70's-80's Frank Paino road bike

[Justin Fox]

I'd been eyeing off this road bike on eBay for a week now (it was on eBay for $900 a while ago), the asking price was $600 (starting bid). A few hours before the auction ended I mailed the seller and offered $400, and explained that I was just after a junker to do the Sydney to Wollongong ride with. He suggested that I take a look at the bike in person which I did.

Daryll was a nice guy, his house had a huge sold sign on it outside, he was basically having to move out because the new buyers are moving in to the house he'd been renting (with his wife and kids). He was moving, and a bit tight on cash, that was the only reason why he was selling the bike. He liked the idea of me riding it to Wollongong.

I mentioned that there was a Jim Bundy bike going on eBay for $350 (like Frank Paino, also a very respected Australian frame builder from the 80's) and Daryll mentioned that Jim Bundy actually wanted to buy his bike, inspected it in real life and said to eBay it for $900, which Daryll did a while ago but got no bites, thus he re-listed it at $600. I ended up walking out of there with the bike at $475 which is an absolute steal.

I did a bit of research on the history of the Paino:
- In the 80's Frank Paino had a shop in Sydney (Miranda Cycles) and he built cutom road bike frames. Gary Sutton (who is currently the NSW Institute of Sport's head cycling coach) won a world championship on a Paino in the early 80's and that gave Frank Paino the right to use the world cup colours on his frames.

Some pics from day 1:


World Champion colours.


Paino logotype beautifully etched into the 3TTT stem.


3TTT Competition Merckx bars.


Nice fork detail.


FULL Campy gear minus the brake levers which are Suntour.


Friction shifters FTMFW. I used to have non SIS shifters on my old road bike when I was a kid. Brings back memories. So smooth, quiet and no more tuning necessary.


Mostly Campy G.S gear.


Art!


Cranks.


Columbus tubing! I used to dream of this shit.


Campione del mondo!


Lovely.


Campy rims and hubs which spin so damn smooth it's ridiculous.


Amazingly light for it's age.


SPEC LIST
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Bottom Bracket: Campagnolo Nuovo Record (290g)
Brakes: Campagnolo Nuovo Gran Sport
Brake levers: SunTour Superbe Pro
Cable brakes: Jagwire
Cable gear: Shimano
Cable housing: White teflon lined
Cassette: Shimano 6 speed
Chain: Shimano HG
Crankset: Campagnolo Nuovo Gran Sport
Frame/Fork: Frank Paino with Campagnolo cable guides / 48cm
Front derailleur: Campagnolo Nuovo Record (81g)
Handlebar: 3TTT Competizione Merckx Bend (275g)
Handlebar tape: Cinelli cork white
Headset: Campagnolo Nuovo Record (194g)
Hubs: Campagnolo Nuovo Tipo low flange
Pedals: VP 196 (280g)
Rear derailleur: Campagnolo 980 (200g)
Rims: Campagnolo Montreal 76
Rim tape: Zefal
Saddle: Selle Italia XO (295g)
Seatpost: Campagnolo Super Record Fluted
Shifters: Campagnolo Super Record friction
Skewers: Campagnolo
Stem: 3TTT Pantographed Paino (273g)
Toe clips: AFA
Toe straps: Europa/Campagnolo leather
Tubes: Maxxis Flyweight (53g)
Tyres: Diatech Gran Compe White 700x23 (200g)

LATEST PICTURE: 27/NOV/08
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[StInKy LoVeR]

Oh god. I can only imagine what this bike is going to turn out like.

[Justin Fox]

I used to ride a road bike, then got into mountain bikes but riding a road bike is just so unfamiliar to me now. I feel as if I'm about to go over the bars when I ride a road bike, the stance is just so not relaxed so the 1st thing I wanted to try was a riser bar.

I whacked on my damaged carbon bars (off the Reign) and played with different grip positions (IE: Moving them further and further in towards the stem). I settled on 500mm and chopped them up. The risers instantly made the bike feel more familiar than the drop bars. I felt that the bike was easier to control and more fun to ride. I settled on 500mm wide, not too wide to look silly and not too short to feel and look silly. The only problem was that I felt very cramped upo as the rider bars brought the bars so much closer to my body.

I had planned to drop a load of dosh on the Paino. I spent the week concepting and building up a wishlist of great parts. The first part on order was a set of Velocity Deep V wheels in purple (gold spoke nipples of-course lol). I really wanted to offset the old skool frame with some super crazy in your face bling wheels, thing is, Velocity are out of purple rims and that disrupted the whole plan as it gave me time to think some more.

