raleypc@netscape.net wrote:
>
> Anyone happen know the introductory date for the classic Silca pump found on every worthy race machine of the 60's and 70's? The Holdsworth and Kitching catalogs that I have have from the 50's do not list a Silca pump but perhaps they did not chose to import them?
>
> Thanks,
> Paul Raley
> Leonardtown MD
Paul,
Silca has a _really_ nicely designed web site:
http://www.silcapompe.it/
Really fun 1960 Silca catalog exercise (a page turner!):
http://www.silcapompe.it/
Silca started off in 1917 making celluloid pumps and at some point (I forget the date) had a large fire (celluloid is extremely flamible) that put them in the position of starting over. Their pumps had the same look from the beginning until the intro of the frame fit pump in the mid 1970s.
Here's my Silca tale (names changed to protect the innocent and guilty parties):
On the Tullio Birthday ride (Campagnolo equipped bikes only) that occurs every August and goes down the coast from the Long Beach area to Balboa Island and back, this guy, let's call him "Andrew" (not his real name) gets a flat and asks this gal, let's call her "Jan" (not her real name) to borrow her vintage flat-top Silca because he doesn't want to use his own pump.
Meanwhile, the rest of us have stopped because someone has got a flat (we don't know who exactly) and are standing around watching the parade of cool cars, motorcycles, girls riding bikes, roller blades, jogging etc. wearing "swim" suits (Huntington Beach you know) and hear a "BLEWWWWWWWWIE" and watch with open mouths as the handle/plunger of a vintage Silca goes sailing out, in a beautiful arc, into the four lanes of traffic on Pacific Coast Highway on a sunny, summer, Sunday afternoon. It lands between the lanes of traffic fortuitously, so far so good, and we are all laughing as everything is still okay (you just put the pump together and you're on your way, so to speak).
The guy standing next to me, we'll call him "Peter" (not his real name), and I are laughing because only someone uninitiated in the correct use of the plastic Silca pump and therefore not a member of the Brotherhood, only they are caught by surprise with the "exploding pump" gambit. Anyway "Peter" and I see that the pump handle/plunger is slowly beginning to roll back into the lane with the beach traffic at the same time as someone is looking for a break in the traffic to fetch it still unharmed, and of course we are still laughing. Then at the same nano-second that "Peter" and I realize that this vintage Silca pump isn't just anyone's vintage Silca pump, but "Peter's" vintage Silca pump, our laughter turns to stunned silence as we watch it slowly roll under an enormous SUV that roars by and smashes the pump handle/plunger to smithereens.
Chuck Schmidt
South Pasadena, Southern California