Paul Williams asked:
"I was intrigued by the Gipiemme 1970s aerodynamic pedal - are these still to be found?"
Those pedals were part of Gipiemme's Cronospecial gruppo -- I first saw them in a photo of Giovanni Battaglin. In 1981, Battaglin had the best year of his career, winning both the Giro and Vuelta. (The only other time this double has been achieved was by Merckx in '73; and remember, the Vuelta was then held in the spring, so this meant winning two tours back-to-back.) In 1982, his Inoxpran team, who had till then been riding Pinarellos, began using bikes with Battaglin's name on them, equipped with the Gipiemme gruppo. Ironically, Battaglin never won a major race again, but Battaglins continue to be made to this day.
Searching the archives, I found this post by Brian Ignatin:
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Archive-URL:
http://search.bikelist.org/
It was my understanding that Gipiemme was a Campy subsidiary, also located in Vicenza. I though that both Campy & Gipiemme drop outs were manufactured by another company known as Technociclo, but was unaware of any relationship beyond contract manufacturing.
Their components were used by Giovanni Battaglin and the Inoxpran Team in their efforts in the early - mid 80s. This team went on to become Carrera. Components were imported by Italia Velo Sport of Miami, who incidentally was the original importer of Battaglin and Moser frames, and a pioneer of Italian based training camps for US racers. As a small mail-order company which sold to end-users, IVS didn't have the horsepower to sell many groups and achieve widespread market acceptance for Gipiemme. Gipiemme did little support advertising in the US, and their lines were usually "also availables", by the few US importers/distributors who carried them.
Gipiemme's top group during the Campy SR era was the Cronospecial. Their second tier group was the Special. The differences between these two groups were primarily small, similar to the differences between SR & NR. These groups did feature components made by Simplex (derailleurs and shifters) and Modolo (brakesets), as did some other groups (such as Galli & Mavic). However, the Gipiemme groups were more than just a cooperative marketing approach as taken by French concerns like Spidel and Huret. Gipiemme also had some parts which looked equivalent to Campy's G.S. line, but I never saw them outside of their catalog or the trade shows.
The Cronospecial group featured a unique platform pedal which had an adjustable concentric spindle. With the use of a cone wrench, you could vary your effective crank length by up to 2.5mm in either direction, (so with a 170mm crank, your range of adjustment was between 167.5 & 172.5mm). The toe clip was also fully adjustable as it slid fore to aft and was set by two screws. Instead of twisting the toe strap between the cages to prevent it from moving, there was a small peg which corresponded with a small whole in the toe strap. Putting the whole in after market straps like the Binda Extra was a chore. (rest snipped) --------------------
Mordecai Silver
NY, NY