I've been watching the CR list for several months now, even made a few posts and exchanged notes with members. I guess it's about time I introduced myself. Bicycles have been a part of my life almost since day one. My father used a bicycle for transprtation until 1947 when our family acquired our first car. We have a family photo of my father with his bike and two home made child seats holding my brother and me...nice way to date my earliest cycling experience. Unfortunately this was a time and place where lightweight bikes and bike shops were unknown. Balloon tire bikes were bought at hardware stores and Columbia was a local manufacture. In 1962 I saw my first deraiileur bike, a Columbia 5 speed at the local hardware store. As I now know it was a gas pipe clunker, but I was fascinated, I had never seen anything like it. It became mine for $45 and a new world opened up. I met other adults who rode bikes and found out about bike shops. What a shock, a Raleigh or a Peugeot cost over a $100.00...the price of a decent used car. A better bike had to wait a few years, in 1968 I bought a UO-8 and started to enjoy longer rides. 1978 was the year I got my first all Reynolds bike, a Puch with an interesting component mix, Normandie, Weinnman, Dura Ace. That bike carried me on my first century and introduced me to cub cycling. In 1980 I traded in the Puch on a Raleigh Pro and later added a Basso Gap. I enjoyed the Basso so much that the Raleigh became my roller bike and the Gap got all the road miles. When I was able to sell the Pro, I added a Basso Loto.
I rode both of these bikes regularly from about 1984 until 3 years ago when I was the last rider in the bunch still on steel and sew ups. Of course, by then both bikes had migrated all the way to 9 speed ergo. Age and a new home in hilly terrain led me to look for a lighter bike and lower gears. I tbought a Carbon frame and transferred my modern components from the older Basso. The Gap was then rebuilt as a downtube shifting 7 speed. As much as I enjoyed riding the modern bike, I kept looking at the old Basso and admiring how much better it looked than the new stuff.
Now comes the CR part. By chance I met a fellow who rode during the late 60's early 70's as cross training for competitive skiing. He was complaining about all the ugly bikes in the shops and how they didn't have the elegance of the old steel bikes. Then he said that he had an old track bike that he could no longer ride and that I should take a look at it. It turned out to be a Legnano Mod Roma Olimpiade Pista which he had professionally restored in 1991 and never rode again. End result I traded the Basso for the Legnano, discovered CR and caught the fever. In asking members for info to validate the accuracy of the restoration I learned that mod Roma's were available in both road and track versions. Of course I needed one of each. I was able to find a mid 60's Roma road bike with many original components on Ebay at a price that I could tolerate. Currently looking for the final parts to finish the bike. I also missed my DT Basso so I rebuilt the Loto in it's original C Record/Cobalto configuration.
A number of folks on the CR list have helped me make decisions on how to proceed with these bikes but I would especially like to thank Peter Weigle. We exchanged a few notes and finally I was able to spend time in his shop for a face to face discussion on the merits of patina and appropriate restoration strategies. Peter also encouraged me get more involved in the CR list.
Hope to have my bikes at Lars Anderson and get to meet more of you folks.
Norm Lafleur
Ashfield, Ma.