Repair and restoration of a crash-damaged Paletti road racing frame equipped with Campagnolo Record components (ca. 2004).
This bicycle had been awaiting restoration since the owner was rear-ended and injured by a car more than ten years earlier. The subject of the repair is a handmade production frame (ca. 1990) from builder Luciano Paletti, Italy. The owner healed up well, but the bicycle still needed surgery.
The bicycle was brought in for repair and restoration in the summer of 2016. Gregory, the owner, conveyed the vision for its renewal: fixed frame, restored chrome, new paint, refurbished parts when possible, new parts when needed. But first, the crash damage needed to be assessed and documentation of the overall graphics placement had to be recorded for post-repair paint.
The damage was a little more extensive than expected, but not bad at all: the non-drive-side wheel had been struck, which damaged the rear wheel and collapsed the non-drive-side stays at the dropout; rider and bicycle crashing into the ground suddenly also buckled and dented the down tube a little, but nothing requiring a replacement tube; the frame was consequently misaligned. Luckily, visual inspection showed that the fork was undamaged; a check on the alignment table showed that it was still in perfect alignment.
How do I repair the stays? My first thought was to replace the stays, but that would have been extremely labor-intensive. I have a gift for complicating things, so I knew that would not have been an economical solution. What could I do? After consultation with the-one-who-should-be-designated-a-national-living-treasure, Mr. Chris Kvale, I had a viable course of action to repair the stays in a safe, economical way. Am I really the best person to perform this surgery? Gregory was adamant that he wanted me to fix his bicycle, so my suggestion that he ask Chris to fix his frame was politely and firmly declined. I am sincerely grateful for the vote of confidence.
After the assessment, the frame was given to Chris [Kvale] to have the paint stripped from the frame and fork. I was not set up to do painting at the time, so he was going to take care of the painting and farming out the chrome-plating. Once the frame was stripped of paint, it was returned to me. Time for surgery.
The surgery was fairly straightforward: cut out the damaged stay sections; salvage the existing dropout (it was undamaged); splice in new stay sections with reinforcement sleeves; fit the salvaged dropout. Rather than using bronze filler as originally used by the original builder, low-temperature silver filler was used for the repair to minimize the risk of over-heating and weakening the frame.
Fixing the down tube was simple, too. Using aluminum tubing blocks and a lot of careful squeezing and rotating, the bulge in the down tube was smoothed out, which also straightened the down tube quite a bit. Then, I put the frame on the alignment table and did an alignment check, incrementally cold-setting the entire frame until it was finally straight. To fix the dent in the down tube, I applied a little bit of silver filler. Of course, heat can add or relieve stress, so the whole frame was put back on the alignment table to verify it was still in alignment, or correct the alignment if it was not…it was still aligned. One modification was made to the frame, by request: the stubs of the brass internal rear brake cable guide running through the top tube were filed flush with the top tube. This made for a very elegant finish. With the repairs done, the frame went back to Chris for chrome and paint.
While waiting for Chris to finish the chrome and paint, Paul Wyganowski was attending to the wheels. They were carefully repaired and perfectly true and round when he was finished. Once the frame and wheels were returned to me, the rear dérailleur hanger was checked for alignment (it was fine). The bicycle was nearly ready to be assembled.
The penultimate step was to clean, refurbish, and overhaul the existing parts. This is always a satisfying process as the road dirt is washed away and the parts start to look new again. I overhauled all the loose-bearings and lubricated rotating parts and pivot points. The cartridge-bearing bottom bracket bearing assembly just needed cleaning. When all the parts were cleaned, lubricated, and looking new again, it was time for the last step: assembly. Gregory had me obtain new ErgoPower dual-control levers for this refit since the old levers were too badly damaged; he provided me with color-coordinated handlebar tape, suede saddle, and cable housing. New stainless steel control cables, chain, water bottle cages, tires and inner tubes were fitted. I started to take photos of the assembly process, but became too focused on assembly…
It was time to present the bicycle to Gregory.
I think he was pleased with the result:
Wishing Gregory many more decades of riding countless thousands of happy miles on his beautiful 1990s Paletti!
The resulting smiles and happiness are why I like repairing, renovating, and restoring bicycles so much. Many of these are treasures once thought lost to time or circumstance, but can be given a new life. Like this one.