dddd

I arrived later than prudent to the Davis CA bike swap this morning, my nemesis' no doubt having already had chances to leave me with what was left, but my very first look-see upon arriving was a Merckx Century for sale @ only $400.

The Merckx had wear and tear, a worn-looking gruppo and splotches of serious rust in places taking the place of chrome.

So a quick glance to my right had me looking at a much older bike, the kind that most gets my attention.

Price was really low on this one, despite a 1st (first) generation Campagnolo complete crankset, so I very quickly negotiated to $280 and was on my way, but not before picking up a few commuter bikes that I then sold to local dealers before leaving town (this being a most bike-centric college town) with my Italian prize.

I'll pull the front and rear hub locknuts to see what dates are hidden there. The seat and post were not offered unfortunately, but who knows, the missing bits may have bought me the time to snag the bike a full 45 minutes after the start time.

The Chromovelato finish looks weary and evaporated, but the bike retains it's character and will be kept original.

big chainring

Very cool!

bici_mania

Very cool indeed. That is quite the gem, I look forward to more pictures and seeing how it turns out.

dddd

Thanks, and I'll try to get some more pic's up.

I looked thru the Olmo Serial Number Registry, and with the included advertisement of the 1961 model (had Mafac brakes), I concluded this was either a late '61 or a '62.

I just pulled a locknut off of each hub and both are CAM 61, which leads me further to assume my guess was right.

It's supposed to have a Campag post and Brooks saddle, which are easy to scare up if exact-year pieces aren't too important.

The adjustable extension stem is wild, and might come in handy when it's time to hit the road. The dual-clamping part might need to be reversed to put the bars on top of the stem extension, instead of below it, which is handy for adding about 2-1/4" of bar height!
I measure the top tube at 56cm, and the seat tube is 57cm up to where the clamp starts, so should be quite ridable for me. Bars are only 37cm c-c.

Tubing is Falk, and I measure the frame angles as 74.25 seat tube and 75.25 head tube, which are most racerly and will contribute to a bigger fit in terms of top tube reach.
The front end has taken a frontal impact, as there is a slight bulge in the downtube, behind the lower lug.

Gearing is 51-48 and 14-26t, so will require some degree of planning as to where my rides might take me.

I measure 22.75lbs using a digital hanging scale, which equates to 25lbs after adding a leather saddle, seatpost, toe clips and straps.

Lascauxcaveman 

Wow, that stem. Cool!

mtnbke

Olmo's are brilliant.

Most cyclists only know Colnago, because of their concerted effort to market in the US during the bike boom, and subsequently. Many know Cinelli, and Pinarello because of Indurain at least. Olmo never really cared about the US market. The bikes that were imported were brought over by independent importers.

Sheldon Brown's website is/was and always will be off on Olmo. They most certainly should not be thought of as the Schwinn of Italy, at least not for us in the states. Looking over vintage Olmo catalogs in English, for many years the LOWEST end bikes were still full Campy equipped.

Olmo has a very long history around much longer than just about any builder other than Bianchi. He raced in the LA Olympics in the 30s and won Giro stages and classic races. At one point Giuseppe held the Hour record. There probably isn't a more pedigreed nameplate other than Merckx, and Bianchi.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Olmo

The way to think about Olmos, in my opinion is to combine Merckx bikes with say Colnago/Masi/Pinarello bikes. Then you get Olmo.

Freakin' fantastic bikes. Many have full pantagraphing that are just a C&V collectors dream. Completely misunderstood and Sheldon should have known better.

The better way to think of Olmo than the fallacious "Schwinn of Italy" would have taken Sheldon not just blindly reposting others lazy poorly researched info. Properly understood Olmo really doesn't compare to any company. They have a historic racing pedigree than NONE other than Bianchi can match. They built and still build some of the best bikes in the world. Like Cannondale they entered markets beyond just pure race bikes. Cannondale built BMX, hybrid, recumbents, trailers, etc. Olmo builds commuters, Dutch style bikes, basically has a more diverse product offering than just about any builder and maybe even more bikes than even Dorel.

At the top Olmos are still world class with their high zoot stuff. What makes them even more special is that there just isn't an importing presence in the US, of any significance. It takes a car nut to seek out an Alfa Romeo that wasn't imported to the US, and it shows seriousness in a collection. Likewise having an Olmo means you've graduated beyond just being a Klein tool (no offense to the bikes, where are brilliant, just offense meant to the archetype Porsche 911 owning Klein riding customer who prefaces everything with, "its the best.") and buy based on what your radiologists salary allows, and instead start buying based on what really is good, not what others simply will recognize as being good, you start getting interested in Olmo.

