Hello CR crew,
I am sitting here looking at a transparent green Aquilla in my basement right now! It did indeed come from Jack Van Gent. It is not bad looking, fairly clean lugs and sports a Columbus SL tubing decal. This is not my first, I had several and several FDs also. Bought them around the same time Dale did and I believe I paid similar to what Dale did. Recently I saw a few pop up on the campy only site that were being sold as NOS for about 4 times what I paid or what others could still pay! If someone knows of a way to check the tubing type by looks, let me know. The frameset has not been built up yet and I have access to look closely. I am compiling parts to set it up as a fixie/SS.
Walter Skrzypek
Falls Creek, Pa
> In a message dated 1/5/2003 11:18:42 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> losgatos@ix.netcom.com writes:
>
> << 1970-1973, but one of the things I remember is my first "CR"-style
vintage
> bike, actually the first decent ten-speed I ever owned. It was an Aquila
>>
>
> That is very interesting ... That is the very first reference to Aquila
bikes
> I have heard EXCEPT in the Flying Dutchman branded frames/bikes as sold
by
> the Big Wheel in Denver...a number of CR members & BOB list folk bought
> those frames, all part of that shops close down/blow out of a huge number
of
> shop-worn but NOS frames lefty in stock (the store closed 3-4 years
ago...)
> The dropouts on some (not all) frames were stamped "Aquila" and I am
pretty
> sure Jack Van Gent, the owner, had told me that most were made for him by
> Aquila in Italy... Of course I had never heard of Aquila but since then
there
> has been a lot of speculation about those frames.. Some hinted at the
frames
> actually being sourced from South America...and others think they were not
> really 531 and Columbus tubing but sport fake decals... Who knows?
> But that is the first time I have heard of a company named Aquila and that
> they might be Italian?
> Anyone else heard or even owned an Aquila?
>
>
> Dale Brown
> Greensboro, North Carolina