Re: [CR] Saavedra

Here's a little more southern exposure on Argentina: There were two Saavedra brothers that raced starting before WW2. The elder Cosme was very well known and won many races, possibly also in Europe The younger Remigio was almost as good but kept riding and turned pro, riding many 6-Day races. Cosme stopped racing and opened up a shop on Plaza Italia in Buenos Aires. His son is Cosme Jr, believe he also had a daughter. Cosme Jr didn't ride much and then later went into the business and built up the parts and components end that we know so well. Cosme Jr.'s childen are the ones living in the LA area I believe, but their involvement in the bike game is not that strong if any. Mike Fraysee knows them well, and when I next speak to him I'll get some more info on the component business and availability. When our family was in Argentina '47/8 for about 16 months, I was racing Junior and worked for a while at Cosme Sr's shop where I met Cosme Jr. and got to know him fairly well at the store . We went to different schools and didn't socialize too much, we lived about 10 miles out of town in a suburb and with me riding and Cosme Jr. not, our paths didn't cross. Cosme Sr. was very enterprising and was already making small parts and accessories for bikes at that time, which then later grew to the extent that it was a dominant South American marque. It closely copied Campagnolo but just enough different so as not to get into serious argument with Campy. It wasn't quite the same finish and much less expensive, so did well but never had the Campy cachet and as a result wasn't pushed that hard here. The rims were very lite and quite nice in their small aero cross section. Remigio I believe had a coffee distribution business, and did very well as he wound his riding career down in that post war time. I have a foto of him in1947 at the Platense Soccer and Sport Velodrome in Buenos Aires, where I also raced at the meets as a Junior in that season. Euro-Asia distributors brought in some of the Saavedra items, but were big Campag and Shimano sellers so didn't push it too hard. Paris Sport/Fraysee brought in a lot of it but sold mostly to the Eastern states so Saavedra never got the play out West This is going back 60 years now, so the memories of live gauchos riding hores thru the burbs, seeing Juan and Evita Peron, midget car races on the same course we road criteriums on, people standing and applauding the US flag in the movie houses, seeing the upper masts of the Graf Spee at low tide in the La Plata estuary, among other scenes, are still vivid.
Ted Ernst
Palos Verdes Estates
CA USA