Should we include in this select club people like Pino Morroni, and Omelenchuck both from Michigan and both who fabricated almost everything for a bike. Ken Denny's Omelenchuck that he brouht to Larz last year was almost completely a work of his own hands including hubs, bars, pedals (I think), even extruded spokes. And Pino, as we all know, made just about everything. Or are one off builders not really in this group. Edward Albert Chappaqua, NY, USA
Edward Albert, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Sociology
>>> "The Maaslands" <TheMaaslands@comcast.net> 01/18/07 12:03 PM >>>
Peter Jourdain wrote:
"Many French constructeurs made frames and maybe racks and a stem (my '47 constructeur C.Dardenne is an example of this) then added Simplex gears, Mavic or Mephisto rims, etc. While wonderful machines, they are hardly fashioned from a raw chunk of metal, as a sculptor would work with marble. And remember, these guys never made the metal, rubber, or tubing. They bought tube sets just like the supposed generic "framebuilders." To that extent they are as much "assemblers" as anybody
else."
The only true "constructeur" that I can think of, were you to include the requirement that they make their own metal, rubber or tubing is the Italian buider Passoni. Passoni which still exists today as a high end builder of custom titanium and other unmentionable materials started out
in the early 1970's (1972 if I am not mistaken)under the leadership of an engineer by the name of Riva. Ing. Riva started making bike frames out of sheets of commercial pure titanium. He would then form the sheets
into tubes which were then fashioned into bike frames. His initial production was about 6 frames per year. These first frames were sold under the name Trecia. Beyond the frames, he also made integrated handlebars, stems and brake levers (made to measure), frames with integrated seatpost (now once again popular) and the occasional chainset. All of these items were made starting from the sheets of commercial pure titanium. He would also adapt componentry to fit on his frames, by doing such things as brazing on the brake center bolts onto the fork crowns and brake bridge. In the 1980's, when the Passoni family
became involved in production, the name appearing on the bikes changed from Trecia to Passoni.
I have tried to find a photo of a 1970's or early 80's Trecia/Passoni posted on the web somewhere but have not been able to find any (they are
very rare). The construction methods and frame designs remained much the
same from the 70's until past 1990, so I believe a representative
example of a CR-period correct Trecia/Passoni bike can be seen on
Kauzo's website:
http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/
Kauzo's bike has a Passoni-made integrated handlebars and stem (but not the brake levers) and a Passoni-made seatpost (not the ISp version in this case). The frame tubing, drop-outs and BB shell are all Passoni products.
Steven (having close ties to Passoni) Maasland
Moorestown, NJ
USA