VintageTTfan

Wow that is crazy! The fact that he still got bronze is wild. How did he still steer? Look at the guy's thigh and leg muscles! The man looks like a machine. It is a good quality bike so I am surprised that it happened. He is just too powerful. Love unique pictures like this thanks...and hope to see more Mark.

VintageTTfan

Wow....what a career! When you add Olympics to your credentials.....when you can do what Masi and Serotta can't that is saying something. Inside information like this is almost impossible to find nowadays and the knowledge is getting lost. It would be an honor to have you post bits and pieces here so it is saved in perpetuity. I think all these professional cyclist of every variety and type of race are amazing....the way they fly up endless hills that I get winded on right away, the speed of the track and TT racers...it is awesome. Not so fond of the drug thing but it is so prevalent. Oh, by the way, can you also post your favorite vintage time trial bike from the eighties that you did not build. I would be very curious to see what you pick. Please be sure to post a color picture of it. Does not matter what country it was made in as long as it is made in the eighties. Thanks.

VintageTTfan

I like the purple/chrome scheme. The bike has an elegant simplicity. Not crazy about the chopped bullhorn....would have preferred a full one. White on the saddle and bar tape would have been my pick. Great post and thanks. Hope you keep giving us the cool color images...........

VintageTTfan

Sending out the Bike of the Day from TT Land:

Okay, for this one...cue the music:
Yes, that is what this bicycle does to me. The moment I saw this I was transported on an angelic cloud.....I was soaring the heights.......I was leering blissfully....sorry for waxing cheesy here, but this ensemble has the panache and rarefied quality that make me sigh longingly.

No, I will admit that this machine is not perfect. It does not have the curved tubes I adore. The saddle is too late for my tastes. I would have preferred just elegant bull horns to all the extra aero bars.

However, the over all sum of it's parts is AMAZING for me. First of all, the apple green and pink paint scheme is lovely and extremely unseen and unique. The triangles painted on add that little pizzazz. The fact that this is a rare Moser is so nice.

Now I turn my gaze to the ULTRA ULTRA RARE white Fir wheels. I see red ones and black ones of these carbon formed tri or penta spoked wheels (or is it fiberglass?) but white ones?.....nooooooooo. I need a pair of these for one of my vintage TT bikes. I will probably have to refinance my house to pay for it. How many pictures of these wheels even exist?!? These wheels are just gorgeous! The kind of thing you are shocked exists when you see it.

The pink bar tape is a good choice, but I would have gone with regular pink benotto cello tape instead of hot pink. I would have chosen a white vintage Rolls or Concor for the saddle and I would have chosen white brake hoods.

Overall, the effect of this bicycle on me is glorious...... imperfections and all. Maybe that is the point. Now I will go salivate in a corner while I plot a way to obtain it and listen to my cheesy video.

Reynolds 

I'm not sure this is a real TT bike - the handlebar, front brake... more like a fan's tribute. But I like it anyway.

VintageTTfan

Just to let you know folks I am trying to write a book right now so while I will still keep posting on this thread I started, it will not be quite as much. For instance, I will not be responding to every single post like I have up till now. I will however read your posts and hit the "like' button on the ones I like. I hope no one takes it personally as I do not want to be rude to anyone's feelings. It is purely a matter of what is doable for me. In any case, it is up to everybody to keep this corner of the Bike Forum I call TT Land alive if they so choose. That part is not up to me. I still appreciate every single post and I truly thank you for all your posts so far. And if anyone cares, I will still post here, just not as much. So here is a wonderful machine for you guys and gals:

63rickert

I believe that is very early 90s. The frame is all carbon fiber. And of course on windy days you had a backup bike.

Last time I was at RRB Cycles there was one of these available for sale. Ron Boi was part of the team that made these and he could tell you all about it.

thinktubes 

Standard roller blade wheels if I recall correctly....

VintageTTfan

63rickert you just restored my faith.....thank you. Can't explain but thank you.

