Last Saturday the weather was unseasonably warm and sunny. I have signed up for a multi-day charity ride, and the team leaders suggested a training ride outdoors. I rode my 1978 Richard Sachs, and assumed that it would be the oldest bike out there. I was hoping not to be the oldest rider. I was just barely right about the ages of the riders, but to my surprise, I was not the only person riding a lugged steel frame. Another rider showed up with a bike called a Mendia, which he said was Spanish. It was a couple of years older than my Sachs, and in immaculate condition. Kind of a dark metallic teal. Long point lugs with rounded diamond shaped cutouts, and yellow fill-ins. Chrome fork with a very Colnago-esque crown: it had a clover and the word Mendia on it. Orange Benotto tape. It was equipped with Campagnolo Super Record parts, some of which were polished and very shiny. It was so clean that when we stopped at the end of the ride to talk a bit I could clearly see the slots in his Everest chain. Anyone ever heard of Mendia?
Best regards,
Marcus Helman
Huntington Woods, MI