[CR]re: Paganini

(Example: Humor:John Pergolizzi)

From: <"velostuf@pop.mpls.qwest.net">
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 09:54:30 -0500
To: "classicrendezvous@bikelist.org" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Cc: "pgrizic@haggie.co.za" <pgrizic@haggie.co.za>
Subject: [CR]re: Paganini

Phil- Here is the response I got to your question about Paganini bikes. It is from my former racer friend Jon Lane in Minneapolis. He raced a bit in Belgium and was a big deal in the Twin Cities race scene back in the early 80's. I may hear back from another guy too, but here's what Jon said:

Plum Vanquier (sp?) bike shop, which as I recall translates to 'Plume of the Victor' was a 3/4/5? store chain of race shops in Belgium. My frameset came out of the Ghent shop. The Paganini was the 'house' brand of race frameset. They were sourced out of Italy (mine is Columbus SL, full braze-ons, top tube and chainstay internal cable tunnel, lots of engraving/pantographing and chrome, italian threads) in an unpainted state. Plum would then paint the bike and decal it to the customers wishes. As far as I know, there was no framebuilder by the name of 'Paganini', they were contract built by someone. Bob, do you know who it was?? They were quite stylish with lots of chrome and the cable tunnels brazed in.

I remember them fitting me and I left a deposit, came back a few days/week later and they had it ready to go. They even hand lettered my name on the top tube unbenknownst to me. I also bought a pantographed SR seatpost, cinelli stem, and 53T SR chainring. They tried to talk me out of the 53T - "No one but the pros need that big a gear" This was back in the summer of '83.

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