Project Rossin

Since I moved to the city, I've got pretty heavy into bikes. I used to build cars. I sold them all before the move. I have to build things. Its in my nature. I love the challenge of taking something old and making it new again, or the challenge of picking just the right parts to make a super solid ride. I just love the style, the design, and the feel of classic stuff, be it cars or bikes.

After extensive searching, I found this 1988 Rossin RLX (columbus SLX tubing) in my size (54cm). I found it on craigslist in Cali, and had it shipped here. A risk in itself. It had a mix of Campagnolo parts on it. This is my first vintage road bike. I've learned so much just researching the shit out of everything.

The RLX was the second in line to the Rossin Ghibli for 1988. It came with one of 4 gruppos. Either C record, Croce d' aune, Chorus, or super record. When I got it, it had chorus cranks, athena rear derailleur, super record brakes and seatpost, etc. My guess is that it originally had a chorus group judging my the cranks, and headset. All the other parts were either made before or after 1988.

The frame itself is in great shape. It just needs some TLC. It has its share of small chips, light rust, and dulled chrome. I am in the TLC phase. On with the pix:

This is the frame the day I got it after I stripped mostly everything off it. I think I'm keeping the mavic/simplex retrofriction shifters. I think they are Mavic because they lack the simplex logo:

This is everything I stripped off it, pre cleaning:

This is the fork when I got it. Obviously needs some polishing. I used sandpaper in 5 parts. I went from 320 to 400 to 600 to 1000 to 2000 grit, then polished it. I may go over it again, but it looks way better now:

I stripped the headset, degreased it and polished it. The last 2 pictures are the surface rust around the headset cups before and after. I still may touch up the chips around the lower headset cup:

There's still a long way to go. I have a ton of parts on the way. I'm basically trying to get it set up to ride. Once I do, I will concentrate on matching the gruppo. I'll keep this updated as things progress!