Hello Listmembers,
a couple of days ago i asked the list about the Casati "Gold Line" with the golden ICS group on german ebay. I managed to talk the original buyer into selling it to me and fetched it last week :-)
many detail pictures are on
http://www.tour-gallerie.de/
Details: it is a 53cm (Center-top) frame made from columbus "tubi rinsforzati garantiti acciaio speciale", at least that's what the badge says. Anyone knows more about that? is it related to SL, SLX?
cranks, front and rear derailleur, shifters, and brakes are Campagnolo Super Record from ICS and gold plated. Seatpost and pedal hooks are Campa SR gold plated, the stem is a cinelli, also golden. pedals, hubs and headset seem standard Campa SR. The stem has two round impressions on either side, i guess there should be cinelli badges?
Handlebar is a 3T competizione (wasn't that a different diameter than the cinelli?), saddle Turbo "Berard Hinault" and rims are Nisi Countach. the handlebar, the pump (Silca) and the (quite ordinary) plastic waterbottle are coated with white leather and decorative black stitching, lable on the pump says "Almarc". The pump shaft is also gold plated and has a nice "casati" writing on it, as have the white toestraps.
Serial number is "199". Any chance someone on the list knows how many of these were made? (Duane, what numbers have yours?)
At ~53cm it is a little small for me (my other bicycles are around 56cm), but a first testride showed it rides exeptionally sweet, it corners very nice - as i expected, and it seems very well balanced. a dream of a bike! Riding no-hands is easy.
The ICS components are very nice. They shift immaculately even though the cables are routed internally (i hope it is a long time until i have to change the shifting cables. i guess one has to remove the BB for that?).
I'm very happy with the purchase! i think that even though i shouldn't because of its pristine condition, i will take it from its place on the living room wall and ride it occasionally on a sunny sunday afternoon :-)
thankful for any comment!
servus,
Martin Appel
Munich, Germany