Thanks! Now we're getting somewhere! When I spoke to mr. van der Kaay of Ri h Amsterdam (BTW, he worked for Rih since he was 16, he's over 60 now!), he mentioned that he remembered a Vienna bike shop, owner Richard I... H .. something, with the Rih name. We're probably talking about the same shop here. So that could be the frame on ebay? Not Eastern Europe, but close! Th e style of the headbadge could be an indication too.
Freek Faro
Rotterdam Netherlands
2006/3/17, ipmerkin@aol.com <ipmerkin@aol.com>:
>
> When I was visiting Vienna back in '98, I wandered into a bike shop that
> was an RIH dealer. They had one that appeared to be a carbon monococque,
a
> few that were lugged steel, and one that was a Vitus 979 with RIH decals
-
> frames from at least three different factories. Based on that, I'm not s
ure
> there's an easy way to determine the "legitimacy" of an RIH (at least not
in
> later years).
>
> IP Merkin
> Providence, RI
>
> PS - The shop's coolest RIH was a mini frame (like the one that Alberto
> Masi holds in a promo photo I've seen) for the sole purpose of displaying
> the new 9-speed Record Group in their shop window. I suppose I should tr
y
> to find my trip photos and post 'em somewhere. If I may further digress,
> the shop owner claimed that it was the oldest bicycle shop in Vienna, and
> the oak parts cabinets lent a little bit of credibility to his claim. I
> ended up buying a half dozen RIH caps (with Campagnolo printed on the sid
e)
> for the crew at my favorite bike shop (Outspokin') in Columbia, SC, where
I
> was living at the time.