In spite of the harder economic times that are quite apparently around us, the custom bike biz is going pretty crazy around here. Perhaps its that bit of Scot in everyone that’s making folks look for a bit better value than what the big, highly marketed name brands offer. I also think this newer generation of road riders are becoming more educated as to the difference  a well fitted bicycle makes. As I’ve said before, I can’t think of another piece of sporting equipment that can be as personal as a bicycle.

On the subject of good deals, we’ve managed to acquire a limited number of full carbon frames from one of the top fabricators in the world. Built on the same layup table by the same craftsmen that build Pinarello frames (among others), these frames come in both a 12K and a lighter 1K. The 12 is aheavier weave for bigger riders and is supplied with an alloy steerer in the fork while the finer weave of the 1K has a monocoque carbon fork and comes in about 250 grams lighter for the frame/fork package. We’ll have pictures, full  specs and pricing on the site next week.

We are now also offering the latest in SRAM component groups for the bikes. Forever known as a Campagnolo purist, I’m actually quite impressed with the solid, positive feel of the SRAM Force and Red parts. The Force 2010 must be the best bang for the buck on the market. The group is very light, with a rigid chainset and precise shifting capabilites. Good looking too. None of that “been sitting in the sun too long and melted” Shimano look. Stay tuned for more on that next week too.

Also will be doing a little article and pics of some of the Classic steel Cunningham’s done in the past.

Back soon….promise.

As time went on and I learned more of this (even at that time) long standing builder, Faliero Masi would reign as my supreme racing bicycle creator.  I would challenge anyone to come up with a legitimate contender. His  attention to detail, passion and devotion to the fast bike world is unsurpassed.

An enormous number of the champions of the sport rode his bicycles. Most times the bikes they rode would have another name painted on the down tube. Fausto Coppi rode a Masi painted as a Bianchi. Eddy Merckx rode Masis painted as both Peugeots and with his own Eddy Merckx name in the Faema years. Then there was Gimondi with his Chiorda (Salvarani) and Van Looy….the list goes on.

This is the bike I had Masi build as my replica to Eddy Merckx’ Faema bike. I love those colours. This is now in the Fritz Durenburger collection. Note: I didn’t do the weird taping job on the bars…it ain’t a track bike.

These riders all knew his attention to detail was not just with fit and finish but the importance of the correct fit for the rider. He did not just take into account the riders anatomic dimensions but also their physique so that the riders power could best be applied.  In addition he would consider the terrain on which the cycle would be largely used ie flat lands or hills.

As a bike builder in an age of marketing bicycles with hype instead of practical intelligence, I often feel like a voice from a vanished era when I constantly harp of the importance of perfect frame fit for one’s ultimate performance. So many riders today spend more time and money on fancy bits for their bike when they are on a frame that may as well be used by their dog.

In spite of the enormous reputation Faliero  Masi carried, he remained humble and passionate throughout. For many years his small shop was located under the banking of the Vel Vigorelli (the bike track in Milano). During my last visit there in the Eighties I quietly smiled to myself as I watched this absolutely revered icon of the cycling world and my all time hero of bike fabrication, sitting at his bench spoking a wheel, all the time cursing the fact that the only he spokes he could ‘get these days were junk’. Imagine some executive from Trek or suchlike even getting their hands dirty in a shop…not bloody likely.

Masi was always looking for what he thought would create the best there could be. His desire for durability was huge. Inspite of obviously being Italian, he used tended to use Reynolds 531 tubing very often as its manganese content gave a more durable frame. At times he would use Columbus in a fork and/or seat stays as the chrome-moly configuration of its make up gave a stiffer, snappier ride.

Interestingly many classic bike fans put Cinelli as the pinnacle of the field. Having had many Cinellis myself and having seen many without paint, I can assure all, that Masis were always finished to a higher degree. Faliero Masi was the quintessential hands-on builder where as Cinelli did it for his pleasure. Masi for a time, even served as a directeur sportif to gain a closer relationship to the racers.