Yeah, I love early carbon frames because it is fascinating to see what they did with the material in the very beginning of carbon bicycle frame building. I also love that they experimented with interesting and beautiful designs. Some of them were very avant garde for their time and are still futuristic even now as far as how they look. That Colnago I just posted is a very early carbon bike. I wonder what was the very very first carbon bicycle??? If anyone knows let us know. Throw in a picture while your at it. Thanks.

Thanks 63rickert and I hope to see more posts from you here.

bulgie 

I haven't heard of any older than the 1970-'71 Carlton:

_

Here's an interview with a Raleigh product guy, showing some close-ups of the frame construction.
Disappointing that they put more modern parts on it, and newer decals (who would do that??) Apparently about a dozen were made, and some did get raced.

I had a mid-70s Exxon Graftek for a while but sold it before ever riding it, never got around to completely building it up... I know they were "good enough" because a lot of top USA riders (John Howard, Dale Stetina et al.) won races on them. They were known to break sometimes though. Here are my pics of mine, when it was for sale. It weighed under 17 lb complete, pretty good for a 63 cm frame. Some of the parts were crazy light though, like the Hi-E front wheel with aluminum "Siamese" spokes -- not sure if I would have ridden that wheel, at my weight, which is <mumble mumble> let's say a small fraction of a ton.

There were one or two other small companies in the US who made similar frames, carbon tubes glued into lugs, at about the same time as the Graftek. "Graphite USA" beat Exxon to market, but very few were sold. Exxon Graftek frames were produced in decent numbers and are not especially rare today.

Here's a Graphite USA frame, claimed to be from 1974. That might be the first frame with all tubes CF, since the Carlton used steel chainstays.

VintageTTfan

Fantastic informative historical post! Wow thanks for taking the time to put this together. I am sure the bf members will appreciate it.

It will take me some time to digest it all but I will read the full article and watch the video as I am very interested. It is hard to imagine anything earlier than that! Wow.

Oh and if you have a color picture of a vintage time trial bike from the eighties or early nineties please be sure and post it. I would be very interested in your choice of bike in that category. THANKS!

VintageTTfan

I love Zunow. Let me count the ways. I love the logo...the head badge...that hummingbird...so cool. This bicycle is terrific. The colors on the frame are vivid. The saddle is perfect for this bike and is soooo unique. It is like an art piece. Then the pink bar tape is perfect here. The quality of this make is well known and respected.

T-Mar

I believe that the first commercially available carbon-fibre framesets were the Mossberg Racelites X-1000 & X-1001. Depending on the source, they were available in either 1973 or 1974. They were definitely being featured in a couple of issues of Bicycling magazine in 1974, so maybe they were introduced in late 1973 for the 1974 model year. Back then, in the USA, the material was generically referred to as graphite as opposed to carbon-fibre.

VintageTTfan

Thanks for the very informative post. So then would the Mossberg Racelites be considered earlier than the Carlton mentioned above? And how much did these early carbon bikes cost?

T-Mar

While the Mossberg frames weren't earlier than the Carlton, please note that I made the distinction that the Mossberg were "commercially available". In other words, you could go into your local Mossberg dealer and purchase one. By all accounts I've read, the Carlton was extremely limited production and wasn't available to the general public. Basically, it was a team issue frameset used for R&D.

The Mossberg framsets sold for $600 US, while the complete bicycles were $1200 US and $1300 US.

VintageTTfan

That makes sense. If you were riding around on one of those you were probably blowing some minds. Would have been around 5 grand today's money I am guessing which makes sense since advanced technology. Took a long time for people to accept carbon. I would imagine that early carbon bikes were not light as the ones now but I could be totally wrong. I prefer steel but like how carbon could be shaped into avant garde designs that were amazing. Thanks for the detailed arcane knowledge.

VintageTTfan

Thanks!

