>I redesigned the decals to commemorate Luis Ocana, the 1973 TdeF
>winner, who rode (allegedly) a Speedwell on the mountain stages of
>the Tour. They were made for me in Calfornia, and very authentic too.
In Le Cycle, Daniel Rebour reported that Ocana had won the Tour on a Motobecane with Reynols 531 "5/10 mm" tubing, but that he rode a Speedwell in the time trials. Considering that neither Rebour nor Motobecane had any commercial interest in making this up, I believe that Ocana really did ride a Speedwell. At the time, this generated quite some interest in titanium as a material for frames and components.
At the time, Campagnolo's Super Record components initially were rumored to be made from titanium for all the black parts (pedal cages, chainrings, headset, etc.) Of course, those were aluminum, just anodized (painted?) black, and titanium was used only for pedal spindles, hub axles (I believe) and BB spindles. And it appears the black chainrings and headset never made it into production either.
Anyhow, titanium was the hot thing in 1973.
Jan Heine
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