Sadly today, as with so many, the Masi name has vapourized into a marketing name for yet another group riding on a name built by someone else. Some months ago as I looked in a bike shop window at some sort of stupid ladies commuter bike emblazoned with the Masi logo AND the Faliero Masi signature, a lad from the shop came out just as I was shaking my head in a mix of sadness and disgust. A couple of words from him allowed the fact that he knew nothing of this great name and after my retort that “this was about the same as Enzo Ferrari producing a minivan”, he could only comment that, “the world goes on”.

For my part, I will always produce and deliver bicycles with the same type of focus on detail, performance and durability as my late hero. There a lot of better ways to make money in this world than messing about with bikes, so I figure I better really do it because I love it or there is no point. If ever I should take the attitude of lad outside the bike shop, “Martha, pass me the razor blades…I’m done.”

Anyways, likes I wuz sayin’ about those lovely bikes in Fritz collection, another very rare piece is a 1983 Pinarello Prestige we had ordered for a special customer.  Our fortunate working relationship with Pinarello allowed us to bring in this lovely custom geometry (try that now) example with a Campag 50th group, resplendent with 24K gold plated forks and stays and jet black paint.

Some of the original parts have been changed but it was great to see it emerge in this collection. Giovanni Pinarello was always so accommodating and the bike came exactly as ordered and flawlessly finished. It would have been one of the earlier bikes painted in his then new factory. Until then the top frames were painted at his brother’s house in a farm area outside Treviso.  Only visited there once but it was so interesting to see such nice work coming out of such simple, almost garage/barn type facility.

Of all the bikes we sold at my old shop the one that remains (to my mind at least) the absolute coolest was a very special Colnago.  I had a chance in 1980 to acquire three of the team bikes he built for the Boule D’Or team he was sponsoring at the time. While two of them were simply just very nice Supers (with Mexico labeling) the third was built for Mr Paris-Roubaix himself, Roger De Vlaeminck. I can tell you when we got that bike everyone in the shop wanted it…but nobody rode a 57, either too big or to small.

Through the late Sixties and early Seventies RdV was probably about the coolest guy in the pro peleton. While his nearly 300 victories weren’t in the crazy Merckx league, they would thrash anyone’s total in today’s pro circuit. The ‘Gypsy of Eeklo’ seemed to float over those treacherous cobbles that brought down countless others. As well as being a great Classics rider, he also was competitive in the major tours with numerous stage wins and points jerseys.

I apologize because this photo could have been better but you can see the the foil decal on the chain stay that denotes Mexico but in fact the bikes were Supers with cast bottom brackets as per Mexicos of the time. In the photo below you can observe the RdV stamped into the dropouts (they appear in the rear as well). The builder had selected the components for the frame so as to be a perfect as possible for their star rider. I love this sort of detail and as a bit of an advert for my current Cunningham frames I’m happy to say that every part of every frame is as close to perfect as I can see…and I’m pretty picky. In fact after assembling hundreds of these wonderful, (now)classic bikes I can tell you the alignment of these newer units is even better than these older frames.

How cool is this?

I must say had I the op to buy it today, wrong size or not, I’d get it. Hindsight huh?

I’ll do one more little installment vis-a-vis the classic thing here and it’ll be largely about the man/bike I consider the absolute pinnacle of bicycle passion, design, beauty and performance (of the day).

Until then: go riding.

Unlike all the big concerns today where the word passion is merely a collection of letters the promo agencies tell them to use in their adverts, the industry was alive with the real deal. Today with nearly all the names so common in the peleton, the prime concern is marketing and mark-up. When I see how cheap some of these companies get their bikes/frames made, it makes me mental. How hands-on can you get when you’re making tens or hundreds of thousands of frames a year?

As I’ve spent time with a number of the top Italian builders I can say that the one trait they all shared was that they believed their product was the best there was. From the inception of my current business I have endeavoured to carry this forward to at least offer riders a true personal cycling experience.

