titanium Rimmed Huffy?
04-22-09, 09:26 PM
#1
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titanium Rimmed Huffy?
I just visited the Sparta WI bicycle museum. They had some neat old bikes, and some which I wondered why anyone bothered to put into the museum....I eventually guessed that it was simply because someone had donated it. This may have been one of those.
I don't quite believe the sign. Yes Huffy had a professional team that rode some nice bikes, but Huffy didn't make those bikes (right? Serotta riht?). So,...is the sign wrong, or am I? I can't imagine huffy putting out anything quality enough to have titanium...and that bike doesn't look like the exception to the rule (although it did look better than most Huffy's I've seen). I know the rim says Alloy, but I would just assume that meant aluminum alloy. Wouldn't titanium be too slippery for rim brakes? There didn't seem to be any special texture to the rims.
I don't quite believe the sign. Yes Huffy had a professional team that rode some nice bikes, but Huffy didn't make those bikes (right? Serotta riht?). So,...is the sign wrong, or am I? I can't imagine huffy putting out anything quality enough to have titanium...and that bike doesn't look like the exception to the rule (although it did look better than most Huffy's I've seen). I know the rim says Alloy, but I would just assume that meant aluminum alloy. Wouldn't titanium be too slippery for rim brakes? There didn't seem to be any special texture to the rims.
04-22-09, 09:45 PM
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not an expert, but that is one weird looking bike. And that rim looks aluminum. Not too many racing bikes with giant plastic headlights.
I think titanium would probably work ok. Maybe a little slipperier than aluminum.
I think titanium would probably work ok. Maybe a little slipperier than aluminum.
04-22-09, 09:51 PM
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For one, LeMond wasn't racing in 83'. At the pro level at least.
Two, stem shifters. Three, front QR (why it has one...) is on the wrong side. Four, no ti rims, just no. And five, it's had some funky upgrades, most too good for that bike.
The info sheet for it reads like a bad C/L or eBay ad, by some clueless nitwit who did a google search. At least it doesn't say Lance Armstrong...
-Gene-
Two, stem shifters. Three, front QR (why it has one...) is on the wrong side. Four, no ti rims, just no. And five, it's had some funky upgrades, most too good for that bike.
The info sheet for it reads like a bad C/L or eBay ad, by some clueless nitwit who did a google search. At least it doesn't say Lance Armstrong...
-Gene-
04-22-09, 10:08 PM
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I wasn't trying to imply (nor did I think that the museum was trying to imply) that THIS bike was professionally raced by LeMond; simply that Huffy manufactured it, with titanium rims...well...that was the question. What I get from the sign is that it was simply LeMond's endorsed model, manufactured by Huffy.
Upon closer inspection, and re-reading; I think the sign is trying to say that he was a winner of the Tour de France.
However, this model would be his "world championship" signature model, .....which he won in 1983. Yeah, bad signage. I wasn't really questioning the Greg LeMonde history, just whether or not Huffy ever put out anything at all with titanium rims.
I belive Greg was racing in '83, according to Wikepedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_LeMond
Upon closer inspection, and re-reading; I think the sign is trying to say that he was a winner of the Tour de France.
However, this model would be his "world championship" signature model, .....which he won in 1983. Yeah, bad signage. I wasn't really questioning the Greg LeMonde history, just whether or not Huffy ever put out anything at all with titanium rims.
I belive Greg was racing in '83, according to Wikepedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_LeMond
Last edited by orange leader; 04-22-09 at 10:10 PM. Reason: add link to wikepedia
04-22-09, 10:14 PM
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No way those are titanium alloy. Aluminum - sure.
The only bicycle museum that one belongs in is "the museum of the mundane". Nothing special about that at all.
The only bicycle museum that one belongs in is "the museum of the mundane". Nothing special about that at all.
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04-22-09, 10:35 PM
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04-22-09, 10:36 PM
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That's a bottom-end department store Huffy frameset kitted out with parts better then it would deserve in a million years.
Whoever put this behind glass was either:
#1: Trying to save the general public from the garbage that it is,
or:
#2: The same idiot who mounted the front wheel with the QR on the right side.
Those "titanium" rims look like half-decent aluminum Arayas (single wall, but hooked bead 27's), but that's about all I can say for it.
-Kurt
Whoever put this behind glass was either:
#1: Trying to save the general public from the garbage that it is,
or:
#2: The same idiot who mounted the front wheel with the QR on the right side.
Those "titanium" rims look like half-decent aluminum Arayas (single wall, but hooked bead 27's), but that's about all I can say for it.
-Kurt
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Last edited by cudak888; 04-23-09 at 12:16 PM.
04-23-09, 08:39 AM
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No, they are not titanium rims. Yes, Serotta did make high end Huffy frames. No that's not one of them or anything remotely close. Yes, Lemond was World Champion in the 1983 Pro Road tace.
04-23-09, 09:30 AM
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I drove around Sparta on a trip through WI last summer. Unfortunately, it was on a Sunday and the museum was closed.
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04-23-09, 09:43 AM
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Huffy did have an in-house "reparto corse" unit, apparently, with Mike Melton doing much of the building. I believe that's where the Huffy track frames used in the 1984 Olympics were built. Mike Melton may well also have built some of the Huffys LeMond rode (seen in photos) while with La Vie Claire (yes, I know some of LeMond's frames were also built by Roland Della Santa.)
04-23-09, 09:46 AM
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LeMond on Huffy:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/encouragement/185342090/
I think plausibly built by either Melton or Della Santa.
(And just to be clear, by no stretch am I implying that the, um, "museum piece" pictured in the OP was built by Mike Melton.)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/encouragement/185342090/
I think plausibly built by either Melton or Della Santa.
(And just to be clear, by no stretch am I implying that the, um, "museum piece" pictured in the OP was built by Mike Melton.)
Last edited by Picchio Special; 04-23-09 at 10:04 AM.
04-23-09, 01:58 PM
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I think some one made a mistake and assocaited the word "alloy" as being Ti. almost all metals are alloys of some type. very little metal is used in a pure state.
04-23-09, 05:14 PM
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Vintage titanium rims do exist though but those aren't titanium.
04-23-09, 08:51 PM
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For one, LeMond wasn't racing in 83'. At the pro level at least.
Two, stem shifters. Three, front QR (why it has one...) is on the wrong side. Four, no ti rims, just no. And five, it's had some funky upgrades, most too good for that bike.
The info sheet for it reads like a bad C/L or eBay ad, by some clueless nitwit who did a google search. At least it doesn't say Lance Armstrong...
-Gene-
Two, stem shifters. Three, front QR (why it has one...) is on the wrong side. Four, no ti rims, just no. And five, it's had some funky upgrades, most too good for that bike.
The info sheet for it reads like a bad C/L or eBay ad, by some clueless nitwit who did a google search. At least it doesn't say Lance Armstrong...
-Gene-
04-23-09, 09:55 PM
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And JohnD...can you add anything to the connection between the Trek guys and some custom canoes? I heard a story about that, but it sounded like something from an August Derleth novel.
