Little Steps...It's Still Progress

   I didn’t get anywhere near as much done this week as I had hoped, and it had very little to do with the Thanksgiving holiday! Delays in parts deliveries, new glitches popping up and strangely mild (and clear!) November weather that has allowed me to take some long rides all contributed to a lack of finished product.

   I was able to finish off the Pinarello Dolomite bicycle and now have it listed in the For Sale page. It wasn’t too complicated of a project, just time-consuming, as it involved a good cleaning of everything and then picking out the remains of the brittle decals that are so common on Pinarello bikes of this era.
   As in the past, I was left with letter “shadows” in the clear coat, so I had to make sure the kerning (space between the letters) was correct before applying the VeloCals. I’ve shared measurements with them in the past for certain models, but the Dolomite was a new one for me, so I was expecting issues. Well, the downtube decal was spot on, so it was a simple matter of lining up the first and last letters, and the rest fell into place.
   The chainstay decal is small and in one piece (not individual letters), so the inaccuracy of the letter size and spacing aren’t noticeable, but the vertical lettering on the seatpost was WAY off. I was left with the tedious process of applying the letters individually in the clearcoat spaces.
   All that was left was some new bar tape, and I added some finishing tape with Italian tricolore striping. I think the hard work paid off:

   The glitches I mentioned earlier were a stuck drive-side bottom bracket cup in the Colnago Super, and some wonky threading in the drive-side of the bottom bracket on the Coppi frame. The Super was a fairly simple fix, at least that’s what the guys at Bikesport told me after I picked it up from their shop. Usually it just involves more (and younger) man power for the operation. Unfortunately, the Coppi’s bottom bracket had to be re-tapped, and they didn’t have the Italian version of the tool. Well, I knew someone who did have the proper tool, and I promptly sent him a message.
   I received a return call from Peter Dreesens yesterday morning, and he updated me on progress with the stuck seatpost in the Tommasini. After maintaining a constant soaking of PB Blaster (which is a penetrating catalyst/lubricant, if you aren’t familiar) for a few days, Peter had welded a 3-foot section of tubing onto the remaining seatpost metal in order to gain some twisting leverage. Unfortunately, the post didn't budge, and the metal began to twist apart where we had drilled through in order to attach the bolt for the slide hammering.
   We agreed that the best bet would be cutting the metal flush to the top of the seat tube, as well as restoring the expander slot down the back, with the intent of inserting a narrower seat post. Peter had the job done by the afternoon, and I took the Coppi frame with me to swap projects. Peter had done an excellent job with the cuts, and while I was there, he even slid in a spare piece of 7/8 in. (22.2 mm) tubing he had in stock to confirm the correct post size we would need.
   He then took the Coppi frame and set to work, telling me it would take very little time – well, maybe for someone with his experience! It was an interesting operation to observe, and the tool kinda looks like a cartridge bottom bracket that someone turning into a torture device! Peter’s looked a bit different than the Park Tool photo below, but it gives you a good idea of what I was seeing. One side keeps the tool centered and aligned properly in the shell as the thread cutter is cranked inward. The blade has a clever star shape so that removed material has a place to be expelled and not bind the tool as it cuts.

   Peter also suggested that he should face the bottom bracket, which involves cleaning the outside edge of the shell down to the bare metal, so that the BB cups sit squarely on the frame when installed. This operation was completed using a similar tool to the tap, but this had a larger cutting blade (see below) to remove the paint and any imperfections in the metal casting. I held my breath a bit, hoping the new paint wouldn’t chip, but Peter did a wonderful job with no problems at all!