It is well known that much of the product from this older era of cycling has become quite collectible and thus there are many collectors that have emerged. In my own geographical area there is one fellow, who although having started late in the cycling game, has amassed quite a collection and indeed quite a name because of  his wheeled world. Fritz Durenberger spent years collecting and racing classic Alfa Romeos and many, many Italian small displacement GP style motor bikes such as Ducati, Parilla and Moto Morini. Now his ensemble of cycles  is rampant with deliciously desirable racing bikes from the Sixties through the Eighties, the pinnacle of handbuilt, old world performance bikes, a combination of artistry and engineering.

I recently restored a 1969 Cinelli Super Corsa for one of our new bike customers. While the gentleman had thousands of miles on this olde steed (including numerous trips to the mountains of Europe) he knew that one of these new machines we do would bring back some of the minutes on the climbs that advancing age had taken away. As his Cinelli (that he collected new from Cinelli’s shop) was a rare candy red example, I mentioned that this fellow Fritz had an even more rare candy green version dating from 1975. I actually had restored that one too. I suggested it would be fun to bring his bike as well as my own 1962 (also rare) black Super Corsa for an evening a la casa del Fritz for a Cinelli rendezvous. At the same time he could check out the time warp rides.

Things were sorted out and we all (his cycle enthusiast son also attended) gathered at Fritz’s place for a lovely nostalgic evening of appreciation. While his collection is some eighty odd machines, a remarkable percentage of them came from my old bike shop,  so for me a visit is a real deja vu and always a pleasurable one.

Down to the business at hand we got the three Cinellis together for a ‘family’ photo as seen below.

Not entirely original parts wise but classic nevertheless and a pleasant change from the ubiquitous dull, dull dreadfully dull silver. Cinellis were the first really good bike I ever heard of and although few riders of any repute ever used one racing, where I grew up they were the deal. In fact my first real Italian steed was to be a very rare salmon pink Super Corsa. The photo below shows me in the 1976 Gastown GP  (wearing the red/green jersey) getting around the soft pedaling maggot in gray who was doing nothing but slowing the break. The Cinelli was a good stable bike for that tight course…didn’t matter though, we got caught and I didn’t win a nickel.

Several of my own personal bikes from the past had found their way into this lot including my first DeRosa which was also the first DeRosa sold in western Canada. In the photo below you can see the red diamond stay DeRosa beside the red/white Cunningham which was the first bike I ever built in 1985. As well, you can see a candy red, pantographed Olmo my shop sold in the early eighties.

I raced that DeRosa for the first part of the 1980 season bit I was disappointed with the excess flex in the frame while climbing. It would actually flex enough that the (Campag) chainset would scrape the front changer…..kinda weird. Swapped it for a Pinarello I had hanging on a hook and was immediately smitten. Wuddarock. Again this was to be the first of its type sold in my end of the country as no one had heard of Pinarellos at that time. It would lead to a great relationship with Giovanni Pinarello and we sold nearly 500 units over the years. It even became the ride of choice for our Cicli Forza team at the time.

Not to be dismayed by a less than satisfactory DeRosa performance, I ordered a track frame from him on a visit to his shop some years later. I tell this story because it underlines my belief in the importance of custom. frame fit in many cases.

DeRosa’s shop was in the (very large) basement of his house at that time and while there on road bike biz, I requested a track frame for myself. When his son measured my arm length and passed it on to a pen-in-hand Ugo, he said, ‘di nuovo’ (again) not believing the long length Christiano had given him. My verbal impression of a chimp caused all to laugh and Ugo jotted the number down on his sheet.

When the bike finally arrived I could tell he didn’t believe anyone my height would have such arms and it came too short, even with a 13cm stem it was still cramped as can be seen in the pic:

While that pink beastie rode very well…we even won that particular Madison that evening….it was put on the block. Bit of a pity as it was a solid, beautiful frame…..but me back bloody hurt!! So I made one just for me.

Anyway…its late now and I’m knackered so this is ‘end of part one’. Couple of cool bikes in the next installment…check back.