Medici unique setup
 

Trying to figure out some info on this Medici. Interesting setup. One chainring up front. Campy. Serial in pictures. It was a friend of mines son who I believe bought it back in the early 80s from what the father recalls. Hoping to get a little bit better idea of date or just info in general. Why the odd setup, etc. I didn't get the full story from my friend but I don't think the sons around to give any info :/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/298228...57651258364263

Man that's a pretty bike.

Agreed. I went out tonight to take these photos. Really a beautiful bike!

Interesting. There is only one shifter, not two.

I used to race as a junior back in the mid 80s. Not sure what the rules are today, but there was a gear limit restriction based on age. It was common to have an undersized front ring with a fairly large cog for the high gear. If I recall correctly, I rode a 50x15 as a high gear when I was in the age 15-16 category. (I still have my 15-21/23 Regina FW; I'd swap out lower cogs routinely based on the course.) That 50x15 with tubulars works out to ~87.9 gear inches. I notice the the Medici has a single 47 front ring. Pair that with a 14t small cog and 700c x 23 clinchers and you have ~88.2 gear inches. They would tape out the gear inch restrictions on the ground. "Roll out" your bike backward starting with the crank at 6 o-clock until you get to the 2nd line of tape. More than a full rotation and you pass inspection, less than a full rotation and you don't. Since you say it was your friend's son, my hunch says it was a custom build with junior racing gear restrictions in mind.

very interesting. I appreciate that. I'll chat him up and see what I can find.

Looks like fresh paint to me. Never seen one with the Columbus Tube-set sticker that wasn't broken.
Does it have an American Flag decal on the seat tube behind the Columbus sticker?
Possibly 1983
https://irideamedici.files.wordpress...nks-sorted.pdf


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?pli=1#gid=0

I'm going to say it's a time trial rig. Gaucho's right on with the gear restriction but the ultra cool time trial bike back then was a purpose built single ring to save a bunch of weight. Aero wasn't addressed except to get low. No disc wheels or shaped tubes until later.

A semi common intermediate class gear set up. From time to time I set my bike up that way. Danger was you could drop a chain, and resetting it took too much time.
California Burgundy was the color, Gian pushed for that color when he worked at Masi.

+1, look to see if the tabs for the inner ring were filed off. I picked up a Campy Crank that had undergone such a mod. , so well done it looked like it came that way.

Nice bike, very pretty!

That crossed my mind as well, but the mid-80s was the heyday of TT "funny bikes" with sloping tubes and an under-sized front wheel. If it was a true TT bike, I wouldn't expect it to have fairly standard road geometry & tubes. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought these funny bikes were around in '83, no? Also thought perhaps it could have been a dedicated hilly TT bike, but that would have been quite an indulgence for a junior rider.

New paint with a filed-off front shifter tab is a possibility, too.

I'm guessing that it might be very early 80s. I wasn't aware of funny bikes until the 84 Olympics.
The over the BB shell cable guide makes me think older than 84. The wheel guides have the CPSC plastic covering and the rear dreailleur limit screw has the cone of shame. Around what year did they quit using forcing those on us?

The CPSC modifications lasted until the end.

With the small frame size that makes sense.

Nice rig for an Intermediate.

Not sure what you mean. They were on the NR group I bought in about 80 or 81. Since Campy doesn't wear out, I didn't buy any replacement parts until I tried brifters in the early 90s. By then, no CPSC nonsense. When was the end?

The post Nuovo / Super Record stuff, Corsa Record, Chorus, Triomphe, Victory…
had the CPSC regs designed in to pass the tests.

There must have been some loophole though regarding the chainrings. (maybe they set up a bike with the chain in the big ring?)
Campagnolo did for a short time provide Raleigh with CPSC cranks with a chain guard, then those vanished.
Shimano also made some Dura-Ace cranks with a chain guard for a time.
We wondered about that for a time way back and never learned the answer.
When the regs first came out we were wondering if they would put chain guards on track bikes… and what about the brake?
It was quite unclear.

Concur. Great color, nice graphics, all in very good condition