   When I returned home, I snapped some photos of the “seat post solution” to share with its owner. The paint in the clamp area appears pretty gnarly from all the attempts made to free the post, but I reassured Brendan that sprucing it up would be relatively simple, since it is one of the few spots on the frame that has a solid color, not some airbrushed fade effect - it should look fine with some cherry red touch-up enamel.
   The only problem now is finding a post – I had seen a vintage ITM post on eBay, but it wasn’t quite the correct diameter (22mm), and Peter suggested that the size is critical, considering the added material that the seatpost binder bolt is now going to need to squeeze in order to keep a seatpost from sliding. I did see a rather flashy anodized red ITM post elsewhere, and I haven’t received Brendan’s opinion on that, but I did suggest to him that if any bike’s colors would match up with the seat post, it would be the wild paint job on the Tommasini.

Crazy (not Hateful) Eight

   I performed a little math error last week, when I mentioned the seven projects that I was working on simultaneously – I actually had an eighth, as I was also working on a drive train conversion of my Bianchi Cross Concept bicycle. For a few months I had been experiencing some wonky shifting, which was becoming frustrating, not only while I was riding, but also during my attempts to fix the problem.

   When I originally assembled the mostly Shimano Ultegra 2x10 system (as in two front chainrings and a 10 speed cassette on the rear wheel), I had to sub in a 105 rear derailleur because at that time the long-cage Ultegra counterpart was hard to find and expensive. The Bianchi also lacked some of the traditional cable stops with barrel adjusters to fine-tune cable tension – setting up the center-pull cantilever brakes was a crazy process of trial and error, but that’s another story.

   I was having an impossible time trying to get the bike to shift smoothly up and down the cassette, so much so that I eventually set the bottom limiting screw to sacrifice the bottom two cogs. I was running with 16 speeds, and even shifting into the two biggest cogs was shaky. During one ride, the shift slipped while I was standing on the pedals up a small hill and the chain snapped – the first time in my life that had happened!

   During a build lesson in my shop this spring, my friend Matt had installed a SRAM 1x10 drive, which involves a single mid-range 42-tooth front chain ring and a big, honkin’ 11-36t cassette (I jokingly call it a pie pan). One can go crazy trying to keep up with gear ratios, but I find that I am not really missing much “climbability” from the possible 34-tooth chainring/28t cog minimum combination that was on the bike before.

   Understandably some riders wouldn’t want this type of setup on a road bike because they would miss the “speed ratios” afforded by larger chainrings and small cogs, but that’s not of as much importance to me. I’m not doing a lot of sprinting out on the unpaved trails!

   A unique feature of the front chainring is its narrow/wide teeth, which correspond to the respective widths of the inner and outer links of the chain. This helps keep the chain secure on the ring when a bike is bouncing around off-road.

   The rear derailleur has a clutch that keeps constant tension on the chain, removing the large amount of slack that would need to be taken up when switching from the immense inner to smaller outer cogs.

   This afternoon I did an enjoyable 40-mile loop, starting on streets up to Schwenksville, then rode up the Perkiomen Trail to Green Lane. I then headed back down the trail to where it links with the Schuylkill Trail in Oaks and rode home through Phoenixville and Spring City. The SRAM 1x10 system was whisper quiet – I think the chainring has some type of Teflon-ish coating – and shifted wonderfully as well!

   The package Matt had purchased to assemble his 1x10 setup had included a lefthand shift lever that lacked a shifting paddle - essentially it was just a brake lever. Piecing together my system, I found that a left lever with the paddle was the same price as one without, so my two levers match in appearance but not function. I could remove the paddle if I wanted, but there is a visual balance that I appreciate.

   I have had a few little hitches pop up that have dramatically slowed any progress made on a couple other projects. The worse of the two is the stem stuck in the steering tube of the Gios’ fork, and I have it soaking in PB Blaster solvent to aid the process of loosening the parts. I’m afraid I might be exchanging the Gios problem with Peter Dreesens for the Tommasini when he (hopefully!) gets the seatpost out of Brendan’s frame.

  

   It occurred to me that if I used the cable stop band (photo below) that I had purchased for the Coppi in conjunction with the Campagnolo Ergo shifters that I just might be creating a situation similar to that which I faced with the Bianchi – an inability to adjust the cable tension if the shifts are off.

