When did Turin open the Evanston store? I don't think I saw it until maybe the late '70s. My early road bikes all came from the Old Town store at Clark and Armitage, across from the Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Company.
I always liked the black ones with Nervex lugs, the 1968 Competition.
On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 2:49 PM, <billydavid13@comcast.net> wrote:
> Hi Mike, all. That's not a bad picture at all and aside from the fairly
> radical non parallel head/seat tube angles looks like the one i had. I'll
> see if i can find the serial # from my '72 and post it. The white and blue
> one in the basement has an "F" serial #. Sheldon Brown notes that the #s may
> have segued a bit into subsequent years, so i'd argue strongly yours is a
> '72. So here's the long story i got from Gary Page at Turin Evanston in
> early '84: I had just broken up w/ my long time girlfriend and we'd bought
> matching lilac Competitions in '72. I was unemployed and the Unemployment
> Office was in Evanston, a block from the Turin shop. I'd worked there
> [briefly] in the late '70s and knew a lot of the staff. I noticed a
> beautiful Carlton Pro frameset in the window. It was full Reynolds 531db,
> chromed long spearpoint lugs, chromed fork crown, 5/8 chromed blades and
> nearly full chromed stays w/ Campy fork ends. AND the beautiful lilac/blue
> combination of the '72 Competition! It was my ex girlfriend's size and Gary
> Page was nice enough to hold it for me for a $50.00 deposit [it was only
> $250.00!] Of course after he put a "SOLD" sign on it, a dozen people said
> they were "going" to buy it. I was having trouble making the rent, but that
> was such a gorgeous bike. One has to have priorities after all. But here's
> the story he told me about that bike and i apologise if i've mangled it.
> Back in '72 someone, or someones, at Raleigh had it in for the Midwest
> distributor and thought they'd give him a slew of Competitions in an
> "unsaleable" color scheme - the aforementioned lilac/blue combo. Well
> apparently he distributed them in record time and some impressed folks at
> Worksop built him the one off Carlton Pro which i ended up buying. He kept
> it on the wall of his office for over 10 years and then consigned it to
> Turin. I've since seen pics of several high end British bikes w/ variations
> of the lilac/blue color scheme so it doesn't seem like it was such a
> departure from the norm, but, hey, that's how i remember it. I'd be very
> happy if anyone on the list can amend or add to it's veracity. BTW, a lot of
> the '72 Competitions came w/ sprint rims on 3 piece [Gnutti?] hubs. Some w/
> sprints on Normandy Sports. Anyway i ended up building it up [a bit retro,
> even then] for my ex. Billy Ketchum; Chicago, IL; USA.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Sherman" <mike.sherman@earthlink.net>
> To: "CR list" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 11:51:59 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
> Subject: Re: [CR] Blue and white (?) Raleigh Comp on Boston CL
>
> <billydavid13@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> >Hi David. I once owned a new 1972 Comp. that was lilac w/ metallic blue
> head
> >tube and seat panels. BUT the '72 catalog showed a white and blue Comp.
>
> I have a lilac/blue one. The serial number begins with an "F". According
> to Sheldon Brown's Retro Raleigh page, it should be a 1971. I've never
> seen
> a 1971 catalog.
>
> http://www.sheldonbrown.com/
>
> Bad photo of mine here:
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/
>
> Thanks,
> -Mike in Cleveland, OH, USA
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Mike Sherman <
> mike.sherman@earthlink.net>
> _______________________________________________
> _______________________________________________
>
--
Ken Freeman
Ann Arbor, MI USA