Ray, He's one in the same. TA was the White Snake drummer and played in many other bands starting with Black Oak Arkansas. The old Rec.Bike.Marketplace had an advert Tommy put in, back in 1995 or 1996. He described the bike well and sent me pics. He wanted the princely sum of $3500 when old Masi's were under a grand and Colnagos were $600. Those were the days when many bikes were available for discovery. Anyway I stayed in contact for 4-5 or more months and somehow worked him down to a much more manageable amount. We met in the Valley (Encino) one day as he was driving up to Santa Barbara so I could see it. I was smitten so I gathered up the scratch and a few weeks later I picked it up at his house in Rancho Mirage. It was Gate guarded community and Tommy was quite the host. I could see he was reluctant to part with it. His then wife was obviously interested in the proceeds. We had stayed in touch for a long time though I haven't caught up with him in a while. He is a great guy and a very enthusiastic rider.
Matty 2, Ray 0
Sorry old boy!
Matt Gorski Belmont Shore California USA
Matty,
It's a small Colnago collecting world; at least it used to be. If Tommy Aldrich is/was the drummer for White Snake back in the late 80s, then the Equilateral you bought from him is yet another one that got away from me - and ended up with you! Wow, what are the chances?
Back in the day before emails and digital pictures, I was negotiating with Tommy (by telephone, between Florida and Caligornia) for one of two
Colnagos he had. I thought they were both Arabesques because that's what he called them, and most importantly, because he never sent me a photo of either one. We negotiated for a long time (at least 6 months), but he just couldn't manage to send me a photo - after all, it was much more of a pain in those days, what with buying film, shooting all of it, having it
developed, etc. It sure makes eBay seem like a piece of cake.
Tommy wasn't very knowledgeable about what he had, and he couldn't really describe the bikes/parts very well (he never even mentioned that one of them was a show bike), and so without at least one photo, I just couldn't offer him what he wanted for either bike. Hell, I didn't even know which one I wanted. The deal dragged on for so long that eventually it died a natural death.
Buying bikes long-distance in those days days was certainly not what it is now. I remember buying a few bikes based on a single, poorly lit, sorta blurry, 4x6 photo. And on a couple of occasions, I bought bikes sight unseen, based completely on the description and word of the seller. Opening up a bike box could be REALLY exciting in those days. I'm sure
many of us have experienced this.
Ah, good times...
Ray Dobbins Miami FL USA
PS - Matty, please put my name on that Equilateral too :)
Matthew Gorski <bikenut(AT)verizon.net> wrote: Ray, I still have it with your name on it.... now wearing a 50th Anniversary Grouppo. The first Equilateral I bought was from Tommy Aldrich (the drummer) that was displayed on the Colnago stand at the Bike trade show way back when it was in Long Beach. It has a 30th Anniversary Colnago/Super Record Gruppo. 23(?) years later it still shines with its chrome BB, brake bridges, headlugs & seat cluster. There are a few interesting stories that go with it I'll save for the upcoming Colnago ride. My 3rd Master EQ ended up with Mike Schmidt....Hey Mikey.wanna sell it back ;^)
Matt Gorski Belmont Shore, Colnagofornia USA
From: Raymond Dobbins Subject: Re: [CR]Re: Master Equilateral (Ed Granger) later al+%28Ed+Granger%29%22&SearchPrefix=%40msgsubject&SortBy=MsgDate%5Ba%
5D>
I owned one of these that I bought directly from Marcel Calborn in the early 90s. I recall him telling me that Colnago built the Equilateral exclusively for him, per his design specifications. Supposedly all the Equilaterals produced came to Marcel (in California), and there were only around 200 units produced.
As an aside, the red Equilateral that Matty Gorski has is one that sort of got away from me. About four to five years ago I was brand new to eBay and one of my first ever attempts to place a last minute bid was on this
Equilateral...I bungled it and placed my bid too late, and Matty won it.
My first eBay aaargh! moment :)
Ray Dobbins
Miami FL USA