 

   My solution is to buy a vintage clamp-on set of shifters, remove the levers and mount cable stops with barrel adjusters. The Campagnolo band is an attractive piece to add to the bike anyway!

   I applied the decals to the Coppi frame over the weekend and will be getting to the assembly in the next few days – hopefully the clamp/shifter set will arrive promptly and not hold me up too long!

Seven Project Pile-up

   As promised last week, I have a whole lot of project news. First off, I plan on finally getting to the Coppi bicycle this week, as the curing time for the paint is up. The decals will be applied sometime this week, and I will be assembling the bike soon after. I’m very much looking forward to finishing this project!

   I received a nice return on the parts I am swapping out on the Bianchi Ti Mega Record and have collected nearly all the necessary components to put it together. I have put a good number of pieces on it as they’ve arrived in the mail, but I am still searching for a Campagnolo Record crankset in nice condition to complete the bike.

   I mentioned in my previous blog entry that I had acquired a Gios-Torino Super Record, and this 1979 version came after a very long search for an affordable model in decent condition.

   One of the first cycling jersey’s I ever owned was that of the Brooklyn team, but mostly because I read Captain America when I was young, and the jersey design was very reminiscent of his outfit. At the time, I knew very little of the legendary Roger de Vlaeminck and could only dream of affording a Gios bike back then!

   My recent purchase came with a cheaper Gipiemme (phonetic “GPM” in Italian) group, which I will be swapping out as soon as I can find a reasonable Super Record set up – but at the prices I’ve seen for Campagnolo lately, this could be just as long of a wait! I would really like to find the “pantografia” crankset with Aldo Gios’ initials (photo below) that came standard on the Super Record, but we’ll see what I can come up with.

   My friend Brendan stopped by a couple weeks ago with some new stuff, including a Tommasini Diamante “Colorado” frameset into which the previous owner had jammed a too-big-diameter seatpost. As a matter of fact, the post actually distorted the shape of the seat tube – why someone would do this is beyond me, especially with how costly these frames are!

   I soaked the post/tube in a penetrating oil then borrowed a slide hammer from the local Advanced Auto store. I drilled a 3/8” hole in each side of the remaining metal (the clamp end had been cut off in previous attempt to free the post) onto which I attached the tool. I then fed a large dowel through the bottom bracket, so that I could stand on it and anchor (somewhat) the frame to the floor.

   Several whacks proved completely fruitless, so on a recommendation from a mechanic at Bikesport, I took the frame to a metal shop in Emmaus, PA, thinking they would definitely be able to help. “Definitely not“ was more like the answer, as they also attempted a sturdier slide hammer, which succeeded only in elongating the holes I had drilled. I thought they would use a large drill bit and bore out the “intruder metal”, but the shop was concerned with damaging the thin steel tubing of the frame, since it was distorted just below the seat post.

   The frame is now with my pal Peter Dreesens, the frame builder whiz – if he can’t help or has no ideas for a solution, I think we may resort to cutting the post down as flush as possible with the seat tube top and inserting a vintage post with an extra-narrow diameter. 

   I believe the above photo that I found on the 'net is the Tommasini bike as Brendan had bought it, because it is equipped with the same Dura-Ace group and accessories that he oh-so-generously dropped in my lap! He is a great guy (I hope he’s reading), and we always have interesting stories to share. He also has a knack for finding absolutely amazing stuff, such as those Mavic components we put on his Sean Kelly Sem-France Loire bike.

