As a semi-professional bike blogger and the Old Crap Test Pilot, I am in the privileged position of receiving all manner of exotic bicycles for my delectation:

I’ve really been enjoying this bike, and I suspect Paul takes great satisfaction in having turned me into a full-on wool-clad vintage Campy-shifting retrogrouch, only to send me an over-the-top crabo-tanium STI-equipped wondersled that has me questioning my values and everything I thought I stood for.

Yesterday however I was in the novel position of receiving a classic bike from someone else.

It all started last November, and here’s the grossly oversimplified story: basically someone emailed me and said, “Do you want my old bike?” So I said, “Yes!” Then some time went by, during which I decided to get rid of a bunch of bikes instead of acquiring more. So I emailed him back and said, “I changed my mind, no thanks!” And that was that…until last week when he said, “Oops, it’s coming anyway!,” and yesterday it arrived via a Bikeflights/UPS collabo.

Please note that I in no way mean to sound ungrateful, and there are way, way worse problems to have than people sending you bicycles.

The bike was packed a little more…casually than I’m used to, and if I’m to be totally honest I admit I was half-expecting a cat to leap out:

Fortunately there were no cats inside, or if there were they hadn’t survived the journey and posed no immediate danger:

All of this is to say opening a box of newspaper containing a grimy bike was a lot different from receiving a pristine museum piece from Classic Cycle, though it’s probably pretty close to the way Paul feels when he receives a bike back from me.

And here’s that bike:

It needs work, but it’s got very good bones:

Shifters are the pointy-topped Campagnolo Chorus:

While the newer Campagnolo Ergo levers look like Cthulhu, the older ones look more like a friendly elephant:

The hoods are in tatters, but the mechanisms appear to be functional:

The rest of the drivetrain is a mix of Chorus and bits from other groups:

And the gearing is what you’d expect from a race bike this era:

Hey, it may seem high now, but that 39-tooth small ring is luxurious compared to a 42.

Wheels seem to be true, if grimy:

And while the finish has its share of chips and scrapes and sort of evokes mildew in hew it’s obviously a very fine frame:

Here’s the Columbus sticker for you Tubing Freds:

Insert your princess-and-the-pea, highly-attuned-scranus description of the ride attributes of this particular tubeset here:

But I know you will anyway.

And no, while the bracket and sensor are there, it did not come with the Sigma computer:

Though I should probably check to make sure it’s not buried under that newspaper.

In any case, it’s clearly a project, and one I don’t really have time for:

Though I’ll make time for it anyway, at least get it rideable, and see where things go from there:

I’ll keep you posted.