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Old 06-30-06 | 05:30 AM
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masi61
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Joined: Oct 2005
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From: SW Ohio

Bikes: Puch Marco Polo, Saint Tropez, Masi Gran Criterium

I think these forgettable department store bikes were a marketing attempt by Huffy to simulate the professional "aero" bikes that were beginning to appear in the olympics and european racing. Huffy actually hired a pro framebuilder - Mike Melton - if my memory is correct and he was building these Huffy labelled aero tubing, tig welded (or filet brazed) time trial bikes for the US team to ride at the Pan Am games and the olympics (can't remember which one). This was around the time the Huffy bought Raleigh so some of the bikes said Raleigh.I think the frames were built somewhere around Springboro Ohio. A few of the guys in the Dayton Cycling club own a couple of these oddities and they're quite specialized so you wouldn't ride one every day. They had sloping top tubes and rear triangles where the wheel fit tightly around the aero seat tube.
As for the Huffy at the department store, I remember thinking to myself, "maybe something good will come of this, maybe cycling will catch on finally".
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