VintageTTfan

I have not seen many Coppi time trial bikes. If anyone can find pictures of other ones please post um! I really like all the curved tubes on this one. It is a little unusual for the extra curve. This paint scheme is awesome and has Pizzazz. Love the yellow and red combo. The font for the decals is cool and the two Coke water bottles are purrrfect for this bike in terms of style and coloring. The one big thing I would change is that I would put a nice bullhorn handlebar. Would look much better. I would keep that matching bar tape though. Not my favorite saddle but it matches and might be period correct. I would have preferred a yellow or red leather Turbo or Concor saddle.

Overall, this glossy bike shines and it makes me want a good old fashioned Cherry Coke and an American classic burger or hotdog. It's the Ketchup and mustard paint scheme. Ha ha.......

VintageTTfan

This is fantastic! These are some of the coolest disc wheels I have ever seen....period. The design is just amazing and it fits the time period. You will not see many like this. I wish more TT disc wheels used the canvas they provided like these did. WOW.

Gotta approve of the period correct Turbo and the frame is nice too. Everything matches and has beautiful Bullhorns. Has anyone heard of this brand of bike? Does anyone have any pictures of others bikes by this brand? Help me out people.

P!N20

From here: '93 Geliano - please shed some light on this obscurity! | Retrobike

Edit: looks like the bike shop still exists, there's a neat little timeline here: https://www.velo-cycle-vtt.com/historique How's your French?

Looks like they made/sold some pretty wild looking frames and bikes. Apparently painted cranks and seat posts was a bit of a thing they did.

VintageTTfan

Once again, YOUR THE BOSS!!! You did it again. First it was the Peugeot TT bicycles......Now this! You must have a secret pack of elves that you put to work immediately on this stuff.....or a super galactic search engine. Impressive.

I looked at the bike shop timeline and it was interesting. Cool that the bike came from this little shop. The one above is my favorite. I like the bullhorn style handlebar and the half wrap and color of tape. It is tasteful and has nice curves and the small front wheel. Nice bike. It is really strange they painted the cranks. I love what they did with the disc wheels on the one I posted. The bicycles are definitely odd and very interesting. Thanks for the links and all the great details. P.S. That Miami Vice looking bike at the bottom of your post is WILD. I know the Centurion Miami Vice but this is the real Miami Vice.

La Brea Bike

Not sure what the volume of that was, but I sold a few of those. BLB is associated with Aventon. (It's still the pic that comes up on my Yelp Account). I do dig that frame.

VintageTTfan

That is a nice vintage TT bicycle. It has a certain class. I like the period correct glowing white saddle and the bullhorns too. Nice wheels though not vintage I think. Would love to ride around the English countryside on a bike......Is one of my dreams. Thanks for the excellent post. So it is cool that you sold these. And kudos to cocoabeachcrab for getting hold of one and posting it originally. And nice wine jug and maps cocoabeachcrab. Extra cool if promo for department store....I love rare oddities like that....this is a quality bike and the white and green go nicely.

VintageTTfan

Bike of the Day from TT Land,
Have to admit I like this one for the ultra cool rear disc wheel......such cool and rare artwork.
For you French speakers:
Vélo de piste du début des années 90 cadre plongeant et tubes profilés conçu et réalisé par Alain Michel (fabricant de cadre en région Parisienne). Le cadre a été repeint aux couleurs vintage LOOK (un rêve de jeunesse qui s’est réalisé).
Cadre plongeant profilé piste Alain Michel
Cintre et prolongateur MAVIC
Potence 3TTT
Pédalier Campagnolo record Pista 51 dents : manivelles 167,5mm
Boitier de pédalier Campagnolo record
Pédales LOOK PP65 (1ère pédales automatiques mise au point par Bernard Hinault)
Jeu de direction Campagnolo record
Roue avant de 650 Moyeux Campagnolo Super record
Roue arrière Ambrosio paraculaire repeinte par Jacques Boisnard carrossier artiste peintre décorateur (Auto-Moto Vélo). Voir ses coordonnées sur la photo de la roue.
Selle TurboMatic

La Brea Bike

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAcdCV6B...id=cgrwkd0g6rq

If you have instagram... These are owned by Mitchell Button (ButtonBuilt) who is (mostly) a motorized vehicle builder (His Unimog inspired me to get one...).