Chesini X-Uno

[steel-is-real]

My Chesini X-Uno road bike, I have spent the last three years restoring and putting this bike together. Originally purchased as a frame, the bike over the years had been long since depleted of its original parts and was in poor condition. The goal was to restore it to it's original catalogue specification - Campagnolo C-Record gruppo, 3ttt handlebars/stem, Regina freewheel, San Marco Regal saddle, etc.

Chesini, like some other brands during the early 80's went crazy with pantographing the frames and componentry. Frame is constructed from Columbus SLX and features top mount shifters, full internal gear cabling, internal rear brake cable and pantographed head-tube/bottom bracket shell/brake bridge/seat lug.

Total weight of build 9.18kg (excluding pedals)











My latest eBay score a NOS set of Campagnolo C-Record "Chesini" pantographed brake levers.

[Craig Ryan]

Wow! Quite an investment in detail you have there. Shows lots of work over a long period of time. Now, are you going to ride it? Looks like a great show bike to me.
Craig

[Polyglot]

Wow! Quite an investment in detail you have there. Shows lots of work over a long period of time. Now, are you going to ride it? Looks like a great show bike to me.
Craig

How right you are Craig: Great Show BIke.

Back in the 80's when these were current, these bikes were right at the top of my wish list. They remained on my wish list for years thereafter, in fact for over 20 years, until I finally got one not that long ago. Perhaps it was a case of too high expectations for a bike I had lusted after for so long, but I can't think of many bikes that I was more disappointed in. Thinking it might have been an isolated bike, I then sought a second one to verify if the first was simply too early in production or a fluke and the second one was identical to the first. My final analysis is that this is one of those bikes better suited for show duty than to actually be ridden. Great bang for your buck in the aesthetics class, but little in functionality.

The internal cables may look super cool, but talk about nonsense in application: the rear brake cable has no internal guide and requires you to remove the seatpost and stick your finger in through the seatlug into the top tube to guide the brake cable into the hole. Then once fitted the cable has an incredible amount of drag and is prone to premature wear and tear (this when compared to other more elegant solutions to the internal brake cable routing that I have on other bikes that I own). Even more so if you build the bike up like in the photo with the left lever going to the rear brake. This requires a tighter than usual bend from handlebar to where the cable enters the offset to the left braze-on. This also ensures that the paint on the headtube will wear out much more quickly. Then for the the two gear cables, here too there is shown to be little thought given to how the bike really needed to be assembled. The cables are simply threaded through holes in the down tube, again without any guides other than a special BB sleeve. The sleeve has a dual function of dust sleeve and cable guide. The fact that it works as a dust sleeve and only has the most minimal play in space between the inner faces of the BB cups means that you are limited to use only certain BB's that give you the correct distance between the inner surfaces of the cups. If you stick with period Campagnolo you are OK but don't expect to be able to use just anything (i.e. Phil). Then there is the fact that you must insert the BB sleeve before you thread the cables through as the diameter of the sleeve does not allow you to install the cables first and then slide in the sleeve. This entails that you must first thread the front gear cable through the frame until you get it to come out of the BB cut-out in the center groove of the sleeve and then thread the cable the last couple inches to reach the minuscule hole in the seat tube near where the front derailleur is fitted. This is however made more difficult as the rifling of the SLX down tube butt makes straight threading difficult, as does the small size of the hole in the seat tube. The rear derailleur cable is even more difficult to fit as you must here too get around the BB sleeve, but are then obliged to thread through the chainstay which in a similar vein to the rear brake cable has no internal guide. All this to end up with higher friction and with all cable entry/exit points seemingly set out to maximize possible entry of water and road debris. The front derailleur cable cable exits right in line with the line of the water thrown by the rear tire. The brake cable and gear cable entry/exits are all located in places most readily accessible to rain, sweat and debris, allowing it to get into the inside of the unprotected frame.

Great show bike and wonderful symbol of the times in which the bike was built, when simplicity of lines, function and execution were trumped by design.

[rosss]

we didn't go to the moon because it was easy

[steel-is-real]

How right you are Craig: Great Show Bike.

When I started cycling in 1985, Italian frames with Campagnolo components were things I could only dream of owning. I used to read through Winning Magazine (only descent magazine available in New Zealand at the time) and yearn for a Colnago or one of the bikes from Ten Speed Drive Imports.
The TSDI adverts at the time featured various Ciocc, Rossin, Tommaso, Guerciotti, Cinelli bikes all dripping with jewel-like Campagnolo C-Record componentry (often pantographed) and some of them made their way to New Zealand as well.



But sadly with my paltry after school pay rate, that was not going procure one of these in a hurry. Although in 1987 I did manage to save for and purchased an Aussie Kenevans Professional constructed from Columbus SLX with Campagnolo Athena componentry.


So when I saw the Chesini appear on a local online auction 3 years ago, I did a quick bit of research and decided this would be my “80’s dream bike”.

I had every intention to ride the Chesini once it was complete - hence trying to improve braking with Jagwire Kevlar reinforced compressionless cables and even built a second set of NOS wheels with standard tubs. But now that it is finished, I’m too scared of damaging or marking it. I want it to remain pristine as most of the componentry and parts are NOS.

The internal cables may look super cool, but talk about nonsense in application

The internal cables, especially the rear derailleur was a nightmare to install. I have used Powdercordz (7 gram) synthetic gear inner cables; they are non metallic and have a smooth coating that does not rust. The main reason for using them is that it saved using traditional inner cables with additional Teflon outer to stop the marking of paint, smooth the flow and no cable corrosion around the aluminium bottom bracket sleeve. This improved the smoothness of the shifting and the inner cables are hardly seen.


I love the old school paint work, pantographing and componentry they give these old bikes real character - something you don't get in a modern carbon copy.
So, these bikes for me will remain as a snapshot of bike design in the 80’s and the Chesini will always stand out as a unique individual.

[steel-is-real]

Just got some more Chesini pantographed parts, this time a set of Campagnolo Syncro shift levers (another fun afternoon threading internal cabling).



Again the search will continue for more bits.

[Chad]

Please forgive my ignorance but what purpose does the small lever on the right serve? Oh, almost forgot, very attractive bicycle!

[steel-is-real]

Please forgive my ignorance but what purpose does the small lever on the right serve? Oh, almost forgot, very attractive bicycle!

The Syncro shift lever is actually composed of two levers, the main one functioning as the gear selector, while the second smaller one engages the index or friction modes. In order to change to friction mode, depress the second lever until the stop click is heard (approx 45 degrees).