South Salem Cycleworks Museum:
Owner Michael Wolfe's 63cm Mondonico Farewell Tour Bicycle
Owner Michael Wolfe's 63 cm Mondonico Farewell Tour Bicycle
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The frameset:
- Columbus Foco pinned-lugged tubeset with American paint & chrome.
- 63cm seat tube
- 61.5cm top tube
- 19.5cm head tube
- 42.0cm chainstay
- 102.0cm wheelbase
- 7.0cm bottom bracket drop
- 1” threaded steel steerer
- Pump peg and chain hanger
- 20.7lbs weight with pump and pedals
- Built in 2005
- Serial # 63M5F WT6038
Components mounted on the frameset:
- San Marco Rolls saddle with Titanium rails, Mondonico embroidered.
- Campagnolo Record Ti 27.2mm seatpost
- Campagnolo Record 10-speed ergoshifters
- Campagnolo Record front braze-on triple derailleur
- Campagnolo Record triple square taper 175mm crankset with 26/40/50 chainrings, with 26-tooth ring being Salsa.
- Campagnolo Record Italian threaded 111mm bottom bracket
- Time Xpresso Titan Carbon pedals
- Connex 10Sx stainless steel chain
- Campagnolo Record short-cage rear derailleur
- Campagnolo Record 10-speed 13-26 cassette
- Campagnolo Record Differential brake calipers
- Torelli Modular 28h front hub wwith ceramic cartridge-bearings radially built on to a DT Swiss RR 1.1 single-eyelet 28-hole rear rim with DT Revolution 15/17/15 spokes & DT 7005 alloy nipples.
- Torelli Modular 32h rear hub built on to a DT Swiss RR 1.1 double-eyelet 32h rear rim with DT Revolution 14/17/14 spokes built cross-3 on the driveside; 15/17/15 spokes built corss-2 on the non-driveside with alloy nipples.
- Record black quick releases
- Rox rim strips
- Michelin Airstop threadless tubes
- Vredestein Fortezza TriComp 700x 23 tires
- Chris King 1” threaded headset
- Cinelli Grammo 13cm stem
- Easton EC90 carbon bar, 44cm outside-to-outside.
- RavX stitchwrap handlebar wrap
- Avocet 50 Altimeter
- Elite Patao 74 magnesium cages
- Silca frame pump with Campagnolo steel head
- Bushwhacker clamshell expand seatbag
About the bike:
In 2004, Antonio Mondonico announced that he was going to retire after doing a final measurement tour. The frames would have his father’s headbadge decal, the Italian eagle instead of the Mondonico badge. I was sorry to hear this, as the shop had done great business as a result of the measurement tours, and I’d enjoyed building the custom bikes to the customer’s needs. The Tour exceeded his expectations, and it took well over a year for his son Mauro and him to complete the orders.
The brochure from Torelli Imports announcing Antonio Mondonico's final measuring tour.
My Torelli 20th Anniversario, my 70th Anniversario Mondonico and Mondonico rain bike had served me well on numerous challenging rides and their 39-tooth inner chainrings coupled with the 26-tooth cog had been sufficient in meeting those demands. Compact gearing had come into favor and I remember attempting to spin up a grade on the event out of Portland that rode over Lolo pass, watching folks go by spinning a lower gear with their 34/28 combinations. I really wasn’t interested in using ratio of 11-28 on a cassette – small cogs engage fewer links in the chain and both wear more quickly. And the repairs that came in showed how much cross chaining was going on as riders attempted to find the next incremental gear.
I’d never encountered a grade here in the Salem area that I couldn’t climb in my 39/26 combination, but I had customers ride the De Ronde van Oest Portlandia, or Ronde PDX, a ride in honor of Belgium's Tour of Flanders. Riders spoke in awe of it, and it became my next goal. When I heard of Mondonico’s pending retirement, I ordered a Farewell Tour frameset, mostly as an alternate to the 20th Anniversario in case of some fatal incident and needing a replacement frame, but also as a project for building an elevation-gain bike.
There is some merit to reducing stationary weight of a bicycle, as every pound shed will save 6 seconds on a 20-minute climb. My Calfee Dragonfly Pro is 15lbs, while my steel Mondonicos come in at 20lbs. However, there is the engine, and I would hardly be considered youthful, nor as owner of a bicycle shop, have the time to train as much as I’d like.
Events have a given date, and here in Oregon, it could mean rain or at the least, wet pavement. I’d ridden STP in ’96, a day-long ride with water pasting my backside from the rear wheel. It not only sapped energy from me, but raised welts where the water had turned the chamois edges of my shorts into razors. This elevation bike would need fenders.
