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Beautiful bike. If I didn't think it was crass I would ask you to sell it to me, ride it until you can't, and send it to me then. I love everything about that bike, especially the age of the rider. I want to be like you when I grow up. Congrats.
 
Discussion starter · #24 ·
Mace2...."holy crap how tall are you"

LOL!! Damn it! I read that & snorted a little Diet Pepsi through my nose. Lucky I didn't get any on my laptop or I'd have been after your butt.

I'm 6'3" and the frame is a 60cm. It fits me perfectly, because it has a relatively long top tube. I have shortish legs (32" pants inseam) but a long torso & arms. Think 37" sleeve length. I think that's probably what makes the stem look awkward. If it was a 100mm it wouldn't be so bad, but it's a 140 by necessity.

I'm glad to be riding at my (ahem) advanced? age. I've been riding for around 50 years & I'm a former cat 2 roadie. I also raced vets & masters. I no longer compete, but I'm still getting in 5-6000 mi/year. I commute to work year round, a 36 mi round trip, and also am active in a couple of clubs. I can hang in with the "youngsters" for some miles, but they eventually drop me like a discarded powerbar wrapper. Despite the fact that I'm still a strong rider & like go go fast, I also have given myself permission to go slow & smell the flowers, (or hog farms) whenever I feel like it. It's one of the perks of upper middle age.
 
Great looking De Rosa bike!!!! It's always good to see and hear about older riders still pedalling. I'm 34 and one of my riding buddies is 65. This guy is awesome!!! Although he doesn't have a nice vintage bike like this De Rosa, he rides a Trek 5900. On a quick 45 mile ride we were doing, some guy wanted to race him for 5 miles. I was quite amuzed because the guy was riding a Specialized Allez Comp. Not a bad bike by any measure but not a bike I'd be calling people out on unless I knew I was going to win. My buddy took the challenge and he creamed the guy. At the end of the 5 miles, the guy told my buddy that he won because my buddy was riding a better bike. My buddies response was " Yeah sure, and how old are you?" The guy's reply was" I'm 23 years old". My buddy laughed and said " I'm 65." This guy's jaw nearly hit the ground. We need riders like this to keep us going as we get older. All I see are a lot of 20 somethings doing what I did 10 years ago and many are on teams- just like I was. It's good to be reminded that the fun doesn't stop as we get older and the experience they have is priceless.
 
Wow -- A Kestrel 200. I bought one of those in the early 1990's and took endless crap from my "steel is real" friends about riding a plastic noodle. Now all the guys are riding plastic bikes, and my two favs are a titanium Litespeed and a steel Merckx. My carbon bike (a Colnago) doesn't get many miles. I loved that Kestrel and rode it all over the place. I bet it rides just as well as "modern" plastic bikes.
 
I was riding that Kestrel with 7-speed down tube shifting until just a few years ago. Sprints great, climbs great, it really is a fantstic bike. I had to be one of the first people to own one. Worked in a shop in college. The shop wanted to see one so win/win, I got it at cost, still that was a ton of $$$ for me back then. Don't think I will ever sell it. It is one of the original American made ones the plain SC. Even has an aluminum fork in that picture. Shortly after converting it to a Fixie I added a 1" EMS carbon fork and some orange cages. Time for some new pix I guess.
 
Very nicely done!

Not sure about the orange, in my opinion its a strong color only to be used on a Mercks or Holdsworth with a a good amount of Blue to set it off and keep it in check. But if you like it thats all that matters.:thumbsup:

I am with you on the stem while a quill will always look better on a vintage steed, comfort triumphs when it comes to stem and bars, and your back for that matter. I use a threadless on my Bianchi neo-retro.

Every time I see another restored neo-retro or vintage steel steed on the roads it makes my day, ride it and be proud!
 
Fantastic bike. Who did you have do the paint job? They did a high quality job.
 
I was riding that Kestrel with 7-speed down tube shifting until just a few years ago. Sprints great, climbs great, it really is a fantstic bike. I had to be one of the first people to own one. Worked in a shop in college. The shop wanted to see one so win/win, I got it at cost, still that was a ton of $$$ for me back then. Don't think I will ever sell it. It is one of the original American made ones the plain SC. Even has an aluminum fork in that picture. Shortly after converting it to a Fixie I added a 1" EMS carbon fork and some orange cages. Time for some new pix I guess.
Mine was a Japanese built one -- 200 SCi. It had the EMS fork and came with 8-speed Ultegra STI shifters. I think it was the first or second year Shimano had Ultegra STI. Didn't they have a model proceeding the 200 (i.e., 4000 Something)? Ya know, I just noticed that this thread started about 4.5 years ago.
 
Yea, it is a super old thread. Somebody linked to it on another section. I saw the orange bike and just had to comment. Yea before the Kestrel 200 and later 200SCi there was a more tri bike the 400 or 4000. It was typically white. Bicycling mag. just named it one of the top 15 inovations in the last 50 years.

I had an unbelievable crash on my Kestrel 200 about 35MPH in the sprint at the very end of a race, guy came over on me and we tangled. I went end over end several times. Roadrash from armpit to knee and EVERYTHING in between. Helmet smashed, seperated ribs. Almost had my spleen removed and missed work for 2 weeks. Kestrel acted like nothing happened except for some lost paint where the back wheel rubbed into the chan stay. I am not sure my C-40 or Pince would have survived that.
 
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