However, all things age. The frame is not a problem, it is titanium. I'll wear out long before it does. However, I still had the original F1 fork on the bike. And while the F1 was designed by Dave Kirk to be super strong and durable, it is a carbon fork with 58,000 miles on it. Everything fails eventually, I would just prefer not to be on the bike when this happens. Further, I was still riding Campagnolo 9 speed. True, some components had been replaces, but my shifters were original, and while they have been services numerous times, the shifting just was not as crisp as it should have been. Once again, when parts get enough miles on them, they just have a tendency to be worn and not perform at a high level. Plus, it is getting harder and harder to find Campy 9 speed components.
So this winter, I took on the effort to rebuild the Serotta. The first order of business was to acquire a new fork. This is not as easy as it seems, since the vintage of my bike means it has a 1" steerer tube. There is one company making 1" forks these days---Serotta. So I phoned up Crono Metro in Madison (the closest Serotta dealer) and exchanged information. Serotta would be custom building a new for for me, so they needed the serial number off the bike to look up the exact geometry so they could build the right fork. A few weeks later, Scott at Crono called to let me know that my new S3 Fork had arrived and was ready to be installed.
Upgrading the fork meant that I would be saying goodbye to my quill stem and also the bars I currently had on my bike. No issue there on either count. It is good to move into more modern technology on each accord. When I went down to Crono to get the fork installed, we'd upgrade all of these components too.
The last task was to upgrade the component set. I would be going to Campy 10 speed. First, this is what I am used to, Campy components. Second, it will match my other bike (the Specialized) so now it is easy to switch wheels back and forth between the two bikes. My front derailleur was already 10 speed compatible, so no issue there. These days, Campy is investing heavily in 11 speed, so if you watch, you can find some 10 speed components on closeout, which is what I did. Starting last fall, I would watch for good deals on 10 speed components and buy them one at a time as the deals came up. This allowed me to find shifters and a rear derailleur at pretty significant savings. I also found a Campy 10 speed cassette at a good price and already had a SRAM 10 speed chain kicking around in the basement.
Finally, I had replaced my decals once, but they still become roughed up over the years and don't look very good. So I called Scott at Crono again and he was able to get me a sheet of new decals for me to purchase. So by the time I was done, I would have a bike not just with new components, but in many ways would look new again.
So a couple weeks ago, I traveled to Madison with my Serotta in order to start the rebuild process. I had pretty much stripped my frame down of all the components and had all my new components in a box. That day, they built the bike up enough so they could fit me and know where to cut the steerer tube of the fork. I left the bike in Madison a few days for Crono to complete the rebuild, and went back on Saturday to pick it up.
Its beautiful. They did a fantastic job. I can tell it is still my bike, because I know the places where the titanium is a little scuffed up. But otherwise, it looks like it just came out of the showroom. One of the joys of owing a high end bike like a Serotta is that you have it for a long time. It is more than what you ride, it becomes an extension of you on your rides. You give up the "getting something new" every couple of years, but what you get is a personalized machine that will be with you year after year.
On the Crono's Facebook page, Scott will sometimes post picture of someone's dream bike they built up. I'm not purchasing any new bikes these days. I don't need to. I already own my dream bike, and Scott, Andrew and Colin just rebuilt it for me.