   Speaking of his amazing finds, he was at a flea market or yard sale or estate sale near New Hope and saw a large Benotto box. I joked that it could have been full of bar tape – the vintage iridescent cello-tape for which the company was so famous back in the 80s:

   Anyway, it turned out to be a late 1960s-early ‘70s townie bike – never built, in practically perfect condition! We were like little kids on Christmas, unwrapping the box and all of the parts included inside. The bike has funky details, like a double top tube, rod-actuated brakes that apply pressure on the top surface of the rims, a somewhat “pimped-out” saddle and a Benotto hood ornament, of sorts. I got to work almost immediately putting the bike together:

   One new project that should be a fairly quick turnaround is a 1986 Pinarello Dolomite, which became an inexpensive purchase as I was able to spare myself the shipping costs with pickup from a local eBay-er. The seafoam green paint is in nice condition, but the standard Pinarello brittle decals will need to be replaced by some VeloCals.

   I was considering doing a Campagnolo treatment on the bike, but the Shimano 105 components are in really good shape, and keeping this on the low end of the project budget will be appreciated by someone looking for an affordable Italian classic. The bike has some classy touches, such as a 3T stem with Pinarello engraving and a Selle San Marco Regal saddle with copper rivets.

   Finally, I met a very nice gentleman named Ed out in Willow Grove, PA, and he was selling a 1983 Colnago Super. Ed explained that as he was getting older, and had a bad knee, he was drawn more and more to motorized two-wheelers! I spent a long time looking around his garage shop that had a few beautifully restored Harley Davidson motorcycles inside. It reminded me a bit of what I have going on in my basement with some signs, parts and bikes hanging everywhere, except that his are much heavier and more expensive!

   Ed grew up in North Philadelphia, where he would occasionally wander by the neighborhood bike shop, and one day he saw the Super frameset in the window. He explained how he had wiped out his savings to purchase the Colnago and then scraped together his paper route money over time to equip the bike with whatever he could afford. I told him there were probably very few people on his street who would even notice the components – you were a 15-year-old kid on a COLNAGO!

   My jealous Ross Grand Sport II-riding, teenage self would have been stunned, but I appreciate the nice Huret parts, especially the sweet drilled-out rear derailleur, even if they are misplaced French parts on an Italian machine. Ed even took the wheels off of his Schwinn LeTour and put them on his “new girlfriend”! This was definitely still in the era of good Schwinn bikes, because the company hubs were made in France, and the rims were Mavic – pretty classy stuff for a company that is unfortunately now a Walmart, off-the-rack brand.

   The bike has some really nice bits that Ed must have really saved up for, like the Colnago “pantografia” stem from 3T and the classic Concor leather saddle. The paint is in wonderful shape, especially considering that his brother took it to the Philippines when he was stationed there – I was thinking this might explain the oversized tires, as a more durable option.

   I will be replacing the components with a Campagnolo Chorus 10-speed group, and I already have a friend lined up for the purchase of the bike. We have been in contact a lot the last few days, discussing the build and making some small decisions on things like tires and bar tape. I will be looking for some appropriate Campagnolo wheels, which will require a bit more patience, but this is a “no rush project” over the cold months ahead.

Then and Now(ish) - Part Two

   Picking up where I left off last week, the first grouping of bicycles is going to branch off in a couple directions as I start with Eddy Merckx’s Colnago Super, which is in his Molteni team’s famous orange. The Belgian master and his team mechanic, Ernesto Colnago himself, were well-known as being particular about equipment, especially weight savings, and the Campagnolo crankset and brake levers on this bike are drilled out to remove excess material. The seatpost and stem have grooves cut into them for the same reason, and under the bartape the handlebars kinda look like Swiss cheese!

   A fall-out between the two cycling legends occurred, mostly because of an incident during Merckx’s successful 1972 Hour Record attempt in Mexico City. “The Cannibal” was paid to put Windsor labels on his Colnago bike, which of course didn’t please Ernesto, as this was his shining moment as a frame builder. Merckx suggested that it was a “polite thing to do” for the people there, as Windsor was a Mexican bike manufacturer, but in the face of the payment, that seems a bit weak.

