obrentharris 

Here is my "Champion Team" when I first got it. I've figured out a lot of things about a previous owner just from looking carefully at the bike.




I learned that Halloween was his favorite holiday from the black anodizing that he did to the Campy cranks, Cinelli stem, and Campy seatpost; also from the black paint on the first generation Phil Wood hubs, the black bar tape, and the black brake hoods.




I also learned that he was a cheapskate, using a Huret cable guide instead of the Campy.




But he was a cheapskate with a good eye for classic components as exemplified by this Ideal cutaway saddle with the peculiar hardware to attach it to a Campy Record seatpost: In the era when Unicanitor was king this was probably an odd duck that some shop sold cheap just to get it off the shelf.




He also had a death wish, as there was only about an inch of very short sawed-off seatpost inserted into the frame. (fits in very nicely with the bit about Halloween being his favorite holiday.)


I also learned from the Felton bike shop sticker, the extensive rust and the Cinelli bars which were corroded all the way through that he never left the Santa Cruz area.




So no, I probably don't want to know anything about the bike's real history: All my cherished fictions might be evaporated in an instant!
Brent

Giacomo 1 

Thanks for the reply, and the absolute absence of any information on Mr. Barecci makes me think you are likely correct in your statement.

Shame he didn't go onto better things though, like becoming a master builder, because this frame has some very nice touches to it

leicanthrope

I'm a bit surprised and impressed that Felton even rated a bike shop back in that era.

Michael Angelo 

Cheap Italian Chrome.
Just had the one on my CIOCC re-chromed, Also the last three Italian bikes I refurbished had to have the the Forks Re-chromed

Michael Angelo 

I have a Samurai Sword From WW2, the antique weapons expert that appraised it says it's from the 1800's. Just holding it and looking at it gives me the creeps.

Shp4man

Some of the Japanese officers carried swords during the war. Only an officer with some ancestral link to the Samurai would carry the sword you describe. Sounds like an important historic artifact to me.
How did you acquire it? Did dad or grandpa bring it back in 1946?

Michael Angelo 

My wife's uncle brought it back from Okinawa. The sword has never been sharpened since he's had it, and still to this day it's as sharp as a razor. I'll try to take some pictures of it tonight.

Bikedued

I want to know WHO built this, WHAT year it was built, and WHY it has such crazy geometry! Also WHAT was the intended purpose of this weird contraption?,,,,BD

BMX type construction, with Campy drops welded to steel plates, and a DOWN sloping top tube! Has a CW badge, and a VDC (Voris Dixon) sticker on the seat tube.

rootboy 

Better post it, MA, before the powers that be decide that "sword" is a word that must not be allowed to be read on this forum.

I'd love to see it.

rootboy 

Very interesting, Giuanin. May I ask, where did you find this?

RobbieTunes 

I know enough, or maybe more than necessary, about my C&V bikes, but very little about my carbon Cinelli, heavily branded with Columbus (Super Muscle carbon frame and fork, Airplane aluminum dropouts, Columbus headset, and Columbus carbon seatpost). Some info on the XLR8R model line is available, but almost nothing on the XLR8R-2. The bottom bracket, and basically the entire bike, sits about 3/4" higher than my other bikes, and it has a soft-touch rubbery finish. You can dent it with your fingernail, and the dent in the finish stays for about a day.

Regarding those rif...er, firearms and the sword. Have you ever thought about getting DNA off of them?

Sixty Fiver

The Japanese would prefer to repatriate and re-home these ancestral weapons that were taken, many were not the spoils of war but part of a mass confiscation where families had to give these up under orders from the provisional U.S. government. They were not so much weapons as they were heirlooms which linked the family to their ancestors.

Many wartime swords were mass produced for the military in the 20th century and have less value... many tens of thousands of them were brought back as wartime souvenirs by returning soldiers and some of those were of exceptional quality and rarity and are / were very valuable.

The Honjo Masamune (13th century) was considered to be a national treasure and was one of the swords that was surrendered and then it vanished... many hope it is in some attic gathering dust and will one day re-appear.

It would be worth millions of dollars.

MiloFrance 

Pretty obvious what I would ask at the moment... Might need to get to the last comment.

Giuanin

The use of the cornouiller was in the common knowledge until the 80s in France.
Formally in:
Le Cyclisme, aspects médical et technique. p267
André Noret/Lucien Bailly
Editions Vigot, Paris 1979

noglider 

It's just a silly experiment. He made it with a down-sloping top tube, leaving the stem too low, and then he compensated with a high-rise handlebar. It was more likely as a goof than as a compensation for an error. It's clear why we don't see more bikes like this. It's pretty silly.

RobbieTunes 

It would be nice to have a "research guy" who would look up the stuff I want to know about my bikes. You read interviews in Peloton with De Rosa and others, and you want to take them your frame and say "tell me about it." Or, speak with previous owners of bungled bikes, and find out exactly what they were smoking.

09box

I'd like to know why the previous owner of my bike let it rust on the top tube when it was an indoor trainer only bike for the last six years??

SvenMN 

I had a question about the favorite bike in my stable... Who built the frame of this Belgian assembled bike?



Found him last April at his shop in Hoogerheide, NL (near the Belgian border). No magic, just some digging and the effort to get there.

noglider 

I can tell you how, and "why" is a useless question. Riding indoors, you sweat more than outdoors. Your sweat falls on the bike.