Contacting Bill, he informed me that there were no dropouts in Italy with eyelets, but I was fortunate to find a retired builder in Corvallis who had some old Campagnolo horizontal dropouts with the eyelets, and I shipped them off to Mondonico.
Other than that, the geometry was approximately the same as my 70th. I’d replaced the standard 30-tooth chainring on a Campagnolo triple with a smaller, even a 24-tooth, for a number of customers. I selected one of the 30/40/50 cranksets to equip with a 26-tooth, giving me a one-to-one ratio – maybe not as low as my touring bikes, but certainly lower than my Motobecane from ’76 with Alpine gearing of 40/28 that I’d toured the west coast many times with.
I used Campagnolo Record components mostly, with the exception of the Torelli Modular hubs. A pair of them weighed the same as a Record set and I got to play with gold flanges. I sent the barrels off to be anodized black instead of the grey they came with. The front I built with ceramic cartridge bearings as the standard bearings were missing. Again, I used Tacx cartridge-bearing pulley wheels and a Connex stainless-steel chain, as this bike could be involved in inclement weather.
Decades ago, Cannondale had released a model called Black Lightning, featuring gold SunTour Superbe components and gold housings. I finally located the Taiwan company back when I was building the Motobecane Grand Record with gold anodized French components, but had to order large rolls of gold housing as an order from Taiwan. I used this housing to equip the Farewell Tour bike. The champagne paint is deceptive, as in the showroom it is nearly silver, but in sunlight it really sparkles.
I used DT Swiss RR 1.1 rims. The rear used double eyelets and weighed the same as an Open Pro, while the front was a 28-hole single eyelet and shaved 20 grams off an Open Pro. Grams, yeah, but rotating weight has three times the effect of stationary weight. Again, DT Revolution spokes and DT 7005 alloy nipples.
The fenders were old Essge P35’s that had a gold tint in the plastic, which I’d saved in the back room of the shop for years. Fewer struts than the current SKS P35’s, a bit less weight.
My Bushwhacker seatbag had served as my cold/wet weather seatbag for decades. Not only an expandable bag, but when opening it, the zipper went all the way to the front of the bag, making it easy to find what was stored within. When I finally attempted to purchase more, I found it was a discontinued item. Bushwhacker could make them, but only with a large order. The replacement was known as a Hondo and the zipper no longer went all the way to the front. The pull handles have been bent back and forth repeatedly by heavily engloved fingers and some of them had broken off, with my attaching strips of handlebar wrap to replace them. The fabric at the nose of the saddle has rubbed against the seatpost to where I have applied a thick gel to hold it together. Still, it was my favorite seatbag for its ability to store and exchange riding gear with the temperature changes of both myself and the air surrounding me. I’ve ridden many miles with my lobster mitts dangling beneath it!
Chris Dubois was a young man who began riding with us, and while he had a Torelli he’d equipped it with a 10-speed gruppo, only using downtube shifters as well. He was reluctant to wear cycling attire, perhaps to avoid being profiled as a wanna-be. His cotton deck shoes were more like sandals than shoes, the fabric exposing more holes than covering his feet! He rode our route of Reach the Beach and easily out-rode all of us. Youth and genetic gifting are wonderful attributes!
He also was intrigued with Portlandia, and set out a route through the Salem area, using his computer to find routes that linked difficult climbs in short order. Summit Loop twice, backside of Skyline, Saghalie off of Concomly, back down Skyline to Riverside until climbing Orville, then descending Riverdale, and then climbing Viewcrest. We’d then descend Croisan Scenic before doing a loop up Heath and then ascending Madrona, turning left onto Azalea to climb up to Madrona Swim club before climbing the backside of Salem Heights. There was one more small climb before returning to the shop. We did this for a few weeks before traveling to ride Portlandia. This ride through the West Portland hills is 50 miles with 8,000 feet of elevation gain.
We rode from Chris’ residence to the starting point out by the St. John’s bridge. Soon after the start the route climbs through Forrest Park, which this year had lots of mud and leaves and my fenders clogged, necessitating a stop at the exit of the park for me to find a stick to clear as much out as possible. Chris? Oh, he was gone from the start, as were others who passed me while I was chiseling out the mud.
Descending towards downtown Portland, I missed a Lion of Flanders “Dan Henry” indicating a right turn, as a car was parked over it. I found myself riding parallel to embedded rail tracks in downtown Portland, an unnerving experience, wondering if I would see a Lion of Flanders insignia on one side or the other of the street. But I met up with someone also lost, who googled the map and realized where we’d missed the turn. The beer left out on patios for participants was long gone and I was riding alone when I made the turn up College Street, which is a one-way downhill for cars. I wasn’t anticipating it, didn’t maintain momentum and wasn’t in the best gear. I nearly rode into the ditch attempting to keep my bike upright and headed uphill. Getting halfway up, my heart was racing and my brain was telling me this was impossible. I pulled off onto someone’s deck before mounting and resuming the climb.
