ocana raced on speedwell frames during the era you mention. e-RICHIE
On Sun, 28 Jan 2001 20:53:15 -0500 Jerry & Liz Moos <moos@penn.com>
writes:
> Searching through my old books, found a picture of a Follis Titan.
> The caption
> of this one clearly says that it is made by Teledyne, but I had
> remembered at
> the time seeing another picture of a Follis Ti bike, and never knew
> until much
> later that it was a Titan. BTW, does anyone know who made the
> Motobecane Ti
> bike that TdF winner Luis Ocana rode for several years, including at
> the time of
> his famous and severe crash on an early 70's TdF mountain stage
> while pursuing
> Merckx in a downpour? I have never established whether someone
> besides Teledyne
> and Speedwell made Ti bikes in the early 70's, or if all the others
> were
> rebadged examples of one of these two marques. Also, was Speedwell
> the first Ti
> bike ever made? I know that the French were actually making
> aluminum bikes in
> the 30's, but I have the idea that titanium, due to the difficulty
> and expense
> of producing and working with it, was a laboratory curiousity until
> after WWII,
> and titanium tubing may have only begun to be produced in any
> quantity during
> the American space program launched by Kennedy in the early 60's.
> Does anyone
> know of much earlier titanium bikes?
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
>
> Diane Feldman wrote:
>
> > Jerry,
> > What I remember about people equipping Titans in the early 70's:
> > Lots of riders choosing Dura-Ace groups, perhaps taking a cue from
> the
> > oversize cable clips made by Shimano, and that many of the frames
> were sold
> > with a Dura-Ace first-generation steel headset, lots riding with
> Campy NR,
> > of course, and many of us were amused by pictures in Velonews of
> Jonathan
> > Boyer in his ACBB colors with a French-equipped, Peugeot-decalled
> Titan!
> > Suntour Superbe would be inauthentically late, Cyclone
> derailleurs, however,
> > would be a match. So would HiE hubs, maybe a Nyflor headset, any
> early Phil
> > equipment (3-piece hubs) Stronglight 93 cranks, and the hubs would
> be laced
> > into Super Champion or Martano rims; this was what was popular in
> SoCal,
> > between 1973 and 76. The last Titans that were sold wore Follis
> decals as
> > the owner of Linder-Euro Imports, the Follis wholesaler, bought a
> bunch of
> > frames that Teledyne was closing out and stuck some cheap vinyl
> lettering on
> > them. There were also a few which were painted a butt-ugly orange
> or sky
> > blue, painted ti two decades before Litespeed or Serotta!
> > David Feldman
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Jerry & Liz Moos" <moos@penn.com>
> > To: <Ebbikes@aol.com>
> > Cc: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> > Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2001 5:48 PM
> > Subject: [CR]Re: Teledyne Titan
> >
> > > Thanks, I guess the Superbes could still be "period" since
> Titans, as I
> > > recall, were mostly sold as framesets, and the last frames, if
> they set
> > > in shop inventory a year or so and maybe in the buyer's garage a
> similar
> > > time, could have been originally built up with Superbe. The
> Avocet
> > > crank may be stretching the point a bit though. Anyone know
> when the
> > > Phil Wood platform pedals were made? I have another pair of
> pedals
> > > which I think is definitely period as I think I saw them as well
> at the
> > > 1974 Worlds (maybe even on a Teledyne) - the infamous Cinelli
> "death
> > > pedals". However, I'm not quite brave (or foolish) enough to
> actually
> > > ride these on the road.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > Jerry Moos
> > >
> > > Ebbikes@aol.com wrote:
> > >
> > > > Teledyne was all done making frames by 1977, because I was
> able to
> > > > buy from
> > > > them one of their last titanium BB spindles that year.
> Probably they
> > > > quit
> > > > making them in 1976.
> > > >
> > > > Bob Freeman