I worked at Turin in Chicago during the summer of 1976, building bikes. The store was on Clark, just across from the park and the zoo. Dwight Safter, who had been trained by Albert Eisentraut, built frames in the back. There was a big camping and cross-country skiing department. For the 16 year-old kid that I was, it was heaven.
In those days there were four Turins: Chicago, Evanston, Denver and Boulder. I don't know when the other stores opened, but they did not seem brand new in 1976.
Best regards, Marcus Helman Detroit, MI
Ken Freeman wrote:
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.
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