   Merckx went on to form an equally successful partnership with builder Ugo DeRosa, who became an advisor when Eddy began to build and sell his own line of bicycles. In 1989 Merckx began supplying bikes to the American 7-Eleven cycling team, a relationship that lasted through 1996 and the team’s change to Motorola as the lead sponsor. Below is one of the team’s 1989 bikes, which unfortunately didn’t help them to many wins that season, although 7-Eleven did claim the overall victory in the inaugural Tour de Trump, a self-aggrandizing title for a bike race if there ever was one. Should we really have expected anything different from “Our Supreme Blow-hard”?

   Proudly manufactured in Belgium, Merckx bikes have grown to be one of the world’s most prestigious brands, and have been ridden by historic teams like Panasonic, Kelme and Telekom. Below is an EMX-7 ridden by multiple Flanders and Roubaix champion Tom Boonen for the Quick Step team in 2011.

   The split with Merckx didn’t really ruin Ernesto Colnago’s career either, as the talented framebuilder hooked up with cycling greats like Giuseppe Saronni and Johan Museeuw, plus the rest of the Belgian star’s extremely successful Mapei team (which ironically later became Quick Step). It was the Colnago C40 that really sparked the carbon fiber revolution because it proved the material’s durability, with not only Franco Ballerini’s Paris-Roubaix win in 1995, but four victories over the cobbles in five years, including (get this) three times sweeping the podium!

    Ernesto could have produced something futuristic with swooping curves, but his design featured traditional straight tubes and carbon lugs. However, a real artisan’s touch was put on the finish - pages and pages of beautiful handpainted C40 frames adorned the Colnago catalogue, each version requiring hours of painstaking masking and airbrushing. There was a particular design destined to become THE Colnago C40 paint scheme, the Mapei team model with its tumbling multi-colored cubes. Below is one such C40, on which Johan Museeuw won his second Paris-Roubaix in 2000.

   Despite the incredible success with Mapei, Colnago has dipped in and out of World Tour racing, choosing to mostly support Pro Continental and American domestic teams in recent years. Fortunately, the storied Italian builder returned to the main stage as bicycle supplier to UAE Team Emirates, with none other than Giuseppe Saronni as manager! Here is the Colnago C60 team machine:

   Yes, the French company, LOOK, were pioneers in the development of clipless pedals, but they were also putting the first carbon framesets into pro races with the 1986 La Vie Claire squad. Unfortunately, because team leader Bernard Hinault hated the cobbles, the bikes were mostly thought of as lightweight “climber’s bicycles”, which isn’t exactly a bad thing when you have pros like “The Badger” and up-and-coming Americans like Greg Lemond and Andy Hampsten!

   Lemond and Hinault pulled off an incredible 1-2 finish at that year’s Tour de France, aboard Look’s Hinault 753 model bike. Note: the Le Vie Claire bike was equipped with full Campagnolo C-Record gruppo, including the famous Delta brakes, but the builder of the machine shown has left out the costly and mechanically quirky calipers.

   I am a vintage bike guy, but I have always found the Look 795 to be one of the most visually stunning bicycles ever made. The bike has been featured in this blog before, and the machine includes multiple patented innovations, such as brakes integrated into the fork blades, a one-piece crankset and adjustable integrated stem. I also love the Piet Mondrian (you know, the French artist who inspired the Partridge Family bus paintjob) color scheme - the $11,450 price tag would be the main reason you won’t see me zipping around on one!

   Speaking of Greg Lemond, who will ever forget watching him fly around the streets of Paris to win the 1989 Tour by eight seconds over an emotionally-crushed Laurent Fignon? The American used this fairly simple Bottecchia Kronostrada frameset, but by equipping it with the Scott Clip-On Aerobars, he achieved a position to let him slip better through the air than with the traditional cow-horn bars used in time trials during that era.

   Keen-eyed readers will also notice the bike is equipped with the Mavic 631 “Starfish” crankset and other SSC-series components by the French company, which have also been a feature in this blog. In a Tour de France history predominantly marked by victories on bikes using components by Campagnolo and Simplex (with a bit of recent Shimano thrown in), 1989 marks the only overall win by a cyclist using Mavic-equipped bicycles - and it may remain the only, since Mavic no longer makes components.

