EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Now available to any CR List member for the paltry sum of $12.00 USD per pa ir to include USPS First Class postage paid (...expedited delivery, domesti c insurance, and/or overseas postage provided at cost), high quality reprod uction seat tube decals suitable for use on various 1970 through 1985 vint age Mondia bicycles including select versions of their Super / Special, Pre stige, Competition, Criterium, and Cyclo-Cross models. In order to receive said decal transfers, you MUST agree to provide to me along with payment, your name, mailing address, a digital picture of the Mondia for which this acquisition is being contemplated, the manufacturer serial number of said b ike, and a brief description of its component equippe along with whatever b ackground information and/or construction detail you might be willing to sh are regarding your Mondia. If you do not currently own a Mondia but see on e in your future and wish to purchase some of these decals as a hedge, you are still welcome to contact me in order to plead your case - but I offer n o guarantee of sale unless you are quite convincing of your need. A low re solution image of the specific decal(s) for offer may be viewed using eithe r one of the following links:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
\u2026 or \u2026
Interested parties should please reply directly and "OFF LIST". This offer is only valid until my supply of fifty sets of these decals has been exhau sted - and I have NO intention of producing any more than that number at an y time in the future. While this may be a one time offer, it is not necess arily limited to one set per person \u2026 HOWEVER \u2026 I reserve the right to limit and/or reduce in quantity any order that I consider to be conspicuous consumption (...unless you have a darn good reason - like, \u201cI own a whol e fleet of Mondias\u201d and you can provide pictures and serial numbers to su bstantiate that claim). In any event, I will not agree to any multiple pur chase quantities until 48 hours have passed from the time of this posting s o as to allow those who are readers of the CR List in \u201cdigest\u201d form to properly weigh in. Other than that one caveat, all inquiries will be proce ssed on a "first come / first served" basis to the very best of my abilitie s.
THE MERCILESSLY UNEXPURGATED VERSION
Back in 2006, purchased a 1977 Mondia Prestige with the intention of using it as my staple vintage bike and thereafter ride it into the ground. As i t turns out, the particular example that I acquired is probably better suit ed for a less demanding life inasmuch as it is (...at least to my way of th inking) too nice to punish in the manner in which I had originally intended . I ultimately came to this conclusion in the course of my efforts to refu rbish (...note that I did not say "restore") same and thereby render it sui table for almost daily use in my harsh environs wherein I discovered to my amazement that underneath all the grit and grime and minor oxidization lay a very nice, hardly ridden, and remarkably unfettered, original that arguab ly deserved a better fate than I had in mind. Yes, I do intend to keep the bike. And yes, it will still be ridden with some degree of regularity. H owever, it is no longer my intention to do so without regard for either its preservation or long term health and well being.
Having adjusted my paradigm thus, I was confronted with the fact that while the original Black Smoke cromovelato paint job was in remarkably good shap e and wherein its delicate pinstriping along with the vast majority of its logo decals were also in very good state, the exposed chrome panel on the s eat tube presented a bit of a problem from an esthetic standpoint. You see , while the underlying finish itself remained intact, oxidization had begun in the form of tiny rust speckling which lay on the surface of the chrome plating but underneath the supposedly protective clear coat. Of course, to prevent further spread of this evil cancer, one would need to remove the c lear coat from the exposed chrome center section of the seat tube so that t hose rust speckles could subsequently be neutralized and removed and then a new protective clear finish applied (...a process that I had already used with good success on those Nervex head lugs also having an exposed chrome f inish). The only problem in applying this same methodology to the center o f the seat tube would be that it meant the Mondia logo decals affixed to ei ther of its sides would be ruined in the process.
After consulting with all of those entities of which I am aware that specia lize in decal reproduction, be they automotive or cycling oriented, I was l eft with the realization that no one I could find was in a position to prov ide me with any help in the short term future. And being that I did not wa nt to suspend my refurbishing efforts indefinitely (...everything else on t he bike has been thoroughly serviced, rebuilt, polished, and re-assembled i n various sub-groups awaiting completion of that work related to the frames et itself), I decided to just go ahead and produce these particular decals on my own. Fortunately, after having indulged a passion for restoring (... please note that I did NOT use the word refurbishing here) and competitivel y campaigning in regional and national competition many a classic show car over the course of almost three decades, I was not totally unfamiliar with the painstaking process of decal reproduction.
I will be very candid in stating that the Mondia seat tube decal(s) that I am making available to other interested CR List members may or may not matc h the ones either currently or originally found on their own bikes. Howeve r, I will categorically state that they are an EXACT match in font, scale, orientation, and coloration for those found on my own Mondia. And since th at was after all the goal of my efforts, I am very pleased with the results (...not to suggest that I am an unbiased source here - but I will admit to being a notably harsh critic with respect to the slightest inaccuracies in such matters). The only substantive and noteworthy difference would be th at while the originals were a water transfer style application, these new r eproductions are an ultra thin, die-cut, vinyl based transfer (...I initial ly tried creating reproductions on a water transfer based substrate but fou nd their inherent opacity problematic to the extent that subsequent applica tion against a chrome background grossly distorted their coloration).
Please note, if you follow the aforementioned link to view that low resolut ion rendering of these decal(s) as posted to my Wool Jersey album, you will find that the grouping depicted includes not only two "Mondia" logo seat t ube decals (...one for either side of said tube) but also an appropriate "M ade in Switzerland" and "Nervex" decal, both of which will NOT be provided to those responding to this offer. This is not because I am stingy or simp ly wish to hold out on fellow vintage velophiles. Rather, the font scaling on the "Made in Switzerland" decal is not spot on and I have no intention of releasing substandard reproductions into our midst (...besides, I was ab le to save the original on my own bike, and hence, reproduction of same pro ved unnecessary). With respect to the "Nervex" decal, if you are in need o f one, I do have a few of these that I can make available to others.
So, why am I offering these reproduction Mondia seat tube decals to CR List members at such a nominal charge (...WAY below what they actually cost to produce - and that does not even speak to my own "time" involved) after dev oting countless hours and material resources to their careful crafting? Co uld it be that I am such a altruistically wonderful, caring, sharing, and t ruly selfless individual that I think of nothing other than how I might bet ter serve the vintage cycling community, or for that matter, humanity in ge neral? Probably not. But I am keen on furthering my own knowledge of the particulars regarding vintage Mondia bicycles in general, and even more so those similar to my own, owing to an innate sense of curiosity about such m atters, and therefore, I fiendishly contrived this grand scheme as a means of bribing others to suit my selfish purpose.
Robert "I can FINALLY finish my Mondia project" Broderick ...the "Frozen Flatlands" of South Dakota Sioux Falls, USA
P.S. If you are of the mind to ask yourself, "...gee, I wonder if this guy might be willing to make up a different set of decals just like the ones I need for my own pet bike project(s)?", please do not go there. As I have said in this and other forums before, there are companies and individuals r eadily available who either derive or at least supplement their income doin g exactly this type of work for hire - AND I HAVE NO INTENTION OF BECOMING THEIR COMPETITION! I only intend to take on those precious few tasks which suit my own narrow interests and only then when I deem other existing opti ons to not be viable for whatever reason.
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