Thursday, February 12, 2009

Shipping The Coppi


















I year or so ago I took my sweet all-steel Italian road racing machine and sent it off to Steve Bilenky at Bilenky Cycleworks in Pennsylvania. Steve and his crew installed S&S couplings and matched the original paint perfectly. The cutting and brazing burns the paint so they have to do a very difficult color-on-color match.


The bike came back from Bilenky in two boxes. One with the frame, the other with the new S&S designed plastic shipping box. Inside the box were a full set of custom sewn tube protectors. These are cordura nylon sleeves with Velcro closures that cover every exposed tube on the bike.

Also in the case were a set of four white pvc compression members. These are cut to exactly the interior dimension of the case height. You put them inside and they help provide support for compression impacts to the side of the case.


Lastly, and most importanly, there was a custom spanner wrench to tighten or loosen the S&S couplings. The couplings themselves are worth mentioning. They're aircraft grade stainless steel milled to exacting precision. Turning the couplings provides a satisfying confidence in their strength.



Anyway.... go to www.sandsmachine.com/ for more information. You'll also find a link there to Steve Bilenky's shop. He's the master at this. Many frame builders around the country send him their bikes to retro-fit couplings. He's that good! http://www.bilenky.com/Menu.html






Check out the six minute video of the whole process of taking down the bike and stuffing it all into the box.



2 comments:

samh said...

I look forward to a ride report. Or perhaps a full blown, "I've traveled with this bike and now taken it for a ride" report.

LostGears said...

Look for that big yellow thing on the road around Bozeman the next few weeks.