Having an Olmo in the stable marks a cyclist as a serious collector. Heck, even knowing about the offerings of Olmo differentiates most C&V folks from the rest.

Brilliant bikes as good or better than Cinelli, Pinarello, Masi, and certainly Colnago for the good stuff. Very interesting bikes.

Very very uncommon in the US.

devinfan

Brilliant bike - my favourite kind of find from my favourite era. Not only an Olmo, but in chromovelato! Mtnbke thanks for the interesting and informative post as well, confirms what I've always thought about the brand.

dddd

Wow, thanks, I for the most part had no idea, beyond that some on the CR list had good things to say about certain earlier vintage Olmos.

I was on the road today, went over 100 miles to ANOTHER swap meet, was among very few buyers so had a field day so to speak!

I shouldn't say this too loud, but bought my first pair of carbon-rim wheels, ...GASP.

I wouldn't be too critical of the late Sheldon Brown, given the breadth of material that he endeavored to cover.
What he missed in accuracy he more than made up for by providing such a broadly useful and convenient source of information that could be very hard for someone to learn elsewhere, so let's not confuse hindsight with foresight. I have to wonder though what vintage of Olmo bikes he had been most familiar with, as I have met collectors who were dismissive of the brand's collector value because of the proliferation of certain later vintages of the brand's lower-tier models, as with Legnano and so many others.

There were a lot of different brands in the very early 1960's, from Paramounts to Geminianis to Legnanos to Olmos, and again, so glad to hear that Olmo stood out!

Here's a couple of photos of today's swapmeet haul, those Dura-Ace freehubs in boxes went for just 3/$90, the wheels just $250 and those crazy fillet-brazed handlebars just $40. Theres a bevy of Italian stems, Superbe Pro and Dura-Ace, Force and Red 10s rear derailers, and a Zeus front derailer, as well as three more cyclocross tires to get me through the CX season.

jonwvara

Fork's bent.

Someone had to say it.

devinfan

This is true. I've never worried too much about this kind of bend because it's actually an easy fix for the shop with the correct tool. OR you can use the equally effective old school method of wrapping the forks and judicious use of a sewer grate and some leverage against the frame.

daf1009

What a haul! Seems like a great weekend...

lord_athlon

@mtnbike, I always read Sheldon's comments as to the range of bikes olmo made, not the quality.

People buy low end olmos and think they're $$$, just like people will buy a varsity and think they're $$$ Paramount's.

jonwvara

I was sort of kidding about the fork being bent--it could easily just be the photo angle. And if it is bent, it's very slight and should be easily fixable. And it sure is a great looking bike. How come I never find any cool old Italians?

kroozer 

The OP mentioned that the frame has frontal impact damage. That's a major bummer, although it could be straightened out.
Back in the early 1960's there didn't seem to be as many small-scale artisanal frame builders in Italy, and the high-end bikes were much more likely to be produced by the big companies like Bianchi, Olmo, Atala, Frejus/Legnano, etc. I never understood why Olmo's (along with Atala's) aren't as highly regarded, but from a buyer's perspective that's just fine with me!

dddd

Yes, the fork should be pushed forward about 3mm to my eye, and hopefully the headtube will go out along with it, which is half likely, though one can't count on metal "findng it's way home" to it's completely original proportions just by reversing the forces that caused some distortion.
I am thinking that a good push out from the bottom bracket to the dropouts will more perfectly reverse the load forces along the entire frame-fork load path that the original impact sustained, so just might bring everything back, including the headtube angle, which at 75.25 seems like it needs to be 74.25 like the seat tube (all very steep for a 1962!).

This weekend was the haul, tantamount to going out and buying a new bike in the 1k range, though those Reynolds/White-Ti wheels alone might have cost that at retail.
I bought those fillet brazed bars only because I figured they were very expensive new, though they weigh a lot frankly.

John E

That's about the same age as my Sieger, and you have the advantage of Campag. cranks.

You may be able to find an older well-equipped bike shop with a frame straightening tool. My first Capo was bent back worse than that, with visible dimpling on the underside of the downtube, and my LBS was able to breathe a few more years of life into it by pulling the bottom head tube forward from its bottom. My downtube did eventually crack at that point, but again, my frame was in significantly worse shape than yours.

John E

Yeah, you are kind of stuck, as I am with the Sieger, which I can gear either 49-46/14-16-18-20-23-26 with an ultra-6 freewheel or 49-45/14-16-19-22-26 if I want to stay true to 10-speed gearing. You can go as small as 44T in front, which is only 2% lower than I can do with my cottered 6-bolt system. I would prefer the 42/26 low I use on my other road bikes, but of course one needs a 144mm or smaller BCD for that.

