Re: [CR]Bianchi track bikes with "road style" dropouts (was "Coppi bike - is it real?")

(Example: Component Manufacturers:Chater-Lea)

In-Reply-To: <1FD4A4EE-8882-4243-A5C2-7977DAF48DB1@earthlink.net>
References: <43528.62400.qm@web30614.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
From: "Chuck Schmidt" <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [CR]Bianchi track bikes with "road style" dropouts (was "Coppi bike - is it real?")
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2006 19:25:45 -0800
To: CR RENDEZVOUS <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>


One additional note: I'm not saying that Coppi's pursuit bike is just one of his road bikes with the derailleur hanger cut off. I know that the fork and seat stay bridge are undrilled from the photos. I don't know if the spacing is 110 mm or 120 mm on his bike either.

Just that a pursuit bike is going to be a lot like a road racing bike.

Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California United States of America http://www.velo-retro.com (reprints, t-shirts & timelines)

On Nov 17, 2006, at 7:07 PM, Chuck Schmidt wrote:
> Photos of Coppi's Bianchi Pista pursuit bikes with road dropouts:
> http://www.vintagevelos.com/images/Coppi_pista.jpg
> <http://www.ciclomuseo-bartali.it/testi/biciclette/
> biciclettacoppi.jpg>
> <http://us.a2.yahoofs.com/users/43d0beffzaca3ee69/c849scd/__sr_/
> 6d45scd.jpg?phgvnXFBeZwFyW3J>
>
> Jan Heine wonders: "What about the "FC" in the lugs? A true sign of
> a "Fausto" bike, or just a "commemorative" series?"
>
> I'd have to think that the builder did that for Fausto. Not much
> demand for a commemorative track bike in the late '40s I'd think
> (in fact I don't think I've ever seen nor heard of a commemorative
> track bike of any era or make). Bianchi did make commemorative
> road bikes however after Coppi won the TdF and the Worlds (Bianchi
> mod. Tour de France and mod. Campione del Mundo). Note that the
> commemorative road bikes didn't have anything hand cut in the lugs
> like the "Pokerissmo" card suites or "FC" either.
>
> Fred Rednor asks: "My question, though, is whether only Coppi's
> bikes were built this way; or whether all (or most) Bianchi track
> bikes of the 1940s and '50s were built with road style dropouts
> instead of track style fork ends."
>
> My uneducated guess would be that Coppi's track bikes were the only
> Bianchi pistas built with road style dropouts. The reason I
> believe this is that his track bikes were built for pursuits (long,
> steady effort) not for sprinting. If you look at the chainstays on
> these bikes you can see by their slope that the bottom bracket is
> not very high. I would guess that the bike he used for pursuit on
> the track was pretty much like his road bike; not built with
> sprinting in mind. Maybe one of his road frames with the
> derailleur hanger cut off the Campagnolo dropout. If you look at
> the photos it even looks like the bikes have oval bladed forks
> instead of round track blades! I've never seen any other Bianchi
> pistas with road dropouts other than Coppi's pursuit bikes.
>
> Of course, like I said in the past, pure speculation, totally
> unsupportable and absolutely no documentation or footnotes to
> bolster my beliefs <grin>.
>
> Anyone else with any thoughts?
>
> Chuck Schmidt
> South Pasadena, Southern California
> United States of America
> http://www.velo-retro.com (reprints, t-shirts & timelines)