Bianchi: Celeste the greyhound

Ci-nell-i, Ci-nell-i, Ci-nell-i;
ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DAHHH...

It does get schmutzed up pretty quickly, but a combination of Goo Gone and Simple Green keeps it in decent shape. And since the white Campy hoods are scuzz-magnets, it's an opportunity to detail two birds with one stone.

I tried doing a two-tone thing with white+celeste cork tape, but the cork stuff is really too thick; you get a Pop n' Fresh look. Cotton should work better, but that makes it a really short-run ride; I'm old enough that I need the padding. Anyway, it's hard to find cotton tape in colors other than black these days.

I've put about 400 miles on this in the last few months, just in city riding. Once I found a pair of oldie Sidi leather-soled laceups with cleats, it became a much easier ride (but way harder to walk around). Next step: C-Record or Superleggera pedals, and a silver seatpost that I can run supershort. And the gumwall Panaracers, if they ever come in...

I'm...too sexy for my bike
Too sexy for my bike
So sexy something something

It still has the stock stem (too short) and bar (way too narrow). Once I get wider bars and a longer stem on, and get the cables sized correctly, then I'll throw the pricy/swanky Cinelli cork tape at it.

That's the reason I have the bigass cable coils masking-taped to the fork and the seatstay. I always leave a lot of extra cable available until I have everything dialed in; I hate the idea of having to toss a nearly new cable just because I cut it too short before getting the fit finished.

Unfortunately, my scrounger instincts aren't working on my behalf in this case. I have a couple of Cinelli 1A stems in pieces, but no stem fixer bolt/wedge that fits right. And I need such an ancient stem, if I'm going to use the old-school Campione del Mondo 44mm bars, with the oldie Cinelli 26.4mm diameter.

Sigh; the perils of being an aesthetic snob. However, this does give me time to master tape tricks like this; celeste and white, maybe?