I have to disagree with you about this. I see nothing at all wrong with th e finish or detailing of this frame, including the seatstay caps and the fi nishing of the stay and fork attachements to the DO's. Paint is a bit tire d as the seller says, but other than that this looks as good as any high en d 70's Italian frame to me. I do not think this is mid-range at all. I ha ve a very similar Torpado, although perhaps a few years later, that I bough t from the Omnipotent Listmesiter, and it is very nicely finished, includin g lug cutouts with the Torpado "T". I suspect this present bike has those cutouts as well, although he didn't provide photos of the lugs. My Torpado has a good quality refinish, and I'd rather have it than any Colnago Super or Mexico.
In fact, my has wife an early 80's Torpado Italia, in the pearl pink that w as the signature color of the Italia. It is indeed a mid-range model, with lesser tubing, Columbus Aelle perhaps, but still very nicely detailed with cutout lugs very similar to the top model. I took off most of the midrang e components it came with and substituted highe end Galli, Gipiemme and Mod olo, and it makes quite a nice road bike indeed.
I don't think Torpado quality declned at all in the 70's and 80's. I think their only problem in that era was they didn't supply a lot of high profil e teams, plus they weren't big players in the US market under their own bra nd, although I believe they made at least some of the Italvegas. So they p artly missed out on the US Bike Boom, although they were very popular in Mo ntreal in the 70's, and perhaps in other parts of Canada as well. When I a ttended the 1974 World's in Montreal, Torpado was the featured marque of on e of the most prominant shops in the city.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA
> From: Hugh Thornton <hughwthornton@yahoo.co.uk>
\r?\n> Subject: Re: [CR] Torpado 4sale
\r?\n> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
\r?\n> Date: Thursday, March 26, 2009, 2:27 PM
\r?\n> This looks like a distinctly mid-range bike from the 1970s
\r?\n> with nothing muc
\r?\n> h to commend it.
\r?\n> Does anybody know what happened toTorpado? They made
\r?\n> great bikes before
\r?\n> WWII and probably through the 1950s. By the 1970s their
\r?\n> product looked q
\r?\n> uite mediocre, or at least the examples I have seen. Did
\r?\n> they just fade
\r?\n> away or were they absorbed by another manufacturer?
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Hugh Thornton
\r?\n> Cheshire, England
\r?\n>
\r?\n> --- On Thu, 26/3/09, crumpy6204@aol.com
\r?\n> <crumpy6204@aol.com> wrote:
\r?\n>
\r?\n>
\r?\n> From: crumpy6204@aol.com <crumpy6204@aol.com>
\r?\n> Subject: [CR] Torpado 4sale
\r?\n> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
\r?\n> Date: Thursday, 26 March, 2009, 4:14 PM
\r?\n>
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Check out Ebay#?350181727414 For sale by Alex a GOOD Brit
\r?\n> dealer, Not into
\r?\n> Italian bikes buts looks like a?Very Interesting
\r?\n> background. Cheers ,John C
\r?\n> rump, OldintoBritbikesBrit, Parker Co USA