SpeedFreek

I will never forget the day I saw a friend and teamate of mine walking a bike over to my garage, where I was working on some wheels. When he got over to me, I could see it was a really old road bike. I asked him where he got it, and he told me his brother got it out of the dumpster behind his apartment in Glendale. It was red, and said 'Brambilla" on the downtube and head badge. As I took a better look, I could tell it was actually used for racing at some point. It had Campy parts, some really old, from the 50's. Valentino derailleurs, universal sidepulls, sew-ups, and a Brooks style saddle. One of the brake levers was filed down and shaved thinner on the sides, but the left one wasn't altered. It must have been replaced after a crash. We disasembled it, so we could regrease everything, and when we took apart the BB, we found a tube of cardboard inside, acting as a dirt guard, and it had been cut out of the top of a Campagnolo Hub box! The front derailleur had the little shift lever mounted directly to the derailleur, very cool. It had a Regina freewheel, and chain. The hubs were all-steel Campag low-flange, and I've never seen those hubs before. It was a 56 cm. frame, and after we reassembled it, using the original cotter pins, we took it for a ride. It rode really well, smooth and straight! Too bad it didn't have the handlebar water bottle holders it must have had on it's first race! All in all a wonderfull save from being buried in a land fill. If anyone knows anything about Brambilla bicycles, let me know. I know Pierre Brambilla raced in the TDF, but I don't know anything about the machines themselves. Thank You, SpeedFreek

Oldpeddaller

Pierre Brambilla
Picture courtesy of www.users.skynet.be Pierre Brambilla was born on May 12, 1919. He died on February 13, 1984.The French rider twice stood on the podium of a certain Grand Tour event, in the same year.
Brambilla was 3rd in the 1947 Tour de France behind Jean Robic of France and Edouard Fachleitner of France.
Brambilla also won the Mountains Jersey in the Tour de France that year as well.


No idea about the bike though - sorry!

Amani576

Pics? This would be very interesting to see. How long ago was this? Anybody with even a lick of sense won't throw away a bike like that now, so, I assume it's probably been a while, but, you've gotta have pics somewhere.
GR

SpeedFreek

Dear Amani576,
Sorry, no pix of the bike. You are right, it was around 1978, and my buddy's brother decided to sell it to his buddy, who put more modern parts on it to be an everday rider. My teamates and I never were much for photos, we do have some, but not very many. We did all the crazy things we did for ourselves, not for fame. looking back, I wish we had taken more pictures. My stories bore my sedentary kids, so older more active people would appreciate the silly things we did! Let me tell you, it is a pretty cool bike, from a time that cycle racing was almost unknown, or at least unremembered in the U.S.

unworthy1

It's a shame about Pierre, though: clearly the primitive doping they used in those days lead to horrific side-effects.
In his case it caused lumpy man-breasts...