   The 2013 Bottecchia Cronotholon provides an amazing contrast to Lemond’s machine, as it includes all of the modern technological advances, most notably the aero shaping of the carbon fiber tubes and the fully integrated stem with the multi-positional bars. The seat tube also has a slightly more vertical position, as this particular bike has geometry advantageous to the triathlete, who would want a more forward position to lessen tension on the quadriceps and hamstrings, saving those muscles for the later running portion of the race.

   The 1976 Wilier-Triestina “Gioiello Ramato” (copper jewel) has also been featured in this blog, as the orange cromovelato is a personal favorite. Created under the direction of Mario Dal Molin in the late 1940s for his Bassano cycling team, the color was meant to stand out against the traditional paint colors of other Italian builders at the time. He wanted something to capture the attention of fans who would flock to see team leader Fiorenzo Magni win the 1948 Giro d’Italia, and indeed the shiny finish has become an enduring symbol of the company.

   This is a special version of the 2017 Wilier Cento10 Air aero race bike ridden by Filippo Pozzato, leader of the Wilier-Triestina-Selle Italia pro continental team, to celebrate the 100th Giro d’Italia. Its ramato roots are obvious! Hey, “Pippo” was thinking of retirement at the end of this season, so perhaps he won't really need this bike anymore...maybe I’ll get in touch!

   I’ll finish this entry up with a pairing that is a bit of an introduction to next week’s projects, as I recently acquired a Gios-Torino Super Record, though not up to the standards of Roger de Vlaeminck’s 1976 version. The talented Belgian strangely missed out on a Paris-Roubaix victory that year (he won FOUR times in his career), he did manage to win his second Giro di Lombardia, four stages of the Giro d’Italia and overall at the Tirreno-Adriatico (among other races).

   The famous Gios Blue emerged from a partnership with the Brooklyn Chewing Gum company and the colors used on their “stars and stripes” team jerseys. After an amazing run of victories by de Vlaeminck on the bicycles he supplied, Aldo Gios clung strongly to the blue and in the following years produced bikes almost exclusively in that color.

   The 2017 Aerolight is similar in color only, as it features carbon monocoque construction with wind-cheating tube shapes and internal cable routing. Gios supplied these bicycles to last season’s Manzana Postobon pro continental team.

Plenty of project news coming next week!

Then and Now(ish) - Part One

   There isn't much to write about regarding current build projects, as they are on hold due to part searches and paint curing. I also have a bit of a full house, so I don’t want to start any new builds until I clear some out. I was fortunate to make a couple of sales lately, just in time for some interesting bikes to come my way, two that were major bargain buys, and a few customer projects as well. More details are coming about those in the weeks to come.

   So, thinking of a topic about which to write, I was considering a feature on iconic bike designs. When searching for some photos, I noticed several online articles on a similar subject, so I decided to expand the focus and provide a look at the classic bikes and then some of their modern descendants. As I kept finding more bicycles I wanted to include in my list, I realized this entry will have to come in two parts!

   Because many of these bicycles are my all-time favorites, you may have seen one or two before in this blog, including this classic ridden by Marco Pantani during his magical 1998 season, when the Italian legend pulled off the Giro d’Italia/Tour de France double. The Mega Pro XL featured an aluminum frame with carbon fiber fork, and included wispy Campagnolo electron wheels that made it easy for Pantani to dance up mountains.

   2018 marks the twentieth anniversary of Pantani’s double, and Bianchi is marking the event by releasing a special edition, all-carbon Specialissima in a paint scheme similar to the one used by the Mercatone Uno team led by “Il Pirata” that season.

   Sticking with Bianchi for another pair, here is a 1967 steel classic ridden by Felice Gimondi, who won each of the Grand Tours and several classics during his career. I’ve always been picky about the celeste bikes I build, whether it is the color shade or the font used in the logo, and this is about as good as it gets!

