Serotta CSi w/hand-cut Tour de France Lugs

(Its' many builds and rebuilds!)

        Here is the story and several photographs of one Serotta CSi and it's many paint schemes and builds!  Originally owned and ridden by Douglas Brooks, this CSi has a very interesting past.  I will try to relate the story as accurately as I can recall it being told to me by Dr. Brooks....if I make any mistakes perhaps he will contact me with corrections.  I purchased this bike from Douglas back in the summer of 2007.  I will show the present build last as I think the progression of it's history is very interesting and a story should always begin at the beginning. 

        I guess before going any further I should relate a couple of the more interesting facts about this work of art.  This is one of the very last CSi's that Serotta built....but, in fact, it really wasn't built by Serotta....manufactured by Serotta, yes, but actually built by David Kirk...NOT in New York, but in Montana while David was still sharing work space with Carl Strong!  Serotta supplied their former lead builder with all of the bits and pieces and he built it under contract with Serotta.  I talked via e-mail with David and he confirmed that he was the builder of this frame. A few years after he left Serotta they contacted him to asked if he could help them out.  The person building their lugged bikes was having a health issue and they had so many builds on the books that they needed his help.  He returned to Saratoga for a few weeks but soon struck up a deal with Serotta to have the frames shipped to him in Bozeman for assembly.  He indicated that he built about 70 or so for them under these arrangements, all done while he was working out of Carl Strong's shop where he had a work bench set up in a corner!  Serotta sent the cut and mitered tubes to him and he assembled them into a frame and did the finish work.  They were then shipped back to New York to have the final machine work done in-house.  Eventually Serotta got caught up on their back orders and that, coupled with the expensive shipping cost, brought the arrangement to an end....he mentioned that it was at this point that he started his own frame building business, Kirk Frameworks.  

        You have to hand it to Serotta...instead of outsourcing this work to another country or even to another frame shop, they sought out the help of a previous employee and Serotta "family" member who is one of the most respected frame artisans in the world.  They obviously felt comfortable with the fact that their  customers would understand  this arrangement and appreciate their intentions to keep their frames and their  reputation under the watchful eye and control of a trusted builder like David.  

       This frame has modern state of the art  "Colorado Concept" tubing with all of the cool swaging that makes the tubes look strong as tree trunks and those wonderful hand-cut Tour de France lugs!  Understated elegance!  Kelly Bedford, head designer at Serotta was the designer of these lug cuts, he cut the first ones in about 1986.  In the bikes final build-state it also has a Curt Goodrich fork which sports a Richard Sachs crown!

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        This Faema-inspired red and white paint scheme was the original choice, beautifully done by Serotta.  

        The bike was originally equipped with a 1.5 cm head tube extension, quite uncharacteristic of a Douglas Brooks frame and, as admitted by him, something that he left on the frame but never came to like either the fit of nor the atheistic of....hum, sounds like Douglas is an awful lot like someone else I know VERY well!

        The "cockpit" shows a typically well thought out Douglas Brooks pattern of component choices....stem, down tube shifters, brake levers and hoods, bar tape, bottle cages....only a little bit surprised by his choice of pedals...wow, the color!

        As shown in this next photograph, the forks were originally of Serotta design with a Henry James crown.  This is a feature that you will see changed in the next life of this bike.  The HJ crown is nice and clean but seemed to Douglas to be an improper mate to the beautifully sculpted and hand cut Tour de France lugs. 

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        The "blue bike" stage is shown next as it was Douglas's second idea as to how this frame and fork combination would best match his thoughts on the "proper" look for this traditionally styled lugged steel frame....even if it has tubes as big as redwoods!   Note that the head tube extension has been professionally removed by Curt Goodrich.  The "Brooks Look" attention to details has manifested itself once again in the matching paint of the bottle cages!  Gotta love a man who leaves no stone unturned in his pursuit of excellence!

        This repaint was a Joe Bell work of art!  Painted and clear coated a "soft mink blue" to more or less replicate earlier finishes on Raleigh's frames and detailed to the max within the cut outs of the newly installed Curt Goodrich fork.  The Goodrich fork sports one of the then-newly released Richard Sachs crowns with Richards "re-introduced" playing card cut outs...a much more complimentary design when paired on frame with those beautiful hand-cut Tour de France lugs. 

         In the above and below photographs we see that Douglas took a more modern approach to the components he decided to use on his new build of this CSi.  Two color choices come to my mind for the saddle and bar wrap for this color frame and fork, either white or something in the earth tone range, Douglas opted for the latter...either would have been nice!

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No, the red and green stars above are not to announce Christmas!  They are there to announce the NEXT rendition of this wonderful CSi....7-Eleven paint scheme!

        Or, more accurately, a slight variation of the original 7-Eleven paint scheme.  In Douglas's words to me...."the real prize of this frame is the Team 7-Eleven paint job because it was entirely designed by Andy Hampsten.   I asked Andy if he would pick out the look...not to be a replica, but to be HIS notion of how it would look "perfectly!"....he spec'd the details himself, like the green in the lug windows.  It's ridiculously beautiful!"   Now, in MY words...."it's ridiculously beautiful!"

