By Terry, if I'm not mistaken. There's one on a Raleigh frame in the co-op's dumpster. I keep meaning to go back for it.

Oh man, I'd be in real trouble for my knock-off Molteni thermal jersey.

Schwinn's version on 78 Super Le Tour 12.2,

Are the rules similar to those governing riders? Ie you can only put stripes on a frame built for the discipline that won the rainbow? Ie can a touring bike have rainbow stripes if the maker won in a road race? Or TT? Mtb xc? Downhill? etc?

After Moreno Argentin won the World Champion Pro Road Race in Colorado Springs in 1986, Bianchi put the 1986-1987 Campione del Mondo decal on all their 1987 and 1988 models, including ATBs and city bikes. So, the rainbow stripes appear to apply to the brand, not the discipline.

They seem to be on the Miyata models circa 1978-1979, regardless of the market, as I've also seen then on the USA/Canadian and Japanese market models. I'm wondering if the tie was the Eddy Merckx brand that they were manufacturing under license at the time?

That is completely out of order of the stripe on the UCI rainbow. I wonder if it was an intentional attempt to avoid the trademark.

Here's a page from an Ishiwata catalog with two results that have always perplexed me.

First, it clearly states that the 1973 pro road race was won on a frame built with an Ishiwata 017 tubeset. Now, the 1973 winner of that race was Felice Gimondi on a Bianchi. It's definitely Gimondi's victory, as it states the location, Barcelona. Bianchi even named their new top model the Specialissima Barcelona after Gimondi's victory.

Only slightly less startling is the claim for the pro cyclo-cross World Championships. Again, the location leaves no doubt that it refers to Albert Van Damme's victory. He won on a Gitane.

While the Europeans would eventually realize the merits of Japanese tubing, it seems unimaginable that Bianchi and Gitane would select anything other than Columbus or Reynolds during this era. And while there was some questionable Japanese to English translation back in the day, these seen very straight forward and leave nothing to interpretation. If the claims are true, I foresee a lot of blood covered celeste and suicidal Frenchman. Psst, nobody tell Bianchigirll or verktyg.

That would be my guess. That's why I called it Schwinn's version..

That rack support was purchased in fall '76 - early '77 from Bike Warehouse (later Bike Nashbar, and later just Nashbar)...I don't think it had any particular branding. Also bought from Bike Warehouse was the Zefal HP frame pump, SunTour barcons, ALE handlebar-mount water bottle cage, TA bottle, Cannondale 'Toot' seat bag....Lots of stuff that winter! Later that spring the bike was treated to Phil hubs, stainless butted spokes, and somebody's narrow clincher rims... That self-built wheelset lasted the bulk of the old Fuji's miles - some 30k miles over the next few years... Rear wheel was tacoed after an unexpected (inattention) slip off the pavement and a 5-6" drop off the pavement to the gravel and my poor attempt at recovery...

Great story. Many of us loved seeing those catalogs in the mail, or even better; making the long trip to Youngstown to the outlet.

Bastardized early 70s Mercier with rainbows on the stays.

I wasn't really 'into' cycling until my freshman year at Ohio State. One of my three roommates was an avid cyclist, and so were several others in my predominately upperclassmen Engineering dorm (complete with IBM computer card punch machine)... My roommate Jim rode a Viscount Aerospace Pro, and another roomie, Tim, upgraded from his BSO gas-pipe Iverson to a Viscount GT or GP, whereas I upgraded from my all steel Fuji Special Tourer to a alloy-equipped Fuji S-10S that I rode exclusively until I was infected by the 'n+1 virus' here on BF.net... Upstairs was the Paramount guy (he had several - road, track, and tandem!), and down the hall was the Raleigh Super Course...

I had gotten involved in the Ohio State Cycling club, and helped map out (and drove the route to paint the route arrows) for our clubs inaugural TGRR'77 (The Great Reservoir Ride) a TOSRV warm-up century ride that hit the five reservoirs north of Columbus... TOSRV 77 was my first of five TOSRVs, and I rode TGRRs, MOC (Mid Ohio Century), and even over to the rival Indiana University in Bloomington for Hilly Hundred a couple times...

