Fred,
Rigida rims were, indeed, sold secondary retail through any number of mail order catalogs distributed back in the 1970's and 1980's (...and should you insist, I can drag out several examples from my archives) although I would have to check my stock of catalogs from the 1960's to see if this was true for that decade as well (...off the top of my head, I cannot recall ever s eeing Rigida rims being sold ala carte here stateside through Cyclo-Pedia o r Cycl-ology / Wheelgoods during the 1960's).
With respect to model designations, while Rigida themselves did a pretty go od job of differentiating their own individual products (...they were the f irst manufacturer of which I am aware that even went so far as to vary thei r rim labels based upon sizing - blue labels for 27" models and red labels for 700c sizings), catalog descriptions from the vintage era were often vag ue at best. Part of the problem as I see it was that a given retailer ofte n only offered only a small subset of a component manufacturer's entire pro duct range, and therefore, felt no obligation to embellish upon specifics. This also had the effect of making meaningful comparisons in price and per formance rather difficult (...whether this be intended or otherwise), at le ast when given only the descriptive text presented in a mail order catalog.
Having now read several follow-up postings on this same thread, I offer the following picture of an original Rigida 1320 700c rim label as currently p osted to WoolJersey:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
...and reproduction versions of of rim labels for their various models may be found here:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
Wishing all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Joyous New Year,
Robert "Rigida rims erant teres" Broderick ...the "Frozen Flatlands" of South Dakota Sioux Falls, USA ------------------------------------------------------------------> Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 06:45:50 -0800> From: fred_rednor@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [CR]Rigida: where on CR?> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> > > > Does th e CR website have a section on Rigida? I> > looked under French components and did not find it.> Don,> I think the reason for this is that, for the mo st part,> Rigida supplied their rims directly to manufacturers. I can't> re call ever seeing their pieces supplied to shops for use as> rebuild/replace ment work, not do I recall seeing the sort of> advertisements that you woul d see from Mavic, Wolber or Super> Champion. In fact, the first time I noti ced a circa 1970s or> 1980s Rigida rim being sold separately, was just the other day> on eBay.> The other issue was model designation. Without doubt, they> had them. Other than the 1320 (a narrow clincher rim for high> pressu re tires), I don't recall being able to identify their> products without ha ving to resort to general descriptions.> The funny thing, is that even with circa 1960s steel rims,> they seemed to have produced 2 or 3 different typ es. (Or was> that merely due to the inconsistent quality control of the> er a?)> Anyway, from examining a fair number of bicycles, I _think_> they even produced a lightweight steel rim, akin to the Dunlop> offerings.> The othe r day, I asked about a circa 1968, lightweight> Hutchinson tire on the CR l ist. You could find those, mounted> on Rigida's steel rims, on some really high class bicycles,> even Italian bikes. Nevertheless, Rigida seems always to have> been a rather mysterious outfit - except perhaps to actual> bicyc le manufacturers. Therefore... I doubt anyone felt> strongly enough about t heir products, except perhaps about> their peculiarities, to produce a dece nt Web page. (Except> perhaps to note that the 1320, while being a nice lig hweight> rim, had really soft braking surfaces.)> Cheers,> Fred Rednor - Ar lington, Virginia (USA)> > > > ____________________________________________
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