John E

I presume is stamped on its inside face -- I need to pull one of mine to verify the year of my Sieger, which may be a 1961 or 1962.

I like yours better than my Ambrosio, which becomes a little threatening when set for a short reach. All types of adjustable-reach stems are reportedly in very short supply and high demand.

That was evidently fashionable back then. I think one of my Capos had 36mm bars.

SJX426 

@dddd Part of the problem with bent steel is that it work hardens with each displacement. I believe that is why you don't find that the area that gets bent is in the same place on the second bend. This all depends on geometry and mechanical properites of the material at the time of deformation.

Anyway, you might seriously consider bending the fork independently from the frame. I am not convinced that damage would be avoided to the headset components making the "repair" as a system or assembly.

I recently had fun straightening out a fork for my Trek 760:
[IMG]WP_20150430_008, on Flickr[/IMG]

Using a tuba4:
[IMG]P1030002, on Flickr[/IMG]

I have a frame I would like to try straightening, but I fear it is too far gone.

the key to the fork is the steerer. It needs to be straight, otherwise the fork is toast. Here is an example of how I checked, not that a straight edge wouldn't work too! This is a second bent fork!
[IMG]P1030228, on Flickr[/IMG]

dddd

I am lucky that my degree of damage is so small, and I've bought several bikes like this where it's barely visible.

I am noticing a slight binding of the headset when the fork is turned near 90 degrees, so I will try doing incremental push-outs until the binding just goes away, all while examining how the headtube angle and fork legs are coming around. I have had better luck with respect to the work-hardening problem when the displacements were small, so again I am hopeful to achieve at least some degree of simultaneous corrections.
This will be my first "go" at cold-setting Falk tubing, so I will find out how "good" and springy it is.

These sort of front-end issues seem to affect at least half of the really old bike's that I've found for low or no cost, and so far I've been able to fix them sufficiently myself using the relatively crude methods, with care. Thanks for the illustrations on your fork correction, it may come in handy!

That stem of mine requires that the tilt of the bars be done manually after each change of extension, since it has no "indexing" flats, just a straight solid rod.

Citoyen du Monde

Wow, lots and lots of misinformation here, where should I start? Let me first off say that I built wheels for a shop in Canada that imported Olmo bikes directly in the early 80's; then in the late 80's when I moved to Germany and into the early 90's, I handled all communications for a German shop that also imported Olmo bikes directly from Celle Ligure. I visited the factory and was very familiar with the company, the Olmo family and the range of bikes being offered. I maintained contact up until recently when they stopped producing in Celle.

Olmo bikes always offered a very interesting price/performance proposition when you would buy direct from the factory thereby eliminating one profit margin. They could build large quantities but were also willing to sell smaller orders and they were better than most at keeping their word for delivery timing.


People know Colnago because they only built higher end bikes and they won more races than anybody for years and years. Indeed in the period from 1970 to lets say 2000, they were the most prolific supplier of bikes to the winning cyclists in the pro peloton. Ernesto also developed/introduced many novelties to the market and was a true innovator in every sense of the word. Yes he was also the master marketer, but you cannot successfully market something long term that does not have intrinsic merits. Olmo does not even register on the same scale. Ernesto has never extensively focussed on the American market and to this day, the American market has never been close to his largest market. Cinelli too is on a different planet from Olmo both with regard to the quality of its products as well as when one looks at the influence exercised on the bicycle world. Cino Cinelli could in some ways be considered to be a "godfather" of the Italian bike business. Indeed, even Olmo used Cinelli as one of their primary suppliers for frame building products, handlebars, stems and many other items. I would agree that until the 70's Pinarello as a brand would have been a mere shadow of Olmo; but, that changed quite dramatically with the numerous pro race wins in the 80's and onwards. Today, Pinarello is a brand that has earned its place of pride.

I agree that to call Olmo the Schwinn of Italy is incorrect. Olmo never had a market position in Italy that even remotely compared with the importance of Schwinn to the US market. It was mainly a regional player in Italy, sticking largely to Liguria and Piedmont. So perhaps Sheldon should have described them as the Schwinn of NorthWest Italy. They did build a full range of bikes, many of which were simply not competitive or of interest outside of Italy. Their low end "export market" bikes did indeed usually feature Campagnolo components but they were generally Valentino which were never considered to be paragons of quality and function. Valentino derailleurs were very poor quality and easily outperformed by many less highly appreciated brands.