The club had 'extra' funds at the end of the school year from TGRR, and rather than turn it over to the school, I suggested that the club buy the tools needed to build our own wheels (truing stand, dish tool, etc)... Hence the build of my Phil-hubbed wheels for the Fuji... IIRC, the parts for the wheelset - hubs, spokes, rims, and rimtape came to just under $100 - parts and tooling were all obtained from Bike Warehouse!

Best patch ever

Now I know why my Ritchey Breakway feels so fast

...and my Jack Taylor has 'em in red-yellow-green-black-blue. I've never heard of anyone winning a world championship on a JT, but who knows?

Nicole Vandenbroeck

That seems logical, certainly if she rode a Belgian bike. I can't make out the brand from the pictures I've found so far, though:

At least one maker is quite clear about who, when and what: RIH SPORT - 63 Champions

"Uncle Jan" Nieuwenhof earned his stripes in 1949, and subsequently named his bikes "Type Wereldkampioen":



Henk Faanhof on the right, the 1949 Amateur World Champion, sharing the podium with Fausto Coppi:

Gazelle's stripes, as well as the Champion Mondial moniker, were stolen (according to the contemporary press at the time) by Harm Ottenbros in 1969 , who profited from the fact that the others were too busy making sure that Merckx didn't win.

Thank-you for replying. I was aware of the World Championship women's road race but did not think that it was classified as a professional event. During the period of 1972-1992, the World Championship amateur men's road race was not held during Olympic years but the professional men's road was held every year. Though the Olympics did not feature a women's road race until 1984, once the event was included, the World Championship women's road race was scheduled using the same criteria as the men's amateur event, in that was not held during Olympic years of 1984, 1988 and 1992. As a result, I considered it an amateur event.

I'm pretty sure Bill Davidson used WC stripes (late '70s to early '80s) just because he liked the look, not because they were earned. I suppose it's possible there was a legit WC win on a Davidson that I never heard about, but it seems unlikely considering I worked there for 10 years ('84 to '94). It would've come up, right? Probably the closest Davidson got was when Renee Duprel won silver in the World Championship Match Sprint, 1990. <brag> I built that frame myself. </brag> Graham Watson shot an awesome photo of the deciding heat where Renee missed WC gold by millimeters. In the photo, just after the actual photo-finish, their rear tires are near the finish line, with Renee's two or three inches ahead of Connie Paraskevin's, showing that Renee was going way faster at the end. She just timed it slightly wrong. About as close to being World Champion as a person can be.

Her boyfriend (later husband) Ken Carpenter also rode a Davidson I built. He was on 2 Olympic teams and won Nationals 5 times but was never in contention for a WC. A few Davidson riders won the Masters World Cup, sort of the World Championships of age-graded masters racing, but that doesn't legally qualify you for WC rainbow stripes.

Mark Pringle got 10th in the amateur senior men's road race championship in '77, which is still the answer to the trivia question "what's the best-ever placing by an American in the Amateur Senior Men's World Championship Road Race?" Americans have won the Professional, the Junior, the Women's, and several other disciplines other than Road at Worlds, plus also Olympic gold, but not that complete combo of Pringle's achievement. Lance Armstrong came close, his last year as an amateur, getting 11th. Pringle's record is safe (for all time?), since there no longer is a senior men's amateur world championship — they retired that title. I have a picture of Pringle on his Davidson in the Red Zinger, and it appears the bike has those same decals as above, only with the WC stripes snipped off. I guess by then they must have clued into the fact that the stripes weren't legal for UCI racing. I have heard of riders having to cover illegal stripes with duct tape or some such, but I can't quote any actual examples, might be an urban legend

In later years (after about 1984 I think), Davidson decals ditched the illegal stripes. I doubt there was any "cease and desist" letter from UCI, they just wanted to simplify the design, or avoid duct tape for UCI races. Or maybe they got tired of explaining that the stripes weren't earned, they were just "décor". The new simpler decals came out right about the time I started there, so I wasn't privy to any discussions of the reasons.

Mark B

^ Well I will say that my Davidson Impulse beats out a lot of the bikes with WC stripes I've had over the years.

Olympic rings. Schwinn provided Paramounts to the US Olympic team back to 1948. The Olympic rings date to 1913.