This is probably the only bike that has had a pre-new arrival post. I wrote about this Campagnolo 50th Anniversary bike a short while ago when I had it ‘on approval’. A kind of try before you buy deal. I had only spoken to the seller online but he trusted me enough to drop the bike off with me and let me take my time and take it apart. I really am fortunate to be given this trust.
After a few weeks of simply staring at it, and wondering how I was lucky enough to have another SBDU 753 bike with a Campagnolo 50th Anniversary Super Record group in the house, we eventually came to an agreement on price… and it became mine! A bike I’ve passed up twice before finally joins my collection.
Frame
I absolutely love the understated nature of this frame. There is nothing ‘in your face’, bold and flashy about this bike. It subtly lets you know what it is all about with a handful of small frame transfers. These four small transfers tell you everything you need to know…
Subtle frame details match the subtle transfers. Simple over size seat stay caps on top of single taper seat stays combined with drilled Shimano frame ends and an uncluttered Cinelli SC fork crown.
Groupset
I told a small lie! There are some flashy parts to this bike; the Campagnolo 50th anniversary parts do add a touch of bling. Not too much, but those gold flashes can’t be ignored.
This is groupset number 7101 (of approx 15,000 sets).
A Few Upgrades
I took the decision to keep it’s twin bike, SB6398, original. But I have some scope with this bike to make some changes that I think will suit it. One of these changes will be a Super Record Titanium (2nd Gen) bottom bracket. It will replace the Campagnolo Athena bracket I found when I took this bike apart. Although the anniversary group came with a steel Nuovo Record BB, I thought the titanium set would be a suitable replacement and upgrade.
I don’t want to tamper too much with this bike. I certainly don’t want to tinker with the Campagnolo parts. But I can add some small touches that I couldn’t with SB6398. These upgrades will help to keep the overall build weight down without going into full ‘weight weenie’ mode. This is a 57cm Metric tubed 753 frame and comes in at a very respectable 1616 grams.
Frame Number Mystery
Is it SB4522 or SB5422? I don’t know how I’m going to categorise this bike on my site at the moment. But the next blog post will hopefully get to the bottom of the riddle.
Frame stamped SB4522…
Fork stamped 5422…
The small details of this frame will have the answer!
