Batavus Professional

The Batavus started out as a bike for my wife who had muttered interest in cycling with me. The idea took form when I won an auction for the Batavus frame for €35. I didn't realise that it was made from Columbus SLX tubing until I collected it. The guy selling didn't show much enthusiasm for the frame, he'd had built up as a speed-bike with a threadless alu-fork. On closer inspection all sorts of beautiful details on the frame caught my eye. The Cinelli BB-shell (with spoiler), the inner tube for the back brake, stainless faces on the dropouts (technociclio) and engraved topeyes and brake bridge. If you run your finger inside the tubes around the BB you can feel the helical reinforcement pressed into the butts of the tubes.
The first problem was to find a suitable fork and the typically the last place I tried, my local bike shop (LBS) "Radhaus Wedding" just up the street, had one that fit. What's more they gave me a present of it. Problem was some knobhead had painted it although it was chromed underneath and what's worse he (I'm assuming a man did this, no woman could be so stupid) sanded the surface of the chrome. Luckily he got bored quickly and only sanded the top half and luckily the paint didn't adhere to the chrome very well and came off easily with an electric heat gun which "Radhaus Wedding" lent me. When it was all cleaned I realised it was no ordinary chrome fork. Firstly it was very light, had an emblem with "R" in the middle and the steerer had the same helical reinforcement so it had to have either Columbus SL or perhaps even SLX blades made by the legendary italien framebuilder Rauler.
The next problem was that the fork steerer was too short for most headsets so I spent a week or two comparing the stack heights of any headset I might have been able to get my hands on.
Tange threaded cartridge headsets have the lowest stack height on the market and if you can find a thinner washer to go with the set you could reduce the height a futher mm or so.
Once that was solved the hunt was on for the rest of the components and some €600 later I had a gorgeous bike set-up for much more that I had initially planned.
So why so expensive? Well most of the parts were NOS and the normal conaumable; tyres, tubes, cables, housing all add up.
The last part that I put on was the chain and I had never used a 9-speed chain before. In my ignorance I broke the stud that came with the chain as my chain tool was too clumsy. One whole week the bike was almost built-up and the chain problem was stopping me trying it out. At last I swallowed my pride, took it the bike shop, and let them sort out the chain which I had somehow cut too short. The mechanic asked me if I usually ride 53/23. I said know and we left it at that.
Outside the shop I just curved around a little on the pavement and instantly fell in love with the bike. Having cycled some 5000km on this bike I now know why I love it so much. It has a very competetive geometry with a long top-tube 555mm and a relatively short seat-tube 530mm. Thus the headtube is proportionatly short. This along with the SLX-tubing and Cinell BB-shell makes the bike rock solid. Astonishingly it still is very comfy and makes fun out cobblestone of which we have our fair share here.
This is my fastest bike to date and last summer it demostrated amazing climbing capabilities against fit guys on the best CF money can buy.
My wife cycled it once and decided a racing bike is not her thing.