        The final paint work on this CSi was done by a highly respected west coast painter who's name is not Joe Bell.  Notice the neat little green lug windows, great touch to tie in the 7-Eleven colors just a little bit more and draw attention to the wonderful Tour de France lugs!  TA "Z" crankset with matching TA bottom bracket was the centerpiece of the drive train. 

        Mavic SSC Simplex-designed "tear drop" retro friction down tube shifters in BLACK!  Operationally no different from other Simplex rf shifter but exceedingly rare in black tear drops!  Nitto Noodles and a Nitto Pearl 120mm stem.

        Mavic brakes, front and rear, along with Mavic hoods and levers....all in New Old Stock condition.

        Mavic SSC front and rear derailleurs, Model 801...these are the so-called "erector set" dr's from about 1986 but, again, in NOS condition! 

        Now, here are some new pictures of this wonderful CSi in it's present build-format.  I have made a VERY few changes to the build that Douglas sold to me.  This frame and fork could be built so many different ways, from a mid-80's period look to entirely modern and they would all look great.  Right now the bike has a little more "bling" to it than I normally like and it will undoubtedly be changed back to a "proper" and more conservative look sometime in the near future...I just HAD to use those Heliums on it for a while!

        About the only changes I have made are to the crankset, wheels, and bar tape.  

        I had recently purchased another bike, a Serotta Atlanta, from collector Lou Deeter that came with a set of tubular Helium's.  I'm not a tubie-type guy but couldn't resist the temptation to contact Mavic and see about getting a pair of Helium clincher rims to lace these hub to...noted wheel builder Joe Young was kind enough to assist me in getting everything together....they were sitting around here for 6-8 months waiting for the right project to come along.  I sort of like them on this frame but will probably substitute something a little more conservative at some point in the future.  

        Here is a nice close up of the Richard Sachs crown on the Curt Goodrich steel fork...also of the painted cut out in the bottom lug on the headset....the "sparkle" on the green paint makes another interesting contrast to the more or less standard paint on the remainder of the bike.  Are those lugs beautiful or what!?

        The "tear drop" Mavic/Simplex down tube shifters are really cool looking...the decision to use black cables was mine and I really like the appearance when seen next to that bright red paint job!

        I recently had to replace the Mavic brake shoes and haven't been able to locate a NOS set so I had to sub in these Shimano shoes and pads...they are fairly close in appearance to the Mavic's but I'm now on the lookout for a set of NOS Mavic replacements if anyone has any or knows of a source. 

        Both brake hoods and levers are in like-new condition, un-crashed and almost unused!

        Douglas is a big fan of Nitto Noodle's and so am I.  The slight "pull-back" and low angle of the ramps makes for a very comfortable ride without making the bars look too modern for a mid-80's style build.

        Seat post cluster with the unbelievable grace of the hand cut Tour de France lug!  This is probably the most noticeable use of the painted cut out and it is spectacular in person, gets a comment EVERY time!  Nitto Jaguar double bolt seat post.

Another close up view of the Simplex-produced Mavic down tube shifters.

Close up view of the Richey head set and the top Tour de France lug on the head tube.

        This Mavic crank set is what Douglas and I settled on as being the most era-appropriate one to use.  It is a Mavic 631...Mavic's famous "Spider Crank!"  It is the crank set that would have been placed with the other components in about 1988.  It's a 172.5 and has a few scratches but still looks "racy" with this frame and fork combination.  I have a good friend that can buff this baby out to a super-high shine and will someday take the time to do that, for now I'm too busy riding it!

 Pure Douglas!....and "oh so classy!"

        Front derailleur....sorry the chain is a little on the dirty side, just didn't have the time this morning to clean AND shoot pictures.  I've been trying to get around to posting this for about four months and figured I'd just better get it done... heck, I don't sit around and look at this one anyway, I RIDE IT!  I promise to clean it after the next ride!

Brake bridge details.

        "Erector Set" Mavic 801 rear derailleur...handles up to a 25 rear cog without difficulty.  These dr's with the down tube shifters are pretty easy to operate and have been well tuned by my buddy Jack over at Richardson Bike Mart's main store.....in the words of Douglas Brooks..."your mechanic gets it!" I'm running an eight speed cassette on this right now but intend to do something with a seven speed freewheel sooner or later, maybe six speed.

This paint looks so thick that you'd swear you could stick you finger down "into" the steel, simply beautiful!

More "thick paint" and beautiful lugs!

        Regal saddle...my bottoms gold standard no matter what color I ride!  Someday I'm going to build this frame and fork with a white saddle and white bar tape but probably only when I decide to make it my "special" ride and not one that I ride every few days.

Bottom bracket detail...this is a good shot of just how massive the tubes are on these CSi frames.

        This final shot is of the liner on the Curt Goodrich fork.  The crown and liner are from Richard Sachs and add the final touch,  sort of a "Richie-issamo" detail, to this unique bicycle.  The use of these "deck of cards" cut outs on fork liners is another story all to itself and one that I've documented from various posts on the Serotta forum and from other sources so if you need some details send me an e-mail and I'll try to fill you in.  It was  interesting to me that both my 1983 Richard Sachs and 1984 Richard Sachs have round holes of various sizes in the liner and that this fork and crown sport the "deck" cut outs...I couldn't stand the mystery so I dug deep and got the whole story, most of it from the mouths of Richard Sachs and Lennard Zinn.