[CR]Antipodean bike finds- ZERO POGLIAGHI CONTENT

(Example: Production Builders:Peugeot)

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 15:07:31 +1000 (EST)
From: "David Benson" <bensondoc@yahoo.com.au>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Antipodean bike finds- ZERO POGLIAGHI CONTENT

For those of you with Pogliaghi burnout, here are a few English bikes that have spent time in my shed lately. Period Correct obsessives should hit 'Delete' now.

Team Raleigh: http://tinyurl.com/8ew2c This was surplus to requirements at my LBS, so I wheedled it from them for my friend Gaz. The immediate attractions were that it was free, the right size, and of the right age to evoke memories of Gaz' misspent youth. I swapped the original Normandy hubs for a pair of Suntour Superbe from Wayne Davidson, fitted a longer stem and swapped the Selle Italia ladies touring saddle for a fairly manky looking red Turbo from the back of my shed.

Condor Italia, serial #6305 http://tinyurl.com/drr2v Not my size, but at NZ$72 on the local auction site, I couldn't help myself. Spent last Saturday afternoon whipping it into non-period correct shape for another friend to ride on Sunday's Retro Ride. I'm a bit suspicious that the fork isn't original, but sufficiently charmed by the British Cycling Federation stickers on each forkleg not to care.

Gillott http://tinyurl.com/dzq25 Built by Ron Cooper in 1969. This was advertised on the CR website earlier in the year. I emailed the vendor for photos, hoping that it would be truly awful and that my temptation would be ended there & then, but it was not to be. When the Grand High Lama of Gillott, Mark Stevens told me that he would buy it if I didn't, I knew I was doomed. Unfortunately, the bike was in Brisbane, Australia, about 1500 miles of water away, so a complex strategy evolved, using up many favours, to get the bike sent to Sydney where friend Gaz would collect it on his next business trip. This process took a couple of months, giving me time to redish a nice pair of plausible-looking tubular wheels, and amass a box of sound components in anticipation of some of the Gillott's hardware being worse for wear. When the bike finally arrived in mid-May, I didn't even have to stay up late to get it rideable for the next day's Breakfast Ride, though there were a couple of worrying moments. The headset tightened up as I turned the fork, suggesting a bent steerer, but the problem was cured by facing the headtube & fork crown with the appropriate Campag tools. About an hour later, I realised that the Universal 61 rear caliper was to short to reach my beatiful tubular rim. Sliding the wheel to the extreme rear of the dropout provided a short term solution, and an appeal to the CR list brought a long reach mod.61 caliper from Scott Davis. Overnight, the Gillott became my favourite bike. First time I took my hands off the bars, it ran straight, unlike most of my vintage junkers. The seat tube angle is shallow enough to let me put a Brooks Pro in my accustomed wayback position. Since its obviously not a racing bike, it is the ideal recipient of the Berthoud mudguards (fenders to you) that were looking out of place on my Cecil Walker. What more could you want?

David Benson Otahuhu Auckland

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