Re: [CR]vintage Edco catalog scan

byron, dave et al. i have seen a edco bb on ebay recently in a sort of vintage bike-shop: http://ebay.com/<blah> swiss allegro made frames of remarkable quality and craftsmanship from different tubesets including reynolds 753R, 531, Columbus, and Vitus tubing(can't say which one) Coulumbus Aelle was the economist's choice while reynolds were quite a bit more expensive for more ambitioned cyclist. http://www.formlos.ch/velo/allegro/prosp4.jpg http://www.formlos.ch/velo/allegro/prosp4det.jpg http://www.formlos.ch/velo/allegro/prosp5.jpg http://www.formlos.ch/velo/allegro/prosp5det.jpg as you can see on the pages i have scanned you could get them with a wide range of equipment by campy shimano and edco, which one (edco) back in the 80's already was sort of exotic. i never saw such a bike in switzerland. unfortunately this firm no longer exists, as the home market seems to be too small for six or seven manufacturers in switzerland. they neither succeeded exporting enough or merging forces (with mondia) nor preserving small niches in the bicicle market and subsequently vanished in 94., mondia in 98 (i think) even here these bikes are relatively rare and quite sought after. but you might get one in nos condition at 531forever.com cheers from zurich area martin

Von: Bikerdaver@aol.com Datum: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 15:34:40 EST An: koga_miyata2002@yahoo.com, mgma@bluewin.ch Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Betreff: Re: [CR]vintage Edco catalog scan

Byron, et al., Thanks to all you folks with the jpgs. That is one cool looking Allegro; nice looking tons of chrome and what appears to be a Cinelli fork crown. Cool Cinelli saddle and bars as well. But dang those Europeans,,,, there they go again, making a very nice handmade frame, but,,,, made out of Aelle tubing. Either they realize you can still make a top end bike with Aelle or we should all be critizing them for "insulting our established beliefs" about how to build bikes!. Hmmmm, actually I think one of us may be wrong. Imagine that! In any case, I agree with the Simplex reference on the derailleurs, but I don't know about those brakes. I was going to say Weinmann constructed, but can't tell for sure. I had once been told that edco cranks were made by Stronglight, and those cranks sure look like some Stronglight models I have seen. Additionly, I would note that later version EDCO derailleurs were made by Sachs/Huret. cheers- Dave Anderson Cut Bank MT

In a message dated 11/11/2004 11:16:01 AM PST, koga_miyata2002@yahoo.com writes: Martin, Thanks for those scans - I believe you are right about the vintage. It's interesting to notice that the shifters and derailleurs are Simplex. Could the brakes be Gipiemme? I wonder if EDCO contracted out the cranks/seatpost/hubs/HS or if they made some of that
stuff themselves?
Cheers,
Byron Morton
Nashville, TN