[jyl]

Thanks! The Testors kit sounds like something to try, and I'll also look for a commercial service like the SignORama.

I don't think I could make $ counterfeiting Mavic Ergopower brifters as there is no such thing. I just happen to have a bike that is all Mavic including the downtube shifters, and I want to convert it to brifters (shifters integrated in brake levers) while keeping it, in my bike geek fantasy world, "tout Mavic". So, I'm thinking buy a cosmetically challenged set of Campagnolo levers, sand off the logos painted on the lever blades, maybe add a bit of period-appropriate drillium, and apply faux "MAVIC" logo. Voila. Geek orgasm. Gosh, makes me feel like when I went to my first Star Trek convention, phaser on my hip.

Convert why? Because I keep hitting my knee on the downtube shifters, which slaps you down to the smallest cog, right when you have painfully hauled yourself upright to force your way up a climb in your biggest cog. Happened again yesterday. Sudden clashing of gears, swearing and fumbling, teetering and uncleating, and by the time I got things sorted, I had been comprehensively dropped by a girl. Who had herself been comprehensively dropped by her riding companions earlier, so it's not like she was KOM material. O the Shame.