Whenever I ride my 1980’s Guerciotti I am amazed at its performance. It is more responsive and faster than any of my other bikes, some of which are no slouches in the performance department. The only reason I don’t ride this bike more often is that 650c tire sizes are limited to fairly narrow widths, and given its racing heritage, it can’t (and doesn’t want to) haul a bunch of stuff.
The frame is built with Columbus Aelle tubing. The seat stays are small diameter, and the fork crown and seat cluster feature beautiful engravings accented with white paint against the royal blue main color.
I used Paul’s thumbies to bring the shifters up to the bar. The Tektro long reach brakes worked perfectly for this wheel size conversion (from 700c to 650c).
The frame had no eyelets or braze-ons for racks and fenders. So, I used zip ties to secure the fenders at the rear and p-clamps for the front fenders and front rack.
In keeping with its Italian heritage, I used a Campagnolo crankset, bottom bracket, and headset when building up the bike. The crankset’s arms are 170mm, and if I were to replace the crankset I would choose one with shorter arms as to address the low bottom bracket height after the conversion to 650c.
After 5 years of use, all these modifications are still working perfectly – it is a delight to ride and handles beautifully.