Brynwood was the next surprise and again, I had to stop halfway up it, before resuming the climb. The only other participant I saw was a bigger rider using a Rohloff internally geared hub, and we’d pass each other as I took a break to cool the ache in my feet. I was exhausted when reaching Council Crest park, but still had to find my way back to Chris' home, where I’d parked my car. When I arrived, it was 1 1/2 hours after Chris had returned, but I’d added another 15 miles and some additional elevation gain to the route by becoming lost.
The following year, Bob Cortwright enticed me to ride with him, and while College Street and Brynwood intimidated me, I was determined to summit them. I did have the foresight to remove the fenders in preparation for riding up Forrest Park this time.
I didn’t miss any turns this time and upon entering College Street was prepared, but once more found my heart in my throat and my brain railing about the impossibility. I pulled off on to the deck to readjust my attitude. I saw lots of riders charging up the hill with double chainring, close-ratio gearing, and even watched a recumbent spin its way up.
And again, at Brynwood, I found myself pulling out halfway, with my body/brain arguing about the feasibility of such a task. However, at least I had the satisfaction of seeing several riders pushing their bikes!
Bob was waiting at Council Crest park for a full half hour before I arrived.
In 2011, the local racing club sponsored a hill climb ride to take off the growing pressure of the attraction of the Ronde PDX, and I rode it on the Farewell Tour Bike, not knowing what the route might entail. It didn’t match the steepness of either College Street or Brynwood, and the triple crankset was totally unnecessary. I rode it the following year on the 20th Anniversario.
I’d used the Farewell Tour Bike back in ’06 to do our Sisters-to-Sisters route over Santiam Pass, down 126 and back over the McKenzie Pass to Sisters. Riding down 126 is an extended grade, and my 50/13 kept me pedaling at a very high cadence while one of my friends was enjoying the 53/12. This is one of the few places I wished I had a higher gear. I enjoyed having the 26-tooth so that I could remain in the saddle on the long climbs of Dead Horse Grade, and the wet pavement was unnoticed with the use of the fenders.
In 2017, while recuperating from the chemo, and began my bucket list of hills to climb, this was my first choice of ride, only using the Ryan with its lower gearing as I began the tougher climbs.
Photos of the 63 cm Mondonico Farewell Tour Bicycle:
Side view of the bike
Front view
From behind
Front close-up
Closer view of the head tube.
Close of the head tube badge, a copy of Antonio Mondonico's father's badge from the early 1900s.
The cockpit, showing the special gold cable housing.
The cockpit from behind
Another view of the cockpit.
The left Campagnolo Ergoshifter.
The top tube/head tube joint showing the frame's "Hand Made" decal.
The bike is equipped with Elite Patao water bottle cages.
The venerable Bushwhacker seat bag. Note "titanio" engraved on the band on the back of the Rolls saddle.
Side view of the seat cluster, Rolls saddle and Bushwhacker seat bag.
The Rolls saddle without any encumbrance.
The Campagnolo Record Titanium seat post.
Side view of the beautifully crafted seat tube cluster.
The Campagnolo Record rear differential brake caliper
A closer view of the rear Campagnolo Record brake caliper.
The special Farewell Tour frame decal.
The downtube
The Columbus Foco tubing decal
The Campagnolo Record triple crankset.
One of the Time Xpresso Titan Carbon pedals
The other side of the Time pedal.
Coser view of the seat-tube/down-tube joint at the bottom bracket with a chainsaver on the seat tube.
Under the bottom bracket shell.
"Il Mio Amore" decal I put on the chainstay.
The Campagnolo Record carbon rear derailleur
The right rear dropout.
One of the rear derailleur's Tacx pulley wheels.
The investment-cast, pantographed fork crown.
The front hub
The other side of the front hub.
Side view of the specially ordered Campagnolo front fork tips with eyelets
The rear hub
One of the bike's DT Swiss RR 1.1 rims.
Here's another shot of one of the DT rims.
Parked at the Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge.
Riding De Ronde van Oest Portlandia in 2009
Cooling my feet at McKenzie Pass
Post chemotherapy at the water tower.
With friends at McKenzie Pass in 2008.
Santiam Pass in 2008.
Three years later. Here I am at Santiam Pass in 2011.
Stopped a moment to watch a buffalo.
Riding through the Lava Beds National Monument, part of the Deschutes National Forest in Oregon.
A cold day on the coast at the lighthouse.
With a friend at Sisters Oregon (southeast of Salem) in 2011
At the end of De Ronde van Oest Portlandia, or Ronde PDX, at Council Crest Park.
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