This bike has been my pride and joy since 1984. I bought the frame plus bottom bracket used. The frame was built in 1982.

The builder, McLean Fonvielle, died suddenly at the age of 29. He didn't make many bikes in his short life, so perhaps they are collectors' items. He made several styles. This is the road racing frame.

You can see what the graphics looked like at the pages devoted to McLean and Silk Hope bikes. Silk Hope was the original name for his bikes.

I had the frame repainted in about 1991 or 1992. I had it done by Peter Weigle in CT. He re-spread the frame to 126 mm. It was originally 120 mm. He also brazed on all the fittings. In 1982, it was unfashionable to have any braze-ons except one pair for a water bottle. I now have fittings for a rack, fenders, brake cable, and a second water bottle.

The frame is supposed to be made of Reynolds 531, but I have no way of verifying that.

The bike is a bit of a Frankenbike. I started out having mostly Campy gear and have replaced things as needed, opting for other stuff.

- Campy Nuovo record hubs, 36 hole, 4-cross
- DT 14/15 stainless spokes
- Ambrosio Elite rims
- Campy Record cranks with red Sugino dustcaps
- Campy Super Record chainrings, 52 and 42
- Sugino bottom bracket
- Campy Rally rear derailleur from the 1970's
- Suntour Superbe Pro front derailleur
- Suntour bar end shifters from the 1970's
- Sedisport chain
- front tire Avocet FasGrip
- rear tire IRC Road Winner II
- Campy Record brake calipers, with Matthauser finned shoes
- Dia Compe aero brake levers
- Nashbar SPD-type pedals
- Shimano 600 headset
- Sugino SP-H seatpost
- some generic seat
- Cinelli bars and stem
- Shimano six-speed freewheel: 13,14,17,21,26,32

Most of its life, it has had a Brooks Professional saddle on it which might be 40 or 50 years old. I'm experimenting with lots of saddles, seeking to assuage a back problem I'm having.

I used to have a narrower range of gears. I put this giant freewheel on when I started towing two kids in a trailer. Those kids are now 20 and 17 years old, so I don't tow them, but I haven't decided what to do about gearing now. So I have huge jumps between gears.

Wow, my bike is dirty!

Flash Photography always brings out the most imperceptible flaws..especially at hi resolution.

Nice bike. The brazed on stuff looks clean and they were good additions in my opinion. Is this bike powdercoated or painted?

How do you like the Campy RD? I'm a Suntour guy but I haven't really tried much 70's Campy hardware.

Yes, I should have waited for daylight. These pictures don't do justice to the color of the bike. It's a deeper purple.

The rear derailleur is fairly good, considering it was made in about 1977. It's about as indestructible as a nuclear shelter. But honestly, it doesn't shift that well compared to nearly everything else. Touring derailleurs were not Campagnolo's strong suit.

The frame was painted. I don't know if people were powdercoating bike frames in 1991. Peter Weigle is a frame builder, which explains why he did such meticulous work on this frame.

Nice! If it's 1982 then it's among Mclean's last builds. I need to take better pictures of mine, and add them here, maybe help with the start of a Mclean owner's thread?

Tom,

Very nice indeed. I've always wondered why Silk Hope doesn't have the cache of say a Confente
who's owner also died at an early age (ok, Maclean didn't work at Masi).
I think Dale at Cycles d'Oro might have decals for the silk hope if your interested, or if he doesn't
probably knows where to get them. He is a big fan of Maclean's work.

Marty

When I see MacLean, I always think of this maker first:

lotek, thanks for the tip. It's been so many years since I've been decal-less, I don't know if I care any more. For a few years, I was sad I couldn't get my hands on them.

And nowadays, I understand it's fairly cheap to have them fabricated by an artist.

noskagent, please do add pictures of your McLean to this thread. We're probably the only two McLean owners on bikeforums.

USAZorro, what's the story behind that line of bikes?

Because in the case of Maclean there weren't a group of capitalists (Mike and Jim) who had sufficient access to stock to make it worthwhile to artificially build up the reputation of the builder.

The last that I heard, Dale does indeed have the decals but will verify that the frame is indeed one of Fonvielle's.

Citoyen du Monde, thanks for that info, too.

I agree that Fonvielle was probably not a good businessman, just a good artisan.

I have to be honest, though. Some bikes are lighter and ride better. But I think this bike will remain my pride and joy, because of my sentimental attachment, part of which is built by the time in my life when I built the bike. I built it bit by bit, including building the wheels.

Here's a link.

I presume there's no relation between the builders - possibly they didn't even share the surname.

I contacted Dale about getting decals. Mine had the silk hope dragon on the headtube and seatube when I got it, I brought the bike to cycles d'oro and Dale put the Mclean decals on for me, which was nice. Mine had (I'm assuming) all the original stuff the first owner had put on it:
campy super record drivetrain, long reach calipers, SR levers, downtube shifters, fluted single bolt seatpost, bottom bracket and headset. Cinelli stem and bars. I put the brooks swift on. Hopefully I will get home tonight w/ enough good daylight for some pics.

Noglider, I see yours has the ball bearing braze on for the frame pump. Here is mine:

If Dale is a stickler about ensuring that the bike is authentic, I don't have any documentation I can offer him.

The serial # and good pics may be enough. What is your bike's #?

low light but here are a few pics:

That's gorgeous.

I lived in Chapel Hill when McLean was building Silk Hopes. They were certainly the nicest bikes in the area, but far beyond my student sized income.

I think you have to introduce your bike with the words "Long long time ago...I can still remember when that music used to make them smile"

Last year I took my '80 Mclean to the NC mountains, thinking I would be limited to short town rides because of other obligations (attend wedding in Blowing Rock). It turned out I had a good block of time for a ride so I took it for a proper circuit up 221 and back along the blue ridge parkway, about 35 miles. Some of the climbs were quite hard for me due to the 42/26 gearing but descending was a blast, very solid and confident. At the time I thought it handled the descents better than my '89 Paramount. I'm going up there again later this month and plan on taking the Paramount , I will report back!

My McLean doesn't seem to be the best descending bike. The wheelbase might be short, or the head angle might be steep.

I need to measure the wheelbase on mine. It's definitely not a "race" model.
Edit: wheelbase is 41" (53cm frame), chainstay is almost 17". Is that "long"?