Friday, April 09, 2010

2 days! Who's ready for Paris-Roubaix? This guy right here

Just in case you hadn't noticed, I have a couple of topics I seem to write about. I'm clearly a Mavic junkie, a super-fan of late 80's/early 90's racing, and a pave obsessive. Most roadies cringe when you say Rock Shox, but I get all excited at the thought of suspension on cobbles.

So when an insane opportunity arose to merge all of those in to one project emerged, I couldn't say no.



What we have here is the nexus of all the things that get me excited in a bike. Lemond Team GAN, decked out about as close as possible to the bike Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle rode the latter portion of 1994's edition of Paris-Roubaix.


In 1994, GAN was sponsored by Mavic, and rode the Zap electronic shifters in some events - or at least, tried to. As you can see here, Lemond was riding Zap at least a little during the spring classics.


I'm not going to make any assumptions about why, but they did NOT ride Zap in Paris-Roubaix (and, in fact, in a lot of other races as well...but thats a different topic). Instead they rode a mixed drivetrain - the crank was a Mavic 631/2, the 862 front derailleur, and 571/2 front and rear hubs. For shifters, they used Campagnolo's Record Ergopower shifters, along with a Record rear derailleur. The 571/2 would likely have had a Campagnolo Exa Drive body on it, though it could also have been a custom spaced Mavic proprietary cassette.


Up front, they were riding Rock Shox Paris-Roubaix SL forks. Mavic 451 brakes. Cinelli bars and stems - Duclos-Lassalle rode Criterium bars (yes, with Ergopower). They used a variety of stems on the bikes, including the Oyster and the 101.


Selle San Marco saddles - some Rolls, some Regals, and some Titanios. Selcof posts.

Obviously, a few liberties were taken in building the bike. I'm in no way scared of tubulars, but I AM scared of the price tag associated with Mavic Paris-Roubaix rims. Tracking down the 1994 version of the Record Ergopowers proved something of a pain, so I acquiesced and went with a set of 1995 Chorus levers - identical to the Records of the prior year, save some cutouts in the lever. There are a few other things I know are wrong, but I'll leave it to the astute - and annoying - reader to nitpick on my project.

I'll be riding this bike Sunday, April 11 in the Brooklyn Pavé ride. It's a ride around Brooklyn, hitting some of the handful of cobbled streets that still remain. It starts at the Old Stone House in Park Slope (4th St. + 5th Ave) at 1pm - we roll out at 2. Please note - this is a friendly little ride not affiliated with any responsible entity. If the rider has a flat or breaks a fork or gets socked by Bernard Hinault, we'll help out but we're not culpable. Moderate pace over some pretty bumpy roads - you'll feel 'em way more than I will, what with my suspension fork - so nerves, or at least an ass of steel recommended. Email me (upper right corner of this page!) for additional info.

8 comments:

Prolly said...

Wow man! Stunning! You know I had to give you some exposure as well!

http://prollyisnotprobably.com/2010/04/tears_for_gears_periodexact_pa.php

Turbocrank said...

You are my hero!

Good luck with the ride. May the cobble gods smile on you.

Anonymous said...

Jeremy,
Excellent job! Looks like an early 90's magazine shot.
Did you use the 571/2 HG hub with the Exadrive body in the end?
How can you sleep at nights?
:-)
Ma40s? no labels?

Seeing that makes me NEED to get my Cougar finished. I got the BB shell chamfered today for the Mavic BB, just need the decals now and I'm all set.

Just found these for you to complete your look ;-)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NOS-WATER-BOTTLE-GAN-T-A-SPECIALITES-TA-VINTAGE-TDF_W0QQitemZ350301432020QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_

350301432020

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MAILLOT-CYCLISTE-EQUIPE-GAN_W0QQitemZ290383134218QQcmdZViewItemQQptZFR_JG_Sports_Cyclisme_Equipements?hash=item439c2efe0a

290383134218

Simon

shoegazer said...

Fantastic machine - congrats!

evasèe said...

Congrats man! I envy you, because I´m also a classic 80´s bike and pave junkie.

I also loooove your blog.

We´ll stay in contact.

è

Anonymous said...

Campy record Ergopower Shifters
Well done for all your hard work in providing this high quality blog.Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Excelent bike and really similar to Gilbert's bike.
He has the heart that every ciclist want to have in your life.

Mr.Cybrarian said...

I still have the postcard I received in the mail for one of those GAN bikes. LeMond was selling them direct in 1994. I thought about getting one but they were $795 if I remember correctly and I just didn't have that much. I should have whipped out the credit card. I still think those frames are beautiful.

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