I recently bought an old Pinarello that I'm definitely falling in love with. In junior high and high school growing up in the Midwest, I rode a Fuji Espree and my friends had a Trek 560 and 500, all nice bikes, but the dream bikes were the De Rosa, Cinelli, Pinarello, Colnagos found in catalogs, and the local bike shop's Ciocc. Well, I found a used Pinarello at the Recyclery in San Rafael, CA and made the old dream come true. It's blue lacquer over a completely chromed Columbus frame, with chrome GPT (Giovanni Pinarello, Treviso) monograms on the fork crown and seatstays, chrome chainstay and dropouts, lug and bottom bracket cutouts. I've put about 160 miles on it 3 weeks and love it. The ride is fast, forgiving and faithful
This bike is serial number #794, which suggests to me it's quite early. But the head badge has Olympic rings which may suggest post-1984. Does anyone know of a Pinarello serial number registry? I'm also contemplating painting in the decals that are about 80% gone. Any suggestions on repainting versus decal reproduction for white logos?
Thanks and happy riding,
Peter Chu
San Francisco