   Looking then at the Oltre XR4 CV, ridden to victory by Dylan Groenewegen on the Champs-Élysées during this year’s Tour, the changes in technology and design are evident. The aero-shaped carbon tubes and deep rim wheels create quite a contrast, and I find it a bit sad not to see this bike in Campagnolo gruppo.

   Spaniard Miguel Indurain won five Tours de France, many on the strength of overwhelmingly dominant time trial performances. Before the UCI enacted rules on bicycle design, Pinarello created the carbon fiber Espada in 1994 with aid of Formula One auto racing designer Ing Giacchi.

   With the new rules in place, the 2013 Graal might look like a step backwards in design, but there are subtle tweaks, like the location of the front brake and electronic shifting, and major changes in (carbon) composition of components and wheels that actually make this a faster bicycle. Note: some of you might wonder why I’m not including bicycles by a certain pro squad that is now the exclusive user of Pinarello equipment, and my response would be, “I don’t do Team Sky!”

   Pinarello is now the brand on which the most Tours de France have been won, and Indurain’s 1993 Banesto team bicycle, made with Oria steel tubing, certainly helped “Big Mig” get the job done. The mix of Campagnolo C-Record components is interesting, particularly the substitution for the notoriously finicky Delta brakes.

   Seeing Alejandro Valverde ride the “Prince of Spain” bicycle to an incredible opening stage victory in the 2008 Tour was my first taste of the curvy Onda fork and chainstays. A visit in 2010 to the Lazzaretti bike shop in Rome had me slobbering over racks of Pinarello frames, and I immediately went on a search for an eventual FP2 purchase when I returned home.

   Cycling legend Sean Kelly is a favorite of mine, as is his Vitus 979, which I’ve used in several build projects the last few years. However, here is a photo of the Irishman on his way to victory in the 1987 Vuelta a España, aboard a Vitus CK9 “Carbone”. Much like the 979, it included aluminum pegged lugs onto which tubes where mechanically and chemically bonded, but the CK9’s tubes were made of carbon fiber, instead of aluminum.

   Vitus bicycles live on, with “King Kelly” as a major spokesman, and here is the company’s full carbon 2015 Vitesse EVO. This model was used by the An Post-Chain Reaction continental team that competed in the UCI Europe Tour.

   As discussed in earlier blog entries, Mario Cipollini helped to put Cannondale bicycles on the map. The CAAD3 (then only had one “A”) aluminum R4000 was cutting edge and inspired another project of mine. In the photo below, the legendary Italian sprinter is sporting the maglia rosa and riding a special pink version of the bike as leader of the 1997 Giro d’Italia.

   Cannondale first experimented with bonding carbon fiber and aluminum tubes in its 2005 Six13 (currently for sale) and eventually moved onto full carbon frames. The 2016 SuperSix EVO was quite the eye-catcher for the Cannondale Factory Racing team – now if they could just get rid of those butt-ugly POC helmets!

   The grandfather of today’s bicycles with compact geometry and gearing is the 1999 Giant TCR ridden by the super-talented Laurent Jalabert and his ONCE teammates. Not only was the bike stiffer, lighter and used less material, but it could also be made to fit more people in fewer factory sizes. The Frenchmen provided the innovative bike design tremendous exposure during the latter part of his career, winning the climber’s polka-dot jersey twice at the Tour de France, and amazingly claiming the sprinter’s green jersey, polka-dot jersey and overall title at the Vuelta in 1995!

   The somewhat clunky looks of the original TCR are long gone, as Giant is now known for its developments in aerobike design. The current iteration of the TCR “Advanced”, ridden by Team Sunweb, showed its versatility last season, as Tom Dimoulin won last season’s Giro d’Italia and Michael Matthews took home the sprinter’s green jersey at the Tour de France.

Tune in for Part Two next week...