Grant at Mc Cyclery thought it would have been a shame to remove the vintage Campagnolo gear from the bike (I had removed the quick releases, front chainring/derailleur and was contemplating a new Sugino crankset). Same goes for the Campagnolo hubs, which he says are worth a pretty penny. After talking to my mate Matt, who says I'm a lucky fucker to score such a lovely bike with great Australian history I re-thought all of the modifications that I was going to do and I've decided to just leave her be.

I put the drop bars back on as the risers, apart from being very "trendy" and fixie inspired, brought the bars too close to me in any case. I dropped in to Mc Cyclery again and bought some brand new cabling for both brakes and shifters. It's so nice to not have to tune up the gears, friction shifting rocks. Grant was out of toe clips so I ducked into Europa Cycles in Kingsford hoping to find some vintage gear.

Europa and John have been around forever. I bought my road bike from them when I was 16/17 (I forget), it was a Europa steel frame with friction shifting, lovely bike which I later destroyed (I ran over a cat). They used to have a huge store on Anzac Parade, they also had a store in Clovelly and on Clarence St. in the city across from Clarence Street Cyclery. I haunted the staff a lot, and even did hours at the Clovelly store in exchange for parts for a mountain bike build.

It's just so awesome he's still there, the now tiny "new" shop is a time warp, nothing has changed and John is in the store running it with his wife and his son. He's an old man now, his hands are a bit shakey but he got a little excited when I said I had an old Paino bike I wanted some parts for. Specifically some white handlebar tape that refects the era, some chrome toe clips and white leather straps. John ducked into the store room out the back, and after what felt like an eternity, he came back out with some goodies for me.


Check out the goodies I bought: French AFA toe clips, Europa/Campagnolo white leather toe straps and vintage handlebar tape. Even the recipt John wrote for me is old skool cool!

- Edit: Love the toe clips and straps, they feel great. The bars I still have to get used to. On a bad note, the handlebar tape was nowhere near long enough for the whole drop bar (it could only do the ends to the brakes) That's a massive shame. Looks like I'll have to settle for something else.

[Tazed]

Fucking sweet as, Justin.
It'd be great if you could respray it and re-do the decals...

[Sean]

Aaaaaaaaaand he's back!

Cool lookin' roadie, looks much better with the black seat post over the chrome one.

[AngoXC]

Fucking sweet as, Justin.
It'd be great if you could respray it and re-do the decals...

+1

Speechless Justin. I love it!

['Ross]

I knew the lure of farkin was too great. Looks sweet but what happened to the rear brake????

[Justin Fox]

Ah all the original gear is back on 'Ross. That was me being me, weenie parts I had lying around made their way onto the bike, 8.5kg was the weight of it in that sunset pic.

The bike is looking exactly like the top picture but without handlebar tape (it's coming) and with toe clips/straps. The tyres are going to go too as they are fraying. I had ordered white tyres to go with the purple rims. The white tyres just look so damn strange now that I'm not going there.

The original plan was the keep the worn out grungey frame (there's paint missing all over it, dodgey touch-up paint, rust, etc) and replace everything else with bling, that would have been nice. But now it would make sense to respray the frame for sure. And since it's a roadie I wouldn't need to get it powdercoated. I could just get my mates at the smash repairs to paint it OR get that specialist to do it, forgotten his name... his business was local, in Sydney, Star something or other.

I'd love the frame and fork in a bright colour and have the little inlay shapes/logos painted by hand in a contrasting colour but I'll ride it as is in the Sydney to Wollongong (it's soon!) and I'll think about painting it later.

A peek at the tyres (so strange looking, yucky a bit):


And I've spent a few hours taking off chunky rust and dirt with a dremel and then polishing it all with Autosol:


Before and after.

More pics of the polished bits later.

[addmin]

[img]There was a picture of his bike here[/img]

hmm..

Riser style bars,
rear brake removed..
deep v's being considered.
front chainring/derailleur being removed.


i see a fixie coming on


nice bike though justin.
but if your planning on doing the sydney to the gong ride.. maybe invest in some clipless pedals/ shoes? makes it a bit easier

[_Ajax_]

Wow, hell yes Justin. Great work, love those white tyres, I think they go with it well.