I was able to locate the previous owner of the Allegro and exchanged a couple e mails with him . They answered all the questions that I had about it.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____John,

I bought it new old stock maybe 15 years ago. I think it’s about a 1973. The paint was totally crazed when I bought it from being in a barn for 30 years. I had it modified with braze-ons to support a Rohloff hub - thus the strange seat stay and top tube braze-ons. You’ll notice that the seat stay braze-on was partially cut off because it was put on too high and interfered with the rear brake. When I bought it, the steerer threads (which were french) were pretty destroyed, so I had a new steerer with english threads installed. I also had it powder coated the current blue and I found some decals which were close and put those on.



I never loved the way it rode - a little slow steering for my tastes - so it was sitting in my garage for about 10 years unused. But it has great tire clearance - it can clear most 35 mm tires with long reach brakes.

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Thank you so much for the e mail . I often find rather special bikes that have been donated to the Bike Exchange and do a restoration on them. Usually there is no info that goes along with the bike and it can be quite frustrating trying to find out its origin and some of it's history. There is a bike I have called the French Mystery Bike that came to me early this year that has defied all attempts to determine who made it. Experts in obscure French bikes believe it is from the 1960's and probably built by a regional specialty builder in France If I had a head badge for it it would probably up the value by a couple hundred dollars.

Your frame and fork also had me and my friends confused. Especially the braze on triple cable stops. I could think of no situation where that would be necessary, especially with the down tube mounted shift levers and cable guide. I have tried to come up with a set up that would use all three but in the end what I did was to use just one for the rear brake and use one half of the lower cable guide to run the rear derailleur cable, drilling and threading the bottom bracket shell to accomodate a plastic sable guide so I could run the front derailleur cable under it and use a set up where the wire goes directly to the derailleur. Otherwise the 700 x 28 tires rubbed on the derailleur necessitating deflating the tire in order to put it on or take it off.

I figured that the front fork was a replacement , especially with the right side braze on for a headlight. Was it purchased in England? I found that a Campi competition headset fit perfectly and it is stamped British threads.

Do you by any chance have a picture of the bike when you got it , after you had it modified and painted and ready to ride. There are quite a few Allegro fans that would be very grateful including myself.

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John,

I’m afraid I don’t have any pictures. It was a classic solid international orange when I bought it. I remember looking at pictures of similar bikes online - that’s how I determined it was built around 1973.



The fork is Allegro. I put the generator braz-on on when I had the steerer fixed.



I think I read that someone bought about 50 of these and someone stored them all in a barn in the midwest. Maybe a child inherited the barn and found the bikes. They were all sold off -2000. That’s where this one came from.
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One more question. Is it a genuine Allegro Special or did you give it a promotion when you put the new decals on? I wouldn't want to misrepresent it to a buyer.
Thanks again,

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I’m pretty sure it’s a special. I’m absolutely sure that the tubing is 531 double butted throughout.