideal because they have more tread than the originals, but I didn't want to spend a lot on these wheels since I'm still looking for the original wheelset.  They aren't 100% period-correct parts, but they will make it ridable and a close enough match to ...