The statement about the nameplate being pedigreed is totally nonsense. Giuseppe Omo as a rider was very famous and his palmarès is impressive, but these wins and history were not achieved on Olmo bikes. Olmo as a company dates from the 30's, so there are many Italian brands that have been around for far longer and that have much more gloried histories. Bianchi is 40 years older than Olmo and has had an almost uninterrupted presence amongst the pro ranks as opposed to very limited presence of Olmo. In fact Olmo only truly had 6 successful teams amongst the pros, as indicated below in red, all the other teams were also-rans with not important race wins to their name or highly-ranked riders:

1946 Olmo - Fulgor
1947 Olmo - Fulgor
1948 Olmo
1949 Olmo
1974 Zonca
1975 Zonca - Santini
1977 Zonca - Santini
1978 Zonca - Santini
1979 Zonca - Santini
1980 Magniflex
1980 Masta - Cornelo
1981 Magniflex
1982 Gis Gelati - Olmo
1983 Alfa Lum
1983 Olmo
1984 Olmo
1984 Alfa Lum
1985 Alpilatte - Cierre
1992 Ziegler - Olmo
1998 Vitalicio Seguros - Grupo Generali
1999 Vitalicio Seguros - Grupo Generali
2000 Vitalicio Seguros - Grupo Generali
2002 Cage Maglierie - Olmo
2003 Sportsbook.com Cycling Team - Acrow Bridges
2003 Tenax
2003 Labarca - 2 Café Baqué
2004 Café Baqué
2004 Tenax
2005 Tenax - Salmilano
2006 P-Nívó Betonexpressz 2000 Kft.se
2008 P-Nivo Kft. Betonexpressz - 2000 Corratec

As a comparison, more important races were won in one single year on either Colnago, Bianchi, Pinarello, De Rosa, Legnano bikes than were ever won on Olmo bikes throughout their whole history. Then when you add in the fact that the Olmo pro bikes of the riders of the teams highlighted in red were mostly built by outside builders, the actual number of wins on Olmo bikes is further diminished. While Olmo as a brand was not quite as successful, you could perhaps compare it to Bottecchia.

I respectfully submit that you need to research a bit more because this is simply nonsense.

Sheldon did indeed have certain shortcomings, but I believe that he was not far from the truth in his estimation of Olmo. Did you know that Pinarello to this day sells commuters, Dutch style bikes, children's bikes etc just like Olmo? Did you know that many builders in Italy do this and have always done this? Olmo back inn the day could perhaps be compared to Jamis in today's market: a small family-owned company making a full range of bikes. Dorel will build more bikes this year than Olmo built in their most prolific decade.

This is simply not true. Back in the day, I recommended Olmo bikes to some of my best friends and have never regretted it. But the recommendation was never based on the belief that they were the "best" but rather they were the "best value". I do believe that many vintage Olmo bikes could today still be the "best value" and great-riding bikes but I would never dream of comparing them for workmanship, historical importance or collectibility to the bikes that you mentioned. They are honest production bikes with few is any failures.

As regards the OP's newly purchased bike, the parts are certainly worth the price but I would not personally ever dream of restoring it. Perhaps a rehab is in order, but spending too much time or money on it seems ill-advised as the frame is quite severely damaged and no matter how well you straighten it out, the metal memory of the impact has compromised it. Given the age of the bike and components, I would suggest that you insert/lower the stem to avoid further damage.

dddd

Thanks for the additional viewpoint, another other side of the story, so to speak.

I did originally buy the bike based on the value of the components, yet I can see this bike coming together as a rebuilt rider, likely using a later NR crankset with a 42t small ring, a straightened frameset, downtube shifters and a clincher wheelset.
I ride only with clipless pedals, which don't fit properly (depth) into these crank's pedal holes anyway, and which often require heavy thread chasing to thread all the way in to older Campagnolo and Stronglight BSC crankarms. The pressed-in caps would prevent me from running my BSC pedal taps in at all.

Since this bike appears to be a '62, there is no reason not to schlep off these high-dollar 1st-gen cranks and go from there. I have an old set of 151 cranks with 165 and 167 arms I might use if for display purposes or for sale to some other collector.

KonAaron Snake 

I knew you'd enjoy that post.

Correct me if I'm wrong CDM, but didn't Olmo's team utilize Marnati for their team frames?

Peter_B

Hello, could you please tell me the serial number so I can add it and improve the Olmo Serial Number Registry? Thanks, Peter

dddd

Thanks for making this so easy, Peter. I was going to reply via your timeline page. Serial # is E395. What say you, '61 or '62? Were Universal 61's available in '61 at all? The '61 advertisement says Mafac (mine are the 61's).
Also of course mine has the Tipo RONDINE (lugs) decal and Red Label rims. Seatpost opening seems to measure only 26.4mm, so this bike isn't the lightest!

As I said, the seat tube angle is a steep 74 degrees, and the very slightly tweaked front end yields a 75-degree headtube reading.

Thanks again for your registry, very useful!!!