Molteni Merckx Restoration Monday October 31/2011

I started the day by doing some research on my frame. I compared all the lug work, bottom bracket shell and information on the bottom of the shell to some vintage bikes online. It looks like the person I bought it from was somewhat correct. It isn’t a Colnago, but a “Colner.” 
The below information is from the Classic Rendezvous web site:

"Colner was a second brand for Colnago produced in the 1970's and 1980's. There were two reasons they had this second brand. First, in the ‘70’s the UCI allowed a bicycle manufacturer to sponsor only one professional team, and second they decided to market a subsidiary brand that could be produced in larger quantities thus being sold to a larger range of retail shops leaving the Colnago dealerships more exclusive. While the frames were very attractive and very roadworthy, they were far less elaborate than the Colnago brand, having little to no engraving or pantographing on the lugwork."

I am actually pretty happy with this discovery. I should note that many of the Colners ended up in the UK.

I did learn though that my front and rear derailleurs were Campagnolo Victory. While generally there is nothing wrong with that, they are not period correct. 

I ended up buying that vintage Nuovo Record front derailleur on eBay this morning. I now have the period correct front and rear derailleurs coming in the post.

The only thing I cleaned today were the brake levers. I didn’t snap a before picture, but they looked as if they had dried glue all over them. I soaked them in gasoline for a couple of hours and everything just brushed off. The final result:

All in all Monday turned out to be a good learning day.